Vocab Final Semester Two AP Gov Flashcards
Twenty-second Amendment
Passed in 1951, the amendment that limits presidents to two terms of office.
Impeachment
The political equivalent of an indictment in criminal law, prescribed by the Constitution. Impeachable offenses include “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Watergate
The events and scandal surrounding a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in 1972 and the subsequent cover-up of White House involvement, leading
to the eventual resignation of President under the threat of impeachment.
Twenty Fifth Amendment
Ratified in 1967, this amendment permits the vice president to become acting president if both the vice president and the president’s cabinet determine that the president is
disabled. The amendment also outlines how a recuperated president can reclaim the job.
Cabinet
A group of presidential advisors not mentioned in the Constitution, although every president has had one. Today the cabinet is composed of 13 secretaries and the attorney
general.
Office of Management
and Budget (OMB)
An office that grew out of the Bureau of the Budge, created in 1921, consisting of a handful of political appointee and hundreds of skilled professionals. The OMB performs
both managerial and budgetary functions.
Veto
An office that grew out of the Bureau of the Budge, created in 1921, consisting of a handful of political appointee and hundreds of skilled professionals. The OMB performs
both managerial and budgetary functions.
Pocket Veto
A veto taking place when congress adjourns within 10 days of submitting a bill to the president, who simply lets it die by neither signing nor vetoing it.
War Powers Resolution
A law passed in 1973 in reactions to American fighting in Vietnam and Cambodia, requiring president’s to consult with Congress whenever possible prior to using military
force and to withdraw forces after 60 days unless Congress declares war or grants an extension. Presidents view the resolution as unconstitutional.
Legislation Veto
The ability of Congress to override a presidential decision. Although the War Powers Resolution asserts this authority, there is reason to believe that, if challenged the Supreme Court would find this legislative veto in violation of the doctrine of separation
of powers.
INS v. Chadha, 1983
U.S. Supreme Court case striking down the legislative veto on account of its violation of the separation of powers.
U.S. v. Nixon, 1974
U.S. Supreme Court case defining executive privilege and limiting the president’s use of it in cases of national security.
Impoundment
The practice of temporarily or permanently stopping the flow of funds that Congress has already approved.
Budget and Impoundment
Control Act, 1974
Legislation creating the Congressional Budget Office and requiring congressional approval for the president’s use of impoundment.
Korematsu v. U.S., 1944
U.S. Supreme Court case upholding the constitutionality of internment camps for Japanese Americans.
Line-item Veto
A special form of veto in which the chief executive (governor or president) has the right to prevent particular provisions of a bill enacted by a legislature or Congress from becoming law without having to kill all the other parts of the bill at the same time. Many state governors in the United States have line-item veto power, and many presidents in
history have strongly endorsed the idea of granting the POTUS the same as a means of controlling the problem of budget deficits (i.e., eliminating pork barrel spending).
Clinton v. N.Y.C., 1998
U.S. Supreme Court case that strikes down the line-item veto, passed by Congress only two years earlier. The Court claimed that the line-item veto represented an
unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers doctrine.
Budget
A policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures).
Deficit
An excess of federal expenditures over federal revenues.
Expenditures
Federal spending of revenues. Major areas of such spending are social services and the military.
Revenues
The financial resources of the federal government. The individual income tax and Social Security tax are two major sources of revenue.
Income tax
Shares of individual wages and corporate revenues collected by the government. The Sixteenth
Amendment explicitly authorized Congress to levy a tax on income. See also Internal Revenue
Service.
Sixteenth Amendment
The constitutional amendment adopted in 1913 that explicitly permitted Congress to levy an
income tax.
Federal debt
All the money borrowed by the federal government over the years and still outstanding. Today the federal debt is just under $20 trillion.
Incrementalism
The belief that the best predictor of this year’s budget is last year’s budget, plus a little bit more (an increment). According to Aaron Wildavsky, “Most of the budget is a product of previous
decisions.”
Uncontrollable expenditures
Expenditures that are determined not by a fixed amount of money appropriated by Congress but by how many eligible beneficiaries that are for a program or by previous obligations of the government.
Entitlements
Policies for which Congress has obligated itself to pay X-level of benefits to Y number of recipients. Social Security benefits are an example.
Social Security Act
A 1935 law passed during the Great Depression that was intended to
provide a minimal level of sustenance to older Americans and thus save
them from poverty. Employees pay into the system their entire working
lives and become eligible to withdraw from the system at the age of 67.
Medicare
A program added to the Social Security system in 1965 (as part of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda) that provides low-cost health
insurance benefits for the elderly.
Medicaid
A program added to the Social Security system in 1965 (as part of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda) that provides low-cost health
insurance benefits for people the poor.
