Legislative Hurdles Quotes
When President Trump was campainging for the Presidency he was constanly telling the voters how he was going to freform the tax system, and made it seem that it would be very easy if he had a Repuiblican Congress. He won and had the Republican Congress he wanted, but he was still having difficulty. The great difficulty for all leaders is that almost all Ameicans are in total agreement that the tax code is to comples and unfair. However, there is enourmous divergence and disparity about what should be done to make it fairer and less complex. What is a loophole for one taxpayer is a necessary accomodation to fairness and public policy for another. Every single suggested change produces people who are agisnt it, Sometimes it is a majority and other times a very passionate or rech and powerful mionority.
The new director was faced with 2,600 personnel vacancies in this critical office and the jobs were not getting filled quickly. Many people who are appointed to high Federal Office and come from the private sector or state and local government, are appalled at the extensive and cumbersome bureaucracy that makes the hiring of Federal employees so tedious and slow.
In every case except Obamacare, the Congress would pass technical correctional amendments as programs were implemented and glitches were found. However, with Obamacare, ultra conservatives were strongly opposed to it, and after the law passed over their opposition, they tried (unsuccessfully) to repeal it dozens of times. When technical glitches began to appear, they blocked correcting legislation on the political thinking that the defects would anger people and produce more support for repeal. Trumka observed that the conservatives had also bitterly opposed Social Security in 1936, but in the following years worked to pass correcting amendments and eliminate technical flaws. This was the first piece of major legislation that a substantial number of one of a political party members of Congress tried to sabotage the program and had enough intimidation power over the party leadership and statesmen, that they were enabled.
The new White House Chief of Staff, a former governor, had much early difficulty in dealing with Congress:
