US presidency Flashcards
What article of the US constitution outlined the powers of the presidency
The constitution outlines the requirements that must be met before someone can become a president. Article 2 of the constitution - ‘Powers of the President’ states that the presidents power as being commander in chief, the ability to make pardons and reprieves, make treaties, appoint ambassadors, judges and officials and make recess appointments. However, the article also outlines the restrictions made on the executive through the separation of powers as the legislature congress can place restrictions and similarly the judiciary with the supreme court.
What did the founding fathers essentially desire in relation to the constitution’s framework?
Founding fathers had largely feared tyranny from a strong executive branch or monarchical absolutism as experienced by the British. Hence, when writing the constitution and article 2 they make both restrictions on becoming president and limits to the presidential powers through threats such as impeachment. Thomas Jefferson largely hoped the article would ‘bind the president down from mischief by the chains of the constitution’.
Explain Article 2 of the presidency and the constitution in more depth in relation to the sections.
Section 1 - Nature of the Presidency
- outlines the executive power vested in the president, four year terms explanation of presidential elections with electoral college, and the requirement for the president to be at least 35 years old born in America and a resident of America for 14 years. (Obama faced controversy over his birth certificate/ citizenship when running and as a president)
Section 2 - Powers of the President
- outlines that the president is commander-in-chief, he requires the opinion of heads of departments, pardons and reprieves, appoint ambassadors, recess appointments
Section 3 - Responsibilities of the President
- State of the union address to congress, contravene special sessions of congress, receive ambassadors and faithfully execute law (sign law)
Section 4 - Impeachment
Impeachment for ‘Treason, Bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours
(Trump and Clinton e.g. Monica Lewinsky had many cases were they nearly were impeached)
Why is there debate over article 2’s opening sentence that the power is vested in singularly in a president?
There is debate among political commentators on whether power is truly vested in the president as although the president alone wields and is accountable for the power of the executive and federal bureaucracy. e.g. 2018 executive branch of government contained 2 million civilian employees and 1.5 million uniformed military employees. It is largely argued that the presidency today is bigger than one person through his administration and whether the president’s power is rather to persuade as he faces restrictions for these powers
According to the constitution what two types of power that the president possess?
The president has two types of power which are expressed/enumerated and implied powers which are explicitly listed and written such as the president has the power to be commander in chief and use other powers which are implied in the constitution or seen as a necessary in a certain situation.
state types of enumerated power
ENUMERATED POWERS
- commander in chief
- negotiate treaties
- state of the union address
- appoint ambassadors, judges, officers of the US
- recess appointments
- pardon
- convene special sessions of congress
- approve or veto legislation
state types of implied powers
IMPLIED POWERS
- establish a cabinet
- executive agreement
- executive orders
- executive privilege
What are the nine powers the constitution gives to the president?
- propose legislation
- sign legislation
- veto legislation
- act as a chief executive
- nominate executive branch officials
- nominate federal judges
- act in commander-in-chief
Explain the president’s power to propose legislation
Presidents can propose legislation at any time by for example calling a press conference or making an announcement at a public event, but most presidents use the annual state of the union address to congress to propose legislation e.g. Obama in 2013 proposed legislation in relation to job creation, immigration reform, increase in federal minimum wage
- This power also includes submission of annual budget, which is essentially another piece of legislation. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which is part of the P’s bureaucracy, which is known as the Executive Office of the President (EXOP) draws up the budget for the president which is submitted to Congress.
Explain the president’s power to sign legislation
Presidents can sign legislation as once bills have been passed through a lengthy and complicated legislative process in Congress - they land on the president’s desk. Elaborated bill-signing ceremonies are often held for the P to claim credit, attended by House and Senate members and lawmakers who had helped shape the bill
Explain the president’s power to veto legislation
The president has the option to veto legislation and send it back to Congress with his objections. The veto is a very blunt political tool and even the threat of a veto is significant presidential power - often enabling him to shape the legislation before it gets to him. However, a president must be wary of using the veto too often as he relies on Congress to get his own legislative agenda through.
Equally, if congress is able to override the veto, it makes the president look weak.
