AP Government and Politics
Chapter 15-17, 20, 21 test study guide
Mr. Baysdell
1.
One reason that politicians have not eliminated federal budget deficits is that Congresss has been split between
Republicans, who favor cutting spending, and Democrats who thought it would be better to raise taxes.
2. Policy entrepreneurs do NOT try to accurately represent the interests of the general public; they favor one
particularly industry or interest group.
3. Recent revisions in the federal tobacco-subsidy program best illustrate the limit of the power of ideas to effect
changes in policy.
4. Know about:
Majoritarian politics: Almost everybody pays, almost everyone benefits
Client-centered politics: Good example is steel tariff of 2001.
5. The Courts, the media, and the U.S. Senate have played an increasingly important role in the agenda setting
process in government, but the U.S. House is losing its ability to affect the agenda.
6. Know all labor related laws from the 1930s and 1940s: Wagner Act of 1935 created the National Labor Relations
Board and legitimized unions; Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 allowed states to pass right to work laws.
7. Politicians are most likely to support programs whose costs won’t be revealed for quite some time.
8. The amount of money any Presidential administration spends on antitrust enforcement are dependent on political
ideology (Democrats crack down more) and personal convictions than interest group pressure.
9. The Clayton Act strengthened the Sherman Antitrust Act by creating the Federal Trade Commission.
10. Many citizens in recent years have changed their attitudes, preferring additional environmental regulations at the
federal level.
11. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair was a good example of Progressivism that targeted the meatpacking industry and
led Teddy Roosevelt to propose and sign the Pure food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Acts in 1906. This is
also a good example of entrepreneurial politics.
12. The scope of “legitimate” government policy is always growing larger.
13. The founders intended the Senate to be a conservative body, not a major source of political change.
14. Most people view the results of government programs in terms of CURRENT costs and benefits.
15. Logrolling is the process of trading votes on 2 pieces of legislation or including so many earmarks that legislators
all vote for the bill since it allows them to bring home the bacon.
16. The NLRB has been changed repeatedly as different anti-labor and pro-labor administrations have come into
power.
17. When public attitudes change, interest groups can gain or lose power and legitimacy.
18. Farm subsidies are a byproduct of the legacy of the Great Depresion and politics, since farmers are key and
changeable voters.
BUDGET QUESTIONS
19. Most Americans believe that the federal government could cut spending significantly if it chose to do so.
20. The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 did not limit mandatory spending for entitlements butit did impose a “payas-you-go” approach.
21. Typically, the economic advisor with the closest link to the financial community is the Secretary of the Treasury,
who also provides the President with estimates of tax revenues.
22. As a group, low income people tend to be most concerned with employment.
23. Japan imposes a smaller tax burden on its citizens than the United States.
24. The growing federal budget deficit that began in 1981 was the result of:
 A major tax cut
 Spending on military to defeat the Soviets
 Revenue sharing
25. Check out figure 16.4 in your textbook; France imposes a high tax burden and it’s mostly income tax. Italy is
another country with a high income tax.
26. The Federal Reserve is largely independent of executive control than are the three main economic advisors.
27. Conservatives are more likely to find monetarism appealing than liberals. Monetarists favor little government
intervention and believe the best way to grow the economy is to slightly increase the money supply regularly.
28. Members of congress are more than willing to use the government’s economic power to influence elections. exL
Clinton releasing oil from Strategic Petroleum Reserve just before 2000 election.
29. In 1990, Congress raised taxes to help balance the budget.
30. Democrats tend to worry more about unemployment; Republicans worry more about inflation.
31. Reaganomics= increased military spending + tax cuts. Led to low unemployment
32. Be familiar with the Gramm-Rudman law, what it contained, and why it is no longer.
33. Pocketbook issues tend to preoccupy politicians most just before elections.
34. Reagan’s economic priorities in his first term included: reducing the federal government’s size, stimulating
economic growth, and increasing U.S. military strength.
35. The 1981 budget passed a Republican-controlled Senate and a blue-dog Democrat/Republican minority in the
House.
