Presidential signing statements

WEBVTT
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Language: en

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- [Narrator] What we're going to do

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in this video is talk about
presidential signing statements.

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And these are statements
that presidents issue

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when they are signing a bill into law.

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They don't always do this.

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In fact, it was quite infrequent

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for a very long time.

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The first signing statement
was issued by James Monroe.

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But it was quite infrequent until we get

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to the modern times.

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And starting with Ronald
Reagan, they become much,

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much more common for
presidents of both parties.

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And even though it is not considered

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by legal scholars to be legally binding.

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So, not legally binding,
presidents still do it.

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And they have multiple reasons.

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Sometimes, it acts as
a bit of an explainer

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for why they are signing the law.

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They might say how great the law

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is, why they think it's a good idea.

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But sometimes, they also
say what problems there

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are in the law.

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And in an extreme case,
they can sometimes say

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that there are parts of the
law that are unconstitutional.

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And those parts that are unconstitutional,

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the Executive Branch
might not follow exactly

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the way the law states.

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Well an obvious question is,
if it's not legally binding,

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why does the President
even take the trouble?

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Well, the explainer purpose might

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be political, or it
might rally up the base.

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But issuing a statement on the problems,

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it's the President's way of signaling

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to the entire Executive
Branch and to Congress

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that hey, look, don't be
surprised when I don't follow

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the letter of the law of the parts

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that I think are unconstitutional.

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And to make this tangible, let's look

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at some actual signing statements.

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This is a signing statement

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by President George W. Bush in 2006.

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Today, I have signed into law H.R. 972,

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the Trafficking Victims
Reauthorization Act of 2005.

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This act enhances our
ability to combat trafficking

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in persons by extending
and improving prosecutorial

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and diplomatic tools, and also

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adds new protections for victims.

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So that part's kind of an explainer.

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But then it goes on to
say, Section 104 purports

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to require the Secretary of State,

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prior to voting for a new
or reauthorized peacekeeping

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mission under the auspices of
a multilateral organization

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to submit to the Congress
a specific report.

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The Executive Branch shall construe

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this reporting requirement
in a manner consistent

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with the President's
Constitutional authority

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as Commander in Chief and the
President's constitutional

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authority to conduct the
Nation's foreign affairs.

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And so what they're saying is, hey,

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hold on a second here, Congress.

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You want our Secretary
of State, before making

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this decision, to submit
a report every time?

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You're kind of starting to muck with how

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the Executive Branch executes there.

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So this is signaling a bit to the Congress

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as, hey, don't be surprised
if we don't follow this

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exactly the way that you are expecting.

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You have a similar tone
in an executive order

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from President Obama in 2009.

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Today, I have signed into law H.R. 1105,

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the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009.

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This bill completes the work of last year

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by providing the funding necessary

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for the smooth operation
of our Nation's Government.

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So once again, a bit of an explainer.

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But then it goes on to say,
the Department of Justice

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has advised that a small number

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of provisions of the bill
raise constitutional concerns.

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And then it goes on to list
actually several bullet points,

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and I'm just going to give you one

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of them, just so you
get a sense of things.

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Legislative aggrandizements,

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committee approval requirements.

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So, when you aggrandize yourself,

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it's making yourself
more than you really are.

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And so a legislative aggrandizement

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is the legislative branch trying

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to go beyond their legislative powers.

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Numerous provisions of the legislation

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purport to condition the authority

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of officers to spend or reallocate funds

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on the approval of
congressional committees.

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These are impermissible forms

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of legislative aggrandizement
in the execution

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of the laws other than
by enactment of statutes.

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Therefore, although my administration

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will notify the relevant
committees before taking

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the specified actions and will accord

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the recommendations of such committees

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all appropriate and serious consideration,

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spending decisions shall not be treated

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as dependent on the approval
of congressional committees.

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So, here in this signing statement,

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President Obama's saying, look,

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this is overstepping the
bounds of legislative authority

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to tell us how we will spend these things.

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We'll take your advice
under consideration,

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but dictating how to execute

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is not the job of the Legislative Branch.

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So I'll leave you there.

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I encourage you to look up

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more presidential signing statements.

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They're readily available on the internet.

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They're part of the Federal Registry.

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And think about why presidents do this.

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And, what role does this have?

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And why this is considered

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an informal power of the President.


Formal and informal powers of the US president

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- [Instructor] What we're
going to do in this video

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is talk about the powers of the President

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of the United States,

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and we're going to broadly
divide them into two categories.

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Formal powers are those
that are explicitly listed

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in the United States Constitution.

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And we're also gonna talk
about informal powers

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a little bit in this video

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and a lot more depth into future videos.

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The formal powers are listed in Article II

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of the United States Constitution,

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and it starts in Section 1

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where it says the executive
Power shall be vested

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in a President of the
United States of America.

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And this simple statement alone

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has a lot of implications.

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As we will see,

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it is used as a justification

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for many of the informal
powers of the President.

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The President is the executive.

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They run the government.

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Congress can pass laws and set budgets.

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The judicial branch can interpret laws

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or declare them unconstitutional.

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But the executive power is
vested in the President.

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But the bulk of the powers
are listed in Section 2

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and Section 3.

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So let's read this together

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and let's see if we can
classify these different powers

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as executive, legislative,

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foreign policy or military,

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or judicial powers.

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So Section 2 of Article II starts off with

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the President shall be Commander in Chief

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of the Army and Navy of the United States,

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and of the Militia of the several States,

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when called into the actual
Service of the United States.

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So this is clearly a military power.

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You have the President
of the United States

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being in charge of the nation's military.

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It then goes on to say

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he may require the Opinion, in writing,

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of the principal Officer

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in each of the executive Departments,

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upon any Subject relating to the Duties

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of their respective Offices.

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So this is clearly an executive power

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or an administrative power,

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where he can go to the head

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of any of the executive
departments and say,

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hey, I need your opinion on something,

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potentially in writing.

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Then it goes on to say

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and he shall have Power to
grain Reprieves and Pardons

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for Offenses against the United States,

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except in Cases of Impeachment.

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So this is a judicial power.

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Grant reprieves and pardons
for federal offenses.

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Then we read,

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he shall have Power,

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by and with the Advice
and Consent of the Senate,

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to make Treaties,

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provided two thirds of the
Senators present concur.

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So this power to make treaties

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is clearly a foreign policy power,

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although it does have to
be ratified by the Senate.

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And he shall nominate,

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and by and with the Advice
and Consent of the Senate,

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shall appoint Ambassadors,

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other public Ministers and Consuls,

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Judges of the Supreme Court,

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and all other Officers
of the United States,

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whose appointments are not
herein otherwise provided for,

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and which shall be established by Law.

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But the Congress may by
Law vest the Appointment

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of such inferior Officers,

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as they think proper,

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in the President alone,

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in the Courts of Law,

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or in the Heads of Departments.

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So all of these lines here

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talked about the President's
power of appointment,

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which is why I underlined
it in the executive

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or the administrative color,

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although it touches on appointments

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that affect these other powers.

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So, for example,

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the appointment of ambassadors

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is clearly going to have
foreign policy implications.

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And judges of the Supreme Court.

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This could have huge
judicial implications.

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So I will underline that in blue, as well.

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It then goes on to say,

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and this is in relation
to the appointments

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we just talked about,

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the President shall have
Power to fill up all Vacancies

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that may happen during
the Recess of the Senate.

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Because remember, it just talked about

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how the Senate has to
confirm appointments.

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But the President does have the power

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to fill up vacancies while
the Senate is in recess,

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while they're not in session,

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by granting Commissions

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which shall expire at the
End of their next Session.

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And then in Section 3, we read,

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he, the President,

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although it could be a she,

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shall from time to time
give to the Congress

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Information of the State of the Union,

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and recommend to their
Consideration such Measures

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as he or she shall judge
necessary and expedient.

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He may, on extraordinary Occasions,

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convene both Houses,

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or either of them,

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and in Case of Disagreement between them,

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with Respect to the Time of Adjournment,

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he may adjourn them to such
Time as he shall think proper.

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So these are all ways,

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these are all powers
that the President has

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in the legislative process.

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And then it goes back to foreign policy.

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He shall receive Ambassadors

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and other public ministers.

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He shall take care

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that the laws be faithfully executed

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and shall Commission all the
Officers of the United States.

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This statement,

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he shall take Care that the
Laws be faithfully executed,

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in conjunction with
what is sometimes known

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as the Vesting Clause,

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which is at the very beginning
of Article II, Section 1,

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that simply states

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the executive Power shall
be vested in a President

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of the United States.

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These two clauses combined

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have been used to justify

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what we will see are
called informal powers,

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which we will go into much
more depth into future videos,

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especially the power
of the executive order.

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And so, in summary,

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if we wanna look at the executive
powers of the President.

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The power to take care that
laws be faithfully executed.

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Nominating officials

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with confirmation from the Senate.

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Request written opinions of
administrative officials.

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Fill administrative
vacancies during recesses.

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Then you have the legislative powers.

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Present info on the State of the Union.

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Recommend legislation to Congress.

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Convene both houses on
extraordinary occasions.

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Adjourn Congress if House
and Senate cannot agree.

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And can veto legislation,

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although Congress can overrule
with a two-thirds vote.

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And then you have the foreign
policy and military powers,

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which include being the Commander-in-Chief

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of the armed forces.

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Making treaties,

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which have to be ratified by the Senate.

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Nominate ambassadors,

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receive ambassadors,

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and provide diplomatic
recognition to other governments.

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And then finally,

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the judicial powers that
we saw in Article 2.

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Reprieves and pardons for federal offenses

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and the power to nominate federal judges,

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including US Supreme Court judges.

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Now, as I touched on,

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these are the formal powers,

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but there's also what are
known as informal powers,

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and we'll talk more about
these in other videos.

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The President has a unique
role in the federal government

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and in national discourse as a whole,

00:07:02.554 --> 00:07:03.626
and because of that,

00:07:03.626 --> 00:07:06.687
they have a lot of bargaining
and persuasion power.

00:07:06.687 --> 00:07:08.100
Now, as we also touched on,

00:07:08.100 --> 00:07:11.355
we have an informal power
of executive orders,

00:07:11.355 --> 00:07:13.821
which is derived from the formal powers

00:07:13.821 --> 00:07:16.809
to take care that laws
be faithfully executed

00:07:16.809 --> 00:07:19.607
and the fact that the
power of the executive

00:07:19.607 --> 00:07:22.182
is vested in the President.

00:07:22.182 --> 00:07:24.196
You also have things
called signing statements,

00:07:24.196 --> 00:07:26.041
which we'll do future videos on,

00:07:26.041 --> 00:07:28.805
which is when a law
gets passed by Congress,

00:07:28.805 --> 00:07:31.752
the President can issue a document

00:07:31.752 --> 00:07:33.186
known as a signing statement

00:07:33.186 --> 00:07:35.354
which interprets that law.

00:07:35.354 --> 00:07:36.201
And as you can imagine,

00:07:36.201 --> 00:07:37.945
that interpretation of the law

00:07:37.945 --> 00:07:40.502
could be very, very influential.

00:07:40.502 --> 00:07:43.229
And then you also have
executive agreements.

00:07:43.229 --> 00:07:45.101
These are agreements
with foreign governments

00:07:45.101 --> 00:07:48.502
that do not have to be
ratified by the US Senate.

