The Us Government

The Us Government

U.S. Government (History) The United States Government
A collection of short reports all dealing with the United States
Government.
William Jefferson Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton was born on August 19, 1946, in
Hope, Arkansas. His father, William J. Blythe III was killed in
an automobile collision just two months before William’s birth.
At age four, William Jefferson Blythe IV was legally adopted
by his mothers second husband, Roger Clinton, making him
William Jefferson Clinton.
At age 22 William received a Bachelor’s degree from
Georgetown University. Just five years later, he received his
law degree from Yale.
Soon after graduating from Yale, he became a law professor at
the University of Arkansas. He did not stay in one place for
long though, and in 1978 he became the Attorney General of
Arkansas. From this political position, he moved higher up in
the ranks and in 1978 won the election for the gubernatorial
seat of Arkansas. In the 1980 elections, however, William
(Bill) was defeated by Republican Frank White. As the
youngest governor of Arkansas in 40 years, Bill then became
the youngest ex-governor in United States history. During the
interim, Clinton was hired by the law firm Wright, Lindsey and
Jennings. In the 1982 elections, Mr. Clinton went after the
position of governor with renewed vigor and defeated
incumbent Republican Frank White. During the campaigning
for the election a Time magazine article stated: “If Clinton does
win, it could seem like less a comeback than a canny
mid-course correction in the path of a young, bright political
star.”
Clinton went on to win the next two gubernatorial elections in
the state of Arkansas. In 1988 he had the possibility of a
Democratic Party presidential nomination, but he refused to
run. Finally, in 1991, Clinton announced that he was going to
run for President of the United States.
In the 1992 election, Bill Clinton ran against Republican
incumbent George Herbert Walker Bush and independent
Ross H. Perot. During the campaign, Bill met with some
difficulty when the media discovered that he had dodged the
Vietnam draft, been unfaithful to his spouse, and smoked
marijuana while attending Oxford. Bill placated the
liberal-biased media by saying that he didn’t believe in the war,
and he “didn’t inhale.” Opposition mounted when reporters
discovered that Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham, whom he
married in 1975, had made some questionable dealings over a
piece of real estate referred to commonly as Whitewater.
Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, Clinton won the
election, with 46% of voting Americans supporting him.
Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia was born March 11, 1936 in an Italian majority
section of Trenton, New Jersey. His father, Eugene Scalia was
a literary scholar and a professor of Romance Languages at
Brooklyn College. His mother was an elementary school
teacher.
Scalia attended Xavier High School, a Catholic Military
academy. He graduated, first in his class, in 1953. One of his
good friends once said: “He was brilliant, way above
everybody else.” He later majored in History at Georgetown
University in Washington, D.C., where he again graduated first
in his class. Soon after leaving Georgetown, he enrolled in
Harvard Law School, where he was known around the
campus as an effective debater.
From Harvard he earned an LL. B. Degree and in 1960 joined
the Cleveland based law firm Jones, Day, Cockly and Reavis.
He was one of the most straightforward conservatives on the
staff and there too earned a reputation as a debater.
Later, President Richard Nixon appointed Scalia to the
position of Part-time General Counsel in Executive Office of
Telecom Policy. He was confirmed by Congress under the
Gerald Ford administration for the position of Assistant
Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s office
of legal counsel. At that time his job was mostly to give advice
to the President and the Attorney General.
In 1977 he became a Professor at the University of Chicago
Law School. Antonin Scalia is now an associate justice of the
United States Supreme Court. He took his oath in 1986 and is
the first Italian-American Supreme Court Justice. He was part
of President Ronald Reagan’s effort to make the judiciary
system more conservative.
Mr. Scalia is very outspoken against racially based affirmative
action programs and the “Constitutional Right” to abortion. His
views are closely related to those of the Reagan administration.
Scalia is a very intelligent individual, has an elegant writing
style, and has personal charm that makes him an influential
member on the Supreme Court.
Legislative Department
The Legislative Department consists mostly of the House and
the Senate, the two parts of Congress. The Senate has 100
members or two per state. The House of Representatives has
one representative per 30,000 people in the state, currently
435, not including the one from Washington, D.C., who is not
allowed to vote. This is called the “great compromise” because
when the laws were first being written the larger states wanted
to have a system like the House of Representatives, and the
smaller states wanted an equal voice and liked the Senate
system better. Finally, in a compromise they decided to have
both.
Facts on the House of Representatives:
· House of Representative members are elected to a 2 year
term.
· The minimum age to become a member is 25 years.
· In order to become a member, you must have been a citizen
of the United
States for 7 years.
· Members must be a resident of the state they are elected by.
