Term
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Definition
o The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 established the following:
• Fixed budget calendar
• A budget committee in each House
• The CBO, which advises Congress on the probable consequences of its decisions, forecasts revenues, and is counterweight to OMB
• Now budget requests are directed through the OMB and president before going to Congress (a budget is submitted by prez to Congress every year). |
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Term
| Know the appropriations process. Who authorizes appropriations? |
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Definition
| Authorized by Congress then signed into effect or vetoed by the President |
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Term
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Definition
The idea that last year’s budget is the best predictor of this year’s budget, plus some.
Agencies can safely assume they will get at least what they got last year.
o Focus debate on the increase over last year
o Budgets tend to go up a little each year. |
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Term
| What is the military industrial complex? |
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Definition
| Relationship between defense industry/contractors and the military hierarchy (pentagon) that want the weaponry |
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Term
| What is budget reconcilation? |
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Definition
**The current budget is reconciled— program authorizations are revised to achieve required savings**
A provision in a budget resolution directing one or more committees to submit legislation changing existing law in order to bring spending, revenues, or the debt-limit into conformity with the budget resolution. |
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Term
| What are authorization and appropriations bills? |
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Definition
Authorization bill: establishes a discretionary government program; set goals and maximum expenditures
o Appropriations bill: funds programs within limits established by authorization bills
o Up to Congress to authorize and to set goals and to set maximum expenditures |
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Term
| Which committees write tax codes in Congress? |
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Definition
| Senate Finance Committee & Hayes and Ways Committee |
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Term
| What is the budget and who prepares the budget for the President and for Congress? |
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Definition
| The budget is a policy document allocating burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures). The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) prepares the budget proposal, after receiving direction from the President |
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Term
| What are uncontrollable expenditures? |
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Definition
| Expenditures that are determined by how many eligible beneficiaries there are for a program or by previous obligations of the government and that Congress therefore cannot easily control. |
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Term
| What is the major reason why the national debt increases? |
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Definition
o Foreign investors lending the federal government money.
o People like government programs, but they really do not want to pay for them, thus there are deficits and federal debt |
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Term
| Know where the U.S. government gets its revenues |
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Definition
| Individual income tax and Social Security Tax. |
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Term
| What are tax expenditures? |
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Definition
| Revenue losses that result from special exemptions, exclusions or deductions or federal tax law. Major areas of federal spending are social services and national defense. |
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Term
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Definition
| Allows Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the states or basing it on Census results. |
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Term
| What are social welfare policies? |
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Definition
| Policies that provide benefits, cash, or in-kind to individuals, based on either entitlement or means testing |
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Term
| What is income distribution? |
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Definition
| The way the national income is divided into “shares” ranging from the poor to the rich. |
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Term
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Definition
| Benefits that are given to qualified individuals, regardless of need. |
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Term
| What are means-tested programs? |
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Definition
| Government programs providing benefits only to individuals who qualify based on specific need. |
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Term
| What are Medicare and Medicaid? |
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Definition
Medicare- Partial payment of cost of hospital care for retired and disabled people funded by payroll taxes on employees and employers; voluntary program of medical insurance (pays physicians) for persons 65 or over and siabled Social Security beneficiaries funded by beneficiaries pay premiums.
Medicaid- Medical and hospital aid for the very poor funded by federal grants to state health programs |
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Term
| What is the poverty line? |
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Definition
| The income threshold below which people are considered poor, based on what a family must spend for an “austere” standard of living, traditionally set at three times the cost of a subsistence diet. |
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Term
| Know the differences between the welfare systems in Europe and America |
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Definition
| They are more generous than the U.S., but the tax rates are higher in those countries than in the U.S.; they have worked to reform their welfare programs, as their programs are in trouble, too. |
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Term
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Definition
| A tax by which the government takes a greater share of the income of the rich than of the poor—for example, when a rich family pays 50% of its income in taxes and a poor family pays 5%. |
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Term
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Definition
| A tax by which the government takes the same share of income from everyone, rich and poor alike |
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Term
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Definition
| A tax in which the burden falls relatively more heavily on low-income groups than on wealthy taxpayers. The opposite of a progressive tax, in which tax rates increase as income increases |
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Term
| What are transfer payments? |
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Definition
| Benefits given by the government directly to individuals—either cash transfers, such as Social Security payments, or in-kind transfers, such as food stamps and low-interest college loans. |
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Term
| Historically, what concept is at the heart of American foreign policy? |
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Definition
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Term
| What does “guns and butter” mean? |
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Definition
| Tradeoff between military spends v. domestic spending. A nation can buy either guns (invest in defense/military) or butter (invest in production of goods), or a combination of both |
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Term
| Know the powers of Congress as it relates to foreign policy |
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Definition
| Congress has sole authority to declare war, raise and organize the armed forces and appropriate funds for national security activities |
