Transcript George Smith`s excellent comparison

Key Figures of Federalism
By George Smith
George Bush
• Many thought he’d continue the decentralisation.
• However, Bush presided over the largest overall
increase in inflation-adjusted federal government
spending since Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society”
programme of the mid-1960s.
• Andrew Cline (2006) – “When Americans handed
Republicans the reins of government, they
thought they were getting a conservative regime,
one that would be honest, frugal and competent.
Instead, they got a big government regime that
has been dishonest, profligate and incompetent.”
• Total federal government spending grew by 33% in Bush’s first
term. Federal spending under Bush increased by 18%, from
$1.62 trillion to $1.79 trillion. An 11% increase in real
spending over the Clinton administration
• The federal budget share of the economy grew from 18.4% in
2000, to 20.5% in 2008.
• Bush created new federal government departments – the
Department of Homeland Security.
• Stephen Slivinski (2005) – “the republicans in Congress and
the White House have become defenders of big government”
• 4 areas which grew under Bush – education, Medicare,
homeland security and national defence, and the economy
and jobs.
Education
• Large turnaround from Republican presidents – Reagan (1981-89) pledged
to abolish the federal Department of Education. Spending on education
rose by 165% in 5 years.
• Early signs that Bush would not confirm the standard model of republican
federalism - No specific reference to federalism in his 2001 inauguration
speech. He was a social conservative, keener than most to use the power
of government to promote traditional morals. "No Child Left Behind" Act
2001 - set a national criteria for school performance and sanctions for
failure, to increase progress, national rules for testing established. 20%
increase in funding for the poorest, inner city schools. Bush – “Federal
Government will not micromanage how schools are run.”
• “No Child Left Behind” - Some people were unhappy as it was the biggest
expansion of federal influence in education since the 1960s. Bush had
extended federal power into an area traditionally played out locally. These
federal requirements were only partly funded by the government.
Medicare
• December 2003 Bush signed a major Medicare
expansion bill into law (included a new
prescription drug benefit).
• This cost $400bn in its first 10 years.
• A number of Republicans were critical, 25 in
the House and 9 in the Senate voted “no” in
its final passage.
Homeland Security and defence
• 2001-09, spending by the Department of Defence increased from
$291m to $651m, an increase of 125%. 2001-06 spending on
homeland security increased over five times form $13m to $69m.
Defence spending rose from 15% of the federal budget to 21%
under Bush.
• 9/11 increased Federalism as it lead to the creation of Homeland
Security, national ID cards and the 2001 Patriot Act (expanded
federal authority in the surveillance of suspected terrorists.
• Hurricane Katrina in 2005 - exposed many problems with the
federal structure. 2007 Defence Reorganisation Act (federalise
National Guard) - this move was opposed by the governors of all 50
states in a letter sent to Congress in 2006, it was passed anyway.
Federal Housing Finance Agency created.
Economy
• Economy and jobs – September 2008, Bush authorised
the Secretary of the Treasury to take control of the two
troubled privately owned companies – the Federal
National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home
Loan Mortgage Corporation.
• This gave the Federal Government half of the US
mortgage Market.
• Paulson – “Not since the early days of the FDR
administration has the government taken such a direct
role in the workings of the financial system.”
• $700bn bail-out package to Wall Street – passed
through congress mainly by Democrats.
Conclusion
• Many see Bush as a big government conservative
because of the increase of federal programmes and
spending, the revival of mandates, creation of new
agencies and massive federal bailouts in response to
the credit crunch.
• As the Governor of Texas for 6 years, Bush may not
have been happy about the increase of Federal powers
under his presidency. However, whilst Bush was a
Governor there were no national crisis that required
federal intervention like what was needed after 9/11
and Hurricane Katrina.
Rick Perry (Governor of Texas)
• Calls for state sovereignty and a limited federal
encroachment on “liberty”. - “States are best positioned to
deal with state issues.”