00:07:48.502 --> 00:07:50.022
So they're not formal treaties,

00:07:50.022 --> 00:07:53.504
but they can be agreements
with governments.

00:07:53.504 --> 00:07:55.061
So I will leave you there.

00:07:55.061 --> 00:07:56.221
As you can see,

00:07:56.221 --> 00:07:59.453
the President has many
tools at their disposal

00:07:59.453 --> 00:08:03.437
to influence the policy-making process.

00:08:03.437 --> 00:08:06.302
In future videos, we will
talk more about these,

00:08:06.302 --> 00:08:08.885
especially the informal powers.


Earmarks, pork barrel projects and logrolling

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.387 --> 00:00:01.730
- [Instructor] What we're
going to do in this video

00:00:01.730 --> 00:00:05.897
is focus on the budget
process in the US Congress.

00:00:06.939 --> 00:00:10.036
And just as a reminder, that's
one of the major functions

00:00:10.036 --> 00:00:13.619
of the United States
Congress is to pass a budget

00:00:13.619 --> 00:00:17.048
for the Executive Branch
to decide how much money

00:00:17.048 --> 00:00:21.516
the Executive Branch has to
use to actually function.

00:00:21.516 --> 00:00:23.667
And when it comes to the budget,

00:00:23.667 --> 00:00:26.026
the two most powerful committees are

00:00:26.026 --> 00:00:27.614
the Appropriations Committees

00:00:27.614 --> 00:00:31.108
in the House of Representatives
and in the Senate.

00:00:31.108 --> 00:00:33.552
They get to decide how much money goes

00:00:33.552 --> 00:00:36.114
to various departments and programs

00:00:36.114 --> 00:00:38.696
in the federal government.

00:00:38.696 --> 00:00:41.678
Just for context, let's
get a broad view of what

00:00:41.678 --> 00:00:43.495
the federal budget looks like

00:00:43.495 --> 00:00:46.623
and how it has changed over time.

00:00:46.623 --> 00:00:50.541
So over here you see the
trend from the early 80s

00:00:50.541 --> 00:00:53.838
all the way until projected
a few years into the future

00:00:53.838 --> 00:00:56.344
at the time of this video being created.

00:00:56.344 --> 00:00:59.804
And you can see the absolute
level of the federal budget

00:00:59.804 --> 00:01:03.358
has gone from a little under $1 trillion

00:01:03.358 --> 00:01:06.525
and it is now approaching $4 trillion.

00:01:07.806 --> 00:01:12.345
And this view of the breakdown
of the various spending areas

00:01:12.345 --> 00:01:14.983
gives us a better sense of some trends.

00:01:14.983 --> 00:01:18.648
As we mentioned in other videos,
there's a significant chunk

00:01:18.648 --> 00:01:20.608
of mandatory spending.

00:01:20.608 --> 00:01:23.783
Mandatory spending are things that by law

00:01:23.783 --> 00:01:26.627
we have already obligated ourselves to.

00:01:26.627 --> 00:01:30.049
And the big ones here are
Social Security and Medicare

00:01:30.049 --> 00:01:33.099
and you can see that they
have gone collectively

00:01:33.099 --> 00:01:36.688
from a little over 20%
of the federal budget

00:01:36.688 --> 00:01:40.855
to now approaching almost
2/3 of the federal budget.

00:01:42.088 --> 00:01:44.933
Now another chunk of this
budget that we are obligated

00:01:44.933 --> 00:01:49.098
to pay is the net interest
on our national debt.

00:01:49.098 --> 00:01:51.044
We are borrowers as a country

00:01:51.044 --> 00:01:53.186
and so we need to pay interest.

00:01:53.186 --> 00:01:55.164
Now everything else here you can consider

00:01:55.164 --> 00:01:56.528
to be discretionary.

00:01:56.528 --> 00:01:59.326
That would be this national defense piece

00:01:59.326 --> 00:02:01.303
right here in purple and then everything

00:02:01.303 --> 00:02:04.067
above this net interest piece.

00:02:04.067 --> 00:02:06.748
And that's what the Appropriations
Committees are going

00:02:06.748 --> 00:02:09.424
to decide on, where to spend that money.

00:02:09.424 --> 00:02:11.881
How much does national
defense get and how much

00:02:11.881 --> 00:02:14.947
do these other priorities
for the country get?

00:02:14.947 --> 00:02:18.530
Now generally speaking, the
amount of money allocated

00:02:18.530 --> 00:02:21.669
to various programs and
various departments,

00:02:21.669 --> 00:02:25.788
how it is spent tends to be
decided by the Executive Branch.

00:02:25.788 --> 00:02:28.420
Congress's job is to set the budget

00:02:28.420 --> 00:02:30.724
but that is not always the case.

00:02:30.724 --> 00:02:35.051
Congress can also set aside
portions of this budget

00:02:35.051 --> 00:02:36.884
for specific projects.

00:02:38.104 --> 00:02:40.869
And the setting aside
of parts of the budget

00:02:40.869 --> 00:02:44.452
for specific projects
is known as earmarks.

00:02:46.640 --> 00:02:49.445
And to make things tangible,
here are some examples

00:02:49.445 --> 00:02:53.612
of earmarks from the Highway
Bill that was passed in 2005.

00:02:55.183 --> 00:02:57.698
And as you can see, it just lists a bunch

00:02:57.698 --> 00:03:00.951
of special projects and
this goes on for tens

00:03:00.951 --> 00:03:03.668
and sometimes hundreds of pages.

00:03:03.668 --> 00:03:06.492
So here in California,
there's a project to construct

00:03:06.492 --> 00:03:09.995
safe access to streets for
bicyclists and pedestrians

00:03:09.995 --> 00:03:12.137
including crosswalks, sidewalks,

00:03:12.137 --> 00:03:13.955
and traffic calming measures

00:03:13.955 --> 00:03:16.622
in Covena, California, $400,000.

00:03:17.831 --> 00:03:21.173
If we go down here to number
five, renovate and expand

00:03:21.173 --> 00:03:24.309
National Packard Museum
and adjacent historic

00:03:24.309 --> 00:03:28.723
Packard facilities, and
that is almost $3 million.

00:03:28.723 --> 00:03:30.949
And so one thing that's
probably crossing your mind

00:03:30.949 --> 00:03:34.996
is hey, this is a national
highway bill and you have

00:03:34.996 --> 00:03:38.665
these little projects that
seem very, very, very local.

00:03:38.665 --> 00:03:41.390
And these earmarks here, these set asides,

00:03:41.390 --> 00:03:45.224
because they feel sometimes
wasteful or they're being used

00:03:45.224 --> 00:03:47.395
more as a political tool versus something

00:03:47.395 --> 00:03:50.322
that the federal government
should actually worry about,

00:03:50.322 --> 00:03:53.294
sometimes these types of
earmarks are referred to

00:03:53.294 --> 00:03:55.294
as pork barrel projects,

00:03:58.116 --> 00:03:59.866
pork barrel projects.

00:04:01.412 --> 00:04:04.707
And the reason why I introduced
both words are earmarks

00:04:04.707 --> 00:04:05.861
are just a general thing.

00:04:05.861 --> 00:04:08.004
You can decide whether
they're good or bad.

00:04:08.004 --> 00:04:10.275
Many of those earmarks that I
listed, even though they are

00:04:10.275 --> 00:04:13.136
for specific projects
in specific locations,

00:04:13.136 --> 00:04:15.692
they seemed at least
related to the Highway Bill,

00:04:15.692 --> 00:04:18.331
but it would be very reasonable
for some folks to say

00:04:18.331 --> 00:04:19.650
why is Congress in the business

00:04:19.650 --> 00:04:22.003
of funding these specific projects?

00:04:22.003 --> 00:04:24.848
Isn't it their job to just set the budget

00:04:24.848 --> 00:04:27.183
to figure out how much the
Department of Transportation

00:04:27.183 --> 00:04:30.350
gets and then let them, as
part of the Executive Branch,

00:04:30.350 --> 00:04:33.023
decide how to execute on improving

00:04:33.023 --> 00:04:36.396
the national highway system
or our transportation system?

00:04:36.396 --> 00:04:38.950
And so they would argue that that is pork,

00:04:38.950 --> 00:04:41.093
that those are pork barrel projects,

00:04:41.093 --> 00:04:42.906
that those are government waste.

00:04:42.906 --> 00:04:45.545
Now to get a sense of
how significant earmarks

00:04:45.545 --> 00:04:49.838
and debatably pork barrel
have been in the past,

00:04:49.838 --> 00:04:53.789
we have this chart from Citizens
Against Government Waste

00:04:53.789 --> 00:04:57.789
and it shows earmark
spending from 1991 to 2016.

00:04:58.773 --> 00:05:01.454
And you will immediately
notice some things.

00:05:01.454 --> 00:05:05.578
Going from 1991 all the
way until about 2006,

00:05:05.578 --> 00:05:09.123
you have this steady upward
trend in earmark spending

00:05:09.123 --> 00:05:11.567
all the way to the peak in 2006

00:05:11.567 --> 00:05:13.817
of $29 billion of earmarks.

00:05:15.034 --> 00:05:16.561
But then something interesting happens.

00:05:16.561 --> 00:05:20.065
In 2011, it looks like it
gets pretty close to zero

00:05:20.065 --> 00:05:22.084
and then it starts trending up from there,

00:05:22.084 --> 00:05:24.478
but it's much lower that it was before

00:05:24.478 --> 00:05:28.645
and that's because as we get
into this period after 2006,

00:05:29.590 --> 00:05:33.246
earmark spending became a
very big political issue.

00:05:33.246 --> 00:05:36.069
Some of these projects,
there was famously an earmark

00:05:36.069 --> 00:05:38.873
for a bridge to an island
in Alaska that was going

00:05:38.873 --> 00:05:41.679
to cost several hundreds
of millions of dollars.

00:05:41.679 --> 00:05:44.068
It was later canceled
but it got a lot of press

00:05:44.068 --> 00:05:46.372
and a lot of politicians
started to make it their mission

00:05:46.372 --> 00:05:48.685
to do away with earmark spending.

00:05:48.685 --> 00:05:51.199
Some of these pork
barrel projects were easy

00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:52.518
to get people worked up about,

00:05:52.518 --> 00:05:55.608
and say, hey look, this is
a sign of government waste.

00:05:55.608 --> 00:05:58.542
And so in the end of 2010, both the Senate

00:05:58.542 --> 00:06:01.388
and the House of Representatives
passed resolutions

00:06:01.388 --> 00:06:04.164
to end earmark spending,
although you can see

00:06:04.164 --> 00:06:07.032
that it still exists in
some way, at least according

00:06:07.032 --> 00:06:09.632
to the Citizens Against Government Waste.

00:06:09.632 --> 00:06:14.577
Now at first, this seems
very good because $29 billion

00:06:14.577 --> 00:06:18.731
on things like museums or maybe
bridges that go to islands

00:06:18.731 --> 00:06:21.037
that very few people live on does not seem

00:06:21.037 --> 00:06:22.107
like a good idea.

00:06:22.107 --> 00:06:25.598
It seems like classic
examples of government waste.

00:06:25.598 --> 00:06:28.188
But it's also important
to keep it in context.

