US Executive - Relationship between the President & Congress

Neustadt’s Famous Remark:
  • The President’s power is the power to persuade”
    • Obama tried to persuade the Speaker of Congress for a joint-meeting with HOR and the Senate to introduce a new bill which could be agreed on but he said no to Oct 7th and no to Oct 8th. The 7th was the first Republican primary debate (Obama thought he could take attention from it by making a statement at primetime to the nation) whilst the 8th Oct was the opening day of the AFL. This is the first time the speaker has denied
Why Does He Need This Power:
  • He needs this power to succeed as he Congress’s agreement in anything in does
  • Party links do not help as the POTUS usually finds themselves a lame duck towards the end of their presidency
  • “What the Constitution separates, the political parties do not combine” – Neustadt
The President Persuading Through People:
  • VPOTUS: The 7 VPOTUS have all been in Congress. Joe Biden quickly became Obama’s right-hand man due to vast experience in the Senate (36 years). When people had trouble, they went to Biden not Obama.
  • Members Of The Office Of Legislative Affairs: Members of the White House Office who work as full time lobbyists. They meet Congressmen as well as senior members of the their staff. The staff is organised in such a way that the relationship between the House and the Senate works and it works well.
  • Cabinet Officers: Deployed by the White House to talk with members of Congress in their own policy areas. W Bush used education secretary Rod Paige to sell his education reform package to Congress in 2001.
  • Party Leadership In Congress: The house speaker, the leaders of both houses. It helps if the POTUS and both houses are in the same party. Obama had this for 6 years but for not his last 2 (lame duck). Personality also plays a key factor in this, if you speak well and are more gregarious like Bill Clinton, you had a good relationship with the speaker and could get things done.
The President Persuading Through Perks:
  • Phone Calls: In an important budget vote in the House in August 1993, Clinton phoned Democrat House member, Marjorie to ask her to vote on way, her vote was crucial as Clinton won the vote by 2. Don’t do what Ileana Lehtinen did in 2008 when she told POTUS-elect Obama “you’re a better impersonator than that guy who does Obama on Saturday Night Live”
  • Inviting Members To The White House: This is more personal than a phonecall and can make members vote in certain ways. If the member helps the POTUS and they’re part of the same party, the POTUS will help them with their re-election campaign at the mid-term elections. A very popular POTUS doesn’t even have to invite members, he can just speak to them on the TV at Primetime. This is what President Johnson called “putting Congress’s feet to the fire”
Mervin’s Quote:
  • In 1993, he described the POTUS as “bargainer-in-chief”
    • He argued that a POTUS is fighting for their legislation to be passed, their appointments confirmed and their budget approved.
    • Mark Peterson described the POTUS as “Leaders are those who makes things happen”.
The Graphic On POTUS’s Support Scores:
  • POTUS support tends to decline during a term. Having one’s party control in both houses of Congress usually drives the support score up. Loss of control of Congress usually results in a dip in the POTUS support score: Seen for Clinton, Bush and Obama.
3 Reasons Why The POTUS Finds It Hard To Build Support For Legislation:
  1. Members of Congress are much more aware of the constituents wishes through emails and are less willing to go along with the POTUS’s wishes.
  2. Changes in the methods of choosing Presidential candidates. Clinton, Bush and Trump don’t know much about Congress than POTUS who have actually worked in Congress like Nixon and Ford and as such do not have a special relationship with certain members of Congress.
  3. Divided government is a significant factor. A POTUS who is in control of divided government is less likely to get anything done. Obama’s Economic Package in 2009 received no Republican votes in the House and just three in the Senate.
    1. The type of legislation could mean one party could vote in favour of it e.g Obama’s ‘Every Student Succeed’ Act received the support of 12 Republicans in the Senate and 64 in the House despite Obama being part of a divided government.

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