The Powers of the Presidency Flashcards
What are the 10 powers of the President?
1) Propose legislaiton to congress
2) Submit budget to congress
3) Sign bills passed by congress
4) Veto bills passed by congress
5) Appoint Federal and SC court judges
6) Appoint executive members
7) Negotiate international treaties
8) Pardon felons
9) Chief Executive
10) Commander in chief
How do you remember the 10 powers of the President?
4 congres 2 nominate 2 chief 1 negotiate 1 pardon
What is the most obvious way that a President can fulfil the function of proposing legislation to congress?
State of the union address
What must the president find for proposing legislation to congress?
A sponser
What three things qualifies the state of the union address?
1) joint session
2) every January
3) enumartes legislative agenda for the upcoming year
Outside of the state of the union address, how can the President propose legislation?
Calling a press conference or making an announcement at a public event
Give three examples of Presidential initiative under Obama
healthcare reform
wall street regulation reform
credit card regulation reform
How does the annual budget get submitted?
Drawn up by the Office of Management and Budget, part of EXOP, then submitted by the President to Congress
What follows the annual budget submission?
a lengthy bargaining process, especially if the President and Congress are controlled by different parties
What happens if the bargaining process following the budget fails?
Government shutdown, as it did in October 2013
When would the president want to sign legislation?
when he wants to take personal credit for it
The use of the veto is usually a sign of what?
The failure of presidential negotiation
From 1789-2009 fewer than how many vetoes were used?
1500
From 1789-2009 just over how many vetoes were overridden by congress ?
100
What is the overall success rate for vetoes?
93%
What was the third lowest veto success rate for a President ever?
Bush Jnr 64%
Do you veto the whole bill or bits of it?
Whole bill
Where do you return the bill to if you veto it?
The house that first considered it
What needs to be included with a veto?
A veto message, explaining his objections to it
What are the two options for congress when faced with a veto?
Do nothing or attempt to override it
Like the veto itself, what is special about the threat of the veto being overridden?
the threat of it is just as valuable
What will Presidents often not do with vetoes and why?
Veto bills that they know will get overridden as being overridden can seem damaging to a presidency
How many vetoes did Obama use in his first term and how many were overridden by congress?
he used 2 regular vetoes, neither of which was overridden by congress
Which of Bush’s vetoes passed and which one was overridden?
Sustained his veto on Children’s Health Insurance but the veto was overridden with the Food Conservation/Energy Bill
Describe the Pocket veto?
When congress has adjourned, and the President does not sign the bill it is lost. As congress is no longer in session, it cannot be overridden
In Bush’s 8 years, how many times did he use the Pocket veto?
One
The Power of Chief executive is better thought of as what?
chief of the executive
How is the President Chief executive?
He is in charge of running the executive branch of government
Though the President is Chief Executive, where is most of this power delegated to on a day-to-day basis?
Heads of government departments and agencies
Though the President can use his power to nominate executive branch officials to nominate hundreds, what are the most ones?
The 15 heads of department
Who confirms the appointment of the executive heads?
Senate
Not only does the President nominate the SC but also…
Hundreds of posts on federal trial and appeal posts
Why is the presidential appointment of the judiciary a way to leave a legacy?
As all appointments are for life
Who did Obama appoint to the Supreme Court in 2010?
Elena Kagan
When was the power of Commander in chief used most?
In the imperial presidency of 1940 onwards of WW2, Vietnamese war, Korean war and gulf war as well as Bush’s Afghanistan and Iraq
Thought the President can negotiate treaties, what is the check on this?
The senate must ratify with a ⅔ majority
What treaty did Obama negotiate with the Russians?
START Strategic Arms Reduction treaty
When was START ratified?
December 2010
When did the Senate reject Clinton’s Comprehensive test Ban Treaty
1999
How can executive agreements be thought of?
Treaty - lite
What are executive agreements?
Agreements on trade or military co-opertion that are not legally binding so do not have to be ratified by the Senate, just reported to congress
In what kind of cases is the Power to pardon felons mostly used?
Uncontroversial ones
what is the controversial Ford pardoning case?
1974 pardoned Nixon
How did Clinton cause controversy with his pardons?
He pardoned 140 on his last day in office in January 2001
How did Bush use the presidential pardon more sparingly than did Clinton?
he used it just 189 times in 8 years but Clinton used 140 times on his last day
How many did Obama pardon in his first term?
22