00:06:28.188 --> 00:06:32.721
Remember the federal budget
is approach $4 trillion.

00:06:32.721 --> 00:06:35.890
So even in 2006, when the
federal budget was a little

00:06:35.890 --> 00:06:40.176
under $3 trillion, this was only about 1%

00:06:40.176 --> 00:06:42.688
of the federal budget.

00:06:42.688 --> 00:06:45.575
And so even though earmarks,
which often get called

00:06:45.575 --> 00:06:48.172
pork barrel projects,
became a lightning rod

00:06:48.172 --> 00:06:49.614
for a lot of media attention

00:06:49.614 --> 00:06:51.962
because they seemed so wasteful,

00:06:51.962 --> 00:06:55.005
in most years, they
represent well under 1%

00:06:55.005 --> 00:06:56.526
of the federal budget.

00:06:56.526 --> 00:06:58.947
And there are folks who would
even argue that earmarks

00:06:58.947 --> 00:07:03.466
are a good thing by essentially
allowing Congresspeople

00:07:03.466 --> 00:07:07.633
to set aside an earmark for
something in their district.

00:07:08.648 --> 00:07:11.690
It makes it easier for bills to get passed

00:07:11.690 --> 00:07:15.274
and it's only costing us
less than 1% to do it,

00:07:15.274 --> 00:07:17.127
and it's only something
that's streamlining

00:07:17.127 --> 00:07:18.818
the political process.

00:07:18.818 --> 00:07:22.233
Other arguments they make is
these earmarks aren't spending

00:07:22.233 --> 00:07:24.741
above and beyond the regular budget.

00:07:24.741 --> 00:07:28.494
If they do not set aside
this money for these projects

00:07:28.494 --> 00:07:31.461
in these various districts
or in these various states,

00:07:31.461 --> 00:07:34.261
well, then the Executive
Branch is just going to decide

00:07:34.261 --> 00:07:35.988
on how to use that money.

00:07:35.988 --> 00:07:38.865
And ideally the Executive
Branch would open these things

00:07:38.865 --> 00:07:41.501
up for bid, these would
be competitive processes,

00:07:41.501 --> 00:07:43.314
but there's examples
of the Executive Branch

00:07:43.314 --> 00:07:46.943
also favoring certain
regions or certain projects.

00:07:46.943 --> 00:07:49.088
So the budget could arguably be the same

00:07:49.088 --> 00:07:51.193
whether or not there are those earmarks.

00:07:51.193 --> 00:07:53.666
It's really a question
of whether it is Congress

00:07:53.666 --> 00:07:56.381
that is deciding where
these special projects go

00:07:56.381 --> 00:07:59.222
or whether it is the Executive Branch.

00:07:59.222 --> 00:08:01.286
Now another term that you might often hear

00:08:01.286 --> 00:08:02.808
with the legislative process, something

00:08:02.808 --> 00:08:07.632
that helps streamline it,
is the germ logrolling.

00:08:07.632 --> 00:08:10.227
Now logrolling can apply
to a lot of things,

00:08:10.227 --> 00:08:12.785
not just in terms of
where you spend money.

00:08:12.785 --> 00:08:16.125
Logrolling is just the idea
that let's say that I am

00:08:16.125 --> 00:08:20.075
Congressperson A and you
are Congressperson B,

00:08:20.075 --> 00:08:23.742
and I really like this
bill right over here.

00:08:24.760 --> 00:08:28.957
I like bill number one and
you like bill number two,

00:08:28.957 --> 00:08:33.124
and I agree to support you,
if you agree to support me.

00:08:34.302 --> 00:08:36.488
Here I describe logrolling
where we support

00:08:36.488 --> 00:08:39.123
each others bills but we
could even have logrolling

00:08:39.123 --> 00:08:41.434
where we support each
others parts of bills.

00:08:41.434 --> 00:08:44.857
For example, I'll support
your transportation museum

00:08:44.857 --> 00:08:49.725
in your state, if you support
my bicycle path in my state.

00:08:49.725 --> 00:08:51.456
So I'll leave you there.

00:08:51.456 --> 00:08:54.137
The big takeaways here
are to appreciate the size

00:08:54.137 --> 00:08:56.939
of the federal budget,
where it gets spent,

00:08:56.939 --> 00:08:59.738
and some of the processes
used to help pass

00:08:59.738 --> 00:09:01.260
that federal budget.

00:09:01.260 --> 00:09:04.386
We also talked about earmarks
which sometimes get called

00:09:04.386 --> 00:09:06.171
pork barrel projects.

00:09:06.171 --> 00:09:07.432
And it's interesting
for you to think about

00:09:07.432 --> 00:09:10.642
after this video, are
they good or are they bad?

00:09:10.642 --> 00:09:13.032
At first, especially when you
look at the media attention,

00:09:13.032 --> 00:09:16.285
they seem clearly bad, they seem wasteful.

00:09:16.285 --> 00:09:18.884
But when you think about
that they're less than 1%

00:09:18.884 --> 00:09:22.219
of the budget, and they might
help streamline the passing

00:09:22.219 --> 00:09:25.311
of other important legislation,
maybe making it even

00:09:25.311 --> 00:09:28.150
more bipartisan, who
knows, some would argue

00:09:28.150 --> 00:09:32.188
that they might not be as
bad as people first believed.

00:09:32.188 --> 00:09:33.188
You decide.


Discretionary and mandatory outlays of the US federal government

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.482 --> 00:00:01.871
- [Instructor] What we're
going to do in this video

00:00:01.871 --> 00:00:04.409
is talk about the broad
categories of where the

00:00:04.409 --> 00:00:07.488
federal government gets
its revenue, and also the

00:00:07.488 --> 00:00:11.082
broad categories of where
it spends its revenue.

00:00:11.082 --> 00:00:13.919
Now when we talk about revenue
for the federal government

00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:16.969
that primarily comes in the form of taxes.

00:00:16.969 --> 00:00:19.747
And what we see in this
visual, it shows the four

00:00:19.747 --> 00:00:23.436
basic types of taxes that the
federal government collects.

00:00:23.436 --> 00:00:25.930
You have individual income
taxes, which you are

00:00:25.930 --> 00:00:27.202
probably familiar with.

00:00:27.202 --> 00:00:29.499
If you ever get a pay
stub, and if you thought

00:00:29.499 --> 00:00:33.076
you were making, let's say,
$1,000 in a pay period,

00:00:33.076 --> 00:00:36.368
you might see your
paycheck is closer to $600

00:00:36.368 --> 00:00:40.165
because there might be individual
income taxes taken out,

00:00:40.165 --> 00:00:43.095
and both the federal and the state level.

00:00:43.095 --> 00:00:45.205
Then you have payroll
taxes, and unless you are

00:00:45.205 --> 00:00:48.587
an employer, you might not be
familiar with payroll taxes.

00:00:48.587 --> 00:00:51.593
Above and beyond your
individual income taxes,

00:00:51.593 --> 00:00:55.819
your employer also pays
taxes called payroll taxes.

00:00:55.819 --> 00:00:58.141
Now these are primarily
to pay for things like

00:00:58.141 --> 00:01:01.995
Social Security, Medicare,
unemployment insurance,

00:01:01.995 --> 00:01:03.609
and some of you are saying
well don't they take that

00:01:03.609 --> 00:01:06.198
out of my individual
income taxes, as well?

00:01:06.198 --> 00:01:09.297
And the answer is yes, but
above and beyond what is

00:01:09.297 --> 00:01:12.355
individually paid by you, they also take

00:01:12.355 --> 00:01:14.326
payroll taxes to fund that.

00:01:14.326 --> 00:01:18.419
Corporate taxes are taxes
on corporations' profits,

00:01:18.419 --> 00:01:20.531
and excise taxes, which
you don't hear folks talk

00:01:20.531 --> 00:01:24.009
a lot about these days, but
these are taxes on things

00:01:24.009 --> 00:01:28.272
like gasoline, or alcohol and
tobacco, or airline tickets

00:01:28.272 --> 00:01:30.518
that are usually baked
into those products,

00:01:30.518 --> 00:01:33.977
and those taxes can oftentimes
go to the federal government.

00:01:33.977 --> 00:01:35.758
Now pause this video and see if you

00:01:35.758 --> 00:01:37.608
see any interesting trends.

00:01:37.608 --> 00:01:41.127
This visual here shows the
breakdown between these four

00:01:41.127 --> 00:01:44.026
taxes for the federal
government's revenue and how

00:01:44.026 --> 00:01:47.609
it's changed from 1950
all the way to 2015.

00:01:49.968 --> 00:01:52.455
Well it looks like
individual income taxes,

00:01:52.455 --> 00:01:55.275
as a percent of total government revenue,

00:01:55.275 --> 00:01:57.162
has stayed roughly stable.

00:01:57.162 --> 00:02:00.570
But what you see is that
payroll taxes have grown

00:02:00.570 --> 00:02:03.939
dramatically while
corporate taxes have shrunk.

00:02:03.939 --> 00:02:07.751
Payroll taxes have gone from
11% of the federal government's

00:02:07.751 --> 00:02:12.163
revenue in 1950 to nearly 1/3
of the federal government's

00:02:12.163 --> 00:02:14.299
revenue in 2015.

00:02:14.299 --> 00:02:17.469
Corporate taxes have gone down from 26.5%

00:02:17.469 --> 00:02:21.184
all the way down to 10.6%,
and excise taxes are a

00:02:21.184 --> 00:02:22.600
very small percentage.

00:02:22.600 --> 00:02:24.757
They used to be a significant
part, but they are now

00:02:24.757 --> 00:02:27.799
a very small part of
total government revenue.

00:02:27.799 --> 00:02:30.936
Now one thing to keep in
mind, this visual over here

00:02:30.936 --> 00:02:32.990
just shows the breakdown.

00:02:32.990 --> 00:02:35.008
It's not showing the absolute level.

00:02:35.008 --> 00:02:38.350
If you were seeing the absolute
level of government revenue

00:02:38.350 --> 00:02:42.517
you would see that grow as
the nation's GDP grew as well.

00:02:44.332 --> 00:02:48.965
But in big categories, where
does that revenue get spent?

00:02:48.965 --> 00:02:51.398
Well this is a similar diagram
that shows the breakdown

00:02:51.398 --> 00:02:56.211
of outlays by the federal
government from 1962 all the way,

00:02:56.211 --> 00:02:59.681
and these are going into
projected outlays, to 2020.

00:02:59.681 --> 00:03:02.606
At the time of this video,
we are right over here

00:03:02.606 --> 00:03:06.512
in 2017, and this chart was made in 2016,

00:03:06.512 --> 00:03:08.756
so it was made at around this time.

00:03:08.756 --> 00:03:11.578
But you see a couple of big categories.

00:03:11.578 --> 00:03:14.378
You first see the mandatory outlays,

00:03:14.378 --> 00:03:16.706
and in parentheses it says on autopilot.

00:03:16.706 --> 00:03:17.727
What does that mean?

00:03:17.727 --> 00:03:20.410
Well these are commitments
that the federal government

00:03:20.410 --> 00:03:23.553
has already made by law to people.

00:03:23.553 --> 00:03:25.698
These are things like entitlements,

00:03:25.698 --> 00:03:28.544
like Social Security, like Medicare.

