The USA

Question 1

What are the branches that make up the US govt?

Answer 1

• The president and the Executive branch
• Congress (Legislative branch)
• Judicial branch

Question 2

What is the job of the President and the Executive branch?

Answer 2

The president runs the executive branch of the government. Their job is to carry out the laws and to run the country.

Question 3

What is the job of the Congress (Legislative branch)?

Answer 3

The US Congress is the equivalent of the UK Parliament. Congress writes the laws that the executive branch carries out.

Question 4

What is the job of the Judicial branch?

Answer 4

The Judicial branch is designed to make sure that the laws that congress writs and the actions that the president takes are in line with the original aims of the founders.

Question 5

Why are supreme court judges appointed for life?

Answer 5

Supreme court judges are appointed for life to try and stop them being influenced by having to run for election or the threat of being fired.

Question 6

The Executive branch

Answer 6

• The president and vice president are elected for every 4 years
• A person may only be president for 2 terms total (8 years)

Question 7

The Legislative branch

Answer 7

• Contains the people who make the vast majority of laws
• Senate and the House of Representatives, Senators and congressmen and women. collectively known as Congress
• Represent US citizens and take forward ideas of the public in the form of bills which may go onto become law

Question 8

The Judicial branch

Answer 8

• Once the legislative branch and the judicial branch have both passed the bill then it goes to the judicial branch (Supreme court)
• They make sure that the bill is constitutional and is to be followed
• The Supreme court is the highest court in the judicial branch and consists of a judge (Supreme court Justices) who are appointed by appointed by a president when a previous judge dies or retires.

Question 9

State Government

Answer 9

• Each of the 50 states has its own govt
• The person that runs the state is called a Governor
  -Police departments, libraries and schools etc usually fall under the oversight of the state and federal govts

Question 10

Powers of the state governments

Answer 10

• Ownership of property
• Operating of social welfare systems

Question 11

Senators and Representatives?

Answer 11

• 100 senators, senators serve 6 years and approximately 1/3 are elected every 2 years
• 435 representatives, Congressmen and women serve 2 year terms. They are elected both at the same time as the president and during “mid terms”

Question 12

Separation of powers/checks and balances

Answer 12

• Americans believe it is dangerous to have the powers of all three branches held by one person
• This is why each branch is kept separate as set out in the constitution
• For a bill to become law it has to pass both the houses of congress and be signed by the president
• Even then the Supreme court may see it as unconstitutional

Question 13

Whats the situation with Healthcare in the US?

Answer 13

• Not free, have to pay for private healthcare schemes
• Extremely costly
• Blacks and Hispanics are 3x more likely to have no medical insurance cover

Question 14

Why are minorities less likely to have medical insurance cover?

Answer 14

Minority families tend to be less well off financially and therefore cannot afford the medical insurance cover

Question 15

Health problems facing Blacks and Hispanics

Answer 15

• African American women are more likely to do in child birth than other groups
• Drug and gang related problems mean that Blacks and Hispanics are my likely to die due to guns and drugs
• Linked to drug abuse is the incidence of AIDS which is on the increase
• Obesity: 30% of Blacks and 25% of Hispanics are obese
• Higher infant mortality rate

Question 16

What govt healthcare schemes are in place?

Answer 16

Medicaid
- healthcare for low income adults
- more than 58 million people rely on it
- children receive health coverage

Medicare
- Health cover for: 65 and over and people under 65 with certain disabilities
- in 2010, around 48 million relied on Medicare

Question 17

What does Obamacare do?

Answer 17

• Young adults will be covered by their family’s insurance plan until they turn 26
• More help for people who cant afford insurance
• Insurance companies cannot deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions

Question 18

What inequalities are there in education?

Answer 18

• schools in higher income areas are generally better and get more funding whereas schools in lower income areas are worse and receive less funding
• this affects minorities due to the fact that most of the people in the USA live in lower income areas
• Teachers in the US are paid based off of their number of years as a teacher, experience, qualifications and extra curricular activities. this means the best qualified teachers are paid more and therefore the less funded schools cannot afford the better teachers

Question 19

Discrimination in the US Justice System

Answer 19

Most obvious in: Arrest, Being tried in court, Length in prison sentence and the use of the death penalty
NYPD has conducted millions of stop and frisks over the last 20 years, most of those stopped were people of colour and a vastly disproportionate number were blacks and in less well off neighbourhoods

Question 20

How does the USA have an influence on other countries?