Sunday, April 28, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
[Cons] Article 1 - Section 5
The biggest problem with this article is that it allows a legislature to determine its own membership, answer disputes in its election of its own members and set their own rules. It also states that the two houses can't disband without the permission of the other houses.
What this does is create the worst of all possible worlds, where you have the senate which can create its own arcane and highly stupid rules, while at the same time, can't disband to allow recess appointments when those same rules are used to stymie executive appointments.
But the alternatives can be abused as well.
There are no good solutions here, but at least with rules, you should require approval by the other legislature to prevent abuses like the filibuster.
If you do need both houses to pass legislation then I guess you also need to chain them together in approval of disbanding.
That's about it for this section really.
What this does is create the worst of all possible worlds, where you have the senate which can create its own arcane and highly stupid rules, while at the same time, can't disband to allow recess appointments when those same rules are used to stymie executive appointments.
But the alternatives can be abused as well.
There are no good solutions here, but at least with rules, you should require approval by the other legislature to prevent abuses like the filibuster.
If you do need both houses to pass legislation then I guess you also need to chain them together in approval of disbanding.
That's about it for this section really.