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Term
| What is meant by containment? |
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Definition
| Containment doctrine: foreign policy strategy that called for the United States to isolate the Soviet Union, contain its advances, and resist its encroachments by peace or force |
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Term
| What do international economic policies emphasize? |
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Definition
| Interdependency, international trade, and a balance of trade |
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Term
| What powers do permanent members to the UN Security Council have? |
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Definition
| Each permanent member has a veto over the Security Council decisions, including any decisions that would commit the UN to a military peacekeeping operation. |
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Term
| What does the president do as chief diplomat? |
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Definition
| As chief diplomat, the President negotiates treaties with foreign governments. |
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Term
| Who or what body coordinates foreign and military policy? |
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Definition
| President, Diplomats (Secretary of State), National Security Establishment (Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, NSC, CIA), Congress. Nat'l Security Est.advises the president and gather intelligence |
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Term
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Definition
| John Foster Dulles secretary of state, policies against anyone taking action against anything American anywhere; basically bring each other to the brink of war. (if they attack us, we attack back) ← known as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) |
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Term
| What positions are considered the nation’s top diplomats? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is meant by détente? |
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Definition
A slow transformation from conflict to cooperation designed to relax tensions between the superpowers
• Originally applied to the Soviet Union, and then to China |
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Term
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Definition
| The quietest instrument of influence; the process by which nations carry on relationships with each other. |
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Term
| What does the Secretary of Defense do? |
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Definition
| Manages a budget larger than the entire budget of most nations and is the President’s main civilian adviser on national defense matters. |
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Term
| What is interdependence as it relates to the international economy? |
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Definition
| Mutual dependency in which the actions of nations reverberate and affect one another’s economic lifelines |
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Term
| When do members of Congress support military spending? |
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Definition
| If it means jobs for their constituents |
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Term
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Definition
| “negative income tax” that provided income to very poor people in lieu of charging them income tax |
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Term
| Where does regressive taxation occur? |
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Definition
| Regressive taxation occurs in states that have a sales tax |
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Term
| Social Security Act of 1935 |
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Definition
| First major step by the federal government to help protect people against absolute poverty |
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Term
| What are the three tools of foreign policy? |
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Definition
o Military: oldest and still used
• Limited wars
o Economic: becoming more powerful
• Trade regulations, tariffs, and monetary policies
o Diplomatic: the quietest of the tools
• Negotiations and summits |
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Term
| What is the Secretary of Defense's main job? |
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Definition
| Main job is an administrative role and to manage the defense budget (currently Robert Gates) |
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Term
| What ended the policy of isolationism? |
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Definition
| World War I after the sinking of the Lusitania and propelled US to declare war on Germany. |
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Term
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Definition
| The fear, prevalent in the 1950s, that international communism was conspiratorial, insidious, bent on world domination, and infiltrating American government and cultural institutions—named after Senator Joseph McCarthy |
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Term
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Definition
| Competition between U.S. and U.S.S.R. that led to increased procurement of military weapons |
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Term
| National Security Policymaking and Democracy main points |
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Definition
• Americans are more interested in domestic than foreign policy
• The opinions of the people are rarely ignored
• Separation of powers are important
• Pluralism is pervasive in foreign policymaking |
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Term
| What is the biggest source of revenue for the government? |
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Definition
| Individual taxes are the largest single revenue source for the government. |
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Term
| International Organizations |
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Definition
• United Nations: created in 1945; an organization whose members agree to renounce war and respect certain human and economic freedoms.
• Regional Organizations
• NATO: created in 1949; combined military forces of U.S., Canada and most of Western Europe and Turkey. NATO has a problem in that it was established in order to ward off attack from communist countries during Cold War. Now the cold war is over and NATO has no mission.
• EU: transnational government composed of Western European countries that coordinate economic policies. Now has moved into Eastern Europe toward former soviet republics. |
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Term
| Strategic Arms Limitation Talks |
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Definition
| Effort to limit the growth of nuclear arms; a product of détente. First SALT treaty signed in 72, 2nd SALT treaty signed in 79. While SALT 2 was being negotiated in Senate USSR invades Afghanistan and the 2nd SALT treaty was pulled from Senate. |
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Term
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Definition
o Reagan added billions to the defense budget in his first term in office to oppose the Soviet buildup.
o Strategic Defense Initiative: using computers and other equipment to defend against Soviet missiles from space-“Star Wars.” Meant to create global umbrella of protection from space. |
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Term
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Definition
o George H.W. Bush proposed to move beyond containment to integrate the Soviet Union into the Community of nations.
o Leadership of the Soviet Union supported the ending of communism and split into separate nations.
o East and West Germany united.
o Also see the verge of reforms in China, Tiamen Square. Chinese army violently crushed the demonstrators. |
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Term
| International Trade main points |
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Definition
**Emphasizes freer trade and lower tariffs.
• Tariffs: a tax on imported goods to raise the price, thereby protecting American business and workers.
• NAFTA and GATT are ways to lower tariffs and increase trade. |
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