UNC-Chapel Hill, Gitterman, PLCY 101 Final

What is the name of Gitterman's book?

Calling the Shots

What does Gitterman describe the president as in his book?

CEO of the federal government

What is the power of the purchaser?

the power of the federal government to demand specific actions/policies if the selling company wants the government to purchase their goods/services

Example of the president using the power of the purchaser:

Obama raising the minimum wage for workers on federal service and construction contracts to $10.10 an hour + it being indexed for inflation in future years

What is the power of the employer?

president has control over the largest labor market in the US- the federal government.

Examples of the president utilizing the power of the employer:

To secure the political support of federal employees and postal unions, JFK issued a memo asserting "the right of federal employees to participate in employee organizations and to seek to improve working conditions and the resolution of grievances"

What is the power of the payer?

Using their power has the largest/top payer (or investor) of services in specific industries such as health care to influence the industry's policies

Example of the president using the power of the payer:

Clinton directed all federal payer agencies-to bring their federal health programs in compliance with the Consumer Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, unilaterally extended consumer rights and protections

What is the federal budget?

The federal governments budget. It is determined yearly, it predicts the amount of money that will be spent on expenses in the upcoming year

What percent of the federal budget is mandatory spending?

63.2% - typically red, 2/3 locked into place annually

What percent of the federal budget is non-defense spending?

15.3%, typically blue, discretionary spending

What percent of the federal budget is defense spending?

14.7%, typically yellow, discretionary spending

What percent of the federal budget is spent on the interest of the national debt?

6.7%, typically green

Examples of mandatory spending

social security, medicare, medicaid

Examples of discretionary spending

defense spending, public education, biomedical research

What is meant by "spending in disguise?"

A great deal of government spending is hidden in the federal tax code in the form of deductions, credits, and other preferences-preferences that seem like they let taxpayers keep their own money, but are spending in disguise

What are tax expenditures?

Provisions of the tax code that include exclusions, deductions, deferrals, credits, etc.

What is a progressive tax?

A tax in which the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases

What is an example of a progressive tax?

Individual income tax, where people with more disposable income pay higher % of their income than those with less

What is a regressive tax?

A tax for which the percentage of income paid in taxes decreases as income increases. Sales taxes, that is, low income people tend to spend a greater percentage of their income in taxable sales than higher income people

Example of a tax expenditure at UNC:

The Rams Club

Describe tax credits

If a taxpayer's total liability is low enough, and a credit is refundable, it can result in a direct payment from the government to the taxpayer

Describe tax deductions

Deductions reduce the amount of income subject to tax, most commonly occurs in mortgage payments

Describe tax deferrals

Deferrals allow taxpayers to postpone the date at which income gets taxed, ex: 401K

Describe tax exclusions/preferences

Exclusions/preferences allow certain types of income to avoid taxation entirely

How is the labor force calculated?

The number of people who are employed plus the unemployed who are looking for work

Which department measures the labor force?

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics- they also provide the nation's unemployment rate

What factors can influence your earnings after college?

Major, different career paths, geography

-career paths are difficult to predict because of these factors

-even still, some majors have higher starting salaries overall (Computer Science v History majors)

What is the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?

Comprehensive health insurance reforms designed to ensure Americans have access to quality, affordable health insurance

What is the enduring healthcare trilemma?

Access, cost, quality

-ACA wants to fix!

What is Medicare?

Federal insurance program for elderly persons or persons with permanent disabilities

Medicare part A

Hospital insurance

Medicare part B

Medical insurance

Medicare part C

Medicare Advantage Plans

- pay for managed health care based on a monthly fee per enrollee, rather than on the basis of billing for each medical service provided for unmanaged healthcare services

Medicare part D

Prescription drug coverage

What is Medicaid?

A means-tested health and medical services program for certain individuals and families with low incomes and few resources

How is Medicaid controlled?

Primary oversight from the federal government, but each state establishes its own eligibility standards

What is Social Security?

Federal program of disability and retirement benefits that covers most working people

What is Social Insurance?

System of public insurance under which a national community (US), through their government, may guarantee a collective base of economic security for each other against the uncertainties of modern life

What are means-tested programs?

Programs that provide cash or services to people who meet a test of need based on income and assets

ex: SNAP/Food Stamps

What is earned income tax credit?

A refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income working individuals and couples, particularly those with children

What is minimum wage?

Lowest legal wage that can be paid to most workers, current $7.25 in the US

What is a non-refundable tax credit?

Credit that can reduce your tax liability to zero, but not below

What is a refundable tax credit?

A tax credit that can reduce your tax liability

No Child Left Behind Act

A U.S. law enacted in 2002 that was intended to increase accountability in education by requiring states to qualify for federal educational funding by administering standardized tests to measure school achievement

What is ESSA?

Every Student Succeeds Act

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

Given greater latitude to individual states for decision making regarding content area standards, assessment techniques, and corrective actions for low performing schools

-reformed NCLB

How is college completion measured?

Graduation rates

What is DACA?

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

An American immigration policy that allows certain undocumented immigrants who entered the country before their 16th birthday and before June 2007 to receive a renewable two-year work permit and exemption from deportation

Issues of higher education policies:

-Federal tax laws which can increase/decrease higher education funding

-budgetary situation in different states

-college affordability

-do state governors view higher education as important in terms of economic and workforce development?

-DACA

-guns on campus

-population shifts, some away from universities and some universities are growing too quickly

-performance based funding

-free speech on campus

-sexual violence

Why is the college completion rate important?

