CONGRESS

CH 10-12

QUALIFICATIONS FOR CONGRESSHouse Senate

25+ years old 30+ yrs

US citizen for 7 years Citizen for 9 years

Must be a resident of the State representing

Usually live in the district

representing

SELECTION PROCESSUsually selected by their party

No affiliation necessary

Costly to run, hard to do it on your own

Both senators and representative are elected by voters now

17th Amendment (1913)

Governors have the power to appoint Senators to office if something happens to an incumbent

Representatives are elected by special election in the House

BICAMERAL LEGISLATUREBritish have a similar example

House of Lords and House of Commons

Helps with checks and balances

Settles issues of representation between big and small states

Every state gets two Senators

Big states can address economic issues in the House

Based on population

435 Representatives in the House

Each represents about 715k people

HOW SEATS ARE APPORTIONEDSenate

2 per state = 100 Senators

House

435 members – each state gets at least 1 (7 states only have 1)

Based on population

1. California – 53

2. Texas - 36

3. New York – 27

4. Florida - 27

Calculations from census every ten years (years ending in “0”)

CONGRESSIONAL TERMS

Period of time during which Congress remains in session between elections

Each Congress is numbered in sequence and has a lifespan of two years

Currently 113th Congress – until January 2015

113th has been one of the least popular Congresses in history as well as one of the least productive

ORGANIZATIONSpeaker of the House –

John Boehner (R- Ohio)

Leader of majority party in

the House

Powers

Recognizing members

Can’t take the floor w/o being recognized

Interpreting House rules

Enables the delay or speeding up of passing laws

ORGANIZATIONPresident of the Senate

Constitution gives this role to the Vice President

President pro tempore – Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont)

Serves as president most of the time

Vice President rarely sits in on

Senate

Picked by majority party

WHERE CONGRESS GETS ITS POWERDelegated Powers – powers found in the Constitution

Inherent Powers – belong to any national govt

Protecting the nation from invasion

Gaining new territory

Expressed Powers – Article I Section 8

Most powers are spelled out in the Constitution

AKA – Enumerated powers

Tax rates

How money gets spent

WHERE CONGRESS GETS ITS POWER

Expressed powers

War Powers –

Congress solely has the ability to declare war

President can still send troops

Vietnam

War Powers Resolution1973

If Congress wants to stop a war/military intervention they can not approve the military budget

Power of the Purse

WHERE CONGRESS GETS IT POWER

Implied powers

elastic clause

Congress has the ability to make all laws that are

necessary and proper

President can still veto and the Supreme Court may

find them unconstitutional

What Congress can’t do

Suspend habeas corpus during peace time

National Defense Authorization Act DEC 2011

Any enemy of the state can be held

indefinitely without charge or trial

Ex Post Facto Laws

Punishing individuals for offenses that were not

illegal at the time

ADDITIONAL POWERSAmendments to the Constitution

Must pass both houses by 2/3 majority vote

27th Amendment – 1992

Pay scales of Congress can’t change until new terms start

Impeachment – removal of a federal official for “high crimes”

Only 2 Presidents have been impeached

Andrew Johnson – 1868

Bill Clinton - 1998

BENEFITS TO BEING A MEMBER OF CONGRESSSalary –

Members of the House and Senate - $174k

Speaker of the House – $223,500

No minimum amount of time working needed to be

paid

Time off – Congress met 147 time this year

218 vacation days?

Retirement plans

Pensions

Health insurance

Congress and Fiscal Policy

Congress takes tax money and spends it on various programs

Social Security

Lunch Programs for schools

National Defense

Lots of money is wasted on various studies as well

$700K to understand green house gas emissions

from cow burps

Examples of Govt Waste

$571M to plant flowers along roadsides

$3M to understand how World of Warcraft players collaborate

$140K to count the number of Samoans living in Orange County California

$640K developing new kinds of beef jerky for the military

US Budget

Alexander Hamilton developed the first budget for the nation

Plan for how govt spending would work

Most revenue came from tariffs and property taxes

As the country grew more regulations were added

Controlling corporations and monopolies

Social welfare programs

Tax Sources

Personal Income Tax Percentage of each working Americans pay check goes to the govt

Sixteenth Amendment 1913

Progressive tax rates

Those who make more, pay more

Loop holes

Deductions and exemptions enable lower tax

rates

Individuals

Tax Sources

Social SecurityEstablished in 1935

Provide benefits for old age office and factory

workers

Checks are supposed to help cover

1. survivor insurance

2. Disability insurance

3. Unemployment

4. Medical

5. Retirement plans for civil service workers

Tax Sources

Corporate taxes

Corporations are taxed in addition to revenue generated by employees

Many loopholes exist so many corporations pay nearly $0 in taxes

Corporate Taxes

GE - $80B in profit

+$3B tax refund

Verizon, Exxon Mobil, IBM, Kraft Foods

All received tax refunds even after record profit years and cutting employee jobs and benefits

Microsoft – One of the largest off shore holdings in the world

Prevents them from having to pay taxes in America

Tax Sources

Excise Taxes

Taxes levied on specific goods

Cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana?

Customs Taxes

Goods purchased overseas

Duty free shops in the airport

All collected and monitored by the IRS – Internal Revenue Service

Where does the money go?

Defense

Spending has dropped from 49% to 20% over the last

40 years

Direct Care Benefits

Social Security checks

Interest on National Debt

Other?

The Debt CeilingCongress sets a limit on how much the govt can spend

No money for programs or departments, the govt has

to shut down

Debt Interest

Value of the dollar decreases as we borrow more

money

Other nations lose faith in our govt

Inflation

Regulating Money Supply

Fed govt insures money in bank accounts

Up to $250K in one account (2012)

Prevents people from losing savings if another

banking crises were to occur

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)