I thought it might be a good time to give a quick primer on American politics.
Let's start with the basics. In the American system of government, the executive and the legislative branches are separate. So they have a President that is both the Head of State and the Head of Government and they have a bicameral Congress with a House of Representatives and a Senate. The President does not sit in Congress.
When the President is elected his Party is not necessarily the Party of the majority in either of the two Houses. There can be a Democrat in the White House but both / either the Senate and the House of Representatives could potentially have a majority of representatives from the Republican Party. Currently, the Senate majority are Democrats and the House of Representatives majority are Republicans. Now, unlike Canada, even when the Houses are dominated by one particular party, the Houses do not necessarily vote strictly along party lines. Each House has a "whip" who is responsible trying to ensure that their members vote with the party.
A few other critical things to note: the House of Representatives has a Speaker who is elected by all members of the House. This is a powerful and partisan position. The Speaker presides over the House and sends Bills to committees. The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the second in line of succession after the Vice President.
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate also have Majority and Minority leaders. These are also political positions. The positions are elected by their respective parties. Their jobs vary but they are a critical part of the organization of the Houses particularly the House of Representatives which has 435 members.
Here are some names you may have heard this week:
John Boehner, a Republican, is Speaker of the House of Representatives; Eric Cantor, a Republican, is House Majority Leader in the House of Representatives; Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, is Minority Leader in the House of Representatives; Harry Reid, a Democrat, is the Majority Leader in the Senate; and Mitch McConnell, a Republican, is the Minority Leader in the Senate
Now, while the President is responsible for setting out a legislative agenda, he must ask Congress for the money to fund new programs, like the Affordable Health Care Act. In fact, the President must ask Congress for any money that will be spent. Moreover, the Congress decides on the level of taxation that will support the programs that the government runs. Over the last few weeks, the predominately Republican House of Representatives tried to pass a budget bill that de-funded the Affordable Care Act. This means that there would be zero dollars allocated for the program, known as Obamacare. The Senate, which is predominately Democrat, refused to pass the budget. The problem is that the budget bill also contained the funding allowances for all the other federally run programs. So, without the budget being passed, government was shut down because departments don't have the money to run their programs. President Obama is arguing that the health care act was passed in both Houses, it was approved by the Supreme Court and the American people voted on it when they voted him back into office. He is arguing that the House of Representatives should not be defunding the program by attaching it to an important bill that funds all other government programs.
The next looming issue is the debt ceiling. In this case, the Congress needs to approve the government's increased line of credit. Just like you have to ask the bank to increase your line of credit, President Obama has to ask Congress to increase his government's line of credit. The fact is the government spends more money than it collects in taxes and so it has to borrow money. If the line of credit is not extended then the government can't pay its bills and it will default on its payments. The Republicans don't want to increase the debt ceiling without ensuring that some programs will be cut.
The structure of the American system means that power is divided among the branches and thus, when there is a high level of political contestation the consequences of the separation of power are more evident.
