G12

1. What priorities seem to be most important to the President? Give evidence from your readings -- and explain why these programs might be important priorities to him.
1. He seems to prioritize programs such as Social Security and Health programs. But, these are mandatory I think I read. So other than those he prioritizes defense spending, pell grants, and lunch for schools.
2. What are some especially notable changes that the President proposes, compared to the previous year's budget? Why might he want to make those changes?
1. He is decreasing the amount of money to medicare and also decreasing the amount of money to natural resources. He cut a lot of the money for defense and basically for everything except for some miscellaneous things not mentioned. 
3. What elements of his plan will his opponents in Congress be most likely to strongly oppose? Why?
1. Honestly, I'm not sure but I am gonna guess that it could be the cut on defense spending because they probably want to protect the U.S?

G10

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/us/florida-self-defense-law-hung-over-jury-in-michael-dunn-trial.html?smid=tw-share

This story involved Michael Dunn who is being accused of murdering Jordan Davis after a dispute over loud music. Dunn claims he was defending himself through the Stand Your Ground laws in Florida, but much evidence shows otherwise.

From what the article is saying, I don't think Dunn had any right to shoot at the group of teens that were bothering him. They had no weapons on them and Dunn should not have assumed that these kids would have weapons on them. To me, he seems a little racist especially after the description of the teens that he gave. Although I do believe that people have the right to kill somebody if the menace is truly threatening your life, in the case of Dunn, he did not have that right and should be sent to prison.

G9

1. Would you focus more on cutting spending? Raising taxes? Both? Identify some specific actions you might take. (What would you consider cutting? What kinds of taxes might you raise?)
1. `I would focus more on both. There are some programs that spend too much money, such as homeland security and the military. There are also taxes that should be implemented such as taxes on the rich...
2. After I did both of the activities I noticed that I didn't do as  much cutting on the military as I thought, a lot of it actually seemed necessary. But an area that I really focused on was with medicare and social security. I raised the age requirement for medicare and also chose to revamp medicare. These actions would really affect the elderly in the country, but I put myself in their position and decided it wouldn't really be that bad.

G7

 1 (a): EXPLAIN, in your own words, two reasons Congress gives agencies policy-making discretion in executing federal laws. 

Congress gives agencies policy-making discretion because the members of agencies have specialized jobs that they are very knowledgeable in. Members of the USDA know more about the agriculture and how to deal with it than most members of Congress. Another reason is that agencies do not hire amateurs, they only have professionals.

> 1 (b): Provide a direct quotation (and a page number in your book) to back up one of your claims from above.

"It uses task specialization so that experts instead of amateurs perform technical jobs." Page 472

> 2: DESCRIBE two ways in which Congress ensures that federal agencies follow legislative intent.

Congress uses its power of oversight to check that what the agencies are doing is following the law, and they have the power to allocate their funds. This means that they decide how much money the agencies can spend and when.

> 3 (a): For each bureaucratic agency listed below, IDENTIFY the policy area over which it exercises    policy-making discretion.

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): www.epa.gov
• The EPA exercises its policy-making discretion over laws and policies that affect the environment of the U.S
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC): www.fcc.gov
• The FCC exercises its policy-making discretion over laws and policies that affect interstate and international communications through multiple media sources.
• Federal Reserve Board: www.federalreserve.gov
• The FRB exercises its policy-making discretion over the regulation of money

> 3 (b): For each agency above, IDENTIFY a specific action it takes to exercise its duties. 

-The EPA can investigate cases that involve a vast number of environmental things so that they can improve it.

-The FCC can censor certain words and other things that they might not find suitable for the public to see.

- The Federal Reserve Board supplies money and credit to the economy.

G4

(a) For each of the presidential powers below, explain one way that congressional decision making is affected by that power.

• Executive privilege

Executive privilege is the power for the president to withhold information from the public or congress and the courts. This affects the congressional decision making by not allowing Congress to make decisions because the information they get from the president is limited.

• Power to issue executive orders

Executive orders are orders given by the president that can be executed without the approval of Congress. This affects Congress because they have no say in what the President says so they can't decide what the president does.

• Power as commander in chief

As commander in chief, the president can send troops to seas without approval from Congress for a limit of 60 days. Congress can decide how much money is spent, if any, so the President can send troops but he could be not funded because of Congress.

(b) For each of the congressional powers below, explain one way that presidential decision making is affected by that power.

• Legislative oversight power

Legislative oversight is the power congress has to watch over or review other parts of government. The president can still stop some congressional power or lessen the extent of it.

• Senate advice and consent power

With this, the president chooses not to make controversial nominations for different positions because he knows that Congress has to agree with the nomination. Also, this makes him think about when to send out troops because he knows that Congress has the money power.

• Budgetary power

When the president wants to do something, he needs money, and since the budget comes from Congress, he has to consider Congress and the needs of Congress when planning what he wants. He can also postpone things in his agenda because he might not get budget approval from Congress.

G2

Link: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/obama-deportation-immigration-executive-power-103096.html
Unique Summary:
Lately, Obama has been pressured to stop deportations for all illegal immigrants, not just the "dreamers." He can't exactly do this even though there is a 41 page petition for it.
Formal Powers:
-One of the president's formal powers is Executive clemency, the power to pardon people for crimes.
- I couldn't really find a way how any of his formal powers would fit in with this but maybe by not deporting the immigrants he is allowing this clemency?
Informal Powers:
-He has the informal power of executive power, he can do things without having approvement by Congress but only if it's for the benefit of the people. Here, the people want Obama to use his executive power by not deporting immigrants, but he can't do this.

F12

(a) Identify two formal constitutional powers of the President in making foreign policy.
One constitutional power the president has is that he is commander-in-chief  so he can send troops of soldiers to another country whenever he wants and another is that he can create treaties with other countries.

(c) Identify two informal powers of the President that contribute to the President's advantage over Congress in making foreign policy.

Two informal powers the president has that contribute to his advantage over congress are that he can meet with world leaders and he also has better communication with the media.

(d) Explain how each of the informal powers described in (c)contributes to the President's advantage over Congress in making foreign policy.
By meeting with world leaders, the president has an advantage over Congress because he can speak directly with people from other countries which makes it easier for members of another country's government to agree with policies via the president than by members of Congress. The president is easiest to talk to when talking about policies because he is one person and is more recognized as the leader as opposed to the 535 members of Congress.

(e) Explain two provisions of the War Powers Act that Congress wrote to limit the president's power.

The War Powers Act that Congress wrote was created to limit the presidential power. Two provisions of the act are that he must notify Congress at least 48 hours prior to sending troops which limits the power of the president by not allowing him to have full control over when he sends the troops. Another provision is that the troops are limited to only 60 days unless Congress decides to extend the time. This limits the powers of the president because it doesn't give him full control over how long the troops may stay in an area.

F11

Substance:
-Immigration reform
-Create a new way for working Americans to start their own retirement savings.
-Troops out of Iraq

Style:
-It made me feel happy and a little anxious to see if any of his promises will come true
-He names a lot of "real" people and the problems or successes they have. I do think it works because it makes it seem relatable like I already said.

Audience:
- The audience is Congress, soldiers, Supreme Court Justices, and some other people
-Most of the audience had little expression and others were making awkward faces (Joe Biden and John Boehner)
-