Unit 2 Balance of Power Flashcards
Describe how the distribution of powers among three federal branches and between national and state governments impacts policy making.
Policy making takes a lot of coordination between the different branches. The most important thing is that it stops corruption from spreading and checks each other’s behaviors.
Why did the Obama administration agree to compromise on the Affordable Care Act?
Republicans in Congress refused to agree to a public option for health insurance.
How did state governments express their disapproval of the Affordable Care Act?
They sued the federal government over the individual mandate
Describe how the Constitution allocates power between the national and state governments
Federalist system. In this system, the central government and state governments would share power. The goal was to create a balance of power between national and state governments. This was seen as another check on government power and a safeguard of individual liberty
Reserved Concurrent Powers for the States
-Conduct Elections
-Establish local governments and schools
-Regulate marriage, divorce, and adoption
-Provide police and fire protection
-Enact license requirements
Concurrent Powers for both Government and Political States
-Levy taxes
-Establish courts
-Borrow money
-Build roads
-Protect citizens
Delegated Concurrent Powers to the Federal Government
-Coin money
-Set up postal system
-Maintain military and declare war
-Regulate commerce
-Regulate immigration
-Negotiate treaties
Which Constitutional amendment protects the balance of power between the federal and state governments?
The 10th Amendment “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Constitution Article 1
Legislative power “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
Constitution Article 2
Executive Power “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows”
Constitution Article 3
Judicial Power “shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts…”
Lobbying
Points of contact; president, executive officials, members of Congress, federal court system
Impeachment
Article II Section 4 of the constitution. The House of Representative brings the charges and Senate convicts with 2/3 vote
Presidential Impeachments
1868 Andrew Johnson by the House
1998 Bill Clinton by the House
1974Richard Nixon was on the verge but resigned
Congressional Budget Act of 1974
Created budget process and regulates his the budget process and ensures that both the Executive and Legislative Branches have a role in the creation of a federal budget
Budget Process
President submits budget proposal to Congress. Next, it is sent to the budget committee in the House of Representatives and a budget committee in the Senate. Each of these committees sends budget resolutions to its respective chambers. Once Congress votes to spend the money in a certain way, it is released to the Executive Branch to be spent.
Appropriations Process
Thus this process of passing spending bills
Government Shut Downs
If there is ever a situation in which the president and the Congress cannot agree on the budget by certain pre-set deadlines, the federal government essentially shuts down until a compromise is reached.
2010 The Affordable Care Act/Patient Protection Act
Barack Obama reforms by providing general goals and allowing Congress to figure out details. Goal was public healthcare. Settled for state run care.
Problems with Obama’s healthcare
2011 twenty-six states filed a lawsuit against the federal government claiming that the new healthcare law was unconstitutional. In June 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the federal government.
Federalist System
Central government and state governments would share power.
Federalist NO. 28 by Hamilton
“If [the people’s] rights are invaded by either, they can make use of the other as the instrument of redress.”
Exclusive Powers (only federal government)
Make treaties with foreign nations, coin money, print currency, tax imports or exports, maintain a military, or regulate international trade.
Reserved Powers (States)
Hold police power, the power to provide public services, and the power to create and regulate local governments. Law enforcement, providing fire protection, enacting licensing requirements for professions from lawyers to teachers to plumbers, regulating marriage, divorce, and adoption, establishing school systems, regulating commerce within state boundaries, and conducting elections
Tenth Amendment
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
Concurrent (federal)
Levy taxes, establish courts, borrow money, build roads, protect citizens
Expanding Federal Power
John Marshall did a lot to expand the powers of the federal government between 1801 and 1835
Fourteenth Amendment
Prohibits states from making laws that “abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States,” or from “depriv[ing] any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” or from denying anyone in the state “equal protection of the laws.”
20th century cooperative federalism
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s
Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” program of the 1960s
Grant-in-aid
The federal government developed programs that involved giving money to state governments to be used in specific ways.
Devolution
transfer of power to lower-level or more local authorities
Devolution Period
The 1980s and early 1990s Ronald Reagan began pushing Congress to convert multiple categorical grants into large, consolidated block grants
1994 and 1996 with the welfare reform movement
Block Grants
States were receiving less federal money, but they also received fewer restrictions on how they could spend that money
The Welfare Reform Act of 1996
pushed this responsibility back to the states by ending federal support for welfare services aside from a few federal block grants.
Categorical grants
funds given by the federal government to state and local governments for specific purposes