Examples:
Bush had four out of his 12 vetoes overridden but in most cases presidents are still able to prevail as Obama won 11 out of 12 (2009-17).
Trump signed a $1.3 trillion spending bill just hours after he threatened on twitter to veto it - this may undermine the impact of other veto threats that the president makes.
The president also has the power of a pocket veto at his disposal which can only be used at the end of a congressional session and these cannot be overridden by congress.
The use and success of a veto can be partly explained by which party controls each branch of government - they are more commonly used and overridden in times of divided government
Explain the president’s power to act as a chief executive
The president has the power to act as chief executive in the opening 15 words of Article 2 of the constitution which grants the president all the executive power. This makes the president the chief executive as they are in charge of running the executive branch of federal government.
President’s also has the power to delegate power to cabinet and other government department and agency heads.
Presidents also have their own bureaucracy as the EXOP helps them to coordinate the work of federal government.
The most common form of executive action is executive orders: directions to the federal bureaucracy regarding the enforcement of legislation; this allows the president to ‘faithfully execute’ the laws that have been passed by congress and therefore these orders are the force of law. However, executive orders cannot be used to make create new legislation. In trump’s presidential campaign, he railed against executive orders and criticised Obama’s use of them yet he ended his first 100 days, having signed more executive orders than any other president since WW2.
Executive memoranda’s are similar to orders, but there is no formal process for how an executive memoranda is issued by a President. Unlike executive orders, these are not recorded in the Federal Register and are not numbered.
Like executive orders, presidential proclamations are numbered and recorded to people outside of the executive branch. They have been historically significant but today are ceremonial e.g. declaring a national emergency, directing flags to be flown at half-mast and highlighting days of importance
Explain the president’s power to nominate executive branch officials
The president has the power to appoint 4,000 officials to the executive branch of government with an approx. 1,200 of these requiring senate approval/confirmation. The most important of these cabinet positions are the heads of 15 executive departments, such as the Treasury, state and agriculture.
- Lower-level officials such as ambassadors, agency heads and members of regulatory commissions are also appointed. Appointments are made throughout the president’s terms of office.
- The senate must also confirm all these appointments by a simple majority vote.
- The president is also given the power of ‘recess appointments’ which allows the president to make temporary appointments to vacancies which would usually require senate approval but which he cannot get because the senate is in recess - these appointments expire at the end of the next session of the senate and then the president must formally nominate the person he has chosen. This aimed to try and prevent the president from circumventing the senate’s powers by waiting for the senate to go on recess and filing the vacancy that he wanted.
Explain the president’s power to nominate federal judges
Nomination of judges involve the president to make hundreds of appointments including filling vacancies on the federal supreme court but also on the federal trial (district) and appeal (circuit) courts.
All judicial appointments are for life and therefore assume a special importance
They must be confirmed by a simple majority vote in the senate
Explain the president’s power to act as commander-in-chief
As commander-in-chief, the president is constitutionally the head of an army and navy and today, the air force, marines and coast guard. This power was particularly important for president’s in office from the 1940s to the 1980s as presidents were seen as playing a highly significant role as commander-in-chief (ww2, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and the cold war). Then in 1991, George H.W bush in the gulf war. However, the events of 11 September 2001 thrust George W Bush into the role of a wartime president.
In his eight years of office, Obama found himself drawn into foreign crises in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria as well as managing highly sensitive relationships with Israel, Russia and Cuba. The constitution gives congress the power to declare war, but that power has not been used since 1941 - the president now asks congress to authorise his use of troops.
A stark reminder of the President’s commander in chief role is whenever the president travels away from the White House, a specially modified briefcase is carried by a military officer so that the president has immediate access to the nuclear codes should prove necessary
Explain the president’s power to negotiate treaties
The president has the power to negotiate treaties as the president’s seal of office shows an eagle clutching a bundle of arrows in one claw, symbolising the commander-in-chief role and an olive branch in the other to symbolise his peace-making role
Modern day presidents have used this power to negotiate treaties (including executive agreements) such as the strategic arms Reduction Treaty (Reagan), the Chemical weapons Ban (George W.H Bush) and nuclear arms treaty with Russia (Obama)
The presidents power is checked by the senate, which must ratify treaties with a two-third majority (senate)
Explain the president’s power to pardon
The president possesses the power of pardon and reprieve and use it varying degrees of frequency. The right to pardon people is where the president can forgive a person for a federal crime - effectively making it as if a crime had never occurred. The only thing that cannot be pardoned is impeachment.