To determine if higher education is worth federal/state investing

Shift from Obama to Trump in immigration policies:

-Trump has stepped up enforcement against noncitizens in the interior of the country

-The administration has made historic reductions to the number of refugees the US will accept for resettlement

-The administration has increased the number of interviews applicant must undergo prior to being approved for immigration or travel to the US

-Trump working to end the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which currently provides protection from removal and work authorization to nearly 700,000 unauthorized individuals who were brought to the US as children

What is environmental policy?

Managing human activities in an effort to prevent, reduce, or mitigate harmful effects on nature and natural resources and to ensure that man-made changes to the environment do not have harmful effects on humans

What is energy policy?

Policies addressing issues of energy development including:

-energy production

-energy distribution

-energy consumption

How can we get our energy?

Oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear power, solar/geothermal sources, unconventional sources (nuclear fusion, solar, wind & agricultural sources)

How is Trump altering Obama's environmental/energy policies?

-Killing the power plant rule

-Securing coal's place in the markets

-Launching a solar trade war?

-Hitting the brakes on fuel economy

-Opening federal lands to fossil fuels

How is Trump killing the power plant rule?

The Clean Power Plan that the EPA is

moving to revoke was the crown jewel of

Obama's climate change legacy —

representing the first time the U.S. had gone

after the climate-warming pollution that's

belched out of coal-fired power plants'

smokestacks

How is Trump securing coal's place in the market?

Energy Secretary Rick Perry issued a surprise

directive last month aimed at altering the nation's electricity markets by giving an economic advantage to power plants that keep large fuel supplies on site

— a move clearly aimed at helping the coal industry ward off increasingly stiff competition.

•It would also benefit nuclear power, another

economically struggling sector

How is Trump possibly launching a solar trade war?

A vote by a federal trade panel last

month will allow Trump to impose

tariffs or a quota on imported solar

panels that make up the vast majority of

the fast-growing U.S. renewables market

— if he chooses to

How is Trump hitting the brakes on the fuel economy?

Trump announced in March that EPA would

reconsider the tightened mileage standards that

Obama had imposed for cars sold from 2022

to 2025, a move the former president's

agencies had said would lift the average to

about 50 miles per gallon. Trump's agency is

expected to roll back the requirements.

How is Trump opening federal lands to fossil fuels?

Trump's Interior Department is seeking to boost

oil, gas and coal production by taking a hatchet to Obama-era regulations that govern fossil fuel

production on public land.

One of the biggest moves so far would reverse

Obama's tightened restrictions on leaks of planet warming methane from drilling wells, pipelines and other infrastructure.

What are the 6 instruments of foreign policy?

1- Diplomatic Instruments

2- Economic Instruments

3- Military Instruments

4- Secret Intelligence Instruments

5- Homeland Security Instruments

6- International Institution Instruments

Diplomatic instruments

The diplomatic instrument of foreign policy consists of people---U.S. government officials---and actions they can perform.

Those actions can be broadly grouped in the categories of engagement, negotiations, and public diplomacy

Economic Instruments

Economic statecraft is conducted with various carrots and sticks---some provide incentives and rewards for other nations; others impose punishment or pressure on those who are not cooperating.

ex: tariffs, quotas

Military Instruments

The United States employs its military capabilities at home and abroad in support of its national security goals in a variety of operations

Secret Intelligence Instruments

The nature of the Intelligence Community's work leads to high competition, secrecy, and a reluctance to share, making each agency in the IC very protective of its independent roles.

Intelligence operatives want secrecy also in order to protect their sources and methods.

Homeland Security Instruments

Domestic defense is a supreme obligation for any president, but in today's world of globalization transportation and trade, electronic communications, and trans-national threats, homeland security requires international cooperation and coordination.

International Institutions

For the U.S. foreign policy, the most important international institutions are those concerned with international policies and security.

These are the ones that can giver international legal authorization for sanctions and military operations and that serve as venues for negotiations.

World Bank, United Nations (UN), UNICEF, NATO

Foreign Policy

A set of goals outlining how a country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially, and militarily, and how the country will interact with non-state actors

-Foreign policies are designed to help protect a country's national interests, national security, ideological goals, and economic prosperity

President's toolkit in foreign policy:

People, processes, and actions

-Examples: actions the president takes, from signing international agreements to making public statements, have the weight of authority, though constrained by political and legal limitations

Congress' toolkit in foreign policy:

Passage of legislation, use of appropriations, oversight, delaying or rejecting nominations/treaties

-Some advantages to Congress, such as setting limits on presidential actions, hold drawbacks including the potential to damage US relations with countries through inaction or inconsistency

Major categories of foreign aid

1. Bilateral development aid

2. Economic assistance supporting US political and security goals

3. Humanitarian aid

4. Multilateral economic contributions

5. Military aid

How can we reform foreign aid to ensure the money goes where it needs to?

Reform efforts aims to solve weaknesses of aid and principal-agent problem:

-Greater donor selectivity in choosing aid recipients

-Increased recipient participation in setting priorities and designing programs

-Streamlining aid bureaucracies, increasing donor coordination

-Establishing clearer goals for aid and stronger monitoring and evaluation of aid financed activities

What is international development?

Promotes global progress and prosperity by focusing on improving the lives of the world's poorest people

What is foreign direct investment? (FDI)

Investment made by a foreign company in the economy of another country.

Usually to profit from the growth opportunities, natural resources, new markets, and low production costs that developing countries offer

What is official development assistance? (ODA)

To support development initiatives in poor and emerging countries fund basic needs such as education, health and security, and contribute to long term economic development and the eradication of poverty

What is impact investing?

An investment approach that intentionally seeks to create both financial return and measurable positive social or environmental impact