· The House of Representatives has the ‘power of
impeachment.’ This means
that the House
can vote to put the president of the United States on trial
before the
Senate. The only president
to have ever been impeached was Andrew Johnson in 1867.
When the Senate
finally voted,
however, he missed being removed from office by one vote.
Facts on the Senate:
· Senators are elected to six year terms.
· The minimum age for a senator is 30 years.
· You must have been a citizen of the United States for 9 years.
· The Senate tries cases of impeachment.
Powers Granted to Congress The congress shall have the
power:
1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay
the debts and provide for the common defense and general
welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and
excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations and among
several states;
4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform
laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United
States;
5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities
and current coin of the United States;
7. To establish post offices and post roads;
8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by
securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive
rights to their respective writings and discoveries;
9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on
the high seas and offenses against the law of nations;
11. To declare war and make rules concerning captures on
land and water.
12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of
money for that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
13. To provide and maintain a navy;
14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval
forces;
15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union,
suppress the insurrections, and repel invasions;
16. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for
governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United
States, reserving to the states, respectively, the appointment of the officers, and
the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by
Congress.
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Ronald W. Reagan was born February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois. He
attended Eureka College and graduated in 1932 with a Bachelor of Arts degree
in economics. He was also popular on his high school football team and played
in college.
Soon after graduating from college, Reagan began working as a radio sports
announcer. His big break, however, was in 1937 when he became a contract actor for Warner Brothers
starring in such movies as Knute Rockne-All American, King’s Row, and probably his most famous,
Bedtime for Bonzo.
During WWII Reagan patriotically served his country (unlike some other presidents) as a captain in the
army. It was soon after this that he became active in Democratic politics, supporting Harry S. Truman for
president in 1948 and Douglas over Nixon in the California senatorial race in 1950. In 1952, Ronald
Reagan married actress Nancy Davis, a contract actress for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. They had two
children.
Between the years of 1954 and 1962 Reagan was the host of a television program called General Electric
Theater. In the early 1950’s, Reagan wised up and became more conservative, this time supporting
Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and Richard Nixon in 1960. In 1962, Mr. Reagan switched his voter
registration to Republican, and was elected governor of California in 1966 and 1970.
He was not able to do everything that he had hoped as governor, because for six of the eight years there
was a democratic majority in the state legislature. However, he did find time to cut welfare and start the
Medi-Cal program to pay medical bills for the poor. Reagan increased income taxes to avoid a projected
deficit but later gave rebates when the state government had a surplus. Reagan also lowered the high
property taxes of California.
In 1976, Ronald Reagan challenged Gerald R. Ford for the Republican nomination but lost by a small
margin. He was not a quitter, however, and in 1980 he chased after the nomination again and easily beat
George Bush whom he later chose for his vice president.
During the Reagan Administration, Reagan brought conservatives to power both in the Republican Party
and in the nation. Reagan’s economic program, sometimes called Reaganomics, was a tax and spending
cuts budget which stimulated economic growth between 1982 and 1987.
The Constitution of the United States of America
The constitution of the United States is the framework of the government. On it all laws are based, and if
there is a conflict, the law will be determined unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. An amendment to the
constitution is when a change is made to the constitution. In this section of my Government Booklet, some
of the most important amendments will be discussed.
Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to
peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The first amendment is probably the most famous amendment, because it gives citizens of the United
States their basic rights and privileges. However, these rights do have limits, and once you go past the
limit, you are breaking the law.
Amendment 2: A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the
people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Ask any member of the NRA what the second
amendment is, and 9 times out of ten, he will be able to quote it for you. With the laws going more and
more to the left, it is my guess that this right will be infringed within the next ten years.
Amendment 4: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable
cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the
persons or things to be seized. This amendment is basically saying that the government, police, etc., cannot
come into your house without a warrant and ‘just cause’ for wanting to search the area.
Amendment 8 Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
punishments inflicted. This amendment is one of the ones for people accused of a crime. In essence, they
are not to have bail unreasonably high, fines unreasonably high, or tortured. Many people say that the
death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, but they are wrong.
Amendment 13 Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. This
amendment totally abolishes any slavery within the legal jurisdiction of the United States.
Amendment 19 The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation. This amendment, made in 1920, gives women the right to vote. Previously, women
had almost no rights, and voting was a privilege that they were not allowed to have.
Amendment 21 The Eighteenth Article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby
repealed. The transportation or importation into any state, territory, or possession of the United States for
delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited. This
amendment repealed, or took back the eighteenth amendment which made alcohol illegal.
Amendment 22 No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person
who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which
some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once.
This amendment makes it so that a president can only serve for two terms in his lifetime. This keeps the
United States from ever having a dictatorship.
Amendment 26 The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age. The Congress shall have
the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. This amendment, made in 1971, lowers the
voting age from 21 to 18.
