AP GOV DOMESTIC POLICY VOCAB

Insurance Program:

Insurance Program:

A self-financing government program based on contributions that provide benefits to unemployed or retired persons

Assistance Program

A government program financed by general income taxes that provides benefits to poor citizens without requiring contributions from them.

Means Test

An inquiry into the financial position of someone applying for financial aid.

Social Security Act, 1935

It created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement.

Medicare and Medicaid, 1965

It established Medicare, a health insurance program for the elderly, and Medicaid, a health insurance program for people with limited income.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) 2010

The law provides numerous rights and protections that make health coverage more fair and easy to understand, along with subsidies to make it more affordable.

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), 1935

A grant program to enable states to provide cash welfare payments for needy children who had been deprived of parental support or care because their father or mother was absent from the home, incapacitated, or deceased.

Temporary Assistance to Needy Children (TANF), 1996

It provided cash assistance to families with children experiencing poverty.

Agency Capture

Process whereby regulatory agencies come to be protective and influenced by the industries they were established to regulate.

\n Environmental Impact Statements:

A report required by federal law that assesses the possible effect of a project on the environment if the project is subsidized in whole or part by federal funds.

Domestic Policy

include all government laws, planning and actions involving internal issues of national importance, including:

• Healthcare

• Poverty

• Crime

• Environment

• Education

• Immigration

Incremental Policy

• small scale adjustment in an existing program

Comphesneice Policy or Punctuating Policy:

Dramatic change in the federal government role

Distributive Policy

benefits all groups in society

• Example: Social Security or Medicare, National Parks, national defense, education funds

Redistivice Policy

Taking resources away form one group( usually in the form of taxes) to distribute to another group

• Example: Wealth redistribution programs such as Head Start, welfare; redistribution of income

  • Zero-Sum Games: Rob peter to pay Paul; one loses resources equivalent to one who gains resources

Counter Distributive Policy

Takes resources away from all groups to solve a common problem

• Example: places restrictions on high pollution vehicles to improve air quality

• Utilizes a cost/benefit analusz ro see if change makes sense

Medicare

Federal health insurance for elderly and disabled

Medicaid

Health insurance for low income families

National Health Insurance

• Goal of insuring uninsured

• Affordable Care Act, 2012

Social Welfare Policies

Provide benefits to individuals based on either Entitlements or Means-Tested Programs

Means-Tested Programs:

Based on need like food stamps or medicaid.

• Controversial due to philosophical differences

• Deserving Poor vs Undeserving Poor

• Social Darwinism vs Cyclical / Structural Poverty

Relative Deprivation

perception by an individual that they are not doing well economically in comparison to others

Poverty Line

Income threshold below which people are considered poor

• 1 person = 11,170

• 4 person = 23,050

• 43.6 million, about 14.3%, officially poor in 2009

Feminization of Poverty:

Increasing concentration of poverty among women

Governments Affect on Income

Government can affect income via two ways: Taxation and Expenditures

Government forms of taxation

• Progressive Tax: bigger % from rich

• Proportional Tax: same % from all

• Regressive Tax: bigger % from poor

• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): refundable credit for working people who earn low incomes

Government forms of Expenditures

Transfer Payments: benefits directly to individuals

• Cash, food stamps, low % loans

Welfare conflict

Media portrays recipients as minority when majority are white

• Americans tend to see welfare recipients as overwhelmingly African-American, lazy and undeserving

Efficacy of Groups - Social Welfare Policymaking

• Elderly: well-organized with high amount of resources which is successful

• Poor: vote less, less money, few organizations which is less effective

Evolution of “Welfare State”

• 1789-1935: parents care for children who take care of parents as they age

• 1935: Social Security Act created as part of FDR’s New Deal

  • Money for retired and disabled

  • Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)

• 1964: LBJ’s “War on Poverty”

  • Medicare/Medicaid

  • 1980s: De-funding of social welfare programs under Reagan

  • 1996: Welfare Reform Act, WJ Clinton

    • Must find work within 2 years

    • Total of 5 years welfare

    • AFDC changed to TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)

Deficit

This occurs when the federal government's spending exceeds its revenues.

National Debt:

Total amount of money the federal government owes, which includes that spent and interest.

