Us Government Unit 2 Test

Front 1

liberal - examples!

Back 1

favors active government, socially and economically liberal (marijuana legalization, graduated taxes) - generally young, white, college-educated, secular or Jewish

Front 2

conservative - examples!

Back 2

favors laissez faire government, socially and economically conservative (oppose estate taxes, favor military spending, criminals as examples rather than root causes) - generally wealthy, white, Christian, Midwestern

Front 3

populist - examples!

Back 3

socially conservative, economically liberal (would favor harsh punishments for criminals but graduated taxes) - generally poorly educated, female, South or Midwestern, low-income

Front 4

libertarian - examples!

Back 4

socially liberal, economically conservative (would favor marijuana legalization but flat taxes) - generally white, young, college-educated, non-religious

Front 5

Republican Party Tendencies

Back 5

1. Individual responsibility
2. Less government interference; government should only interfere on issues that individuals can not handle themselves
3. State and local government activity vs. federal
4. Cut back or eliminate unnecessary or overlapping Federal programs
5. Free enterprise will bring individual and national prosperity

Front 6

Democratic Party Tendencies

Back 6

1. Group benefit over individual; society has collective responsibility
2. Less emphasis on individual enterprise and initiative
3. Urban and national problems sometimes make state and local government obsolete
4. Active role by Federal government
5. Economy must be managed at the Federal level

Front 7

Social Security - definition and issues

Back 7

Tax everyone pays to benefit the elderly and handicapped after retirement; issues = longer life expectancy, earlier retirement, only four workers left for every retired person

Front 8

Medicare - definition and issues

Back 8

Tax everyone pays to support health care for the elderly and the poor (Medicaid), covers hospital expenses and doctor's bills. Issues = inefficient and expensive, unnecessary hospital service usage, doctors/hospitals overcharge government, doctors/hospitals paid by government approved plans that can change whenever the government wants to save money

Front 9

Solutions to Social Security

Back 9

1) Raise retirement age to seventy, freeze retirement benefits and raise social security taxes
2) Privatize social security (invest taxes in stock market)
3) First two plus invest taxes in mutual funds

Front 10

Solutions to Medicare

Back 10

1) Eliminate Medicare, have doctors/hospitals work for the government
2) Elderly take Medicare money and buy health insurance from private suppliers
3) Spend money to prolong Medicare, add benefits, postpone the inevitable

Front 11

Monetarism

Back 11

Conservative/libertarian - monetary policy, government should provide a steady supply of money and then leave the economy be

Front 12

Keynesianism

Back 12

Liberal/populist - fiscal policy, concerning levels of demand; government should fuel the economy with money when demand is too low and take money out when demand is too high

Front 13

Supply-Side Tax Cuts

Back 13

Conservative/libertarian - fiscal policy; tax cuts will help the economy and government in the long run (Laffer Curve); people pay less so more spending will occur

Front 14

Planning

Back 14

Socialist/pure liberal - fiscal policy; government should have regulations and controls on the economy; price and wage controls

Front 15

Fiscal policy

Back 15

government influence in the economy

Front 16

Monetary policy

Back 16

government influence in supply, availability and cost of money to stabilize the economy

Front 17

OMB

Back 17

Office of Management and Budget - prepare estimates of federal spending, negotiate with other departments on budget size, check proposals; analyzes spending and budget patterns, tries to accomplish president's wishes

Front 18

Reaganomics

Back 18

Combination of supply-side tax cuts, monetarism and budget cuts to stimulate the economy; decrease unemployment and increase military funding, reduce size of federal government

Front 19

CBO

Back 19

Congressional Budget Office - provides economic data and analysis to Congress

Front 20

Federal Reserve Board/System

Back 20

"The Fed" - regulate supply of money and price of money, buy and sell government securities, regulate on-hand bank money, change interest charged banks;

Front 21

Entitlement/Mandatory Spending

Back 21

Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, veterans benefits; budgets are set by number of eligible recipients, not at discretion of Congress

Front 22

Discretionary Spending

Back 22

government planners can choose how much to spend on it, yearly decision, part of fiscal policy

Front 23

Cost of Living Adjustment

Back 23

annual adjustment in wages to offset a change in purchasing power measured by Consumer Price Index, offset inflation as experienced by the consumer

Front 24

Deficit

Back 24

annual excess of expenditures over revenues

Front 25

Debt

Back 25

accumulation of annual deficit

Front 26

Surplus

Back 26

excess of what is required

Front 27

Payroll taxes

Back 27

paid from an employer's own funds and withheld from employee's paycheck

Front 28

Capital Gains tax

Back 28

profit realizes on the sale of a non-inventory asset purchased at a lower price