00:03:28.544 --> 00:03:32.704
And one interesting trend
is these have grown in 1962

00:03:32.704 --> 00:03:37.250
from 25% of the total federal
budget, to a projected

00:03:37.250 --> 00:03:41.818
almost 2/3 of the federal budget in 2020.

00:03:41.818 --> 00:03:45.096
Now the discretionary
outlays are things that,

00:03:45.096 --> 00:03:47.995
when we talk about the
appropriations committees

00:03:47.995 --> 00:03:50.259
in the Senate, or the
House, this is what they're

00:03:50.259 --> 00:03:52.596
debating where to spend the money.

00:03:52.596 --> 00:03:54.859
And even though it might
sound something that's just

00:03:54.859 --> 00:03:56.920
nice to have, there's some
pretty important things

00:03:56.920 --> 00:03:58.312
in the discretionary budget.

00:03:58.312 --> 00:04:01.179
Things like military
expenditure, and as you can see,

00:04:01.179 --> 00:04:04.263
the discretionary budget
has gone from over 2/3

00:04:04.263 --> 00:04:08.430
of federal outlays, to a little
under 1/4 projected in 2020.

00:04:10.106 --> 00:04:13.660
And then this top category,
net interest, well the federal

00:04:13.660 --> 00:04:16.810
government has a debt,
and anyone who has a debt

00:04:16.810 --> 00:04:19.066
tends to pay interest on that debt.

00:04:19.066 --> 00:04:21.707
So many people will often
categorize this as a

00:04:21.707 --> 00:04:24.661
mandatory outlay as well,
because we need to pay

00:04:24.661 --> 00:04:27.613
the interest on that debt,
even though it's not officially

00:04:27.613 --> 00:04:29.818
a mandatory outlay.

00:04:29.818 --> 00:04:34.066
And to see how significant
these entitlement programs are,

00:04:34.066 --> 00:04:37.151
and how big of an impact
they have, not just on the

00:04:37.151 --> 00:04:39.741
federal government's
budget, but as a percentage

00:04:39.741 --> 00:04:44.079
of GDP, we have this
visual right over here.

00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:46.732
Once again, this is projecting
well into the future.

00:04:46.732 --> 00:04:51.286
This chart was created in
2016, so right about here,

00:04:51.286 --> 00:04:54.787
but you can see that
these mandatory outlays,

00:04:54.787 --> 00:04:59.103
as a percentage of the GDP
here, so this is not just

00:04:59.103 --> 00:05:01.381
as a percentage of the
budget, they are growing,

00:05:01.381 --> 00:05:04.043
and growing, and growing, and
expected to keep on growing

00:05:04.043 --> 00:05:07.430
while total revenue as a percentage of GDP

00:05:07.430 --> 00:05:09.134
is expected to stay flat.

00:05:09.134 --> 00:05:11.066
And take all of this with a grain of salt.

00:05:11.066 --> 00:05:13.829
This is based on
assumptions made at the time

00:05:13.829 --> 00:05:15.721
when this diagram was made.

00:05:15.721 --> 00:05:18.426
If we have varying levels
of economic growth,

00:05:18.426 --> 00:05:21.179
or the tax policies
change, it's possible that

00:05:21.179 --> 00:05:25.307
the total revenue as a
percentage of GDP might change.

00:05:25.307 --> 00:05:28.183
Also, if there are changes
to some of these entitlement

00:05:28.183 --> 00:05:31.440
programs, like Social Security,
or the health care programs,

00:05:31.440 --> 00:05:34.075
or if some of the cost
assumptions baked into this

00:05:34.075 --> 00:05:37.007
chart changes, well, then
this diagram might change.

00:05:37.007 --> 00:05:39.719
But if you assume the
data in this visual here,

00:05:39.719 --> 00:05:42.558
and the source is the White House in 2016,

00:05:42.558 --> 00:05:45.150
you see that the mandatory
outlays from these

00:05:45.150 --> 00:05:48.250
entitlement programs,
and the net interest,

00:05:48.250 --> 00:05:50.857
which is also essentially
mandatory, these are going

00:05:50.857 --> 00:05:52.641
to take up all of the revenue

00:05:52.641 --> 00:05:54.864
that the federal government collects.

00:05:54.864 --> 00:05:57.054
And so if the federal
government wants to do anything

00:05:57.054 --> 00:06:01.012
above and beyond those things,
discretionary spending,

00:06:01.012 --> 00:06:02.838
and once again, some of
this discretionary spending

00:06:02.838 --> 00:06:05.111
is pretty important, like the military,

00:06:05.111 --> 00:06:08.282
well, then they would
have to run a deficit

00:06:08.282 --> 00:06:11.173
in those years to fund
those things, or they would

00:06:11.173 --> 00:06:13.380
have to increase the total revenue.

00:06:13.380 --> 00:06:16.370
And the thing is, even once
we get past this point,

00:06:16.370 --> 00:06:18.906
go into the 2040's all
the way to the 2050's,

00:06:18.906 --> 00:06:21.072
it gets worse, and worse, and worse.

00:06:21.072 --> 00:06:22.963
So something has got to give here.


The House of Representatives in comparison to the Senate

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.322 --> 00:00:01.544
- [Instructor] What I want
you to do in this video

00:00:01.544 --> 00:00:03.208
is a little bit more of a deep dive

00:00:03.208 --> 00:00:06.064
into the House of Representatives.

00:00:06.064 --> 00:00:07.890
Now we've already talked about how either

00:00:07.890 --> 00:00:11.367
chamber of Congress can
introduce general legislation.

00:00:11.367 --> 00:00:13.212
And if it gets approved by one chamber,

00:00:13.212 --> 00:00:16.227
it has to be voted on and
approved by the other chamber.

00:00:16.227 --> 00:00:17.594
But the House of Representatives

00:00:17.594 --> 00:00:20.512
has some specific constitutional powers.

00:00:20.512 --> 00:00:23.917
So for example, impeachment proceedings

00:00:23.917 --> 00:00:27.136
would start in the House
of Representatives.

00:00:27.136 --> 00:00:28.888
In other videos we have talked about

00:00:28.888 --> 00:00:30.735
impeachment is not the
removal from office,

00:00:30.735 --> 00:00:34.593
of say the president, it is
just a formal indictment.

00:00:34.593 --> 00:00:36.779
Now if the House of representatives

00:00:36.779 --> 00:00:39.870
is able to impeach
someone, say the president,

00:00:39.870 --> 00:00:43.174
then it would go to the
Senate to try the impeachment,

00:00:43.174 --> 00:00:46.935
to decide whether to
actually convict the person.

00:00:46.935 --> 00:00:48.810
Now we've also talked about the House

00:00:48.810 --> 00:00:53.195
being the place where tax and
revenue bills would initiate.

00:00:53.195 --> 00:00:56.131
So if we're talking about tax or revenue,

00:00:56.131 --> 00:00:59.628
these bills would start in
the House of Representatives.

00:00:59.628 --> 00:01:02.205
The other areas where the
Senate has more influence

00:01:02.205 --> 00:01:06.013
by the Constitution are
in ratifying treaties,

00:01:06.013 --> 00:01:08.168
and this is really one
of the significant levers

00:01:08.168 --> 00:01:11.005
where the Senate has more
influence on foreign policy,

00:01:11.005 --> 00:01:14.271
and also confirmation of
presidential appointments,

00:01:14.271 --> 00:01:15.572
either into the executive branch

00:01:15.572 --> 00:01:17.103
if we're talking about the cabinet,

00:01:17.103 --> 00:01:19.533
or judicial appointments,
the federal court system

00:01:19.533 --> 00:01:22.380
including the US Supreme Court.

00:01:22.380 --> 00:01:24.723
But beyond these constitutional powers,

00:01:24.723 --> 00:01:28.077
there's differences in how
these different houses are run.

00:01:28.077 --> 00:01:30.200
And what we'll see is
these processes result

00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:32.972
in the Senate being more deliberative.

00:01:32.972 --> 00:01:36.638
In the video on filibuster,
we talk about how hard it is

00:01:36.638 --> 00:01:38.922
to end the debate in the Senate.

00:01:38.922 --> 00:01:42.756
While in the House, the
power is more centralized

00:01:42.756 --> 00:01:45.391
amongst not just the majority party,

00:01:45.391 --> 00:01:48.123
but amongst the leadership
in that majority party.

00:01:48.123 --> 00:01:50.198
We're talking about folks
like the Speaker of the House,

00:01:50.198 --> 00:01:52.877
and the inner circle of
the Speaker of the House.

00:01:52.877 --> 00:01:55.078
And we'll see why this is in a second.

00:01:55.078 --> 00:01:57.471
And to appreciate this centralized power,

00:01:57.471 --> 00:01:58.978
and you could argue a more efficient

00:01:58.978 --> 00:02:02.047
versus deliberative process in
the House of Representatives,

00:02:02.047 --> 00:02:04.428
you just have to remember
that if we have a bill

00:02:04.428 --> 00:02:08.329
coming to the House, it will
first go to the Speaker,

00:02:08.329 --> 00:02:11.083
who decides which committee it goes to.

00:02:11.083 --> 00:02:12.390
So let's say it goes to

00:02:12.390 --> 00:02:16.263
some type of a committee right over here.

00:02:16.263 --> 00:02:17.709
Now just as in the Senate,

00:02:17.709 --> 00:02:19.547
this committee can conduct hearings,

00:02:19.547 --> 00:02:21.071
they can have some debate,

00:02:21.071 --> 00:02:23.280
and the leadership of
the committee can decide

00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:25.871
to bring it to the House floor.

00:02:25.871 --> 00:02:27.535
But in reality, what happens is

00:02:27.535 --> 00:02:30.762
is that the Rules Committee gets involved.

00:02:30.762 --> 00:02:33.505
And as we've talked
about in previous videos,

00:02:33.505 --> 00:02:35.292
the Rules Committee in the House

00:02:35.292 --> 00:02:37.774
has a significant amount of power.

00:02:37.774 --> 00:02:41.231
They can decide, assuming a
bill gets through committee,

00:02:41.231 --> 00:02:43.051
they can decide to what degree

00:02:43.051 --> 00:02:44.873
it is debated on the House floor.

00:02:44.873 --> 00:02:47.320
They can even decide on
the rules of debating.

00:02:47.320 --> 00:02:50.174
They could decide on the House floor,

00:02:50.174 --> 00:02:52.571
is it going to be debated as the House,

00:02:52.571 --> 00:02:56.738
or is it going to be debated
as the Committee of the Whole?

00:02:58.006 --> 00:03:00.750
Which happens in the House chamber,

00:03:00.750 --> 00:03:04.508
but in this situation,
the House discusses it

00:03:04.508 --> 00:03:07.142
as a very, very, very large committee.

00:03:07.142 --> 00:03:10.169
And it's usually done for
very important legislation,

00:03:10.169 --> 00:03:12.324
or even sometimes complex legislation

00:03:12.324 --> 00:03:15.317
where they want to pass it
in a more efficient way.

00:03:15.317 --> 00:03:18.031
And so the existence of a
very powerful Rules Committee,

00:03:18.031 --> 00:03:19.654
you have a Rules Committee in the Senate,

00:03:19.654 --> 00:03:21.204
but they really don't have much power.