• In his most recent book, Fed Up!, Perry makes clear that his
focus on a limited federal government is about more than
policy. “The preservation of liberty requires a government
located closest to the people,” he writes, before quoting
from James Madison in Federalist 45. “The powers reserved
for the several states,” Madison wrote, “will extend to all
the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern
the lives, liberties and properties of the people.”
• Though states have the power to restrict and condition
abortion, as Perry has in Texas, they do not have the power
to outlaw it altogether.
Marriage
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Gay marriage - Perry did not hesitate when he was asked on July 23 what he
thought about New York state legalizing gay marriage. “That is their call,” he said.
“If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business.”
A few days later, there was no quaver in his voice when asked if states should be
able to allow abortion. “You either have to believe in the 10th Amendment or you
don’t,” Perry said. “You can’t believe in the 10th Amendment for a few issues and
then [for] something that doesn’t suit you say, ‘We’d rather not have states decide
that.’”
He now says he supports a federal constitutional amendment that would
effectively nullify the New York legislature’s ability to enact same-sex marriage.
Perry argued that his support for a federal marriage amendment was consistent
with his federalist view, because the amendment would prevent courts from
imposing recognition of same sex marriage onto unwilling states. “Indeed to not
pass the federal marriage amendment would impinge on Texas,”
This would mean that the people of the state of New York would no longer be able
to define liberty in their own lives. This runs contrary, in spirit, to Perry’s stated
views.
Social Security
• Social Security, Perry writes, is an example of the
federal government’s “violently tossing aside any
respect for our founding principles of federalism and
limited government.”
• Perry doesn’t just want to roll back regulations. He
wants to make it impossible for them to exist in the
first place.
• Perry’s wants to get rid of Social Security or bank
regulation. This would mean public pension systems
and bank regulation vary state by state. This would
looks less like the United States of America and a
whole lot more like the European Union.
Bill Clinton
• Supported “New Federalism”
• New Federalism - a gradual return of power to the states.
• Increase of block grants (started by Reagan) - freeing state governments to
spend the money at their own discretion.
• However, Clinton's first Federalism executive order gave federal agencies
power over state and local government agencies.
• On May 14, 1998, without much fanfare or public attention, the White
House released a new executive order on federalism. President Bill
Clinton's Executive Order 13083 revokes E.O. 12612, issued by President
Ronald Reagan in 1987
• Thierer said Clinton's Federalism order is a push to dismantle Reagan's
federal structure.
• "The executive order on federalism I signed will strengthen our
partnership with State and local governments and ensure that executive
branch agencies are able to do their work on behalf of the American
people” - Clinton
Barack Obama
• Bush focussed on war and terrorism, Obama from 2009-12 more
focussed on domestic policy.
• By 2012, the ratio of state and local government employees to
federal employees was the highest since before President
Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s.
• Federal Government assistance to the states increased from 3.7% of
GDP in the last year of the Bush administration to 4.6% of GDP in
the first year of the Obama administration.
• Money from the federal government was 25% of state government
spending in 2008, this rose to 30% in 2009.
• Bush’s economic stimulus package (2003) - $20bn went to the
states.
• Obama’s economic stimulus package (2009) - $245bn went to or
through the states.
Programmes increasing Federalism
• This increase came partly under the reauthorisation of the State Children’s Health
Insurance Programme (S-CHIP) in 2009; the
expansion of Medicare; and over $4bn invested in
the Race to the Top programme to boost
education in the states; Pell Grants for university
education.
• Healthcare reform legislation (Affordable Care
Act) – many Republicans saw this as “the end of
federalism” and the Tea Party Movement accused
Obama being more socialist than federalist.
Conclusion
• In the 2010 exit polls of the mid-term elections,
74% of Republicans and 60% of independents
agreed that the “federal government is doing too
many things better left to business and
individuals”.
• Obama’s expansive view of the federal
government was somewhat curbed by the
Supreme Court’s refusal to allow this legislation
to stand under an expansive reading of the
commerce clause, but only under Congress’s
power to levy taxes.
Thank you for listening xoxoxoxo