The Presidents of the United States
President Election Years in Political Party Home
State
Year Office
George Washington 1788 1789-1793 None Virginia
George Washington 1792 1793-1797 None Virginia
John Adams 1796 1797-1801 Federalist Massachusetts
Thomas Jefferson 1800 1801-1805 Republican Virginia
Thomas Jefferson 1804 1805-1809 Republican Virginia
James Madison 1808 1809-1813 Republican Virginia
James Madison 1812 1813-1817 Republican Virginia
James Monroe 1816 1817-1821 Republican Virginia
James Monroe 1820 1821-1825 Republican Virginia
John Quincy Adams 1824 1825-1829 Republican Massachusetts
Andrew Jackson 1828 1829-1833 Democrat Tennessee
Andrew Jackson 1832 1833-1837 Democrat Tennessee
Martin Van Buren 1836 1837-1841 Democrat New York
William H. Harrison 1840 1841 Whig Ohio
John Tyler 1841-1845 Whig Virginia
James K. Polk 1844 1845-1849 Democrat Tennessee
Zachary Taylor 1848 1849-1850 Whig Louisiana
Millard Fillmore 1850-1853 Whig New
York
Franklin Pierce 1852 1853-1857 Democrat New Hampshire
James Buchanan 1856 1857-1861 Democrat Pennsylvania
Abraham Lincoln 1860 1861-1865 Republican Illinois
Abraham Lincoln 1864 1865 Republican Illinois
Andrew Johnson 1865-1869 Republican Tennessee
Ulysses S. Grant 1868 1869-1873 Republican Illinois
Ulysses S. Grant 1872 1873-1877 Republican Illinois
Rutherford B. Hayes 1876 1877-1881 Republican Ohio
James A. Garfield 1880 1881 Republican Ohio
Chester A. Arthur 1881-1885 Republican New York
Grover Cleveland 1884 1885-1889 Democrat New York
Benjamin Harrison 1888 1889-1893 Republican Indiana
Grover Cleveland 1892 1893-1897 Democrat New York
William McKinley 1896 1897-1901 Republican Ohio
William McKinley 1900 1901 Republican Ohio
Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1905 Republican New York
Theodore Roosevelt 1904 1905-1909 Republican New York
William H. Taft 1908 1909-1913 Republican Ohio
Woodrow Wilson 1912 1913-1917 Democrat New Jersey
Woodrow Wilson 1916 1917-1921 Democrat New Jersey
Warren G. Harding 1920 1921-1923 Republican Ohio
Calvin Coolidge 1923-1924 Republican Massachusetts
Calvin Coolidge 1924 1925-1929 Republican Massachusetts
Herbert Hoover 1928 1929-1933 Republican California
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1932 1933-1937 Democrat New York
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1936 1937-1941 Democrat New York
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1940 1941-1945 Democrat New York
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1944 1945 Democrat New York
Harry S. Truman 1945-1949 Democrat Missouri
Harry S. Truman 1948 1949-1953 Democrat Missouri
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1952 1953-1957 Republican Pennsylvania
Dwight D. Eisenhower 1956 1957-1961 Republican Pennsylvania
John F. Kennedy 1960 1961-1963 Democrat Massachusetts
Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-1965 Democrat Texas
Lyndon B. Johnson 1964 1965-1969 Democrat Texas
Richard M. Nixon 1968 1969-1973 Republican California
Richard M. Nixon 1972 1973-1974 Republican California
Gerald R. Ford 1974-1977 Republican Michigan
Jimmy Carter 1976 1977-1981 Democrat Georgia
Ronald Reagan 1980 1981-1985 Republican California
Ronald Reagan 1984 1985-1989 Republican California
George Bush 1988 1989-1993 Republican Texas
Bill Clinton 1992 1993- Democrat Arkansas
The Executive Branch
The executive branch of the government is led by the president, currently Bill Clinton. His main duties are
to:
A) Enforce laws. It is the in the oath of office of the president to ‘uphold the laws and constitution of the
United States.’
B) Act as Commander in chief of the armed forces. The president has this title because he is the ‘head
honcho’ in the military. The buck stops there. The president can ask congress for the right to go to war as
did Franklin Delano Roosevelt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Congress voted
yes and the United States entered WWII.
C) Appoint key officials in the government. Among the many that the president appoints are Supreme
Court Justices, the surgeon general, and the attorney general.
D) Recommend laws to congress. The president can introduce a bill to congress. The Senate and the
House will vote on the bill. If both approve it, it goes back to the president for him to sign. Once he has
signed it, it is a law. Either part of Congress may introduce a bill as well. If it passes through both the
House and the Senate, it goes to the president for him to sign. If he disagrees with the bill, he may choose
to veto it. Veto is a combination of the words vote no. When the president vetoes a bill, it goes back to
Congress for them to review it. In order to check the president’s power and pass the bill into law, there
must be a two-thirds majority when the ballots are cast.