It is a controversial power, especially when used to benefit close friends and supporters in 1974, Ford pardoned his predecessor, Nixon over all Watergate related matters and Clinton caused a storm in his final day in office 2001, when he pardoned 140 people using fugitive whose former wife had made large monetary donations to Clinton’s elections campaign.
The granting of reprieves today has evolved to mean ‘commutations’. While pardons are usually issued after someone has served their sentence. commutations can be used to free people from a current sentence. They do not change the guilt of a person but do remove or reduce the sentence the person has recieved
Explain the president’s role as the head of state and head of government
The president’s role of head of state and head of government are separate in many countries. In constitutional monarchies, such as the UK, the prime minister is the head of government while the monarch is the head of state. In republics such as France, the president is the head of state and the prime minister is the head of government. In the US however, the president fulfils both of these roles and performs all of these formal constitutional functions, as well as performing the role of head of state. This makes it difficult to separate the powers neatly into these two roles as the constitution does not make a distinction and there is an overlap. Traditionally, heads of state carry out ceremonial roles, having greater oversight over foreign policy and hold the highest ranking position in their state. Heads of government deal with domestic policy, the national budget and preside over the cabinet and executive branch.
Explain the president’s role as head of state
In addition to the power of the pardon and reception of ambassadors, the president carries out other functions as the head of state. He attends world summits and events such as the G7 and the G20 as a representative of the US and to broker deals and treaties on behalf of the US. He also carries out ceremonial duties; this is most clearly seen in times of national tragedy when the president takes on the role of comforter-in-chief, sometimes of mourner-in-chief e.g. Bush in the weeks following the attacks of 9/11 and for obama, the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and after the killing of 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in the same year. Also, less serious ceremonial duties have no constitutional basis, such as the annual pardoning of the turkey or throwing the first ball of the season on the Opening Day of the US baseball season.
Explain the president’s role as head of government
As a head of government, the president heads up the executive branch. He is responsible for the organisation of EXOP and presides over the cabinet and by extension over the federal bureaucracy. He can use executive actions to ensure that US laws are carried out effectively and has the right to sign and veto legislation that he sees fit.
Explain the overlapping powers of president
OVERLAPPING POWERS -
A number of these powers have aspects associated with both head of state and head of government or have an impact on both foreign and domestic policy.
Commander-in-chief - As the representative of the US to the world and with the war not having being declared since 1942, this role allows the president as head of state to involved the use in foreign military action. It has a domestic role too, however, more in keeping with the head of government role, with the president using troops to respond to natural disasters and crises that emerge within US.
Recognising countries - as an extension of the role of receiving ambassadors, this role is more in keeping with the global role of the P and therefore as head of state. However, in recognising which countries the US is willing to work with the president is effectively opens trade opportunities which has a direct impact on the US domestic economy
State of the Union address - As the chief legislator, this opportunity for the president to shape domestic policy helps him to fulfil his role as the head of government. Such speeches in other countries, however, are often given by the Queen’s speech in the Uk
Making treaties - Similar to recognising countries by making treaties the president is acting on the US representative to the world but the treaties made will often have a direct impact on the US domestic economy.
It is therefore difficult to discern an absolute distinction between these two roles for the President. However, the roles he had as head of state or those to do with foreign policy are often subject to fewer checks. Those as head of government or to do with domestic policy often have more checks from other branches of government.
Explain the case example of Obama introducing DACA
Obama made numerous requests to congress to pass immigration reform during his time in office, mentioning it in at least five of his state of union addresses. However, despite bipartisan efforts in the senate no such reform made it through congress. In 2012, Obama used an executive memorandum to introduce DACA, protecting those who met certain conditions from deportation. In 2014, he extended this cover and introduced this cover and introduced additional protections for parents of children born in America but who were not themselves American - the Deferred Actions for Parents (DAPA). Together, these would have protected from deportation nearly 11 million people who lacked proper documentation.
