Exam 2

Question 1

What can interest groups do to promote their interest?

Answer 1

• Lobbyers- interest groups hire people to talk to legislators- can offer to endorse that candidate, lobbyers develop a close relationship by creating a relationship with a member of congress, sharing information about their issue with them, congress members rely on their interest groups friends for speeches
• electioneering- taking part in a campaign and convincing people to vote for a certain candidate
• litigating- take to court
• share information on the interest

Question 2

Which interest groups have the lowest and highest success rates?

Answer 2

• Public interest groups have the lowest success rates - National affordable housing management association, National center for homeless education, American foundation for AIDS research
• American Medical association has a very high success rate, also NRA, and NAM (national association of manufacturers), all of these groups are big because of stagnation and gridlock, they don’t want more legislation, against change and the government can’t do much so this is why they are successful

Question 3

Compare the senate and house of representatives

Answer 3

• The house and senate usually have different personalities and have the ability to block each other
• Each house must pass the exact same bill

Senate-
o 100 members- two per state, high representation for low population states
o More functional as 100 members respect one another
o Committees are less important- floor is more important
o Less “partisan” (adherent to party- more moderate relating to which party controls it)
o 6-year term

House of Reps-
o 435 members- even representation for state populations
o Less functional
o committees are much more important- where the action is done,, floor is less important
o More “Partisan” (adherent to party- more extreme- more conservative if republicans more liberal if democrats )
o 2-year term

Question 4

Filibuster

Answer 4

Allows a senator to engage in unlimited debate and talk for as long as they need to prevent the senate from voting on a bill- emotional closure can end the filibuster

Question 5

Appropriations committee

Answer 5

Responsible for appropriating funding for most functions of the federal government, the money and idea for a proposal

Question 6

Budgeting committee

Answer 6

Decides who gets to spend money on what

Question 7

Rules committee

Answer 7

Has the power to change the process for desired pieces of legislation

Question 7

Bicameral legislature

Answer 7

Having two houses, created to make government difficult

Question 7

If the president is republican, which party will likely win the house during midterms?

Answer 7

Democrats will likely win the house because democrats are more likely to be upset and vote during midterms

Question 8

Why might it be difficult for legislators in the house of reps to focus on governing?

Answer 8

They must focus on re-election since they only have a 2-year term

Question 9

Gerrymandering

Answer 9

Manipulating boundaries to favor a party, can cause a candidate to win in states because they are in a state of their party

Question 10

Committee chair members

Answer 10

Leader of a committee, In the house of reps are always members of the majority party

Question 11

What are the phases of committee work

Answer 11

Hearings, markup, report – phases occur in every subcommittee and committee

Question 12

Party whips

Answer 12

Work with majority leader, convey the party’s position to rank-and-file congresspersons, count votes before they are passed

Question 13

Reconciliation bills

Answer 13

Tweaking a piece pf legislation rather than making something new- must make an argument with a parliamentarian that you are only tweaking the legislation, prevents gridlock

Question 14

Iron triangles (subgovernments)

Answer 14

Informal act of communication between three different votes in attempt to make small changes- mutual, helpful relationships- between house committee chair, interest group leader, and bureau chief- runs around policy when you are administering something small- prevents gridlock/ pluralism

Question 15

Majority leader

Answer 15

The Speaker’s principal partisan ally in the house or the party’s manager in the senate

Question 16

Executive Order

Answer 16

Method president can use to control the bureaucracy

Question 17

Why might Americans be confused when voting for a president of a particular party?

Answer 17

The President is seen as the leader of their party and of the nation itself, they get most public attention of American Government, and this causes confusion for Americans because congress has more power than the president in reality

Question 18

What’s the president’s power related to the military?

Answer 18

The president in in charge of armed forces, control of the military gives him authority relating to foreign policy
Commander in chief- has the constitutional right to wage war

Question 19

Veto power

Answer 19

Package veto- all or nothing, the president can’t change the legislation they must only say yes or no
-Congress must have 2/3 votes in both houses to override veto
-congress will likely try to change bill to get president to sign it
–If a president doesn’t veto after 10 days, it will pass

Question 19

War powers act

Answer 19

Reappropriates control for congress, the president must tell congress in advance of foreign attack, but congress would likely lose if they tried to use it because the president as commander in chief is in the constitution

Question 19

Pocket veto

Answer 19

if a president doesn’t sign a bill after 10 days, it dies and can’t be overridden

Question 19

What could Harris have done differently/ what should she have said she’d do differently?

Answer 19

She could’ve said she’s not going to continue Biden’s presidency, because many undecided voters voted republican simply because they’re not currently happy

Question 20

The federal executive branch

Answer 20

Works for the president, organizes agencies into four basic types: cabinet departments, independent regulatory commissions, government corporations, and independent executive agencies
- White house staff is growing in size

Question 21

Chief of staff

Answer 21

The second most important person in the white house other than the president- she is the access to the president

Question 22

Food safety

Answer 22

There are pesticides in our food and we have high cancer rates

Question 23

Why is American public policy thin compared to what it could be?