00:03:21.204 --> 00:03:22.777
But in the House of Representatives,

00:03:22.777 --> 00:03:25.111
some would argue that they
are the most important

00:03:25.111 --> 00:03:26.756
or most powerful committee,

00:03:26.756 --> 00:03:30.046
because they decide how and
when things get debated.

00:03:30.046 --> 00:03:31.962
They even decide if there is a debate,

00:03:31.962 --> 00:03:34.642
or their amendments can
even be added to bills.

00:03:34.642 --> 00:03:36.749
Remember, in our discussion of the Senate,

00:03:36.749 --> 00:03:39.667
once something even goes
to the Senate floor,

00:03:39.667 --> 00:03:41.651
it's still open to filibuster,

00:03:41.651 --> 00:03:45.756
and you still need those 60
votes for closure on a bill.

00:03:45.756 --> 00:03:48.788
That is not the case in the
House of Representatives.

00:03:48.788 --> 00:03:52.074
Now in theory, there are some mechanisms

00:03:52.074 --> 00:03:55.095
where someone could bypass some of this.

00:03:55.095 --> 00:03:56.279
So for example,

00:03:56.279 --> 00:03:58.799
in a committee in the
House of Representatives,

00:03:58.799 --> 00:03:59.752
just as in the Senate,

00:03:59.752 --> 00:04:01.901
the leadership of a committee could decide

00:04:01.901 --> 00:04:03.696
to not bring something to vote.

00:04:03.696 --> 00:04:07.000
They could just put a bill
into limbo, not debate it.

00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:10.025
But if someone really wants
it to come to the House floor,

00:04:10.025 --> 00:04:13.877
they could use something
called a discharge petition.

00:04:13.877 --> 00:04:14.710
Discharge

00:04:17.442 --> 00:04:18.275
petition.

00:04:19.909 --> 00:04:21.943
But in order to get a discharge petition,

00:04:21.943 --> 00:04:23.269
in order to make it successful

00:04:23.269 --> 00:04:25.873
so that that bill actually
goes through the House floor

00:04:25.873 --> 00:04:29.743
even if the committee chairman
doesn't want it to go there,

00:04:29.743 --> 00:04:33.864
it has to get a majority
vote of representatives.

00:04:33.864 --> 00:04:34.697
And so you could imagine,

00:04:34.697 --> 00:04:36.607
if it's someone from a minority party

00:04:36.607 --> 00:04:39.560
trying to have a discharge petition,

00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:40.597
it would be very difficult,

00:04:40.597 --> 00:04:42.622
because how are they going to get 51%

00:04:42.622 --> 00:04:46.463
of the 435 representatives to vote for it.

00:04:46.463 --> 00:04:48.241
And so that's why in practice,

00:04:48.241 --> 00:04:51.374
this is actually not that typical.

00:04:51.374 --> 00:04:55.562
So the big picture here, beyond
the constitutional powers

00:04:55.562 --> 00:04:57.540
that are given to the House or the Senate,

00:04:57.540 --> 00:04:59.641
in general, the House of Representatives

00:04:59.641 --> 00:05:01.529
is much more hierarchical.

00:05:01.529 --> 00:05:03.007
The power is centralized,

00:05:03.007 --> 00:05:05.035
especially within the majority party.

00:05:05.035 --> 00:05:06.834
And because of that centralized power,

00:05:06.834 --> 00:05:10.742
it allows the House to get
bills moving much faster,

00:05:10.742 --> 00:05:13.285
especially once they go
through the House floor.

00:05:13.285 --> 00:05:15.521
You don't have this
notion of a filibuster,

00:05:15.521 --> 00:05:17.957
and this notion that you
have to get a super majority

00:05:17.957 --> 00:05:21.430
in order to actually get a
vote and get something passed.


How a bill becomes a law

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.918 --> 00:00:01.806
- [Instructor] In other videos

00:00:01.806 --> 00:00:04.393
we have first started talking
about the legislative branch

00:00:04.393 --> 00:00:06.680
of the United States federal government.

00:00:06.680 --> 00:00:09.073
We talk about how it has two houses,

00:00:09.073 --> 00:00:11.802
the Senate that has 100 members,

00:00:11.802 --> 00:00:14.580
two per state, two times 50,

00:00:14.580 --> 00:00:19.353
and the House of Representatives
that has 435 members.

00:00:19.353 --> 00:00:22.089
And states have a certain
number of representatives

00:00:22.089 --> 00:00:24.435
depending on their population.

00:00:24.435 --> 00:00:26.988
We're going to go into a little more depth

00:00:26.988 --> 00:00:30.304
in this video is exactly
how laws get passed,

00:00:30.304 --> 00:00:32.381
in particular how do bills get passed

00:00:32.381 --> 00:00:35.272
by one or both of these houses.

00:00:35.272 --> 00:00:37.136
And if you're looking at
the U.S. Capitol building

00:00:37.136 --> 00:00:39.850
from the lawn, you can assume
that the Washington Monument

00:00:39.850 --> 00:00:42.144
is behind you in this
picture right over here,

00:00:42.144 --> 00:00:44.898
the Senate chamber is on the
left side, just like that,

00:00:44.898 --> 00:00:47.538
and the House of Representatives
is on the right side.

00:00:47.538 --> 00:00:50.503
Well, what does a bill actually look like?

00:00:50.503 --> 00:00:54.511
So, right over here is
the cover of a House bill,

00:00:54.511 --> 00:00:56.546
and notice some interesting things.

00:00:56.546 --> 00:01:01.375
The House bill starts with H.R.,
House of Representatives 1.

00:01:01.375 --> 00:01:03.366
And so this is the first
bill being introduced

00:01:03.366 --> 00:01:07.770
in this first session
of the 108th Congress.

00:01:07.770 --> 00:01:09.418
And it says, and it's
a little hard to read,

00:01:09.418 --> 00:01:11.353
especially if you're looking
at this on a mobile phone,

00:01:11.353 --> 00:01:15.679
but it says, to amend Title
XVIII of the Social Security Act

00:01:15.679 --> 00:01:18.017
to provide for voluntary program

00:01:18.017 --> 00:01:19.783
for prescription drug coverage

00:01:19.783 --> 00:01:23.249
under the Medicare program to
modernize the Medicare program

00:01:23.249 --> 00:01:24.874
and for other purposes.

00:01:24.874 --> 00:01:26.295
So that's just a very quick summary.

00:01:26.295 --> 00:01:29.785
And then it talks about
who are the representatives

00:01:29.785 --> 00:01:31.474
that are introducing the bill.

00:01:31.474 --> 00:01:33.506
So it's Mr. Hastert and
then it's in parentheses,

00:01:33.506 --> 00:01:35.969
it says for himself and
then it says, Mr. DeLay,

00:01:35.969 --> 00:01:38.579
Mr. Blunt, and it keeps
going on and on and on.

00:01:38.579 --> 00:01:41.876
And this was introduced June 25, 2003.

00:01:41.876 --> 00:01:44.253
And over here, the
bottom of where it talks

00:01:44.253 --> 00:01:46.676
about who is introducing
this bill, it says,

00:01:46.676 --> 00:01:49.313
which was referred jointly

00:01:49.313 --> 00:01:51.985
to the Committee on Energy and Commerce,

00:01:51.985 --> 00:01:55.416
and Ways and Means, in
each case for consideration

00:01:55.416 --> 00:01:58.342
of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction

00:01:58.342 --> 00:01:59.961
of the committee concerned.

00:01:59.961 --> 00:02:03.481
So this is the first clue
of how bills get started.

00:02:03.481 --> 00:02:06.640
In theory, anyone could write a bill,

00:02:06.640 --> 00:02:08.763
in practice, they are written

00:02:08.763 --> 00:02:12.103
by a member of Congress's
aides or aides of a committee,

00:02:12.103 --> 00:02:13.627
and we're gonna talk
more about committees.

00:02:13.627 --> 00:02:15.746
But they need to be formerly introduced

00:02:15.746 --> 00:02:16.913
by members of Congress.

00:02:16.913 --> 00:02:18.428
And you can see here Mr. Hastert,

00:02:18.428 --> 00:02:20.439
Congressman Hastert is listed first.

00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:22.960
But it doesn't go straight to a vote

00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:24.814
by the full House of Representatives.

00:02:24.814 --> 00:02:27.520
It will be introduced to
an appropriate committee,

00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:29.907
which is a subset of the
House of Representatives.

00:02:29.907 --> 00:02:31.733
In this case it's going to go to both

00:02:31.733 --> 00:02:33.143
the Committee on Energy and Commerce

00:02:33.143 --> 00:02:35.505
and the Ways and Means Committee.

00:02:35.505 --> 00:02:38.743
We can similarly look at a Senate bill,

00:02:38.743 --> 00:02:40.597
and it has some similarities.

00:02:40.597 --> 00:02:41.949
And the key thing to appreciate is

00:02:41.949 --> 00:02:44.859
that a bill could be introduced
into the House initially

00:02:44.859 --> 00:02:46.607
or into the Senate initially.

00:02:46.607 --> 00:02:48.775
And sometimes you have parallel bills

00:02:48.775 --> 00:02:50.724
that are essentially trying
to do the same thing,

00:02:50.724 --> 00:02:54.020
going through both
chambers at the same time.

00:02:54.020 --> 00:02:56.112
But right over here,
this is a Senate bill,

00:02:56.112 --> 00:03:00.112
Senate bill 1833, this
is in the 115th Congress,

00:03:01.357 --> 00:03:03.721
to modify the requirements applicable

00:03:03.721 --> 00:03:06.684
to locatable minerals
on public domain land

00:03:06.684 --> 00:03:08.474
and for other purposes.

00:03:08.474 --> 00:03:11.539
And then this is September 19th, 2017.

00:03:11.539 --> 00:03:13.764
It says, Mr. Udall for himself,

00:03:13.764 --> 00:03:15.102
and then it lists other senators,

00:03:15.102 --> 00:03:16.764
introduced the following bill

00:03:16.764 --> 00:03:19.679
which was read twice and
referred to the committee

00:03:19.679 --> 00:03:22.125
on Energy and Natural Resources.

00:03:22.125 --> 00:03:23.831
And then you start seeing
the text of the bill.

00:03:23.831 --> 00:03:26.427
So once again, whether it
initially gets introduced

00:03:26.427 --> 00:03:28.835
into the Senate or into the House,

00:03:28.835 --> 00:03:31.015
the first place where it goes is

00:03:31.015 --> 00:03:32.513
to the appropriate committee.

00:03:32.513 --> 00:03:35.219
And in general, it will only get voted on

00:03:35.219 --> 00:03:37.775
by the entire Senate or the entire House

00:03:37.775 --> 00:03:39.611
if it is approved by a committee.

00:03:39.611 --> 00:03:42.878
If a majority of the committee
actually votes for it.

00:03:42.878 --> 00:03:44.527
Now what are these committees?

00:03:44.527 --> 00:03:46.321
So in the House of Representatives,

00:03:46.321 --> 00:03:48.801
you currently have over 20 committees

00:03:48.801 --> 00:03:50.544
at the time that I'm making this video.

00:03:50.544 --> 00:03:52.897
Right now you have 20 standing committees,

00:03:52.897 --> 00:03:55.391
which means they are
continuously in operation,

00:03:55.391 --> 00:03:58.571
and one select committee,
which means it might be created

00:03:58.571 --> 00:03:59.778
for a special purpose,

00:03:59.778 --> 00:04:01.138
although some of these select committees

00:04:01.138 --> 00:04:02.893
tend to last for awhile.

