# How does a President ever get bills passed in Congress? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 28, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-president-ever-get-bills-passed-in-congress/519275 "2009-11-28T22:17:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-president-ever-get-bills-passed-in-congress/519275/21 "2009-11-30T01:57:39Z")
> [@Voluble](#): > > The only thing unprecedented about the current political situation is that a party can have both houses of congress, the presidency and the media under its control and yet still have ideas that are so bad they can’t even get them brought to the floor for debate without bribing senators in their own party with taxpayer money. Please read what I wrote above. Until recently the filibuster was a rare and risky tactic. Now it’s standard operating procedure. What’s changed is NOT the Obama is some kind of out-of-the-mainstream radical – the results of the 2008 election prove that interpretation is wrong. What’s changed is that the current rules of the Senate make it much easier for the minority party to obstruct legislation. This was something of an issue during the last Bush administration (remember all the talk by the Republicans about using the “nuclear option” to get rid of the filibuster?) and it’s even more of an issue now. Just read the Wikipedia entry on [filibusters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster)and you’ll get an idea of how much the goalposts have shifted over the last 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Philosopher)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-president-ever-get-bills-passed-in-congress/519275/22 "2009-11-30T02:55:25Z")
> [@Voluble](#): > > Again you make a totally unfounded assumption that it would be a huge boon for Obama to get what he wants. If your kid wants to eat nothing but ice cream and spend all of your money on video games would it be a boon to him? Would it not be equally likely that Obama’s presidency would be more of a failure were he to pass a bill that is widely despised and, for sake of this argument, an obvious failure? Jimmy Carter certainly did not benefit from his gas rationing plan being implemented… nor did the country. Just because the partisan media would laud Obama he would not be insulated from the wrath of the public. Would it not inflame the opposition to go out and vote in even larger numbers to repeal it? > > I guess maybe the difference in how we are looking at this is definitional. If you define getting a president’s plan passed as success for him regardless of the consequences then you might be right. If you have any more objective definition of a successful presidency then I don’t think you would be correct in how you have phrased things.. > > But separate from that look at your last question… to paraphrase… why would the opposition ever decide not to ruin a president’s agenda if they disagreed with it? Why indeed. That is the whole point of the exercise is it not? You vote your principles and those of your constituents by proxy. Sometimes those align along party lines on fundamental issues. Sometimes they do not on more minor issues or where there is more agreement. > > The system is made to work on consensus and to keep policies from swinging back and forth too quickly. It is also designed to protect the rights of the minority by providing a means of slowing things down or stopping ideas that are anathema to significant portions of the population that may be less than a majority. The bias in the system is towards inaction because government was seen by the founders as a necessary evil that was to be heavily restrained. Again, when you are trying to decide how much force one group can use against another (which is the definition of government at its base) it was thought to be best to act slowly and deliberately if at all. The other advantage is that people and businesses can plan ahead with some sense of assurance that the rules of the game will not change. > > I don’t know if any of this has helped but you picked a hot button issue where the rules of the game are being stressed to their max. :rolleyes: You’re right, I shouldn’t have picked a current issue as the example, precisely because it gets answers like this. Just thought it might help elucidate what I was asking. [QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] To answer the OP: Compromise, finding common ground, horse-trading, pork, moral appeals, threats, bipartisanship, party unity, arm-twisting, fear of political payback. Some of these are more common than others nowadays, but all have their time and place on Capitol Hill. [/QUOTE] I guess this answers the question: it just strikes me as curious that if the minority party has just 41% of the senate, the procedures seem to grant them the leverage to kill any legislative bill whatsoever. It seems to me like the minority party would effectively wield comprehensive veto power over anything the majority put forward. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-president-ever-get-bills-passed-in-congress/519275/23 "2009-11-30T03:35:54Z")
The Senate prides itself on being “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” Institutionally, it places a higher value on deliberativeness than efficiency; many argue that the Framers didn’t intend the Senate to be merely a brief way-station for legislation. Washington himself likened the House to a teacup, and the Senate to a saucer into which legislation might be poured until it “cooled.” Grover Cleveland had very good relations with the House but fought often with the Senate. The joke went that his wife woke him up one night whispering, “Wake up, Grover! I think there’s a burglar in the house.” Cleveland sleepily replied, “In the Senate, perhaps, m’dear… but not in the House.” Harry Truman said of his successor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, “He’ll sit there all day, pounding his desk, saying ‘Do this, do that,’ and nothing will happen. Poor Ike – it won’t be a bit like the Army. He’ll find it very frustrating.” Truman also said something to the effect of, “Ninety percent of the President’s job is persuading people to do what they ought to be doing anyway.” You may already have seen this: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ) ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-president-ever-get-bills-passed-in-congress/519275/24 "2009-11-30T05:59:16Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > …snip… > You may already have seen this: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ) I’m surprised no one posted that earlier. The song’s stuck in my head now, of course… 😉 There’s also the parody _The Simpsons_ did. No video, but [a transcript!](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5218730) Best part: Then I’ll destroy all opposition to me . . . . And I’ll make Ted Kennedy pay . . . . If he fights back . . . . I’ll say that he’s gay ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-president-ever-get-bills-passed-in-congress/519275/25 "2009-11-30T07:06:57Z")
[moderating] And I had so hoped that this political thread would be able to make it in GQ. But it looks more like another political Great Debate to me, so that’s where it’s going. [/moderating] ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-president-ever-get-bills-passed-in-congress/519275/26 "2009-11-30T09:36:31Z")
Our system is biased against change by design. There are numerous veto points, far more than in a parliamentary system. You also can’t pass things with 50%+1. Personally, I think that it’s good that major legislation usually ends up requiring 60% of the votes in the Senate. We shouldn’t be passing major bills with such tepid support as 50%. That’s why the Constitution doesn’t let you pass treaties by simple majorities. Treaties are very important commitments. So a treaty requires a 2/3rds vote to ratify. If the Founders had envisioned our Congress passing the kind of legislation they have since the New Deal, they would have required 2/3rds for that too. It was a flaw in their thinking that they actually expected Congress to self-regulate and stay within constitutional limits. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-president-ever-get-bills-passed-in-congress/519275/27 "2009-11-30T14:54:41Z")
> [@The\_Great\_Philosopher](#): > > There’s undeniably an element to this Republican opposition against healthcare which thinks, “if we can defeat Obama on everything he tries, he’ll be a failure and the public will swing back to us again”. If the opposition party has say, 45 senators, what stops them from filibustering anything that will benefit the President?. Clinton had to deal with exactly the same thing. Not only was his health-care reform plan scuttled, but his judicial appointments were kept bottled up in committee, and federal benches left vacant, for incredibly long periods. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-a-president-ever-get-bills-passed-in-congress/519275.md?page=1)