However, these 2014 additions were challenged in the Supreme Court in the case of Texas v United States (2016). The supreme court, lacking a member following the death of Antonin Scalia, divided 4-4 on the case, which effectively overturned Obama’s executive memoranda - ‘the judgement is affirmed by an equally divided Court’. In the event of split ruling, the ruling on the case issued by a lower court is that one that stands. In this case, lower court had ruled against Obama, and so the divided court upheld or ‘affirmed’, that ruling. He described this as ‘heart-breaking for the millions of immigrants who’ve made their lives here’
Explain the case of example of Chelsea Manning
In 2010, while Chelsea Manning was serving in the US military, she leaked classified military intelligence to Wikileaks. Some of the documentation released showed the atrocities of the war in Iraq, and Afghanistan and Manning said she released the documents so that Americans could ‘see what I was seeing’ and understand the realities of the wars. She was arrested and charged with a range of crimes including ‘aiding the enemy’ which carried a maximum penalty of death. In 2013, she was acquitted of this crime but she was found guilty of the 21 remaining charges either fully or partially and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Just days before he left office, Obama commuted the sentence for Manning saying that he was ‘very comfortable that justice had been served’
state the informal sources of presidential power
- the cabinet
- powers of persuasion
- vice president
- EXOP
- the office of management and budget (OMB)
- The national security council (NSC)
- The white house of office (WHO)
Explain constitutionally what is the president’s cabinet?
Constitutionally, the cabinet has no formal powers as cabinets are not mentioned in the constitution. However, article 2 does state that the President ‘may require the opinion of the principal officer in each of the executive departments upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective office’
With all executive power vested in ‘a President’, the cabinet is simply an advisory body for the president. Despite this, every president since 1793 has had a cabinet. Originally with just four members: State, War Treasury and Post office - now cabinet consists of the heads of 15 departments, the president, the vice-president and other cabinet-level executives as the President sees fit. The additional members that a president chooses are often reflective either of his policy priorities or of the national circumstances in which he takes over. For example in January 2012, Obama announced that he was elevating the administrator of the Small Business Administration, Karen Millis to cabinet status by doing this, he was signalling the importance of small businesses in promoting economic recovery
Does the president cabinet members tend to vary depending on who is president? with one example
It is difficult to recruit cabinet members from members of congress, so the president will include a variety of roles and jobs for the effective working of government
Bush’s cabinet:
Secretary of state, secretary of Treasury, Secretary of Defence Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior.
ADDITIONAL CABINET MEMBERS:
- president
- vice president
- chief of staff
- Environment protection agency
- Office of Management and Budget
- Office of National Drug control policy
- United States Trade Representatives
Explain the various people the president recruits for cabinet
For the president, it is difficult to recruit cabinet members from incumbent members of congress as they must resign from congress where they have prestige and job security.
EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE -
This means the president will usually draw cabinet members from former members of congress or through recruiting state governor and big city mayors. They both have executive experience and are suited to the running a large federal bureaucracy.
ACADEMIA/ACADEMIC and ECONOMIC EXPERIENCE -
Academia is another pool of recruitment for the cabinet such as professors from top universities e.g. Steven Chu, appointed by Obama as secretary of energy in 2009, was professor of physics at the University of California. Essentially, a president is looking for policy specialists through offering opinions on policy and lending support to the president in his policy objectives.
Tim Geithner was Obama’s choice for secretary of the Treasury, having previously been the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This experienced allowed Geithner to make policy suggestions as the Obama administration dealt with the recession that America was facing after the 2007 economic crash. He introduced the Financial Stability Plan, committing billions to a ‘lending initiative’ to try and boost the economy while requiring that banks undergo ‘stress tests’ to ensure that they could withstand and even prevent a future economic crash/ It is this ability to manage department-level policy that is crucial for the president who would be unable to do it alone,
Why is cabinet important?
Although cabinet is not a collective body like in the Uk, individually cabinet members are important sources of power for the president largely in terms of the specialist insights they can provide the president.
