Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Is the House too small?

Facts:
1. The average U.S. congressional district now contains roughly 640,000 citizens, as opposed to about 200,000 in 1911.
2.In 1998 the U.S. population was roughly 275 million.
3. The U.S. population is 12.8 percent black and 14.4 percent Latino, but 9.4 percent and 5.1 percent in the U.S. House, respectively.
4. The German Bundestad has 613 members.
5. The British House of Commons has 646 members and is slated to grow to 650 by the next election.

Questions:
1. Why does it matter if we have a bigger House or not?
2. What would happen if the House got bigger or smaller would it effect our nation significantly?
3. Would it be more efficient if we had a bigger House?
4. Would the pay still be the same for everyone if it became bigger?
5. If the House gets bigger should the Senate get bigger also?

I believe that the current size is good. If there are too many people, like the article said, there would be a problem with trust. 435 people is a pretty big number already and I think they are doing a fine job. Wouldn't it create more conflict within the House if there were more opinions and ideas? The people who work in the House only serve for 2 years, it would be harder to replace more people. 435 to me is a fairly good number and if we were to increase it, I think we should increase it just to 500.

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