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Loading... Act of Congress: How America's Essential Institution Works, and How It Doesn'tby Robert G. Kaiser
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  dougcornelius | Jun 9, 2013 |   http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/act-congress-how-americas-essential-insti... (  ) kswolff | May 7, 2013 |  keithhamblen | Feb 21, 2014 | no reviews | add a review
This is an account of how Congress today really works, and doesn't, that follows the dramatic journey of the sweeping financial reform bill enacted in response to the Great Crash of 2008. The founding fathers expected Congress to be the most important branch of government and gave it the most power. When Congress is broken, as its justifiably dismal approval ratings suggest, so is our democracy. Here, the author, whose career at The Washington Post has made him a keen and knowledgeable observer of Congress, takes us behind the sound bites to expose the protocols, players, and politics of the House and Senate, revealing both the triumphs of the system and (more often) its fundamental flaws. This book tells the story of the Dodd-Frank Act, named for the two men who made it possible: Congressman Barney Frank, brilliant and sometimes abrasive, who mastered the details of financial reform, and Senator Chris Dodd, who worked patiently for months to fulfill his vision of a Senate that could still work on a bipartisan basis. Both Frank and Dodd collaborated with the author throughout their legislative efforts and allowed their staffs to share every step of the drafting and deal making that produced the 1,500-page law that transformed America's financial sector. The author explains how lobbying affects a bill, or fails to. We follow staff members more influential than most senators and congressmen. We see how Congress members protect their own turf, often without regard for what might best serve the country, more eager to court television cameras than legislate on complicated issues about which many of them remain ignorant. In this book the author shows how ferocious partisanship regularly overwhelms all other considerations, though occasionally individual integrity prevails. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)346.73Social sciences Law Private Law North America United StatesLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.73)
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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Kaiser was already an associate editor and senior correspondent with the Washington Post and had just finished a book on lobbying and money in Washington. He proposed to Congressman Frank that Kaiser become the historian of the congressional response to the Great Crash of 2008. Frank was planning a big legislative changes to the financial services industry and the new president shared this goal. Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Barney Frank let Kaiser talk on the record with staff.
Act of Congress lives by the famous remark "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." The book's goal is to be both entertaining and educational as it sneaks behind the curtain to watch the sausage production.
"Of the 535 members of the House and Senate, those who have a sophisticated understanding of the financial markets and their regulation could probably fit on the twenty-five man roster of a Major League Baseball team."
Kaiser lets the stupidity of some Congress make it to the pages. He lets their public statements stand for themselves, although he tosses the phrase "intellectual lightweight" at a few. I sense he had a lot of personal perspective some of the congressmen that did not make it to the pages.
I found the book to be well-written and interesting. I suspect the interesting part may be governed more by my interest in the Dodd-Frank Act. It's an enormous piece of legislation with profound impact on the financial services industry. In places it is poorly written and in others it's full of exemptive holes. This books will enlighten you to some of the compromises that were made to get the law enacted.
I suspect those who have that interest may be limited. If you have made it this far, perhaps you share that interest. In which case you should add Act of Congress to your reading list. (