00:04:02.893 --> 00:04:04.391
Now what I'm gonna list here are some

00:04:04.391 --> 00:04:06.291
of the most powerful committees

00:04:06.291 --> 00:04:07.852
in the House of Representatives.

00:04:07.852 --> 00:04:11.311
You have the House Ways
and Means Committee.

00:04:11.311 --> 00:04:12.965
Now why is this important?

00:04:12.965 --> 00:04:14.780
What is a Ways and Means?

00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:17.615
This is the committee that
first considers legislation

00:04:17.615 --> 00:04:19.509
around taxation.

00:04:19.509 --> 00:04:20.985
So it's the ways and means

00:04:20.985 --> 00:04:23.808
by which the government
can actually fund itself.

00:04:23.808 --> 00:04:25.964
And so you can imagine this
is very, very powerful.

00:04:25.964 --> 00:04:27.433
Who gets taxed, by how much,

00:04:27.433 --> 00:04:29.705
how much revenue is actually coming in?

00:04:29.705 --> 00:04:31.011
What will that do to the economy?

00:04:31.011 --> 00:04:33.082
And this is a committee
that's very specific

00:04:33.082 --> 00:04:34.883
to the House of Representatives.

00:04:34.883 --> 00:04:37.373
In general, bills could be
introduced to the Senate

00:04:37.373 --> 00:04:39.266
or the House or both.

00:04:39.266 --> 00:04:41.551
But if it's something regarding taxation,

00:04:41.551 --> 00:04:44.583
that has to originate in
the House of Representatives

00:04:44.583 --> 00:04:48.338
and it will go through the
House Ways and Means Committee.

00:04:48.338 --> 00:04:51.139
Another very powerful committee
is the Budget Committee.

00:04:51.139 --> 00:04:54.086
Through tax policy, the House
Ways and Means Committee

00:04:54.086 --> 00:04:57.397
influences how the
government gets its revenue,

00:04:57.397 --> 00:04:59.413
but the Budget Committee decides

00:04:59.413 --> 00:05:02.087
what is actually the
budget of the government.

00:05:02.087 --> 00:05:04.499
The president can make a proposed budget,

00:05:04.499 --> 00:05:07.186
but it's the budget committee
that actually decides

00:05:07.186 --> 00:05:11.353
on what budget Congress will
actually vote on in the House.

00:05:12.969 --> 00:05:14.617
Now, once you have a budget,
you have to think about

00:05:14.617 --> 00:05:16.607
how you're gonna spend that money.

00:05:16.607 --> 00:05:19.188
And that's what the Appropriations
Committee is focused on.

00:05:19.188 --> 00:05:21.459
Which programs get how much funding?

00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:23.909
So once again, this is a very
powerful committee to be on.

00:05:23.909 --> 00:05:27.992
But perhaps the most
powerful committee of all is

00:05:29.299 --> 00:05:30.607
the Rules Committee.

00:05:30.607 --> 00:05:32.103
The reason why this is so powerful

00:05:32.103 --> 00:05:33.916
is that in the House of Representatives,

00:05:33.916 --> 00:05:37.218
even if a bill is
introduced into committee,

00:05:37.218 --> 00:05:40.660
and even if that committee
decides to vote on that bill,

00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:43.567
and let's say they pass
it by a simple majority,

00:05:43.567 --> 00:05:45.464
it doesn't go straight to the floor

00:05:45.464 --> 00:05:47.268
of the House of Representatives to a vote.

00:05:47.268 --> 00:05:49.363
The Rules Committee is actually,

00:05:49.363 --> 00:05:51.420
you can view them as the traffic cop

00:05:51.420 --> 00:05:52.935
for the House of Representatives.

00:05:52.935 --> 00:05:56.528
For the most part, they decide
which bills go to the floor

00:05:56.528 --> 00:05:59.101
of the House, what are the rules
by which they are voted on.

00:05:59.101 --> 00:06:00.883
Are people allowed to make amendments,

00:06:00.883 --> 00:06:03.075
which are add-ons to that bill?

00:06:03.075 --> 00:06:04.938
Are people even allowed to debate it?

00:06:04.938 --> 00:06:07.549
They can even decide whether
it's going to be voted on

00:06:07.549 --> 00:06:09.936
by the House of Representatives acting

00:06:09.936 --> 00:06:11.376
as the House of Representatives,

00:06:11.376 --> 00:06:12.699
or whether it's gonna be voted on

00:06:12.699 --> 00:06:15.343
as the Committee of
the Whole, so to speak,

00:06:15.343 --> 00:06:17.676
which is the entire
House of Representatives.

00:06:17.676 --> 00:06:20.764
The difference between
voting for something

00:06:20.764 --> 00:06:23.952
as a House of Representatives
or the Committee of the Whole,

00:06:23.952 --> 00:06:25.941
in either case, it would
happen in the same room

00:06:25.941 --> 00:06:28.492
is that there's different
procedures on how to do it.

00:06:28.492 --> 00:06:30.323
And so you can imagine
there's a lot of strategy

00:06:30.323 --> 00:06:32.164
depending on which party is in charge

00:06:32.164 --> 00:06:34.804
on what initially even
gets through a committee,

00:06:34.804 --> 00:06:36.121
and then once it gets through a committee,

00:06:36.121 --> 00:06:38.851
what's the procedure
by which it is voted on

00:06:38.851 --> 00:06:40.117
or whether it gets voted on at all.

00:06:40.117 --> 00:06:41.707
Does it have a very public debate,

00:06:41.707 --> 00:06:43.251
or is there very little debate?

00:06:43.251 --> 00:06:46.384
Now, if something does pass the House,

00:06:46.384 --> 00:06:48.983
then that same bill,
once it passes the House,

00:06:48.983 --> 00:06:50.913
would have to be voted on by the Senate.

00:06:50.913 --> 00:06:53.927
Now, similarly, in the Senate,
when a bill is introduced,

00:06:53.927 --> 00:06:55.389
it goes to committee.

00:06:55.389 --> 00:06:56.896
And in the Senate currently,

00:06:56.896 --> 00:06:58.454
there are 16 standing committees

00:06:58.454 --> 00:07:01.690
and over 20 total committees
at the time of this video.

00:07:01.690 --> 00:07:03.189
And just to get a sense of some

00:07:03.189 --> 00:07:05.295
of the more powerful
committees on the Senate,

00:07:05.295 --> 00:07:08.661
you have things like the
Appropriations Committee,

00:07:08.661 --> 00:07:09.779
which is a sister committee

00:07:09.779 --> 00:07:11.472
of the House Appropriations Committee

00:07:11.472 --> 00:07:12.801
that we talked about before.

00:07:12.801 --> 00:07:15.767
Once again, they will
try to think about well,

00:07:15.767 --> 00:07:18.400
how could that money be spent?

00:07:18.400 --> 00:07:20.294
You have the Foreign Relations Committee.

00:07:20.294 --> 00:07:23.457
One key distinction between
the Senate and the House,

00:07:23.457 --> 00:07:26.308
there's a lot of areas where
they both might legislate on

00:07:26.308 --> 00:07:27.866
or introduce legislation on,

00:07:27.866 --> 00:07:31.628
but in general, tax bills can
only originate in the House,

00:07:31.628 --> 00:07:34.962
while the Senate is closer to
things like foreign relations.

00:07:34.962 --> 00:07:36.820
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee,

00:07:36.820 --> 00:07:38.838
all treaties would go through them.

00:07:38.838 --> 00:07:41.419
The Senate Armed Services Committee,

00:07:41.419 --> 00:07:44.317
it has legislative
authority over the military.

00:07:44.317 --> 00:07:47.765
Now once something gets through
any of these committees,

00:07:47.765 --> 00:07:50.124
then it would go through the Senate floor.

00:07:50.124 --> 00:07:52.546
And even there you start
to appreciate a difference

00:07:52.546 --> 00:07:54.353
between the House and the Senate.

00:07:54.353 --> 00:07:56.077
In the Senate, not only do you have

00:07:56.077 --> 00:07:57.948
a fewer number of senators,

00:07:57.948 --> 00:08:00.201
they tend to be more generalists

00:08:00.201 --> 00:08:03.289
and it's easier for something
to get to the Senate floor.

00:08:03.289 --> 00:08:04.967
It's a little bit more collegial.

00:08:04.967 --> 00:08:08.635
In the House, if the majority
party is strongly controlling

00:08:08.635 --> 00:08:11.855
the Rules Committee, they
can very strongly control

00:08:11.855 --> 00:08:13.905
not just what gets to the floor,

00:08:13.905 --> 00:08:16.384
but what is debated, how it's debated,

00:08:16.384 --> 00:08:19.488
if it's debated and what
has amendments put on it.

00:08:19.488 --> 00:08:21.804
And also, the members who
serve on these committees,

00:08:21.804 --> 00:08:24.193
it's a little bit more specialized.

00:08:24.193 --> 00:08:28.534
Now in either case, once a
bill gets through either house,

00:08:28.534 --> 00:08:30.315
it has to be voted on by the other house.

00:08:30.315 --> 00:08:32.551
So if a bill gets approved by the Senate,

00:08:32.551 --> 00:08:34.411
then it will go to the House,

00:08:34.411 --> 00:08:37.056
and if that same bill
is approved by the House

00:08:37.056 --> 00:08:40.680
with a simple majority, then
it will go to the President.

00:08:40.680 --> 00:08:42.655
Now the President might sign the bill,

00:08:42.655 --> 00:08:44.288
in which case it would become law,

00:08:44.288 --> 00:08:46.770
or the President could veto that bill.

00:08:46.770 --> 00:08:50.000
If the President vetoes
the bill, it goes back

00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:53.103
to both of these houses
and to override the veto,

00:08:53.103 --> 00:08:54.894
each of these houses,

00:08:54.894 --> 00:08:58.156
they both have to vote
with a 2/3 majority,

00:08:58.156 --> 00:09:00.354
and that happens very seldom.

00:09:00.354 --> 00:09:02.179
Now you also have a
scenario where sometimes

00:09:02.179 --> 00:09:03.751
very similar bills are going

00:09:03.751 --> 00:09:05.657
through both houses at the same time.

00:09:05.657 --> 00:09:08.963
So there's a situation where
a similar bill has gone

00:09:08.963 --> 00:09:11.172
through both houses at the same time,

00:09:11.172 --> 00:09:14.530
what it goes to is something
called a conference committee.

00:09:14.530 --> 00:09:16.327
And a conference committee is a group

00:09:16.327 --> 00:09:18.679
of both senators and representatives

00:09:18.679 --> 00:09:21.114
who will get together and
they'll try to reconcile

00:09:21.114 --> 00:09:23.506
the differences between those two bills.

00:09:23.506 --> 00:09:27.302
And once they get one bill
that reconciles the differences

00:09:27.302 --> 00:09:29.154
between those two, then they'll go back

00:09:29.154 --> 00:09:31.560
for a vote to both houses.