Answer 23

Because people will think its useless and expensive and have the power to block it
- Our shortage of policy damages people, people are hurt when they don’t have good emotional, financial support

Question 24

Why might the president get frustrated relating to policy?

Answer 24

He has power and control over foreign policies because he can reach an understanding with another nation without permission from congress, but gets frustrated because he can’t change the American policies he advocates for because of gridlock. So the president had more power with foreign policy than domestic policy.

Question 25

Poverty

Answer 25

We have extremely unequal distribution in income and unaffordable housing- we could increase min wage to combat inflation

Question 26

How is our healthcare system unfair?

Answer 26

It’s unfair to those of the lower class, higher class receives the best healthcare, which is why we have low health rates (high death rates) compared to other countries even though we have the highest quality healthcare

Question 27

Social security

Answer 27

Assistance to people with inadequate income (retired to people with disabilities)- the largest cause of national debt, especially as the older population is growing and not as many people are the working age

Question 28

Fair education

Answer 28

Schools are still segregated by race even though it’s not legal- schools in poorer communities such as Hartford have less White students than more privileged communities

Question 29

Global heating

Answer 29

The heating of the Earth, a life or death matter, will impact our lives the most dramatically but politicians often divert the publics attention to smaller issues

Question 30

Crime

Answer 30

We have the highest rate of people in prison

Question 31

Gun safety

Answer 31

We have so many guns and they aren’t secured as well as they should be, mass shootings and accidents happen way too often- intersection of American qualities and the guns- poverty, abuse, damage + guns= bad marriage

Question 32

What’s the current U.S. standing with Ukraine?

Answer 32

-Biden is currently helping Ukraine by sending weapons (advanced missiles), but they are losing a lot of territory to Russia
-Trump wants a peace settlement- he promised to get Russia and Ukraine to make an agreement
- Western Europe is nervous about this war so they will help Ukraine if the U.S. doesn’t, and Ukraine would be safer if they could join NATO because then Europe and the U.S. would have their back- Putin wouldn’t let Ukraine join NATO for tiny pieces of land but Ukraine needs NATO for security

Question 33

What’s the current U.S. standing with Taiwan?

Answer 33

The U.S. supports Taiwan against China

Question 34

Israel

Answer 34

America is concerned with the balance of power among the nations, we don’t necessarily fight for Gaza/ Palestinians
-Trump wants a peace settlement, in peace Israel is fighting each other, in war they’re fighting other countries
- Iran wants time to become stronger with nuclear weapons

Question 35

What’s Trump’s opinion on how we should act towards these wars?

Answer 35

he believes in empowering America only and not other countries and wants peace settlements, but it may make us weaker if it seems like we don’t care

Question 36

What are the “two presidencies”?

Answer 36

foreign policy and domestic policy, the president has more power with foreign policy

Question 37

What is a negative power of the president and of the senate?

Answer 37

Veto, filibuster

Question 38

The federal bureaucracy

Answer 38

the sum total of all executive agencies and personnel, implements laws and policies made by elected officials
- President is in charge of the federal bureaucracy, but is it difficult for them to control the bureaucracy because of gridlock

Question 39

Describe the structure of the federal courts

Answer 39

U.S. district courts (trial courts) > U.S. Court of Appeals (Intermediate Appellate courts) > U.S. Supreme Court(Highest court of appeal)

Question 40

What are the two chambers of congress?

Answer 40

The house of representatives and the senate

Question 41

What is the supreme court?

Answer 41

-Highest court of appeal
- 9 justices
- It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal jurisdictions and justices interpret the constitution and the federal law to make decisions

Question 42

What’s the process for appointing a supreme court justice ?

Answer 42

The president nominates a supreme court justice and the senate votes to confirm or reject the nominee

Question 43

What’s the difference between appellate courts and trail courts?

Answer 43

A trial court hears a new case and makes a decision based on the facts of the case, and appellate courts ensure the procedures of the trial court on a case was done fairly and the law was applied correctly. Appellate courts do not hear new evidence for a case.

Question 44

The speaker of the house

Answer 44

• Presides over the House when it is in session
• Plays a major role in making committee assignments, which are coveted by all members to ensure their reelection
  -Appoints or plays a key role in appointing the party’s legislative leaders and the party leadership staff
  -Exercises substantial control over assigning bills to committees
  -responsible for ensuring that the House passes legislation supported by the majority party
  -second in line to become president after the vice president

Question 45

Judicial review

Answer 45

Power of the courts to interpret the constitution and determine if laws and regulations violate it- Marbury vs. Madison decided the country would function with judicial review

Question 46

precedent

Answer 46

A court decision that can decide future cases with similar facts and laws, such as Roe. v. Wade

Question 47

In any given year, what’s the most important piece of legislation passed by congress?

Answer 47

The federal budget, what the government spends

Question 48

Interest groups

Answer 48

A group of people that seeks to influence public policy on the basis of a particular common interest or concern

Question 49

Which party won the house and senate and roughly by how much?

Answer 49

• Republicans won the house very closely, 220 to 215
• Republicans also won the senate closely, 53 to 47

Question 50

What were the results of the presidential election?

Answer 50

Trump did not get a majority of the popular vote (under 50%), but he got more than in past election and won by far with the electoral college