Essay on Government
The Congress is responsible to provide and maintain the army, the maintenance of trade relations with foreign nations and regulate fiscal policies to maintain the military and the navy. In this regard, the article The 2014 “Wastebook” of Weird Government-Funded Projects, Ranked from “Well, Ok” to “Wha?” by Alicia Lu (2014) relates to all those powers of the US Congress granted by the US Constitution and the Article 1, Section 8. In fact, the article provides the critical evaluation of diverse policies conducted by the government, which though have been sanctioned by the US Congress. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the US Congress determines the budget and spending as well as taxes collected in the US. As a result, the ineffective use of public funds is, to a significant extent, the responsibility of the Congress because it was the Congress that granted and ratified the federal budget and all the spending.
At this point, the military spending is particularly frustrating for the average American because the US army has wasted $16 billion on the unneeded ammunition and, what is more, about $1 billion has been spent on the destroying of the unneeded ammunition. In such a way, the US Congress turns out to use public funds ineffectively. This is why the US Congress is currently referred to as one of the most wasteful and ineffective in terms of the government spending. However, the actions and policies conducted by the US Congress do not contradict to the US Constitution and the Congress operates within the framework defined by the US Constitution. The problem is that the US Congress fails to exercise its powers effectively.
In such a situation, members of the Congress, such as Senators from my state, Texas, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz and representative from my district, Lance Gooden, underperform, at the least. In fact, they apparently fail to perform their functions effectively because they fail to create the balanced budget and prevent the ineffective use of funds by the US government and the military (Irons, 2009). For example, the US Congress could have cut the spending of the federal budget on the US army that would stimulate the US army to save costs and use them more effectively that would lead to the refusal form unneeded ammunition and saving of the public funds. In fact, under Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution, it is the power of the Congress to maintain the military and conduct fiscal policies as well as to manage the federal finance. However, the Congress fails to exercise its powers effectively so far.
The Congress should change its policies and exercise its powers more effectively to help the US to use the public funds more effectively and to prevent the misuse of the public funds. In this regard, the current situation and ineffectiveness of members of the Congress reveals the fact that the US Constitution cannot make the US Congress effective or ineffective but, instead, the US Constitution creates conditions for the fair use of its powers, while it is the personal responsibility of each member of the Congress to exercise those powers widely and effectively.
Thus, the US Congress has considerable powers granted by the US Constitution. However, the Congress does not always uses those powers effectively. Hence, each member of the Congress should bear the personal responsibility for proper exercising of available powers.
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