congress ch 10-12. qualifications for congress house senate 25+ years old30+ yrs us citizen for 7...
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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)