All cabinet appointments are subject to confirmation by a simple majority vote in the Senate - it is highly unusual for the senate to reject the President’s nominee.
Cabinet-level officials can also undertake work and roles on behalf of the president, as the president alone would be unable to attend every meeting and event required of him. On the election of a new Mexican president in July 2018, secretary of state Mike Pompeo was sent to meet with him to improve relations between the US and Mexico.
How frequent are the president’s cabinet meetings?
The frequency of cabinet meetings used by the president varies from president to president. This was seen during Reagan’s first year in office where he held 36 cabinet meetings, while in his first Clinton only held only six. George W Bush held 49 meetings on an average of just 6 meetings a year. Obama held 16 meetings in the first term and 12 in his second. All attendees are assigned places around the cabinet table according to the seniority of the department they head up.
State and explain the several functions that cabinet meetings can provide for the president
Functions of Cabinet Meetings for the President:
- Team Spirit: meetings can engender team spirit and weld together a disparate team to follow the President’s agenda.
- Collegiality - it is important for president’s to appear collegial and consultative - that they are running an open administration. They can be good public relations exercise with media photo opportunities
- Exchanging information - they provide opportunities for both information giving and gathering. They are an efficient method by which the President keeps in touch with what is going on in the vast federal bureaucracy
- Policy debate - some presidents use the meetings as a forum to debate policy and broaden his consultations
- Presenting ‘big picture items’ - the president can present so-called big picture items that affect all cabinet officers, e.g. the budget
- Monitoring congress - some presidents have used the meetings to check up on legislation going through congress
- Prompting action - Presidents can use the meetings to galvanize cabinet meetings into action
- Personal contact - they provide an opportunity for the president to see cabinet members whom he would not see frequently
state the five functions of cabinet meetings for cabinet officers
Functions of cabinet meetings for cabinet officers:
Getting to know each other - meetings provide the opportunity for officers to get to know one another
Resolving disputes - they allow interdepartmental disputes can be resolved
Speaking to cabinet colleagues - they provide valuable opportunities for dialogue between colleagues
Speaking to the P - they provide the opportunity to discuss issues with the President before/after the meeting
Increased status for cabinet officers - who would be emboldened to then go on to chair their own department meetings
How does cabinet have the final say over policy?
Although cabinet has no constitutional power, the president does maintain the final say over policy. For example, in 2014, Obama was concerned that Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel (a republican) was not transferring detainees out of Guantanamo Bay fast enough. Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, sent Hagel a memo requiring him to send transfer updates regarding detainees every 2 weeks to try to speed up the process. While Hagel publicly replied ‘I owe that to the American people, to ensure that any decision I make is, in my mind, responsible’ by November of that year, he had (forced) resigned. This example highlights the president’s ability not only to control policy but also to choose to rely on his power within EXOP , in this case Rice, rather than appointed cabinet secretaries.
How does cabinet hold symbolic value for presidential power? (diversity)
The cabinet has a symbolic value for presidential power - a symbol of the ‘government at war’. Clinton famously remarked he wanted his cabinet to ‘look like America’. As a singular executive, the president is likely only to appeal to a certain demographic - that might be due to their age, experienced, ideology, race, sex, religion etc. Clinton’s aim for greater diversity made the cabinet more representative of America and therefore reflected a government governing for the whole of America. Bush and Obama (and Biden) continued this trend of diversity in their cabinets, although Trump’s cabinet had more males and more white members than any cabinet since Reagan’s.
Obama’s in contrast, remains the most diverse in history with, in 2009, seven women, four African Americans, three Asian Americans, two Hispanics and two Republicans. In terms of age, the average age of the cabinet usually reflects the age of the P - as the oldest person whereas Biden’s is more varied in terms of age. And finally, whether it is a democratic and republican administration as the president will want to have the different ideological wings of their party represented: liberal Ds, conservatives Ds and New Ds, Conservative Rs, moderate Rs, and Tea Party Rs. It is also not unusual for a president to pick someone from the other party, as Obama did when in his second term he appointed former R senator Chuck Hagel as his secretary for defence.
State FOR arguments for the question: “Is the President’s Cabinet important?”
