Some insight from someone inside.

Justin Amash, former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Michigan's 3rd district shares some insight on the workings of Congress via Twitter:

• We have the best system of government in the world; it’s just that almost nobody in government cares to use it.


• The federal government is a lot worse on the inside than it seems to people at home. Whatever you think about it, multiply that badness by at least 10.


• There will be no fixing Washington from within. It will keep getting worse until the whole system crashes or the public recognizes what’s really going on and forces change from the outside.


• Congress is increasingly filled with people who don’t genuinely believe in anything. Their beliefs bend to power.


• The two-party system—with its pervasive hyperpartisanship and disregard for the structures of government—is *the* existential threat to our republic. Everything else is just a sideshow.


• The laws you want to fix can’t be fixed because the system itself is rigged. Both Republican and Democratic leaders are rigging it. I know that’s a hard pill to swallow when you’re encouraged every day by politicians and media to think the “other side” is the central problem.


• Congressional leaders don’t care about the legislative process. They don’t care about what a bill really says or whether a bill actually works. They care about political messaging. Congress is performance art.


• A few party leaders control most of the political needs of the members of Congress (funding, bill introductions, chairmanships, committee assignments) and thereby control most of the votes.


• Congress is only nominally a legislative branch at this point. We wait for a couple people to tell us what the law will be, and then we vote as a mere formality. Most members of Congress never read any of it and only vaguely know what they’re voting on.


• When they tell you a bill does X, it almost certainly doesn’t. And they almost certainly didn’t read the bill. Nor did their staff. But they’ll get away with it. Because you want to believe it. And because you heard the same thing from the media, who also didn’t read the bill.


• For those of you who can speed-read, the 2153 page “Heroes Act 2.0” that we could be voting on as early as tonight was just released ...Constitution, Article I, Section 1:
  All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of ...Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and Steven Mnuchin.

The Speaker of the House is the most powerful member of the House. Because the House writes tax and spend laws, the Speaker is probably the single most powerful legislator in the country. The current Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, represents San Francisco. So, effectively, San Francisco voters control the nation.

The Senate Majority Leader has a similar function in the Senate. Mitch McConnell from Kentucky is the current incumbant.

Consider the cultural divide between San Francisco and Kentucky voters. No wonder the system is brocken. As more power is placed in national government, the more divided and unstable the governing system becomes.

New York State government operates similarly (source) as probably many/most governments do.

There is more.

"Something 99% of American voters do not quite understand.

Congress doesn’t actually write legislation ... 

Lobbyists write the laws; congress sells the laws; lobbyists then pay congress lucrative commissions for passing their laws. That’s the modern legislative business in DC. " (Click here for source)

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