About this episode
The episode discusses various proposed reforms to Congress and the public's disapproval of the legislative branch.
Guest post by David Speiser The Problem Everyone hates Congress. That poll showing that cockroaches are more popular than Congress is now thirteen years old, and things haven't improved in those thirteen years. Congressional approval dipped below 20% during the Great Recession and hasn't recovered since. A republic where a supermajority of citizens neither like nor trust their representatives is not the most stable of foundations, so it should not be shocking that the legislative branch is being subsumed by the executive. What's the solution? Many have been proposed, some with very snazzy websites. FairVote thinks that ranked choice voting and proportional representation will solve it. The Congressional Reform Project has another snazzy website with such bold proposals as "Increase the opportunity for Members to form relationships across party lines, including by bipartisan issues conferences." There are more think tanks . They want to enlarge the House by a few hundred members, switch to a biennial budget system, spend more on Congressional staffers, and introduce term limits, among many other suggestions. There are op-eds too. Here's how the Atlantic wants to fix Congress. The…
People in this episode
Host: Jeremiah
Guest: David Speiser
Topics covered
- Congress
- political reform
- ranked choice voting
- proportional representation
- legislative branch
- public opinion
Keywords
- Congress
- reform
- ranked choice voting
- proportional representation
- public opinion
- legislative branch
- politics
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: FairVote, Congressional Reform Project, Atlantic, New York Times
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