US Presidents Flashcards
‘Constitutional checks and balances have become ineffective in containing presidential power’
✓ ✗
YES
- Imperilled presidency
- Checks (SC+cong)
- Variables
NO
- Imperial presidency
- Executive orders + agreements
- Variables
✓ Imperilled presidency
- Pres who finds it difficult to exercise his constitutional powers because of overly effective checks + balances
- Coined by Pres Ford- claimed p doesn’t have enough power to be effective
- Pres can be described a ‘lame duck’ when served 2 terms (Obama) or lost election for 2nd term (Carter, Ford, George H.W Bush)
– Passage of the Case Act (1972) = Pres must declare all executive agreements
– War Powers Resolution (1973) = restricted commitment of armed personnel in combat situations
– Impound Control Act (1974) = prevented Pres from impounding appropriations that didn’t fit with his agenda
– Creation of Accountability Office after Nixon
✓ Checks (SC+cong)
- Sep of powers + acc.
- SC= judicial review - const/not
- Cong= impeach, pass laws to block exec orders
– Marbury v Madison = set up judicial review
– Clinton v City of New York = Pres’ use of line-item veto unconst.
– Youngstown v Sawyer = Truman bringing steel ind. under federal govt would be unconst.
– Trump - federal judge ruled Trump violated law when he declared a national emergency to obtain funding for the wall
– 1974 = Nixon’s refusal to release White House tapes unconst.
– 2014 = Obama’s use of recess app. unconst= National Labour RelationsBoard v Koel Canning
– 2016 = Obama’s use of exec. order to implement immigration reform unconst.
– US v Texas (2016) - blocked Obama’s DAPA programme
– Veto overrides:
– Obama = Saudia-Arabia compensation
other eg
✓ Variables
- Events:
– Clinton accused of lying about relationship with Lewinsky -> nearly impeached
– Bush Jr = slow to Hurricane Katrina -> embarrassing + approval ratings dropped
– Trump = Hurricane Maria -> slow + said ‘success’
– Trump’s lowest approval rating = 29%
– George W Bush = 19%
– Truman = 22%
- Elections:
– 2000: George W Bush v Gore = 271-266 votes
– Hayes beat Tilden by 1 vote
✗ Imperial presidency
- Pres which is overly powerful due to a lack of effective checks + balances
- Arthur Schlesinger - 1973 - the ‘Imperial Presidency’
- Increase in size of executive office (4,000 can be appointed, 1,200 approval)
- New executive agencies - Space Force
- Only accountable at election / impeachment - ‘plebiscitary presidency’
– Nixon = Watergate, refused to spend funds cong appropiated
– Reagan = Iran-Contra affair - found not guilty
– Woodrow Wilson = Sedition Act 1918 = prevented anyone criticising the govt
– During military intervention in Libya (2011), Obama justified bombing targets without Congressional approval
– 2020- Trump = diverted $3.8bn in Pentagon funding to build the wall
✗ Executive orders + agreements
- E.O = directive of the Pres to manage operations of the federal govt
- E.A = similar to treaties, but don’t require senate approval
EA:
– Obama = Iran-Nuclear Deal + Paris Agreement
– Before 1940, 1,200 ea, 1940-1989- 13,000+
E.O:
– FDR = 3,721
– FDR - Japanese American
– 1953 - Pres Eisenhower = allowed homosexuality to be a valid reason for rejecting an application/ firing someone from federal govt (only fully removed in 2017)
–Trump repealing Obamacare + temp halt to refugee admissions
– Truman = desegregated military in 1948
– Watergate- Nixon tried to protect ppl from pros.
✗ Variables
- Elections - rlly large:
– 2008: Obama vs McCain = 365-175
– LBJ vs Barry Goldwater = 486-52
– Reagan vs Carter = 489-49
– Jefferson vs Pinckney = 162-14
– Nixon vs McGovern = 520-17
Reagan vs Mondale = 525-13
FDR vs Langdon = 523-8
- Events:
– Clinton = Oklahoma bombing = used story of Richard Dean to highlight Congress failing in allowing 2 govt shut downs
– Bush = 9/11 = 92%
– Despite Iran-Contra affair, Reagan’s approval rating towards end of pres was 63%
– Obama (tried to) used Sandy Hook shooting to advance gun control agenda
‘The largest limitation of the power of the POTUS is Congress’
Yes:
- Veto override
- Confirm Presidential appointments
- Decline to pass legislation
No:
- Supreme Court
- Bypassing Congress
- Executive orders and agreements
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✓ Veto override
– Freedom of Information Act 1974 - Ford
– War Powers Resolution Act 1973 - Nixon
– Since 1793, 2,590 votes, 112 overridden
– 4/12 Bush’s overridden
– 1/12 Obama
– Override Reagan’s veto of Civil Rights Act (1987) which banned discrimination based on gender
– 1st- Pres John Tyler’s veto of Appropriation Bill (28th congress)
- BUT Congress overrides Pres <5% of time
– National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 - Trump - overriden
– Obama = JASTA (Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act)
✓ Confirm Presidential Appointments:
– 1,200 / 4,000
– Cabinet - rej - John Tower = Def. Sec
– Sup Court = Robert Bork 1987
– No action with Merritt Garland
– 2 of John Tyler’s appointments for treasury were rejected
– Calvin Coolidge’s nom = Charles B. Warren - rej.
