The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track

by Thomas E. Mann, Norman J. Ornstein, Norman J Ornstein

Book Overview

The Broken Branch offers both a brilliant diagnosis of the cause of Congressional decline and a much-needed blueprint for change, from two experts who understand politics and revere our institutions, but believe that Congress has become deeply dysfunctional. Mann and Ornstein, two of the nation's most renowned and judicious scholars of government and politics, bring to light the historical roots of Congress's current maladies, examining 40 years of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195368711
• ISBN13: 9780195368710
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

The Dysfunctional Legislature

The notion of the smooth operating machinery of government was always a myth at best, but today it has become a dream of another era. There was always partisanship in Congress, but there was also respect for the institution and its responsiblities. This is no longer the case: party and ideology take precedence above everything else. The traditional rules and norms of conduct that made policy-making balanced and effective are no longer being followed. Getting results - ends justifying the means - is the only thing that matters today. Respected policy wonks and congressional observers Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein have been watching the broken branch for decades, and in this book they give an excellent history of its demise as a respected institution. They assert that both parties are responsible for its downfall; however, they emphasize that things have gotten much worse since 1994, the year the Republicans took control. Even though the Democrats were high-handed and arrogant toward the end of their reign, the Republicans have since gone far beyond. One of the most famous examples of violation of congressional conduct was the disregard of the "15 minute" rule by Jim Wright back in 1987. Congress was allowed 15 minutes to vote on bills, but Speaker Wright kept the vote open for an extra 10 minutes since they were short one vote on an important piece of legislation. The Democrats got their vote, but there were howls of disapproval from the Republican minority. Fast forward to 2003. With the passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill hanging in the balance, congressional Republicans are holding the vote open for 3 hours applying all sorts of pressure and barely legal coercion to get the required votes - and this was taking place at 3 in the morning. The sad part is that this is no longer the exception, this is how bills are now passed. Aside from the policy-making process turning into an excercise in arm-twisting and bribery, the role of Congress as a check to presidential powers has also suffered under Republican stewardship. The leaders of Congress have become nothing more than yes-men for the executive branch. The detrimental consequences are becoming more obvious by the day. Not only are we mired in a poorly planned and executed war in two countries, we have an administration that can get away with torture and warrantless wiretapping. Lack of congressional oversight is putting it nicely, dereliction of duty would be more accurate. Mann and Ornstein elaborate on a number of reforms that need to take place in order for Congress to reclaim its honorable tradition. Now that the Democrats have retaken control there is the hope that they can do some of these reforms before they too take for granted their position of power. Unfortunately optimism was also present when the Republicans gained power in 1994. The adage about power corrupting still applies and the Democrats should take note. Mann and Ornstein call upon Congress

Helpful to Anyone Planning to Vote in November 2008

I have long understood the original terrible sin of Congress, the obscene corruption. I did not understand party line corruption (forcing Members to vote the party line instead of for their constituents until I read Tom Coburns Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders. This book helped me understand that the third sin is that partisan politics have turned Members into (the author's term) "footsoldiers for the President" and thus a complete abdication of their role as the Article 1 (i.e. first) branch of government. This book helped me understand that it is the long-serving Members who are often shaking down lobbyists and extorting funds from people, not the other way around, where bribes are offered by the lobbyists. I read this book after reading David Broder's article in the 8 August 2006 issue of the Washington Post, an article entitled "Contempt for Congress" and summarizing the utter disdain that the Governors--both Republican and Democratic--have for most Members. The Congress is indeed broken and dysfunctional. There is a tide sweeping against all incumbents, regardless of party, in this year. Hence, as Congress reconvenes on 5 September for one last session ending in early October, it could be quite fruitful for as many voters as possible to read this book and Tom Coburn's book, and demand of Congress two things in this next session: Electoral Reform, and a Public Intelligence Agency independent of both the President and Congress. We have a window for reform. This book is one of two pillars for those who wish to "raise the roof." See also, with a review, Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It. It is vital that the 100 million voters who have "dropped out" of the broken partisan political scene come back in 2008.

The Broken Branch

The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How To Get It Back On Track is a newly published but long-awaited diagnosis of the pernicious conditions that challenge the short-term health of the first branch and the long-term well-being of American democracy. Its authors, Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, senior scholars at two of Washington's preeminent think tanks - Brookings Institution and American Enterprise Institute - came to town in 1969 from doctoral studies at the University of Michigan to serve as Congressional Fellows, and never used their return tickets. What they have learned in their collective eight decades of careful, thoughtful, daily observations of and direct participation in the inner workings of Congress forms the structure of this very insightful look at Congress in the early years of the 21st century. Mann and Ornstein are often described as "Congress watchers." Well, maybe, but that would be like calling Watson and Crick "molecule watchers" or Lewis and Clark "trail watchers." These are two of America's leading political scientists, both fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, preeminent historians of the first branch, widely respected for having built trusting relationships with a diverse array of members in both chambers of the branch and both political parties, and known for their willingness to speak truth to power, which they do unstintingly in this book. They ply their scholarship at two contrasting institutions, have substantive differences on certain political and public policy issues, and yet have formed the kind of collaborative and collegial relationship that once characterized the Congress itself. So, let's begin our story right there. "The broken branch distresses us as longtime students of American democracy who believe Congress is the linchpin of our constitutional system. But the consequences go far beyond our sensibilities, resonating in ways that damage the country as a whole." Hence, 'the broken branch' endangers the entire tree: dysfunctional Congress means dysfunctional government means dysfunctional Union. In just under 250 fast-paced pages, these two scholar-practitioners take their readers through the `theory and practice of the first branch; then to the period - 1969-1994 - in which they find "the seeds of the contemporary problem;"then a frank appraisal of the promise and then the detritus of "a decade of Republican control; which leads to an analysis of "institutional decline." But if I were to recommend how a reader might most profitably spend an hour with this book - and I do so knowing that no author appreciates such counsel from a reviewer - it would be on the last two chapters - "The Case of Continuity" and "Conclusion." For it is in these pages that you get the best of the authors combined skills - literary and reportorial, investigative and analytical, winding up with a thoughtful and implementable set of recommendations for mending "the broken bran

Accurate analysis of the current state of national politics

I just watched a two hour panel on BookTV.org, CSPAN2. The panelists were the two authors, Newt Gingrich, and Tom Foley, the Democrat Speaker of the House before Newt. All were in agreement with the premise of this book: that the House has become a tool of the Executive branch, and has abrogated it's oversight duty. Bills are devised in the dead of night without bipartisan or even intra-party debate, simply to implement White House policy. Leader PACs and fund-raising are the key duties of our representatives. I was shocked to hear that the House has cut its in-session time from three days a week to one, as most members fly into DC on Tuesday night and out on Thursday morning. Most of the time they spend in DC is with lobbyists. This leaves no time for discussion or even reading the bills they are voting on. It leaves no time to get to talk with and to know the other Congressmen, or to hear dissenting views, and leads to the passage of flawed bills and acrimony with their colleagues. Scariest of all is the invocation of war powers in a war that probably will not end in our lifetimes, at a time when the House, Senate, White House, and Supreme Court are all dominatted by one party. We could be just one terrorist attack away from a dictatorship. This book is a must-read for politicians, political scientists, reporters, and voters. Congress is neglecting its duty, and the American people are neglecting theirs by not voting and by not thinking about the issues that this book raises.