This study will examine Congress in the last years of the 1980s and the first years of the 1990s, focusing on the changes in the power of Congress, specifically in dealing with Presidents Reagan and Bush.
The Reagan years were marked by Presidential power over-shadowing the power of Congress, particularly in terms of issues related to the economy. While it is true that seniority and other forces of entrenchment protect incumbents and keep the power of Congress in certain hands, it is also true that the Congress is comprised of individuals who must be re-elected regularly. This means that, however arrogant they might become, they still smell the political winds and popular issues. When Reagan was elected by a landslide in 1980 over Jimmy Carter, the nation and Congress perceived that landslide as a mandate for Reagan's economic program.
Accordingly, for the most part, especially in the first term of Reagan's reign, the Congress buckled under and quickly passed whatever bills the President sent, knowing that if they did not pass them, they would have to answer to the people at the next Congressional election.
The weakness of Congressional leadership, under Democratic patriarch Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, helped Reagan push through whatever bills he desired in his radical makeover of the structure of American economics and society.
As we read in Power in Congress, published by Congressional Quarterly: "Given Reagan's popularity and the Republican gain of thirty-three House seats in the fall of 1980, there may never have been much chance for O'Neill's Democrats to derail the president's economic program. But O'Neill's handling of the 1981 economic debate did not particularly reinforce his image as a leader" (Congressional 107).
The second term under Reagan saw somewhat of a leveling off of the power imbalance which had previously favored the President, due to the fact that the Democrats fared better in the mid-term elect...