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Government > Unit 6 > Flashcards

Unit 6 Flashcards

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1
Q

President and VP Requirements

A
  • 35 years old
  • Natural born citizen
  • Resident of the US for at least 14 years before taking office
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2
Q

President Characteristics and Helps if

A

Helps if:
* experience in government and moderate political beliefs
* A Senator or state governor
* Male and Christian, white, married and financially successful.

Characteristics:
* Leadership skills
* Must know and understand the American people
* Ability to communicate
* Sense of timing
* Ability to compromise
* Political Courage

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3
Q

Financial campaign backing

A

Federal Elections Commission (FEC):
* The FEC tracks campaign spending based on reports required by candidates. This is public info

Public Funding:
* Public funding is available for presidential candidates. If they accept public funding, they must limit how much they spend to a specific dollar amount.

Forgoing Public Money:
* Barack Obama was the first major presidential candidate to forgo public financing (2008)
* 2012-2020 Elections- No candidates have accepted public funds

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4
Q

Presidential Salary, the VP, and the Succession

A
  • George Washington - 2 Term Precedent - until FDR
    * 22nd Amendment (1951) 2 Terms Limit or up to 10 years
  • The president currently earns $400,000 a year
    * Also gets a nontaxable travel allowance of up to $100,000 per year and a $50,000 expense account
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5
Q

President Benefits in Office

A
  • Air Force One
  • Free medical, dental, and healthcare
    Domestic Staff in White House does all the cooking, shopping, and cleaning
  • Gov’t pays to operate the White House and hold official events
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6
Q

President Benefits Out of Office

A
  • Lifetime pension (currently $199,700 a year)
  • Free office space
  • Free mailing services
  • Lifetime secret service for them and their children
  • Up to $96,000 per year for office help
  • When they die their spouses are eligible for a pension of $20,000 per year
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7
Q

Three Constitutional Jobs for Vice Presidents:

A

Executive:
Takes over the presidency in case of presidential death, impeachment, or resignation.

Legislative:
The Vice President presides over the Senate and votes in case of a tie. Most VPs spend very little time in this part of the job

25th Amendment:
Under the 25th amendment, the VP helps decide whether the president is unable to carry out his or her duties and acts as president should that happen.

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8
Q

Selecting a Vice President:

A

Politically:
Someone who will counter their political ideology (further to the center OR to the right or left.

Ex: Trump & Pence OR Clinton and Gore

Geographically:
Someone from another region of the country- particularly a region that tends to support another candidate

Ex: JFK and LBJ

Culturally:
A candidate will try to pick someone from another social or cultural group. (race, age, gender, etc.)

Ex: Obama and Biden OR Biden and Harris

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9
Q

Presidential Succession Act of 1947

A
  • Lays out presidential successions
  • What happens if the President is unable to fulfill duties, disabled, experienced a health crisis
  • VP becomes President under 2 conditions:
    • If President informs Congress of an inability to perform in office
      * If the VP and a majority of the cabinet inform Congress of this condition
  • Also spells out how a President can resume the powers and duties of the office
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10
Q

Order of Succession:

A
  1. Vice President
  2. Speaker of the House
  3. President Pro Tempore of the Senate
  4. Secretary of State
  5. Secretary of the Treasury
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11
Q

Roles of the President

A
  1. Head of State = ceremonial head of government; promotes national spirit & patriotism
  2. Chief Executive = acts like the CEO of a huge corporation, oversees bureaucracy, executive orders and day-to-day operations.
  3. Commander-in-Chief = Head of the US military; responsible for its operations
  4. Chief Diplomat = oversees US foreign policy and negotiates treaties
  5. Legislative Leader = influences legislation, sets policy agenda, gives State of the Union Address
  6. Economic Planner = works with Congress on the Federal Budget; appoints members to the fed
  7. Party Leader = campaign and fundraise for party, appoints people to federal positions
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12
Q

Presidential (Executive) Cabinets

A

Secretary of State
* Antony J. Blinken
* foreign affairs and anything involving international relations, such as consulates and embassies
* Foreign Service
* Civil Service

