gov test today

This government assistance program, formerly known as food stamps, provides monthly, income-based benefits to low-income households for purchasing groceries via an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

With this type of medical insurance, employee portions are usually deducted from paychecks on a pre-tax basis, lowering taxable income.

Contributory

The vast majority of spending for K-12 education in the United States comes from these two levels of government.

local and state

This book, written by Upton Sinclair (1906), is a landmark muckraking novel that exposes the 20th-century Chicago meatpacking industry's horrific, unsanitary conditions and the extreme exploitation of immigrant laborers.

The Jungle

The Affordable Care Act's (ACA) individual mandate required most Americans to maintain minimum essential health coverage, or they would have to do this each year.

pay a tax penalty

These are federal, law-mandated initiatives providing guaranteed benefits to individuals who meet specific eligibility criteria, such as age, income, or disability status.

Entitlement Programs

This is a refundable federal tax credit for low- to moderate-income working individuals and families, designed to reduce the amount of tax owed and increase refunds.

Earned Income Credit

This is a political theory where elected officials act primarily as mouthpieces for their constituents, voting according to the people's wishes rather than their own personal judgment.

delegate model of representation

This is a phenomenon where women and children are disproportionately represented among the world's poor, experiencing higher rates of poverty than men.

Feminization of Poverty

This is a comprehensive U.S. health reform law that increases insurance access, mandates coverage for pre-existing conditions, and expands Medicaid.

Affordable Care Act

This is a contributory program funded through mandatory payroll taxes (FICA or SECA) paid by employees, employers, and the self-employed during their working years. It is an entitlement program, not welfare, meaning individuals must have contributed to it to qualify.

Medicare

Entitlement programs (mandatory spending) account for roughly 60% of the federal budget, totaling over a trillion annually. These are the three largest entitlement programs that cost over 40% of the federal budget.

Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid

This member of Congress feels only loosely constrained by the policy preferences of their constituents and is empowered to make decisions based on their own judgment.

Trustee

There are approximately this number of people in each House district.

over 700,000

This is the process of distributing seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the fifty states.

Congressional Apportionment (or reapportionment)

This is the leader of the House of Representatives.

the Speaker of the House

The number of members of this division of Congress is 100.

the Senate

The number of members of this division of Congress is 435.

House of Representatives

These members of Congress were originally chosen by state legislatures.

senators

This is an independent federal agency that enforces federal securities laws, regulates the financial industry, and requires public companies to disclose meaningful financial information to the public.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

In 1913, the ________ Amendment to the U.S. Constitution standardized the popular election of Senators nationwide.

17th

This ensures accountability, efficiency, and legality in government operations, often focusing on investigating waste, fraud, and abuse to inform legislative decisions.

Government Oversight

This president stated in his inaugural address that "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."

Ronald Reagan

To boost a stagnant economy, these officials (the Central Bank of the United States) primarily use expansionary monetary policy, focusing on lowering short-term interest rates to make loans cheaper for consumers and businesses.

Federal Reserve

This is a metaphor for the appropriation of government spending for localized projects intended to benefit specific constituents or campaign contributors, primarily to secure reelection.

Pork Barrel

A real-world example of this type of politics is the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska, a proposed $398 million project to connect Ketchikan to Gravina Island.

Pork-Barrel Politics

This is the deliberate manipulation of electoral district boundaries to give one political party or group an unfair advantage.

Gerrymandering

This type of spending is federal funding authorized by permanent law rather than by annual appropriations, primarily covering entitlement programs.

Mandatory Spending

The so-called "Bridge to Nowhere" became a major symbol of this type of government spending.

Wasteful

The "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska refers to the project meant to connect Ketchikan to its airport on sparsely populated Gravina Island.

Gravina Island Bridge

This is an economic philosophy advocating for minimal or no government intervention in the market.

Laissez-Faire

This theory holds that economic growth is best achieved by lowering taxes, reducing regulations, and promoting free trade.

Supply-Side (Reaganomics) Economics

This policy is a government action that transfers income, wealth, property, or rights from certain groups to others to reduce inequality.

Policy of Redistribution

This is a tax where the tax rate takes a larger percentage of income from low-income earners than from high-income earners.

Regressive Tax

This economist believed that government spending creates jobs and increases income, generating a multiplier effect to stimulate economic growth.

John Maynard Keynes

This type of spending is set annually by Congress for non-military programs like education and transportation.

Non-Defense discretionary (NDD) spending

A program that guarantees benefits to members of a specific group or segment of the population.

entitlement

Government spending earmarked for entitlement programs guaranteeing support to those who meet certain qualifications.

mandatory spending

A health insurance program for low-income families.

medicaid

An entitlement health insurance program for older people and retirees.

medicare

A tax that tends to increase the effective tax rate as the wealth or income of the taxpayer increases.

progressive tax

A tax that takes a larger percentage of income from low-income earners than high-income earners.

regressive tax

Federal spending intended to benefit a particular district or set of constituencies.

pork-barrel politics