00:09:31.560 --> 00:09:34.128
And if they pass both
houses, then once again,

00:09:34.128 --> 00:09:38.285
it will go to the President
who could decide to sign it

00:09:38.285 --> 00:09:40.838
or veto it, and once
again, if it gets vetoed,

00:09:40.838 --> 00:09:43.614
that veto could get overridden.

00:09:43.614 --> 00:09:45.798
So the big picture here is we've talked

00:09:45.798 --> 00:09:48.666
about that policy making
process in previous videos

00:09:48.666 --> 00:09:51.099
where at first you wanna identify an issue

00:09:51.099 --> 00:09:53.058
and then you wanna do policy formulation.

00:09:53.058 --> 00:09:57.301
Well, a lot of that is going
on in the U.S. Congress.

00:09:57.301 --> 00:10:00.451
You have congressional aides
who are identifying problems,

00:10:00.451 --> 00:10:02.917
maybe different constituents,
maybe lobbyists are saying,

00:10:02.917 --> 00:10:04.056
hey, can you fix this

00:10:04.056 --> 00:10:05.864
or can you change the
tax code in some way?

00:10:05.864 --> 00:10:08.216
Then they formulate a policy

00:10:08.216 --> 00:10:10.637
which is essentially these bills.

00:10:10.637 --> 00:10:13.177
These bills are essentially
a policy formulation,

00:10:13.177 --> 00:10:15.719
and then those policies
have to be adopted.

00:10:15.719 --> 00:10:17.530
To be adopted, it has to be approved

00:10:17.530 --> 00:10:19.298
by both houses of Congress

00:10:19.298 --> 00:10:21.194
and then signed by the President.

00:10:21.194 --> 00:10:22.706
Or if it's vetoed by the President,

00:10:22.706 --> 00:10:26.240
that veto has to be overridden
by both houses of Congress.

00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.242
And then it's up to the Executive Branch

00:10:28.242 --> 00:10:30.499
to implement that policy.

00:10:30.499 --> 00:10:32.163
I'll leave you there.

00:10:32.163 --> 00:10:35.445
And in future videos we'll
talk more about the mechanics

00:10:35.445 --> 00:10:36.734
of the U.S. Congress.


Introduction to the public policy process

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.460 --> 00:00:02.019
- [Instructor] One idea
that we're going to keep

00:00:02.019 --> 00:00:04.432
coming back to in our study of government

00:00:04.432 --> 00:00:07.400
is the notion of public policy

00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:10.620
and how public policy is actually made

00:00:10.620 --> 00:00:11.984
and what we're gonna do in this video

00:00:11.984 --> 00:00:13.440
is focus on what you could consider to be

00:00:13.440 --> 00:00:16.638
the five stages of the policy process

00:00:16.638 --> 00:00:18.548
and I'll use a very simple example

00:00:18.548 --> 00:00:21.819
to make those stages tangible.

00:00:21.819 --> 00:00:25.957
So, the first stage of
the public policy process

00:00:25.957 --> 00:00:29.647
is identifying issues or agenda-setting,

00:00:29.647 --> 00:00:30.480
so agenda.

00:00:31.875 --> 00:00:36.493
Agenda-setting right over
here or identifying issues.

00:00:36.493 --> 00:00:38.176
An example of that, and
this is actually something

00:00:38.176 --> 00:00:40.726
that is going on near my house right now,

00:00:40.726 --> 00:00:42.513
is that there is an intersection

00:00:42.513 --> 00:00:44.520
about two blocks from my house,

00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:47.630
so let me see if I can
draw this intersection.

00:00:47.630 --> 00:00:52.315
So, looks something like this
and it's a two-way stop sign,

00:00:52.315 --> 00:00:55.650
so you have a stop sign right over there.

00:00:55.650 --> 00:00:57.942
You have a stop sign right over there

00:00:57.942 --> 00:01:02.484
and the problem is you have
this large park in this corner

00:01:02.484 --> 00:01:05.313
right over there and
there's also a school here

00:01:05.313 --> 00:01:08.525
and so in the morning there's
a lot of kids and parents

00:01:08.525 --> 00:01:11.183
going on their bicycles
or walking to school,

00:01:11.183 --> 00:01:12.688
but the problem is there's
also a lot of parents

00:01:12.688 --> 00:01:15.549
who might be late for school
and they're going in their cars

00:01:15.549 --> 00:01:17.972
and they're going quite
fast down this road

00:01:17.972 --> 00:01:20.059
and it's a two-way stop and so even though

00:01:20.059 --> 00:01:22.807
there's a lot of kids
that are waiting to cross

00:01:22.807 --> 00:01:25.632
right over here, and
there's no crossing guard,

00:01:25.632 --> 00:01:28.054
so there's a lot of kids and
parents walking right here,

00:01:28.054 --> 00:01:29.847
they have to wait and you can imagine,

00:01:29.847 --> 00:01:30.910
this is an elementary school.

00:01:30.910 --> 00:01:33.172
These cars are going by really fast.

00:01:33.172 --> 00:01:37.012
It's quite dangerous, so
the agenda here is that,

00:01:37.012 --> 00:01:39.946
well, how do you make
this safer and easier

00:01:39.946 --> 00:01:43.582
for families to cross the
street on the way to the park?

00:01:43.582 --> 00:01:45.596
So, the example here.

00:01:45.596 --> 00:01:47.096
How to make easier

00:01:51.213 --> 00:01:54.630
to cross the street at that intersection?

00:01:57.417 --> 00:02:01.231
Now, once you determine the
problem that you want solved,

00:02:01.231 --> 00:02:03.551
you do the agenda-setting, the next step

00:02:03.551 --> 00:02:06.167
is to formulate some type of a policy,

00:02:06.167 --> 00:02:10.534
so I'll call that step
two, would be policy,

00:02:10.534 --> 00:02:12.117
policy formulation.

00:02:13.705 --> 00:02:16.317
So, one potential idea here is,

00:02:16.317 --> 00:02:20.048
well, why don't we just make
this into a four-way stop?

00:02:20.048 --> 00:02:22.542
So we could put some paint
here to make it clear

00:02:22.542 --> 00:02:25.464
that people are going
to cross on all sides

00:02:25.464 --> 00:02:28.010
and we'll put two more stop signs

00:02:28.010 --> 00:02:30.893
to make this a four-way stop

00:02:30.893 --> 00:02:34.328
and so let's say that
this is our current plan

00:02:34.328 --> 00:02:36.588
as we say, hey, we're
making this tangible.

00:02:36.588 --> 00:02:39.921
We're going to implement a four-way stop

00:02:40.867 --> 00:02:42.158
at that intersection.

00:02:42.158 --> 00:02:44.178
Now, that's not the only
solution that's possible.

00:02:44.178 --> 00:02:46.243
Maybe some type of speed bumps

00:02:46.243 --> 00:02:48.776
might be in order right over
here and right over here.

00:02:48.776 --> 00:02:51.463
Maybe they implement some
type of crossing guard

00:02:51.463 --> 00:02:54.478
or maybe you put one of
those flashing blinking signs

00:02:54.478 --> 00:02:55.839
that tell people their speed limits

00:02:55.839 --> 00:02:58.433
so that they go slower, so
there's many different ways

00:02:58.433 --> 00:03:02.181
to formulate ideas that
will address this agenda,

00:03:02.181 --> 00:03:03.426
that will address these problems,

00:03:03.426 --> 00:03:04.982
but let's say that we do a study

00:03:04.982 --> 00:03:06.431
and we decide that a four-way stop

00:03:06.431 --> 00:03:09.645
is the policy that we want to pursue.

00:03:09.645 --> 00:03:11.114
Well, then the next step after that

00:03:11.114 --> 00:03:14.317
is to convince other people
that this is a good idea,

00:03:14.317 --> 00:03:17.292
so step three right over here

00:03:17.292 --> 00:03:20.459
we could call policy, policy adoption.

00:03:22.910 --> 00:03:26.743
Adoption or legitimization,
and in my context,

00:03:27.721 --> 00:03:30.968
it might involve going to the city council

00:03:30.968 --> 00:03:33.895
maybe with some traffic
experts, some safety experts.

00:03:33.895 --> 00:03:36.667
Maybe I could go gather
the community here,

00:03:36.667 --> 00:03:39.203
petition so that a lot of
people in the community here

00:03:39.203 --> 00:03:42.071
agree that a four-way
stop would be in order

00:03:42.071 --> 00:03:44.283
and let's say the city council
and the police department

00:03:44.283 --> 00:03:46.696
and all the various stakeholders
who have to buy in say,

00:03:46.696 --> 00:03:50.170
"Yes, we are going to implement
a four-way stop here."

00:03:50.170 --> 00:03:52.046
And then they implement it

00:03:52.046 --> 00:03:53.765
and so once the policy is adopted,

00:03:53.765 --> 00:03:57.314
the next thing is, well, you've
gotta actually implement it,

00:03:57.314 --> 00:03:59.055
so I'll call that step four.

00:03:59.055 --> 00:03:59.888
Policy,

00:04:00.934 --> 00:04:03.128
policy implementation.

00:04:03.128 --> 00:04:04.378
Implementation.

00:04:05.805 --> 00:04:08.829
Mentation, and in this case,
it's pretty straightforward.

00:04:08.829 --> 00:04:12.113
Someone needs to show up and
install those stop signs.

00:04:12.113 --> 00:04:15.067
Maybe they're gonna put
some markers over here

00:04:15.067 --> 00:04:16.656
to make it more clear that people

00:04:16.656 --> 00:04:19.592
are going to cross the street
as they go on to the park,

00:04:19.592 --> 00:04:21.353
but that would be the implementation.

00:04:21.353 --> 00:04:25.089
Now, the last step in
this public policy cycle

00:04:25.089 --> 00:04:27.204
or this process, and you'll
see it really is a cycle,

00:04:27.204 --> 00:04:30.383
is to just assess it, to
evaluate how things are going,

00:04:30.383 --> 00:04:33.938
so the next step, we'll call
this step five right over here,

00:04:33.938 --> 00:04:36.188
would be policy assessment.

00:04:37.615 --> 00:04:38.532
Assessment.

00:04:39.944 --> 00:04:43.614
Or evaluation and so one possibility

00:04:43.614 --> 00:04:46.097
is to go survey people in the community.

00:04:46.097 --> 00:04:48.287
Has that solved the problem?

00:04:48.287 --> 00:04:49.896
Has it created new problems?

00:04:49.896 --> 00:04:51.277
Is there a traffic issue now

00:04:51.277 --> 00:04:53.675
because people have to
go to the four-way stop?

00:04:53.675 --> 00:04:55.800
And whatever the assessment says,

00:04:55.800 --> 00:04:57.896
the assessment might say, "Hey,
everything's perfect now,"

00:04:57.896 --> 00:04:59.863
and then you don't really have to worry

00:04:59.863 --> 00:05:02.401
about this problem anymore,

00:05:02.401 --> 00:05:04.492
but maybe there's a new traffic problem

00:05:04.492 --> 00:05:06.983
and now that'd be another issue to address

00:05:06.983 --> 00:05:08.869
and you would have to go
through the cycle again

00:05:08.869 --> 00:05:11.676
or maybe it hasn't
addressed the speed issue

00:05:11.676 --> 00:05:12.850
and so maybe you need to think about,

00:05:12.850 --> 00:05:15.147
well, how do we slow cars
down or whatever else?

