A divided Congress could lead to another two years of standstill
In order to resolve issues due to the Coronavirus pandemic, both houses of Congress would need to work together to help the American people
Congress working together to help the American people, whether it be for Coronavirus relief or not, will help bring the country back together. (Photo courtesy of Pixabay)
As the 2020 presidential election wraps up, there is still a looming race that is critical for a prosperous new session of Congress: the Georgia senate runoff race.
One political party “runs” each section of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Right now, the House is run by the Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the Republican Senate is run by the party majority leader Mitch McConnell.
The House and Senate having majority leaders that correspond to the current president is ideal for the administration to implement new laws and policies.
Most bills pass the House, but they get stuck in Congress because of this practice. In these times, it is more important than ever to have an up and running legislative system to help our country get through this everlasting pandemic.
The 2020 election for Senate is currently in a runoff election in Georgia, which if Democrat Jon Ossof wins a seat, could turn the Senate blue, which will help the incoming president Joe Biden fulfill his agenda.
The problem that will arise from having a Democratic House and a Republican Senate is that no policies are able to pass because of party differences, as we can see in the current Congress, as well as in past administrations.
The Senate also still has the tool of a filibuster, which allows a senator to talk to prevent a bill from passing, which can be a harmful tool if nothing gets done or an important bill to help the country, such as coronavirus personal or business relief gets thrown out.
Most bills pass the House, but they get stuck in Congress because of this practice. In these times, it is more important than ever to have an up and running legislative system to help our country get through this everlasting pandemic.
As seen during these hard times, the Senate has yet to pass another Coronavirus relief bill, as we have known about the virus for almost a year now and have been seeing business shutdowns on and off since last March.
One of the most dangerous things about having such a divided Congress is what they do pass can be considered “shady.”
The first coronavirus relief bill was supposed to help small businesses pay their employees and get through the first shutdowns. However, most of this money went to big corporations such as Hobby Lobby, who in turn laid off thousands of employees.
The next problem that will occur is that food stamp and cash benefits are set to expire at the end of this year, which will harm working people and their ability to feed themselves and their families if nothing is done to change that.
This is a time when our country needs to work together to stomp out this virus and help each other in any way we can. Favoring the rich will only harm those who are struggling to survive each day.
The people of the Congress are elected officials who are supposed to do their best to help their state and country succeed, and if the Senate is failing us, our country is failing.