FOR arguments:
- It contains some of the most important people in the executive branch (e.g. secretary of state, secretary of defence)
- All the heads of the 15 executive departments are automatically members
- The president always chairs the meetings
- Cabinet meetings can fulfil a number of important functions, both for the P and for cabinet officers
- Some presidents hold frequent meetings e.g. Reagan, Trump
State AGAINIST arguments for the question: “Is the President’s Cabinet important?”
AGAINIST arguments:
- Article 2 of the constitution vests ‘all executive power’ in the P
- there is no doctrine of collective responsiblity
- The members are neither the Ps equals nor his political rivals
- The president often views members of his cabinet with some suspicion because of their divided loyalties
- EXOP is the main source of advice-giving for the president
Explain what is meant by the President’s power to persuade
In 1960, Professor Richard Neustadt suggested that ‘the power of the presidency’ is the ‘power to persuade’. This suggestion was based on the fact that each president has the same constitutional powers and each of these powers is checked directly by congress. The founding fathers wanted it to be difficult for the President to get his way in Congress, they desired cooperation and compromise between these two branches of government, ‘ambition must counteract ambition’. The President therefore must rely on something else to achieve his policy goals - persuasion, reputation and public prestige. A president could use these skills to bargain and persuade the rival centres of power within the US political system to do as he wishes.
President Truman once commented “I sit here all day within the US political system to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them. That’s all the powers of the President amount to”
state the variety of methods that can be used for the power of the persuasion
- president can appeal directly and morally to congress often through the media
- the white house can be used a stage or a ‘bully pulpit’
- the president can also use his own personal gravitas more directly through methods such as phoning congressional leaders or having personal meetings with them
- with a short congressional election cycle, the president may offer inducements to members of congress e.g. offering policy promises to make legislation more palatable
Explain how the president appeals and directly to congress through the media to persuade
A president can appeal directly and morally to congress often through the media. Obama did this in his Rose Garden Speech of 2013 where he maintained that he was convinced of the need to take military action in Syria over it’s government use of chemical weapons. He also said that, as leader of the oldest constitutional democracy in the world, it was right that he asked Congress for its approval for such action. For Trump, such appeals were made through Twitter
Explain how the president can use the white house as a stage or ‘bully pulpit’ as a way of persuasion
The White House can be used as a stage or a ‘bully pulpit’. This means that it is a place of such importance and gravitas that speaking from it - to congress, the press or the public - can be a way of placing pressure on those with legislative control. An address from the Oval Office can be particularly effective for this, as rather than simply representing the ‘main’ it represents the office of the P. Obama used this platform to call for gun control after the San Bernardino shooting in 2015. Trump bussed the entire senate to the White House for a briefing on North Korea in 2017 to much the same effect
Explain how the president can use his own personal gravitas to persuade
The president can also use his own personal gravitas more directly, through methods such as phoning congressional leaders or having personal meetings with them. At a less significant level this might be achieved by his White House staff phoning or liaising with members of congress. Obama’s deputy chief staff Messina called Senators to ensure that they would still vote to ratify Sonia Sotomayor after a difficult quote came to light during her confirmation hearings. He was also known to phone and have private meetings with Republican speaker John Boehner to try and advance his legislative agenda. In trying to get his tax bill passed, Trump sent aide Kellyanne Conway to speak to whips in Congress
Explain how the president can inducements to members of congress which allows him to persuade
With a short congressional election cycle, a president may be offer inducements to members of congress e.g. offering them policy promises to make legislation more palatable, such as Obama’s promises about syrian intervention being limited and involving no deployment of American Soldiers. This might be using the actions of the executive branch to get congressional approval. Obama deported more people than any other P in an effort to gain support for his proposed immigration reforms.
