By Noralyn Dudt Merriam-Webster defines gridlock as a traffic jam in which a grid of intersecting streets is so completely congested that no vehicular movement is possible. The grid is locked... no one can move... everyone stays in place. In the same way, gridlock in government occurs when both houses of Congress cannot agree on going forward on a particular issue. The government then is literally going nowhere. In United States politics, gridlock frequently refers to occasions when the House of Representatives and the Senate are controlled by different parties, or by a different party than the party of the president. Gridlock may also occur within the Senate, when no party has a filibuster-proof majority. A primary cause of gridlock is the filibuster rule in Senate, which calls for a supermajority of 60 senators to bring a bill to the floor. The Congress and Senate cannot agree.... In many ways, gridlock is endemic to our national politics, the natural consequenc...
Online edition of The Ilocos Times, a community newspaper based in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.