U.S. Agency for International Development.
* Dr. Janet Yellen
* the federal government’s revenue, taxation, and accounting
* IRS

US Department of Defense
* Lloyd Austin
* largest department responsible for anything related to national security and the armed forces
* U.S. Air Force.
* U.S. Army.
* U.S. Fleet Forces Command

US Departmenty of Justice
* Merrick Garland
* enforces federal laws and prosecutes those who have committed federal crimes
* The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration)
* FBI

US Department of the Interior
* Deb Haaland
* federal land and domestic territorial affairs
* National Park Service
* US Fish and Wildlife Service

US Department of Commerce
* Gina Raimondo
* oversees anything having to do with commerce
* National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
* The National Weather Service

US Department of Labor
* Marty Walsh
* Labor policies and practices
* Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Occupational Safety
* Health Administration (OSHA)

US Department of Health & Human services
* Xavier Becerra
* Anything having to do with public health and family services
* Center for Disease Control (CDC)
* The Federal Drug Administration (FDA)
* The National Institutes of Health (NIH)

US Department of Housing and Urban Development
* Marcia Fudge
* anything related to housing and mortgage policy
* The Federal Housing Administration

US Department of Transportation
* Pete Buttigieg
* federal transportation systems, including federal interstates
* Involved in creating, maintaining, and ensuring the safety of all transportation systems
* Federal Aviation Administration
* The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

US Department of Energy
* Jennifer Granholm
* federal energy programs, particularly those involving nuclear power
* Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
* Public Affairs.
* Energy Information Administration.

US Separtment of Education
* Dr. Miguel Cardona
* federal policy regarding public education and federal loans and grants for schools
* Office for Civil Rights, Department of Education.
* Office of Postsecondary Education.

US Department of Veterans Affairs
* Denis McDonough
* anything having to do with veterans
* National Cemetery Administration.
* Veterans Benefits Administration.

US Department of Agriculture
* Tom Vilsack
* farming, food, and rural economic development
* Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)
* Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
* Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)

US Department of Homeland Security
* Alejandro Mayorkas
* terrorism, immigration, cybersecurity, and disaster prevention
* Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
* Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

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13
Q

State of the Union Address

A
  • rare opportunity for all Americans to see the complete federal government in one place
  • Representatives from all three branches gather in the House chamber to listen to the address
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14
Q

State of the Union Method, Content, and Presentation

A

Method:
* No mention of method in Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution’
* George Washington made a speech, Thomas Jefferson wrote a written letter
* Woodrew Wilson brought back the speech tradition

Content:
* Varied greatly, general to specific, foreign to domestic
* lay out a vision for the nation in the coming year
* Roosevelt - Four Freedoms
* LBJ - Great Society

Presentation
* Has changed
* Coolidge - first radio
* Truman - first TV
* Reagan - invited guests; set a tradition
* GWB - first webcast

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15
Q

Federal Agencies

A
  1. Cabinet departments (Lesson #3)
  2. Government Corporations
  3. Independent Agencies
  4. Regulatory Agencies
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16
Q

Government Corporations, why, example

A

Government Corporations = Agencies formed by the federal government to administer a quasi-business enterprise

Why do we have Government Corporations?
* The services they provide are partly subject to market forces and tend to generate enough profit to be self-sustaining, but they also fulfill a vital service the government has an interest in maintaining.

Example:
* U.S. Postal Service
* The most widely used government corporation is the U.S. Postal Service.
* Once a cabinet department, it was transformed into a government corporation in the early 1970s

17
Q

Independent Agencies

A
  • Unlike the larger cabinet departments, independent agencies are assigned far more focused tasks.
  • These agencies are independent because they are not subject to the regulatory authority of any specific department.