– 1801-1989: 9 rejected, 5 withdrawn. 1993-2020: 0 rejected, 11 withdrawn
✓ Decline to pass legislation:
– After Sandy Hook shooting 2012, Obama asked Congress to pass gun-control laws- nothing
– Congress rejected Trump’s proposals to cut Health Research Funds
– House passed bill rejecting Trump’s border wall emergency
– This can lead to gridlock and govt shutdowns: Reagan = 8 govt shutdowns
– President Clinton + Republican Congress unable to agree on spending levels
Impeachment
– Been 21 impeachments- 3 presidents
– Andrew Johnson = 1868
– Bill Clinton = 1998
– Donald Trump = 2019 and 2021
- All remained in office following acquittals
– Nixon resigned in 1974 after Congress started the impeachment process
✗ Supreme Court:
– Clinton v City of New York = line-item unconst.
– US v Nixon = ordered Pres to deliver White House tapes
– 2014: blocked Obama’s judicial nominations
– 2014: National Labour Relations Board v Noel Canning = Pres can’t rely on the Recess Appointments Clause to appoint public officials unless Senate in recess
– 2016: Obama’s use of executive orders to try and push immigration reform unconst.
✗ Bypassing Congress / lack of effective oversight
– Bypass Congress by declaring war through Commander in Chief - Bush - Iraq War 2003
– Libya 2011 - Obama had to justify taking military intervention in Libya without Congressional approval
– Obama: “Where they won’t act, I will” as part of the “We Can’t Wait” campaign
– Obama issued a presidential memorandum effectively overturning a congressional ban on federal research into the cause of gun violence
– Reagan + Nixon
✗ Executive orders and agreements
– 1948: Truman = desegregated military
– FDR: 3,721
– FDR = Destroyers-for-bases deal
– FDR = Camps - WW2
– Trump = Muslim travel ban, temp. halt to refugee admissions
– 1957 = Eisenhower = end to racial segregation in schools
– Truman = nationalised steel industry despite Youngstown v Sawyer ruling he couldn’t
– 1953 - Pres Eisenhower = allowed homosexuality to be a valid reason for rejecting an application/ firing someone from federal govt
‘The Cabinet exercises huge power in American politics.’ Discuss / Is the cabinet useful / important?
YES:
- Priorities
- Experience + expertise
- Representation
NO:
- Advice from elsewhere
- Little in common
- Advisory
✓ Priorities
– Bush = drugs
– Obama = economy
– Trump = national defence
– Timothy Geithner (treasury sec) - prev president of New York Federal Reserve Bank - sign that the economy and ‘jobs’ were important
✓ Experience + expertise
– Obama’ s second-term cabinet included 2 former mayors — Anthony Foxx (sec of transportation) & Julian Castro (sec of housing)
– Tim Geithner = former Secretary of the Treasury under Obama. Prev Pres of Federal Reserve Bank of New York
He introduced the Financial Stability Plan – $bns committed to ‘lending initiative’
– Chuck Hagel = secretary of Defence (2013-2015). Prev worked US senator for Nebraska + military veteran
– 2 former governors joined the Trump cabinet (2017) = Sonny Perdue + Rick Perry
– Obama = Steven Chu (sec of energy: 2009) - professor of physics at University of California
✓ Representation
- Important - rep.