Explain how a president’s ability to persuade is affected by their popularity
The more popular a president is, the more likely Congress is to listen to him: doing so may win votes and popularity for members. A president with lower poll ratings will often find it difficult to use such powers of persuasion as they have less personal capital to expend. Much of the power of persuasion and the public opinion of a persuasion is also wrapped up in their personal style and charisma. Obama was well spoken and intellectual but averse to schmoozing congressional leaders, while Trump was more brash and aggressive and directly in touch with the people through twitter. Both styles have pros and cons determined by how successful a president is at utilising their own skills
State the four types of people the president can use to persuade
- Vice president
- Members of the office of legislative affairs
- Cabinet officers
- Party leadership in congress
Any of the above may report back to the president in order to secure the vote of a particular member of Congress, the president may need to get involved by utilising a range of ‘perks’ they have at their disposal. David Mervin has stated “the president must bargain, he must make deals, he must negotiate with those with whom he shares power. Bargaining skill is therefore indispensable in a president.” The president might offer help with legislation that benefits that members state or district, look more favourably on a judicial or executive branch appointment of interest to the member, invite them to an Oval Office meeting or go to Capitol Hill to meet selected members of Congress.
Explain how the president can be a successful persuader through using their vice president
All of the last 8 VPs - covering more than 40 years, have been former members of Congress and therefore their role is critical. It also helps that as president of the senate, the VP has a foothold in Congress and an office there, where they can meet with members of both Houses. Obama’s VP, Biden has served in the senate for 36 years and led the Obama administration in Congress. Having campaigned for many D congressmen/women and senators, many almost owed their political life to him
Explain how the president can be a successful persuader through using members of the office of legislative affairs
There are members of the WHO, who work as full-time lobbyists for the president on Capitol Hill, meeting with members of Congress as well as with senior members of staff. The congressional liaison staff are usually organised in such a way that some work on the House side and others on the Senate side, hoping to build good relationships
Explain how the president can be a successful persuader through using cabinet officers
Cabinet officers can be deployed by the white house to talk with members of Congress in their own policy areas. George W Bush used education secretary Rod Paige to sell his education reform package to congress in 2001 and the following year, secretary of state Colin Powell dispatched to Congress to help persuade members to support authorisation of the use of US troops against Iraq
Explain how the president can be a successful persuader through using party leadership in congress
The president can work through the party leadership in congress - the house speaker’ the majority and minority leaders of both houses; the party whips; the committee chairs and minority members. Personality plays a huge part here too - a gregarious president like Reagan or Clinton could easily develop good relationships with members of congress than a more private president such as Obama
State examples on various methods Obama used to persuade congress to support his healthcare reforms (Obamacare - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010)
In the run up to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) 2010 which is also popularly known as Obamacare.
Obama made a number of attempts to persuade members of congress to support the legislation. During a two-month period between 27 January and 20 March, the president:
- delivered the state of the Union address to Congress
- addressed the republican House Issues Conference in Baltimore
- took part in a televised session with Senate Democrats in Washington DC
- addressed the Democratic National Committee winter meeting in Washington DC
- hosted a bipartisan healthcare reform meeting at Blair House, Washington DC
- met with 11 House democrats at the White House
- met with the New Democrat coalition leadership in the Oval office
- met with senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) in the oval office
- addressed the House Democratic Caucus on Capitol Hill
- addressing town hall meetings across the country
Explain What David Mervin means by the President acting as a ‘bargainer-in-chief’
David Mervin described the US president as ‘bargainer-in-chief’. The president’s success rate is measured each year in what is called the presidential support score. This annual statistic measures how often the president won in recorded votes in the House and Senate on which he took a clear position, expressed as a percentage of the whole. Analysis reveals that this score tends to decline during a presidential term and having one’s party control both houses usually results in a high score. However, it doesn’t measure the importance of particular votes, e.g. they may win trivial votes and presidents can avoid law scores by simply not taking positions on votes they expect to lose. Furthermore, today the president’s job of trying to build support for his legislation from members of the opposition party in Congress has been made more difficult because of increased levels of partisanship
State FOR arguments for the question: “Is the President’s power still the power to persuade?”
- The president has no formal disciplinary hold over members of congress
- Party discipline in Congress, through tighter than it used to be, cannot guarantee votes for the president
- The president may be faced with one or both houses of congress controlled by the other party
- The president is dependent upon members of Congress for legislation, confirmation of appointments and treaty ratification
- The president’s ‘direct authority’ has limited use
- The president can offer his support for things members of congress regard as important