Gross Domestic Product:

The dollar amount of all final goods and services produced within a country's national borders in a year.

Monetarism

A theory that the government should control the money supply to encourage economic growth and restrain inflation.

Keynesianism

the belief the government must manage the economy by spending more money when in a recession and cutting spending when there is inflation.

Economic Planning:

The belief that government plans, such as wage and price controls or the direction of investment, can improve the economy

Supply-Side Theory:

The belief that lower taxes and fewer regulations will stimulate the economy.

Federal Reserve System (“Fed”):

Consisting of twelve Federal Reserve districts, the Fed facilitates exchanges of cash, checks, and credit. It regulates member banks and it uses monetary policies to fight inflation and deflation.

\n Monetary Policy:

Regulating the money supply, controlling inflation/deflation, adjusting the interest rates to regulate the economy, the cost of money, and adjusting the band reserve requirements.

Fiscal Policy:

Using government spending and taxation to influence the economy. This includes decisions on how much the government spends on various programs, how much it collects in taxes, and how it manages its budget.

Globalization:

The increasing interconnectedness of people, cultures, economies, and nations facilitated by technology, trade, and cultural diffusion.

Budget

A policy document that allocates burdens (taxes) and benefits (expenditures).

Fiscal Year

A twelve-month period that is used for bookkeeping, or accounting, purposes. Usually, the fiscal year does not coincide with the calendar year. For example, the federal government's fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30.

Budget Resolution

A resolution binding Congress to a total expenditure level, supposedly the bottom line of all federal spending for all programs

Entitlements

Those benefits guaranteed by law paid to individuals by the federal government, such as Social Security.

Sequester

The practice of using mandatory spending cuts in the federal budget if the cost of running the government exceeds either an arbitrary amount or the gross revenue it brings during the fiscal year.

\n Discretionary Spending:

Those areas of the budget that the congress can change year to year and includes the 13 appropriation bills that fund the various agencies of the federal government

Problems with healthcare in US

• Key Indicator = Infant Mortality

• U.S. spends more, as a % of GDP (gross income products), than any other nation (17%)

• Even though we spend the most per capita per nation, we do not live the longest.

Why IS US Healthcare So Expensive?

• Overbuilt medical facilities

• Few incentives to be efficient

  • No ‘single-payer’ system, government, private insurance, and individual out-of-pocket

• New Drugs and Technology

• Malpractice lawsuits, insurance and Defensive Medicine

• Uninsured and Underinsured

Quality of Health

• Income: 25% of those are less than $25,000 per year, uninsured

• Race:

  • 31% of Latinos

  • 19% of African Americans

    • Twice infant mortality of whites

    • 15% of whites uninsured

      • 5+ years of life expectancy over African Americans

Age: 7 million children uninsured; 18-29 year olds

Evolution of Healthcare

• WWII: wage freezes led to healthcare benefits being added to employment as an incentive for hiring

• Medicare: about 43 million people or 14 %

• Medicaid: about 43 million people or 14%

• Children’s Health INsurance Program (CHIP): 11 million

Who was the first president that took started implementing environmental policies and took conservation seriously?

Teddy Roosevelt

Teddy Roosvelt

• Implemented many policies for conservation of the national environmental features

• Encouraged the Newlands Reclamation Act

1970’s Impact on Environmental Policies

• The 1970's hippie era had a major contribution to environmental policies through advocating for more environmental regulation and protection.

• Environment Protection Agency

  • Nation's Largest Regulatory Agency

  • Environmental Impact Statements

  • Clean Air Act

  • Water Pollution Control Act

  • Endangered Species Act

  • Global Warming

Concerns over Nuclear Power

Since the 3 mile island incident, No new nuclear plants have been constructed since 1978  but still makes up 21% of our energy

Strategic Oil Reserve:

Created after 1973 embargo underground salt caverns song the Gulf of Mexico. Its primarily a crude petroluem reserve, an emergency stockpile, meant to shield the US from energy supply crunches

Future Sources/Issues With Oil Explorations

• Difficulty to find or access

• Pipeline Issues

• Public Lands

• Offshore Drilling

Three Mile Island Incident

A partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 reactor on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania, near the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, and released radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment, affecting the people who lived there.