[jfengel]

Yes, we have 435 people who could do that.

But in any given year, at least 200 of them will be elected specifically for the purpose of ensuring that government does nothing at all. So the remaining ones go to extraordinary effort to achieve even the basics, and often fail.

[anfilt]

Like things are quite partisan at the moment in the congress. You don't want dead lock, but you do want things to be somewhat difficult to change other wise you will get lots of policy, regulatory and even legal whiplash. If things change too often it could even be worse. Ideally there is some middle ground between deadlock and whip lash. Constant flux is worse than dead lock. It's even why a lot laws regarding regulation, policy ect.. have a date they became effective so people can prepare.