Should the U.S. President have to show up in Congress to account for his actions?

Question

I live in a country where the Prime Minister (equivalent to president) has to get up every day in Parliament and justify his actions to representatives of the people.

Citizens can (and often do) have their representative ask the PM directly what's going on. He has to answer on his feet on national televison.

It amazes me how the U.S. President only shows up in Congress once a year.

The rest of the time he's virtually unaccountable and in fact seems to run a government which ignores voters.

Most of the time the main issue in America seems to be "who's in charge here?"

So my question is: would America get better government if the President had to show up in Congress to account for his actions?

Answer 1

No. There are three separate branches of the government, and each has their own powers! Under your plan, you would make Congress more powerful, and the president less so.

Right now the system allows for checks on the powers of each branch. Congress can make a law, the president can veto it! The courts can rule that a law is unconstitutional.

The system works pretty well.

Answer 2

No. You are missing a fundamental difference between our systems of government. In the British Parliamentary System, the Prime Minister is elected from the Parliament is therefore accountable to them. In America, the President is elected by the people and therefore is accountable to them. Our executive, legislative, and judicial branches are co-equal as checks and balances on each. Precedent has established that the Supreme Court gets the final say when the three branches disagree.

Answer 3

You think the U.S. government would get better is the President had to take a couple of hours out of every single day and travel to Congress? Do you think Congress would like having to show up for work every day? Under the Democrat leadership, the Senate only shows up at the office three days a week. Making them work an extra two days seems like an unreasonable demand.

Answer 4

The government here is set up on checks an balances. Unfortunately, what you guys have to understand, is that Bush is not the sole man in charge. He alone makes up the Executive Branch of the government. There is still the Senate and Congress, that make up the legislative branch. Finally the Supreme Court, making the Judicial branch.

All three branches, Legislative, Judicial and Executive are equally powerfull.

What you have to understand, where our political system lacks compared to most European countries, is in the parties running for office. The United states has two major parties (In Germany for example, there are 5 to 6 major parties), and unfortunately those two parties do not always put forward the best man for the job.

Next year, Bush is out of office. He'll have served eight years, the maximum for someone in his office. After that, someone new will take the reigns.

Answer 5

I think you make a very interesting point. Although there are great demands for time and briefings (as of Prime Ministers that people do not seem to understand here!) I believe that the once a year speech is atrocious seeing as how he is not forthcoming with the American people. I think then too that the media would be less willing to just file reports given from the White House to ensure their continued press pass and they actually would have to report personally what goes on than being spoon fed it. I also think it would lead to less evasion and strong arm tactics. I think even once a month would not be unreasonable and all these people talking about his time and import should realise that he is the first president who has spent so much time on vacation! No other president in history has especially at times of crisis.

Answer 6

No, it would make things worse, much like the govenment in other countries. And who would congress be subject to? If people are to decide everything (as you implied), by the time a decision could be made, it would be too late to implement whatever the decision was.
This is a lot of the problem now: the media keeps butting in, trying to manage the govenment, and persuades people one way or another.
The best bet is to elect people to do a job and let them do their job, quit trying to run the show from from the TV couch.

Answer 7

The thing with american government is that it is constantly asking "who is in control" because we don't want one person to be too in control because everyone was afraid of having a monarchy. Unfortunatly he does not have to confess his actions to congress and the united states. We could also ask our representatives the same thing but sadly, the American public just doesn't try that hard, We have the chance to vote, yet most don't want to wait in the lines to get thier voice heard, its quite sad.

Answer 8

It shows that our forefathers of this super united states had a super imaginative and prescient, that it relatively is enterprise of a faith by government, or the endorsement of same, it relatively is deadly. yet, in all issues, they had prayer, all of them went to churches, the Congress even has this is own ordained guy or woman to furnish prayer, so as that they did no longer separate themselves from God, in basic terms had to maintain any centralized ability from forcing a definite religious conformity on others. there are a number of spurious claims made by Liberals and atheists, that it relatively is incorrect to have church-appropriate events in public places, on public grounds. it relatively is a pink herring, this is not incorrect, as long as all religions might use the typical public sources, then this is advantageous, yet as conventional, Liberals have twisted it to attempt to intend that anybody with an enterprise concept in God with any prepared faith isn't quickly perverting the reliable by having the ability to apply taxpayer-funded homes or sources of their practice of religion. Denial of all religious events substitute into no longer meant by our forefathers interior the 1st modification rights, in basic terms that the Governement shouldn't advise one above the different. The liberals have tortured the which skill out of all context, so as that they might have their gay rights, or intercourse-with-animals strikes allowed on public sources, yet Libs forbid any religious pastime! Oh, no, that would desire to PERVERT each thing! - The Gremlin guy -

Answer 9

No. In the US, the President reports to the people, not to Congress.

Answer 10

Bush and Cheney, both refuse to the subpoena that Congress have asked them to come to Congress and honor. WE left just enough of those old wore geysers Republicans to run everything that the Democrat is trying so hard to get done.
My opinion is they both should be IMPEACHED and brought before a court of law for refusing to do anything that America wants them to do. They proved today we are living under Dictatorship and we have no Democracy