- Differing views - act as ‘sounding board’ for Pres to test ideas
– A Cabinet that ‘looks like America’ (Bill Clinton)
– 2001: George W. Bush appointed 3 women as heads of executive departments
– 2009: Obama = 4 womem
– 2009: Obama = 6 ethnic minorities (e.g. Eric Holder - dep of justice)
– but Trump’ s 2017 cabinet had the ‘white male’ (just 3 departments being members of ethnic minorities)
– Obama appointed former Republican senator Chuck Hagel
✗ Advice from elsewhere
– Trump = close advisors + family
– EXOP - out of loop - e.g. Colin Powell (sec of state) & Condoleezza Rice (national security adviser)
– Jean Edward Smith = “Bush relied on the White House staff rather than his cabinet”
- 6 times per year - but gets less
– Nixon: “Screw the Cabinet … I’m sick of the whole bunch”
✗ Little in common
- No uniting ideology
- Not very productive
– Paul O’Neill Treasury Sec to GW Bush ‘ Cabinet meeting were ‘like a blind man in a room full of deaf people’
– Kennedy described cabinet meetings as ‘boring’
– JFK asked why the postmaster general should “sit there and listen to a discussion of the problems of Laos”
– Richard J. Ellis: “Cabinet meetings are infrequent, perfunctory and essentially meaningless”
✗ Advisory
– Professor Anthony King: ‘He doesn’t sum up at the end of the meeting; he is the meeting’
– story: Lincoln, taking a vote in cabinet meeting on whether to sign the Emancipation Proclamation - all cabinet secretaries vote nay - Lincoln raises his right hand and declares: “The ayes have it!”
– 2008: ‘No one in a cabinet outshines the president’
‘The EXOP exercises huge power in American politics.’ Discuss
YES:
✓ Crisis management
✓ Economic policy
✓ National Defence
NO:
- Power concentrated elsewhere
- Weak / ineffective Pres
- Gridlock + govt shutdown
✓ Crisis management
– After Hurricane Katrina, EXOP coordinated federal response efforts (George W Bush)
– EXOP - COVID-19 - Mark Meadows (Chief of Staff) - questioned the efficacy of masks, criticised the White House’s infectious disease experts for not “staying on message” with Trump’s rhetoric
✓ Economic Policy
– Obama’s admin. used the EXOP to implement measures like American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
– OMB = responsibility to produce the Budget
– Biden’s 2024 budget - said how he cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion in the first 2 years of his admin + wants increased investment
– Reaganomics
✓ National Security & Defence
– EXOP (including National Security Council - formed by Truman) worked with Pres Obama to execute Osama Bin Laden
– Truman attended all but 7 of its 71 remaining meetings
– Eisenhower sometimes used trusted NSC staffers for = Suez crisis (1956), the off-shore island crises (1955 + 1958), and Lebanon crisis (1958)
– JFK reduced NSC staff from 74 to 49 + reduced meetings
– ExCom established to deal with Cuban Missile crisis
– Nixon decided to run foreign policy from the White House - appointed Henry Kissinger as his national security adviser
Power concentrated elsewhere
– Truman relied on personal White House advisers (George Elsey, Robert Dennison, and W. Averell Harriman) - not sure that counts
– Johnson treated the NSC staff as a personal staff, and dropped meetings of the NSC Standing Group
– JFK reduced members of NSC 74 –> 49 + reduced meetings
– Working with Speaker - e.g.
- EXOP - cabinet rivalries -
‘The President is effective in his constitutional roles’. Discuss
YES:
- Imperial Presidency
- Appointing Sup Court justices
- Checks + balances - Congress
NO:
- Imperilled Presidency
- Sup Court - judicial review
- Congress - partisanship
Is the President effectively limited?
YES
- Imperilled Pres
- Judicial review
- Congress
NO
- Imperial Presidency
- Direct authority over Congress
- Expansion of powers
✗ Direct authority over Congress
= actions that require no congressional approval
- Executive orders:
– FDR = 3,721
– FDR - ‘Destroyers-for-bases deal’ - America gave Britain 50 overage destroyers in WWII in return for 99 year leases to certain naval bases
– Trump = repealed Obamacare
– Trump = temp. halt to refugee admissions
– 1957 = Eisenhower = end to racial segregation in schools
– FDR = transferred Japanese-Americans + German-Americans to camps in WW2
– Obama = banned torture (2009)
– Truman = nationalised steel industry
– Sup Court ruled in Youngstown v Sawyer Pres Truman couldn’t place steel mills under federal control because he couldn’t seize private property
– 1953 - Pres Eisenhower = allowed homosexuality to be a valid reason for rejecting an application/ firing someone from federal govt (only fully removed in 2017)
–1948 = Truman = desegregating military
✗ Expansion of powers
- Extended beyond Const
- Foreign policy
– Obama = Iran Nuclear Deal + Paris Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (1992)
Before 1940 = 1,200 executive agreements, 1940 - 1989 = 13,000+ executive agreements (with 800 treaties)
– LBJ -Vietnam
– Iraq, Afghanistan = Bush
– Trump - North Korea
- Appoint ambassadors + recognise nations
– 2011: Obama - Sudan
– 2008: Kosovo
– Vietnam: 1995
‘The President’s power over foreign policy is the most important power of the POTUS’. Discuss.
YES
- Commander in chief
- Appointing ambassadors
- Treaties + executive agreements
NO
- Power of persuasion
- Other powers - sign/veto legislation
- Senate approval
