Congressional ethics essay

Maxine Waters, a supporter of President Donald Trump's impeachment, was charged with various ethics violations in August of this year (Harris, 2017). She was named the most corrupt member of Congress in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2017, according to a report by the citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington (Harris, 2017).
This time, the congressperson was accused of breaking three violations of house rules and the federal ethics code. She was charged for violating the requirement that members of the chamber have credibility; she violated this law by trying to arrange a meeting in the year 2008 between representatives of One United Bank and the officials of the treasury. She was also accused of trying to help the bank secure federal bailout funds because her husband owned stock in the bank and this would have been valueless in case the bank failed. She was accused of using her position for financial gain because she would directly benefit if the bank secured the funds.

Maxine, however, failed to admit her wrongdoings and vowed that it would be better if she defended herself than accepting charges for something that she did not do. The committee denied the two motions presented by waters, which asked for further clarification and also dropping the charges against her.

The Congress does not punish its members very often, and the severe penalty that a member can be given is expulsion. Members are also penalized through suspension; a suspended member is not allowed to vote during the house’s proceedings. These punishments are sometimes not equal to the level of wrongdoing that a member has committed; this, therefore, makes the public lose their trust in the ability of the Congress to punish its members who violate the ethics of the house

Why third parties fail

The United States of America has so many other sides although people speak as though there are only two political parties; the republican and the democrats (Forbes, 2006). These two dominating parties alternate the presidency and share a significant percentage of the elected offices. The third parties get a small percentage of the votes cast, and they constitute of those voters that are unhappy with the two dominating political parties. Examples of these minor parties are; the greens and the libertarians (Joseph M Bessette, 2013).

There are various reasons why these parties fail these reasons include; how the government and elections in the United States are structured, and these two dominant parties are well organized both on the national and state level. The government of the United States is structured in a way that, there is one tremendously important elective seat which is the presidency (Elteren, 2011). There is only one person who can win that position, and so the voters opt for someone who has a chance of winning. The possibility of winning the seat solely lies in the two dominant political parties, and the rest parties do not get many votes. In the 2016 elections, the most famous aspirants were Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton while other aspirants like Gary Johnson of the libertarian party were not people's favorite.

These two dominant parties are very organized both at the national and state level. Therefore they have the chances of influencing a lot of people they can link with the local races and this way they can capture a majority in the legislature. An example is when the Republican Party replaced the Whigs party

If a third party won an election, the two parties would not prevent the winner from assuming office. However, it would be impossible for these two sides to work toward executing the winner’s policies. It would still be possible that some of the elected Congress to join the winning team or in some case, this individual would subsume one of the major parties

Federal and state authority

Healthcare seems to be one of the most significant problems that the United States government has to deal with; this sector is plagued with incomplete coverage, high costs, declining and stagnant quality of health services provided (D, 2010). The national and the state governments can address the health issue by controlling the insurance, drug and medical industry, the government should also limit on the advertising expenses and this way the costs would be brought down (Havard business school, 2017).

The constitution of the United States does not contain any textual reference that protects this country’s health. The law is mainly concerned with preserving the freedom and the liberty of its people from the intrusion by the government but does not specify the obligations of the government. Also, the protection of safety, health, and people’s welfare falls within the reserved powers of the states while the states are only capable of addressing competing health priorities among its people. Health is a fundamental right, the United States government should ensure that it does not overlook this issue considering how vital the healthcare issue is.

 









References

D, B. (2010). The future of healthcare and electronic records.

Elteren, m. v. (2011). Labor and the American left. McFarland.

Forbes, r. (2006). Ending the hidden unfairness in us. BookBaby.

Harris, J. (2017, August 29). Maxine Waters charged with ethics violation again. O LENS.

Havard business school. (2017). What is the role of the government in us healthcare?Havard Business School.

Joseph M Bessette, J. J. (2013). American government and politics. Cengage Learning.