Week 9 Congressional Power

11/8/2014

The Power of Congress

The powers of Congress are enumerated in the constitution. The legislative branch of government, like the other two branches, have rules in which they operate within to maintain order and a balance between powers. With the shift from Democratic to Republican control in the Senate there is a sense of change and perhaps back stepping on Obama's legislative agenda.

Now in President Obama's second term with a Republican dominated Congress speculators believe that there will be conflict on issues of health care, immigration, and the economy.
Review the articles below.

Write your own analysis of the 2014 election results. Provide examples of leadership changes or proposed policy changes that are promised with the newly elected officials gaining power in 2015.

Braced for a shift in Congress.
Election Analysis: Focus on Economy
President Obama speaks about the election results
Tax Overhaul with Congressional Shift
BBC report - the 2014 election as it happened

Requirements for BLOG POSTS

You must write 250 words each post (due Thursday @ Midnight), Responses to two other students 50 words each (due Friday @ midnight)
Students must post during the week the blog is assigned or it will not be graded.

5 Comments

sharon clark

11/14/2014 05:38:03 am

my election analysis states "Going into the November 4 midterm elections, Democrats held a 55-45 (two Independents caucus with the Democrats) seat advantage in the Senate while Republicans held a 234-201 advantage in the House. With several races still to be decided, Republicans have taken control of the Senate and increased their majority in the House. As a result, Senate Republicans will now move into the chairmanship of all Senate committees and thus control the legislative agendas and priorities for those committees. House Republicans will continue to control the chairmanships of their committees, albeit in some cases with new chairmen due to retirements or term limits."Within the November 2014 election i was feel its some type of advantage to working in the federal industry, so that speaks for it self when comes to anything being requested by the goverment.

Kim Shaw

11/21/2014 03:06:35 pm

This is a nice analysis of the election. It give lots of details about the seating and what’s going on in the House of Representatives. The Republicans were very successful at achieving what they set out to do. This gives us lots of things to look into and see if they will do what they say they will do.

Alex Diaz

11/19/2014 03:21:56 pm

I honestly don't really follow up with presidential campaigns so its going to be a bit hard for me to answer the following questions. I watched the video in which President Barack Obama is addressing issues such as taxes and other things that he would like to do before he steps down. He also talked about a little extra support and help on the educational system. From prior knowledge I believe that he also wants to make certain health care policies laws in order to insure that they are active even when he is no longer in office because many republicans may not want or support his health care policies. He always wants to raise money for anti-ISIS and to help put an end to the whole ISIS situation that is going on. He said that he wants to try and make college a little less costly so that college students don't come out of college with a huge debt on there hands and are able to jump into the economy and start there families. He would like to raise minimum wage and help make more job opportunities off of many resources being exported. Obama states many times that it will be hard, but he wants to pass many laws before he steps down. I don't really have to much knowledge about the republican plans.

11/21/2014 03:14:14 pm

I like that President Obama is sharing he plans for what he wants to do for the next two years. I agree with making college affordable for those that desire to attend. I also agree with raising the minimum wage. I know the next two years will be a challenge for President Obama and I’m sure he will do his best to raise the minimum wage and lower the college fees.

11/21/2014 01:54:58 pm

Based on these articles and what I have heard in the news the Republicans now dominate congress, controls the senate. This gives them a tighter grip on the House of Representatives. This means the Democrats lost some key sets. The Republican have plans to make some major changes. The Republicans will focus on the things they have the most concerns to them such as tax over haul, federal debt, immigration, Obama care, etc. This lost for the Democrats and win for the Republicans can be a challenge for President Obama. They can work together to make it better for the people or they can work against each other to support what they believe is right or fair. It seems that the Republicans think they can do better by changing and/or undoing what President Obama has done. As in politics there was a lot of finger pointing and I could have done that or this better. The Republicans says they will work on changing the government to a government that people trust again, keeping the people safe, the surveillance concerns, turning the county around. It’s really kind of hard to analysis the election because I haven’t really followed it. What I’ve heard has come from the news and that is depending on the news that I watch. I know President Obama has made some major changes and there are a few that come to mind that I personally don’t agree with and there are some that I do. I will for my benefit, knowledge and so that I will know how to vote in 2016, follow some of these keys issues that the Republicans plan to fix.

November 2014 Election