United States of America Legislation (Book Review Sample)

Name of Student Name of Professor Course Date The United States of America Legislation Chapter 13 Presidential Vetoes and Congressional Overrides The Constitution of the US grants its president the power to reject the bills passed by the Congress, either in entirety or within individual provisions, which are referred to as veto and line-veto respectively. It is important to note that this happens when the bill is not well-drafted as per the perception of the president, or if the bill would cause unrest in the public domain. Although the president can veto a bill simply because he does not like it, as seen on page 550, The Congress can similarly overrule the decision of the president through a congressional override. This is a situation where the Congress votes to challenge the rejection of the bill by the president, and as per the Constitution, for the Congress to conduct an override; there must be a super majority vote. If the two-thirds is achieved, the Congress can force the bill to become law without the president’s signature, even though history has it that only 4% of all vetoed bills have been successfully overridden ever since. The War Powers Act The War Power Act, which was drafted and passed by the Congress in response to President Richard Nixon's decision to prosecute the Vietnam War in 1973 without the approval of the Congress, directed that the president is supposed to receive the approval of the Congress within 90 days of introducing the troops to the hostilities. However, no president has ever followed this act, and as evidenced on page 542, presidents who have ever sent troops to warring countries always argue with the provisions of Article II, Section 2, which identifies the president as the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, and therefore, can direct the troops at will. Signing Statements Signing statement is similar to veto, given that they all provide for the rejection by the president, though they are not the same. However, in the case of signing statements, the president claims the right to refuse to enforce an already signed bill that has been enacted into law or ignores the law either in entirety or in parts. This comes because of the president's perception of the unsuitability of the law after it has been passed and signed. In fact, on page 551, President George Bush is portrayed as the U.S. President who made the most signing statements ever totaling to 1,200. Chapter 14 The Growth of the Bureaucracy Bureaucracy can be defined as a body of non-elected government officials which engages in administration and, or policymaking, for instance, the growth of red tape in the United States emerged in the 19th century due to the rapid industrialization. Therefore, bureaucracy has lived to become a means of simplifying the functioning of complex organizations through national legal authority. However, most people and media have the perception of bureaucracies as money squandering organizations and individuals in the government. For instance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as a bureaucratic government agency, failed to act during the Hurricane tragedy of August 2015, even though they were charged with the mandate to work on emergencies. Chapter 15 The US Supreme Court’s Original Jurisdiction The original jurisdiction is the authority to try a case, as distinguished from the appellate jurisdiction. The U.S. Supreme Court, for instance, has the original jurisdiction to hear the claims and cases in the first place instead of on appeal. In addition, the U.S. Constitution gives power to the Supreme Court to exercise original jurisdiction on several important categories of cases, most of which include but not limited to all proceedings or actions to which public ministers, ambassadors, consuls, or other consuls of foreign states are parties. Another instance is a situation where the United States and one or more states have controversies and proceedings by the State against aliens or citizens of another state. Chapter 16 Financial Regulation and Recent Reforms For quite a long time, economic disparity, based on gender, ethnicity, among other factors, has lived and controlled the economy of the U.S. The main reason for the existence of the continued economic disparity is the capitalism in the U.S.: a few people have too much, but many people earn too little. One example that brings out the gender-based disparity is research that was conducted on the salary scale for two professors, a male and a female who had the same qualifications and experience, and the female professor was being paid less. In an attempt to cover the disparity, financial regulations and recent reforms have taken effect. As illustrated on page 683, the government made a move: it was effected in 1991 when the President Bill Clinton signed legislation that would permit commercial banks to deal in security while giving loans, to reduce its oversight of the financial system. In addition, the other regulation that took the image of a recent reform was the abolishment of the numerous restrictions on the affiliations between banks and insurance companies. The Recent Collapse In the matters of the mortgage industry, the Federal Reserve Board failed to investigate the looming mortgage risks, which saw the Americans dream of owning homes become a nightmare. Consequently, the home prices went up and the value of homes increased while the interest rates remained low. The government tried as much as possible including deducting interest paid on the mortgage loan from the tax returns, but things could not work out. What affected most people despite the fact that the right policies were in place were poor credit records and low income. Therefore, even though the public policies was an encouraging factor towards the purchase of homes, little was achieved. Ultimately, the ordinary citizen could not benefit from the initiative, which was originally meant to help them. Income Inequality, Poverty, and Welfare Capitalism in the US is the force behind the income inequality, which makes people’s earnings differ with their class. In this precept, the rich are continuing to get richer whereas the poor continue getting poorer. Another dimension of income disparity is based on ethnicity and race: a White MD of a company would earn more than an African-American MD in the same company. Similarly, the level of poverty also differs with the race; for instance, the African-Americans and Latinos are the most affected with poverty compared to the whites in the same locality. However, the gap is gradually shrinking with time. In addition, the Americans solely depend on employments and private sources for welfare and insurance cover than the government, which makes it a different scenario with the other developed countries like Norway that cater for the well-being of the citizen as the government. The USA Patriot Act The USA Patriot Act, which was enacted as a result of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon by terrorists, was passed in October 29, 2001 by the Congress as one of the mechanisms of engaging in the war against terrorism. It is important to note that the law gives the Attorney General the authority to detain indefinitely without questioning the non-citizens who are believed to be or perceived as a threat to national security. While confirming the relevance of the law, the Attorney General, John Ashcroft, gave an illustration stating that a jailed man cannot murder innocent civilians or aid the terrorists. The law was used vigorously by George Bush’s government on the Baghdad soldiers who fled to the U.S. from Afghanistan since it enabled the government to treat the soldiers and other Afghanis as a threat to security and not war prisoners; hence, they would not benefit from the International Law Act. Medicare and Health Care Reform The U.S. government has since made a great achievement in Medicare and health care reform. Currently, the Medicare law provides the availability of primary medical needs to the American citizens who are sixty-five years old and above. The part A of the Medicare policy, which came to limelight in 2009 when President Obama took to th...