federalism under recent presidents - zig zag federalism

Question 1

president bush - intention v reality
entered his presidency in 2001 with a promise to shrink federal gov spending and give more power back to the states , in reality

Answer 1

he presided over a high expanison in the size of the fed gov and the amount of its spending , fed gov spending grew by 33% in bushs first term and continued to be very high in his second term
this wad due to events ie increase in national defence in response to 9/11 and in economic spending in response to 2008 financial crash and policies ; education and medicare

Question 2

president bush - in response to events
bushs administration examonded federal spaning on national security hugely in response to 9/11 , with bush pursuing the ‘ war on terror , including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. in turn defence spending increased from$290 million in 2001 to $651 million in 2009 ; an increase of 125% , homeland security spending increased from $13million in 2001 to $69 million in 2006 ; more than a 5x increase . following the 2008 financial crash bush also

Answer 2

increased the size of the federal government and its spending by taking control of two private companies and sponsoring a $700 million bailout package for wall street banks which he had to rely on democrat votes to pass through congress
while this did represent a huge increase in federal spending , it didn’t encroach on the state’s as the spending was in areas already controlled by the federal government

Question 3

president bush - key policies

Answer 3

education reform ‘ no child left behind ‘ key to his election campaign , introduced in 2002 made major changes to education policies , with the fed governments role increasing significantly
bush mandated that states test children annually with a uniform national test and provided a 20% increase in funding for the poorest schools
2003 bush signed a law which significantly expanded medicare including a new prescription drug benefit , cost $400 billion in first 10 years , significant expansion of fed gov and was hence opposed by republicans , with 25 republicans opposing in the house and 9 in the senate

Question 4

president obama
intention to deliver change in domestic policy resulted in the fed gov playing an increased role in areas of policy traditionally reserved for the states

Answer 4

fed gov assistance to states increased from 3.7% of GDP in 2008 to 4.6% of GDP in 2008 with $246B of obamas economic stimulus package in 2009 going to to through states compared to just $20b of bushs in 2008
sending went inti healthcare , education and expansion of medicare.
expansion of medicare to more Americans required states to join it to lose federal funding for their existing medicaid provision , struck down as unconstitutional in 2012

Question 5

president trump
in some areas he sought to encroach on federal powers whilst in others he sought to grant more powers back to the states , rather than there being any concerted attempt to change federalism , this was largely dependent on which helped deliver his policies

Answer 5

in response to the BLM protests , trump deployed federal troops to tackle the protests whilst serval says opposed it and policy being an area traditionally controlled by the states
trump rolled back a lot ob Obama-era environmental policies with the intention of reducing the effectiveness of environmental legislation and handing power back to the states
under trump federal spending and the size of the federal deficit continued to increase , this was in large part due to the response to covid-19 including the 2020 CARES ACT , a $2.2TRIL economic stimulus to covid 19
- he did largely leave dealing with covid 19 to the states with democrat states pursuing lockdowns and mask mandates and republican states being far more lax

Question 6

president biden
character of federalism under president Biden isn’t clear yet however there are a couple of things worth noting

Answer 6

significant parts of the inflation reduction act requires federal-state co operations to implement such as federal grants ti address air pollution and improve the energy efficiency of homes
tensions between the fed gov and republican states remain high , with several republican states seeking to thwart Bidens gun control proposals by passing laws banning the enforcement of federal fire arms statutes
biden has also been highly critical of states that have restricted access to abortion since the overturning roevwade