The president also has the power to grant a reprieve or pardon to any convicted criminal or even someone
who has not been charged yet. This is illustrated by Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon before he
was to be charged for any involvement of his in the Watergate scandal. The pardon was granted to keep
the United States from being embarrassed at having one of their presidents on trial. On the upside, Nixon
was respected globally for his efforts to open and establish relations with China.
The president of the United states has a four year term. He may serve up to two terms in his lifetime. The
salary for the president is $200,000 per year. The president must also be a natural born citizen and must
have lived in the United States for 14 years before running.
Jack Metcalf
Jack Metcalf, a Washington State senator, attended the University of Washington between 1944 and
1948. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pacific Lutheran University in 1951 and then later in
1965-66 went back to the University of Washington. He also patriotically served his country in the armed
forces between 1946 and 1947. Metcalf, a teacher and bed & breakfast owner, has a wife, Norma, and
four children.
Metcalf has a colorful background as a good Republican public servant. His political career began in 1958
when he received the Republican nomination for one of the Washington House of Representatives
positions. Between the years of 1961 and 1965, Jack Metcalf served his state in the Washington House of
Representatives. In 1964, however, he was defeated for re-election. Never a quitter, though, Metcalf ran
for a Washington State senator position, and won. He served as a senator between 1967 and 1975. In
1968 and 74, Metcalf, now a seasoned politician, received the Republican nomination for the Senate. He
served in the Washington Senate from 1981 to 1993. He was the Republican nominee for the United
States House of Representatives in 1992.
At the age of 67, he took his House of Representatives oath, and was the oldest member of the “Class of
‘94.” In his 1992 campaign for the Congressional seat against Democratic challenger Al Swift, he
promised to limit his terms to six years in Congress. He has described himself as a “guy willing to take
some kamikaze runs.” Metcalf has stated a call for the restoration of the gold standard, and criticizes the
Federal Reserve System.
In 1994, it did not look like Metcalf was indeed going to again win the Republican nomination. He had to
survive direct attacks from Republican rival Senator Tom Erwin in the primaries. He won the nomination,
however, but it looked bleak for Metcalf against State Senator Harriet Spanel. However, most of her
financial backing came from unions, environmentalists, and women’s groups. 1994 was the wrong year to
be a liberal. Although Spanel had the better funding, she was hurt by her support of the assault weapons
ban and the Brady Bill. Metcalf opposed both. Another thing that helped Metcalf was his total opposition
to abortion, which made him popular among conservatives. Spanel won support from San Juan County,
but Metcalf won the rest of the counties in the district.
Review
There are three branches of the United States Government. The legislative, judicial, and the executive.
Ideally, no one is more powerful than the other two. They are all equal. They all have certain powers as
well as certain checks on powers. Congress is the main body of the legislative branch, and is composed of
two parts: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The judicial branch consists of all of the courts in
the United States, but is headed by the Supreme Court. The president is the leader of the Executive
branch. In order to become a president, one must be at least 35 years of age and a natural born citizen
living in the United States for 14 years. The term of office for a president is 4 years.
The term of office for the Unites States House of Representative members is 2 years, while Senators enjoy
6 years in a term. In order to be in the House, you must be at least 25 years of age, for Senators the
minimum age is 30. There are 100 members of the Senate, two for every state. The House of
Representatives, however, has 435 members, plus one from Washington D.C., but he/she is not allowed
to vote.
In order for a bill to become law, it must pass the Senate, House of Representatives, and the President
must sign it. If the president vetoes a bill, it is kicked back into Congress, where it may undergo revision,
or simply be voted upon again. If Congress votes and both halves get a 2/3 majority, the bill is passed into
law without the president being able to do anything about it.
Some of the president’s jobs are to be the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, to enforces laws,
and to grant pardons to criminals. Congress sets and collects taxes, has the power to borrow money,
declares war, provides for an army and a navy, creates lesser courts, and coins money.
Bibliography
Blough, Glen O. The Young People’s Book of Science. United States of America, McGraw-Hill, ©1968,
pp. 1-436.
Claiborne, Robert. Word Mysteries & Histories. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, ©1986. pp. 2-308.
“Congress.” The New American Desk Encyclopedia. Volume 1, page 302. United States of America,
Penguin Books Incorporated, 1989.
Markoff, John. Cyberpunk. New York, Simon & Schuster, © 1991, pp. 1-366
“Webster’s New World Dictionary Second College Edition,” United States of America

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