36. The Constitution is silent on whether Congress may spend money on welfare.
37. One reason Medicare initially looked like a free lunch was that there were many payers and few beneficiaries.
That has changed now, with there being only 3 workers for every 1 recipient.
38. No Child Left Behind Law of 2001:
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Republicans complained because the law did nothing for the cause of school vouchers.
The public seemed to respond to passage of the Act favorably.
The plan was supported by Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy.
The Act was passed quite easily.
39. TANF and Food Stamps are a good example of client politics. They both only help a relatively small group of
people.
40. U.S. welfare programs have never had a major goal of resdistributing income.
41. The Social Security Act’s constitutionality was a subject of fierce debate. Liberal arguments finally won out in
Congress.
42. AFDC was created to help the children of women who were fatherless by death or disaster only. It grew out of
the Social Security Act (OASDI= Old-Age, Survivor’s, and Disability Insurance)
43. Over the years, AFDC recipients were eligible for the earned income credit—a payment given even when no tax is
due.
44. Organized labor did not call for federal welfare programs until the 1960s and was originally opposed to them.
45. The Medicare program has no means test—everyone with 40 quarters of service gets benefits (even Warren
Buffett, if he wanted them)
46. The AFDC program was criticized because it enabled healthy parents to just take AFDC instead of working.
47. Welfare reform came in 1996 when AFDC became TANF, which has a 5 year limit on benefits.
48. SSI Supplemental Security Insurance—given to aged, blind, and disabled people whose income is below a certain
level.
MILITARY/DIPLOMATIC/FOREIGN POLICY QUESTIONS
49. President Clinton lifted the ban partially on gays in the military, choosing to implement a “don’t ask, don’t tell”
policy.
50. The Joint Chiefs of Staff include the uniformed head of each service.
51. As death rates increase, generally the public favors MORE escalation, to defeat the enemy.
52. Containment grew out of the Cold War and was devised by George Kennan (Mr.X) in an article in Foreign Affairs
magazine.
53. Foreign policy decision-makers are generally more liberal and more internationalist than college-educated people
as a whole.
54. The idea that defense politics is client politics is stressed by those who emphasize the importance of the militaryindustrial complex.
55. The high cost of some small-ticket items are not due to price gouging or inefficiency, but rather, accounting
anomalies.
56. U.S. policy is to be always armed.
57. U.S. Presidents have sent troops abroad 100+ times without Congressional authorization.
58. John F. Kennedy and George W. Bush were the only 2 recent presidents NOT to rely extensively on their
Secretary of State for foreign policy making.
59. It is possible, according to the text, to deal with any defense spending problem (low estimates, sole sourcing,
stretch-outs) except the uncertain costs of new weapons
60. The all-volunteer force was threatened by military pay that was not competitive.
61. After the Vietnam War, some Americans embraced the disengagement view of foreign policy.
62. Americans are leery of military expeditions, but generally support them and want to win once they start.
63. After World War I, America grew isolationist.
64. The power to declare war is NOT an exclusively congressional one. There is no evidence that a President could
not veto a declaration of war.
65. The grand issues in foreign policy are majoritarian in nature.
66. Since 1789, there have been about 1,000 treaties but about 13,000 executive orders.
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY QUESTIONS
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Superfund and the EPA were created under the Nixon administration.
Polluters typically falsify data about pollution.
EIS (Environmental Impact Statements) applies only to federal agencies and is part of the NEPA.
Command and control policies don’t usually solve environmental problems.
The Clean Air Act of 1970 did not require scrubbers on all power plants.
Under the compromise Bush administration acid-rain plan, certain businesses in proximity to other pollution
emitters must install scrubbers.
The public opposed the provision of the Clean Air Act to eliminate smog by imposing rules restricting the public’s
use of cars.
Know about offsets and carbon trading.
Low-sulfur coal is more expensive than high-sulfur coal but it pollutes less.
An average citizen is most likely to support environmental measures when the costs are hidden or deferred.
Environmental policy often takes the form of entrepreneurial politics, which requires emotional appeals to
overcome the political advantages of client groups.
Farmers have actively and effectively resisted efforts to ban the use of agricultural pesticides.