Policy Making on Health Care, the Environment, Energy, Economic, and National Security

Question 1

health maintenance organization (HMO)

Answer 1

organization contracted by individuals or insurance companies to provide health care for a yearly fee

Question 2

uninsured Americans

Answer 2

American citizens that do not have any form of health insurance

Question 3

Medicare

Answer 3

a program added to Social Security in 1965 that provides Hospitalization insurance for the elderly and permits older Americans to purchase inexpensive coverage for doctor fees and other medical expenses

Question 4

Medicaid

Answer 4

a public assistance program designed to provide heath care for poor Americans and funded by the states and national government

Question 5

national health insurance

Answer 5

a compulsory insurance program for all Americans that would have the government finance the citizen’s medical care (first proposed by President Harry S. Truman)

Question 6

Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

Answer 6

a program administered by the US Department of Health and Human Services that provides matching funds to states for health insurance to families with children

Question 7

Health Security Act (failed Clinton plan)

Answer 7

(1993) a failed healthcare reform package proposed by President Clinton

Question 8

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, ACA or ObamaCare)

Answer 8

a US federal statute signed into law by President Obama that entails that all Americans will have health insurance

Question 9

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Answer 9

the largest federal independent agency created in the 1970 to administer much of the US Environmental protection policy

Question 10

National Environmental Policy Act

Answer 10

1969, the centerpiece of federal environmental policy. which requires agencies to file environmental impact statements

Question 11

environmental impact statements

Answer 11

a detailing of a proposed policy’s environmental effect

Question 12

Clean Air Act of 1970

Answer 12

a law aimed at combating air pollution

Question 13

Water Pollution Control Act of 1972

Answer 13

a law intended to clean up the nation’s rivers and lakes by enabling regulation on pollution

Question 14

Endangered Species Act of 1973

Answer 14

a law requiring the federal government to protect all species listed as endangered

Question 15

Resource Conservation and recovery Act Superfund

Answer 15

a fund created by Congress (1980) to clean up hazardous waste sites (money comes from taxing chemical products)

Question 16

global warming

Answer 16

the increase in the Earth’s temperature (most scientists think the cause is the excess carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels)

Question 17

fossil fuels

Answer 17

the remnants of ancients plants and animals

Question 18

nuclear energy

Answer 18

energy taken from separating molecules (extremely dangerous but a powerful source)

Question 19

alternative energy

Answer 19

renewable option for getting energy (hydro-electric, wind, etc.)

Question 20

foreign policy

Answer 20

policy that involves choice taking about relations with the rest of the world

Question 21

United Nations

Answer 21

(created in 1945, 193 current member nations) an organization of nations with a central peace keeping mission and programs in areas including economic development and health, education and welfare.

Question 22

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Answer 22

(created in 1949) regional organization comprised of nations including the USA, Canada and most Western European nations for mutual defense and has subsequently expanded

Question 23

European Union

Answer 23

a transnational government comprised of most European nations that coordinates monetary, trade, immigration and labor policies making its members one economic unit

Question 24

Secretary of State

Answer 24

the head of the Department of State (traditionally a key adviser to the president on foreign policy)

Question 25

Secretary of defense

Answer 25

the head of the department of Defense (military adviser and key foreign policy actor)

Question 26

National Security Council (NSC)

Answer 26

the president’s advisers in considering national security and foreign policy matters along with his senior advisers i national security with the cabinet officials

Question 27

Joint Chiefs of Staff

Answer 27

a group that consists of the commanding officers of each of the armed services, a chairperson and a vice chairperson (advises the president on military policy)

Question 28

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Answer 28

(created after WWII) an agency that coordinates American intelligence activities abroad and to collect, analyze and evaluate intelligence

Question 29

isolationism

Answer 29

the foreign policy course the US followed throughout most of history whereby it tried to stay out of other nation’s conflicts, particularly European wars

Question 30

containment octorine

Answer 30

a foreign policy strategy advocated by George Kennan that called for the US to isolate the Soviet Union, “contain” its advancements, and resist its encroachments by peaceful means if possible but by force if necessary

Question 31

Cold War

Answer 31

the hostility between the US and the Soviet Union, which often brought them to the brink of war (spanned from the end of WWII to the collapse of the Soviet Union and other Eastern European communist regimes in 1989)

Question 32

arms race

Answer 32

a tense relationship beginning in the 1950’s between the US and the Soviet Union where each side tried to one-up each other in weaponry

Question 33

detente

Answer 33

a policy beginning in the 1970’s where the US and the Soviet Union sought a relaxation of tension coupled with firm guarantees of mutual security

Question 34

interdependency

Answer 34

mutual reliance typically on the economic standpoint between nations

Question 35

tariff

Answer 35

a special tax on imported goods to raise their price, thereby protecting businesses and workers from foreign competition

Question 36

balance of trade

Answer 36

the ratio of what is paid for imports to what is earned from exports

Question 37

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Answer 37

an economic organization consisting of mostly Middle Eastern nations that seeks to control the amount of oil its members produce and sell to other nations and hence the price of oil

Question 38

foreign aid

Answer 38

help from another country (may be for supplies or aid in governing or economically, etc.)