[Info-vax] HP stopping VMS paper documentation ?

[JF Mezei]

Bob Koehler wrote:

>    Of course his stimulus failed.  The GOP won't let a workable
>    fix to the economy, Mr. Obama might get credit for it.

This is where having a proper democratic system is needed.

In Canada, when a government is elected with a minority, it needs to
cooperate with opposition otherwise it may fall with a vote of non
confidence.  And because political parties have finances, they needto
look at whether they can afford an election so soon after the previous
one, and whether polling suggest they would increase their number of
seats if an election were held now instead of waiting at end of the
minority govt's term.  So a minority govt can live a number of years by
being cooperative with opposition and as long as polls favour the
governing party, the opposition has no incentive to bring down the
government.


The USA system doesn't have that "incentive to cooperate". The president
is there gfor his term no matter if he can get any legislation passed or
not. The houses do have elections at mid-term so this is like a mini
vote of non confidence, but it doesn't force the president to resign if
he is put in a situation where he can no longer govern effectiovely.

It should be noted that under the last bit of the Clinton presidency, he
did not control the houses, and he was able to get a balanced budget, in
part due to pressure but also cooperation from republicans.