1. Chapter 12

2. Congress Constitution (Art. I is biggest and framers expected it to be the dominant branch) Makeup (113 th Congress) ◦ Peoples house? ◦ 100 Women/43 AA/31 HA/9 Asian/ 7 LGBT ◦ Getting better Elections ◦ Incumbents win  HR 90%, Sen less (Statewide) ◦ Adantages  Advertising (Franking)  Credit claiming  Position taking  Weak opponents  Campaign spending

3. Congress Bicameral (U.S. and every state except Nebraska) House v. Senate (see table 12.2) ◦ House has Rules Committee ◦ Senate has Filibuster ◦ Others  Big v. Small  People v. State  Young v. Old  Passion v. Deliberation

4. Congress Leadership ◦ House  Speaker* (Boehner) #1  Majority Leader (Cantor) #4  Minority Leader (Pelosi) #5  Majority Whip (McCarthy)  Minority Whip (Hoyer) ◦ Senate  VP* (only ties) (Biden)  President Pro Tempore* (show) (Leahy)  Majority Leader (Reid) #2  Minority Leader (McConnell) #3  Majority Whip (Durbin)  Minority Whip (Cornyn) *Only leadership positions in Constitution

5. Congress Behavior ◦ Representational/Delegate=Constituents ◦ Organizational/Partisan=Party ◦ Attitudinal/Trustee=Self ◦ Politico=All 3

6. Committee Standing (Permanent) Joint (Only a few-Taxes/Econ./Mil) Conference (work on versions of same bill) Select (Temporary)

7. Congress Caucuses ◦ Same interest ◦ Push committees to act (power)

8. Congress Staff ◦ Personal ◦ Committee ◦ Staff Agencies  CRS  GAO  CBO *Most on casework

9. Congress How a bill becomes a law ◦ See Figure 12.2 ◦ Open/Closed and Restrictive ◦ Most Bills die in committee (90%)

10. Congressional Budget Revenues Expenditures *Deficit (spend more than we take in) **Surplus (spend less than we take in)

11. (Budget cont.) Sources of Revenue ◦ Income Taxes (16 th ) ◦ Corporate Taxes ◦ Social Insurance Tax Debt

12. Fiscal Policy (tax and spend) Tax expenditures Expenditures over the years ◦ New Deal (soc. sec.) ◦ WWII ◦ Cold War ◦ Medicare/Medicaid Uncontrollable expenditures Entitlements

13. (cont.) Budget process ◦ Who’s involved (see 421) Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 ◦ Calendar ◦ Budget Comm. In each house ◦ CBO

14. Economy Two ways to effect the economy Fiscal Policy and Monetary Policy Fiscal Policy ◦ Tax and Spend ◦ Congress

15. Monetary Policy NOT CONGRESS Government manipulation of the money supply using the Federal Reserve