Examples:
CIA
* collects and manages intelligence vital to national interests

NASA
* develops technological innovation for the purposes of space exploration

EPA
* enforces laws aimed at protecting environmental sustainability

18
Q

Regulatory Agencies:

A
  • A subset of the independent agency category
  • emerged as a result of the progressive push to control the benefits and costs of industrialization
  • These independent regulatory agencies are not as easily influenced as by partisan politics as other agencies and can therefore develop a good deal of power and authority

Examples:
Interstate Commerce Commission (1887)
* The first regulatory agency
* Tasked with regulating the railroad

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (1974)
* regulates U.S. financial markets and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which regulates radio and television

Security and Exchange Commission (1934)
* Created after the Stock Market Crash of 1929
* Supervises the corporate sector, the capital market participants, the securities and investment instruments market, and the protection of the investing public
* SEC’s mission has expanded significantly in the digital era beyond mere regulation of stock floor trading

19
Q

Executive Orders

A

An official directive from the U.S. president to federal agencies that often have much the same power of a law.
* They can be disputed in the courts.
* Do not carry the same finality as law

20
Q

Implied Power

A
  • The U.S. Constitution does not directly define or give the president authority to issue presidential actions, including executive orders
  • Instead, this implied and accepted power derives from Article II of the Constitution
  • The president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
21
Q

Executive Orders Function

A
  • The president instructs the government how to work within the parameters already set by Congress and the Constitution
  • In effect, this allows the president to push through policy changes without going through Congress
22
Q

Lever of Executive Branch & Checks and Balances on Executive Orders

A
  • By issuing an executive order, the President does not create a new law or appropriate any funds from the U.S. Treasury
  • Only Congres has the power to do these things

Checks and Balances:
* A lower federal court can nullify (cancel) an executive order that is found to be unconstitutional

Example: President Trump’s Muslim travel ban

23
Q

Executive Orders from President Truman & they have limits

A
  • Directed Secretary of Commerce to take control of the country’s steel mills during the Korean War
  • to prevent a steelworkers’ strike from shutting the down the mills and impacting the nation’s supply of steel (and ammunition)

Result:
* In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer later that year, the Supreme Court ruled that Truman’s order violated the due process clause of the Constitution and that the president had not been given statutory authority

24
Q

Judicial Powers of the President

A
  • Reprieve - Delays a punishment
  • Pardon - Release from a punishment and restoring one’s civil rights
  • Commutation - Decreasing or reducing a judicial sentence
  • Amnesty - A blanket pardon to a group of people facing prosecution
25
Q

Pardon & how it can be exercised

A
  • an expression of the President’s forgiveness for a crime (any federal criminal offenses, except impeachment)
  • usually granted in recognition of the applicant’s acceptance of responsibility for the crime and established good conduct for a significant period of time
  • There are no restrictions on the pardoning power!
  • It can be exercised:
    1. Before or after an indictment (a formal charge or accusation of a serious crime)
    2. During or after a trial
    3. During incarceration
    4. After a punishment has run its course
26
Q

How to Receive a Presidential Pardon:

A
  1. Five-year waiting period before one is eligible to apply for a pardon
    a. Submit a petition to the Office of the Pardon Attorney
    Statement of the specific purpose for which you are seeking pardon and, if applicable, attach any relevant documentary evidence that indicates how a pardon will help accomplish that purpose
    b. Character references
  2. Office of the Pardon Attorney conducts an investigation
  3. OPA gives a recommendation to the president
  4. The president decides to grant or deny the pardon
27
Q

Office of the Pardon Attorney:

A
  • Presidents have relied on the recommendation of the Office of the Pardon Attorney (in the Department of Justice) before making decisions:
    - The office reviews each pardon application
    - Then they submit its recommendations to the White House for action
  • The review typically includes contact with:
    - The judge who presided over the defendant’s trial
    - Prosecuting attorneys
28
Q

Presidential Bypass

A
  • Presidents, however, can bypass the Office of the Pardon Attorney (the PA is just an advisor, not a decision-maker)
  • Some presidents have made pardons after conferring with other executive branch officials, presidential advisers, White House staff, and even members of their extended family
    - President Bill Clinton pardoned 140 people on the last day of his term
    - President Trump
29
Q

Can presidents Pardon themselves?

A

Yes:
* Some legal scholars note that because the Constitution is so vague, it means that a president has the right to do so

No:
* Others believe a self-pardon would be illegal because the Constitution prohibits a person from serving as one’s own judge
* Additionally, a chief executive cannot obstruct or impede a federal criminal investigation

Government (8 decks)

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