00:05:15.147 --> 00:05:19.054
And we would keep going through
this public policy process

00:05:19.054 --> 00:05:21.908
or this, really this cycle
that we're talking about.

00:05:21.908 --> 00:05:23.853
Now, the example that I just gave,

00:05:23.853 --> 00:05:25.467
this is a very simple example

00:05:25.467 --> 00:05:27.838
at a corner two blocks from my house

00:05:27.838 --> 00:05:29.167
and this is actually
something I'm thinking about.

00:05:29.167 --> 00:05:31.614
I'm thinking about going to
the city council about this,

00:05:31.614 --> 00:05:35.443
but as you can imagine, as
we go into much deeper things

00:05:35.443 --> 00:05:37.390
that are affecting people
at the federal level,

00:05:37.390 --> 00:05:39.872
healthcare, taxes, whatever else,

00:05:39.872 --> 00:05:42.337
each of these steps can be quite involved

00:05:42.337 --> 00:05:46.368
and it can even take years
to do any one of these steps.


Sample size for a given margin of error for a mean

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.669 --> 00:00:02.849
- [Instructor] Nadia wants to
create a confidence interval

00:00:02.849 --> 00:00:06.159
to estimate the mean driving range

00:00:06.159 --> 00:00:08.507
for her company's new electric vehicle.

00:00:08.507 --> 00:00:10.984
She wants the margin of error to be no

00:00:10.984 --> 00:00:15.151
more than 10 kilometers at
a 90% level of confidence.

00:00:16.142 --> 00:00:19.097
A pilot study suggests
that the driving ranges for

00:00:19.097 --> 00:00:20.980
this type of vehicle have a

00:00:20.980 --> 00:00:23.980
standard deviation of 15 kilometers.

00:00:24.886 --> 00:00:27.635
Which of these is the smallest approximate

00:00:27.635 --> 00:00:31.802
sample size required to obtain
the desired margin of error?

00:00:33.567 --> 00:00:35.825
So pause this video and see
if you can think about this

00:00:35.825 --> 00:00:36.825
on your own.

00:00:38.276 --> 00:00:39.880
So the traditional way that we

00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:43.639
would construct a margin of
error at a confidence interval

00:00:43.639 --> 00:00:47.806
we take a sample and from that
sample, we construct the mean

00:00:48.875 --> 00:00:53.413
and then we add or subtract a
margin of error around that to

00:00:53.413 --> 00:00:55.494
construct the confidence interval.

00:00:55.494 --> 00:00:56.442
And the way we've done

00:00:56.442 --> 00:00:59.676
that since we're dealing
with means is we say alright,

00:00:59.676 --> 00:01:02.974
if we don't know the standard
deviation of the population,

00:01:02.974 --> 00:01:06.499
it's appropriate to use the T statistic.

00:01:06.499 --> 00:01:09.704
So, our critical value we
denote as t star and you'd

00:01:09.704 --> 00:01:13.942
multiply that by that times
the sample standard deviation

00:01:13.942 --> 00:01:17.859
divided by the square
root of your sample size.

00:01:19.339 --> 00:01:23.096
Now, this question is all
about what is an appropriate

00:01:23.096 --> 00:01:25.443
sample size, given that we wanna

00:01:25.443 --> 00:01:28.204
have a 90% level of confidence.

00:01:28.204 --> 00:01:30.270
And what's tricky here is,

00:01:30.270 --> 00:01:32.658
when you're using a t
table right over here,

00:01:32.658 --> 00:01:35.785
not only do you need to know
the 90% level of confidence,

00:01:35.785 --> 00:01:38.709
you also need to know
the degrees of freedom.

00:01:38.709 --> 00:01:41.097
And the degrees of freedom
is gonna be n minus one.

00:01:41.097 --> 00:01:43.036
But we don't know what that's
gonna be without knowing n

00:01:43.036 --> 00:01:45.069
so how would we determine an n?

00:01:45.069 --> 00:01:47.528
Similarly, you don't know
what your sample standard

00:01:47.528 --> 00:01:49.151
deviation is going to be until you

00:01:49.151 --> 00:01:51.098
actually take some samples.

00:01:51.098 --> 00:01:54.078
So instead of that, what
we could think about

00:01:54.078 --> 00:01:56.920
we know that another
legitimate way to construct a

00:01:56.920 --> 00:01:59.486
confidence interval
and the margin of error

00:01:59.486 --> 00:02:02.859
is to say, alright I
can take my sample mean

00:02:02.859 --> 00:02:05.109
and I can add or subtract a

00:02:06.476 --> 00:02:09.365
Z score a critical value at
this time using a z table,

00:02:09.365 --> 00:02:13.263
where if I multiply that
times the true population

00:02:13.263 --> 00:02:17.430
standard deviation and divide
that by the square root of n.

00:02:18.268 --> 00:02:20.476
Now, you might say well I don't know

00:02:20.476 --> 00:02:22.079
the true population standard deviation.

00:02:22.079 --> 00:02:24.960
But they tell us a pilot study
suggests that the driving

00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:27.148
ranges for this type of
vehicle have a standard

00:02:27.148 --> 00:02:29.014
deviation of 15 kilometers.

00:02:29.014 --> 00:02:30.770
So we could use this as an estimate

00:02:30.770 --> 00:02:33.607
of our true population standard deviation.

00:02:33.607 --> 00:02:37.195
So this is 15 kilometers right over here.

00:02:37.195 --> 00:02:39.602
And then the good thing about a z table is

00:02:39.602 --> 00:02:41.892
you don't have to think
about degrees of freedom.

00:02:41.892 --> 00:02:44.407
You could just look up
your confidence interval.

00:02:44.407 --> 00:02:46.438
And so then we could just say,

00:02:46.438 --> 00:02:49.521
that look, z star times 15 kilometers

00:02:51.787 --> 00:02:53.659
over our square root of n,

00:02:53.659 --> 00:02:56.241
this right over here
is our margin of error.

00:02:56.241 --> 00:02:58.281
This right over here
is our margin of error,

00:02:58.281 --> 00:03:01.072
that has to be no more than 10 kilometers.

00:03:01.072 --> 00:03:04.655
So that has to be less
than or equal to 10.

00:03:05.596 --> 00:03:08.716
And we can figure out what
z star needs to be for a 90%

00:03:08.716 --> 00:03:11.351
confidence level and then
so we just solve for n.

00:03:11.351 --> 00:03:12.601
So let's do that.

00:03:12.601 --> 00:03:15.694
Now, do figure out z star
I could use the z table but

00:03:15.694 --> 00:03:18.127
just for a diversity of methodology

00:03:18.127 --> 00:03:20.639
let's use a calculator here.

00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:22.730
So to figure out the z
value that would give us

00:03:22.730 --> 00:03:24.807
a 90% confidence interval I can

00:03:24.807 --> 00:03:27.915
use a function called inverse norm.

00:03:27.915 --> 00:03:30.550
And you can see that right
over here, that's choice three.

00:03:30.550 --> 00:03:32.383
Let me just select that.

00:03:32.383 --> 00:03:33.991
And what it'll do is,

00:03:33.991 --> 00:03:37.264
you give it the area that
you want under normal curve.

00:03:37.264 --> 00:03:39.910
You can even specify the mean
and the standard deviation.

00:03:39.910 --> 00:03:41.897
Although you want the mean
to be zero and the standard

00:03:41.897 --> 00:03:44.263
deviation to be one if you
really want to figure out

00:03:44.263 --> 00:03:45.513
a z score here.

00:03:46.697 --> 00:03:49.463
And so it'll do is, it will
give you the z score that

00:03:49.463 --> 00:03:51.635
will give you that corresponding area.

00:03:51.635 --> 00:03:53.433
And so I want and actually it's already

00:03:53.433 --> 00:03:57.999
selected that I want the
center area to be 90%.

00:03:57.999 --> 00:04:00.832
So I could say .9 right over here.

00:04:01.945 --> 00:04:05.113
If I use the left tail then
that means if I have 90%

00:04:05.113 --> 00:04:07.558
of the center that means I
would have a 5% of either tail.

00:04:07.558 --> 00:04:09.479
So instead of doing it .9 in center

00:04:09.479 --> 00:04:13.402
I could've done .05 and
used the left tail or used

00:04:13.402 --> 00:04:15.853
.05 and used the right tail.

00:04:15.853 --> 00:04:17.966
But this is exactly what I want.

00:04:17.966 --> 00:04:20.966
So let me just go and paste this.

00:04:20.966 --> 00:04:25.133
And so this should give me
the appropriate z value.

00:04:27.147 --> 00:04:28.234
So there you go.

00:04:28.234 --> 00:04:30.552
If I want this middle 90%,

00:04:30.552 --> 00:04:33.847
the center 90%, I have to go one point,

00:04:33.847 --> 00:04:37.630
roughly 1.645 standard deviations below

00:04:37.630 --> 00:04:39.673
the mean and that same
amount above the mean.

00:04:39.673 --> 00:04:42.652
So it's roughly our critical
value here is approximately

00:04:42.652 --> 00:04:44.819
1.6, let's just say 1.645.

00:04:47.668 --> 00:04:48.501
So we have

00:04:49.565 --> 00:04:50.982
1.645 times times

00:04:55.228 --> 00:04:57.746
15 over the square root of n

00:04:57.746 --> 00:05:00.748
is going to be less than or equal to 10.

00:05:00.748 --> 00:05:03.462
And so now there's a couple of
ways that you could do this.

00:05:03.462 --> 00:05:05.501
We could do a little bit
of algebra to simplify

00:05:05.501 --> 00:05:07.627
this inequality and I
encourage you to do so

00:05:07.627 --> 00:05:09.516
or you could even try out some values here

00:05:09.516 --> 00:05:12.743
and see which of these
ends would make this true

00:05:12.743 --> 00:05:15.195
and we want the smallest possible one.

00:05:15.195 --> 00:05:16.853
I'll do it the algebraic way because

00:05:16.853 --> 00:05:18.641
if you're actually doing
this in the real world

00:05:18.641 --> 00:05:21.068
Nadia would not have a multiple
choice right over here.

00:05:21.068 --> 00:05:22.782
She'd have to figure out the sample size

00:05:22.782 --> 00:05:24.436
in order to conduct her study.

00:05:24.436 --> 00:05:26.533
So let's do that.

00:05:26.533 --> 00:05:27.517
So let's see.

00:05:27.517 --> 00:05:30.684
If I divide both sides by 1.645 and 15

00:05:32.908 --> 00:05:33.819
what do I get?

00:05:33.819 --> 00:05:36.942
I get one over the square root of n

00:05:36.942 --> 00:05:38.942
is less than or equal to

00:05:40.131 --> 00:05:41.214
10 over 1.645

00:05:45.854 --> 00:05:47.021
over, over 15.

00:05:50.676 --> 00:05:53.116
And if I take the reciprocal
of both sides I get

00:05:53.116 --> 00:05:56.352
the square root of n is
greater than or equal to,

00:05:56.352 --> 00:05:58.149
if I'm taking the
reciprocal of both sides,

00:05:58.149 --> 00:06:00.316
and so this is going to be

00:06:01.294 --> 00:06:02.127
1.645,

00:06:04.340 --> 00:06:05.840
times 15 times 15.

00:06:09.136 --> 00:06:11.085
All of that over 10.

00:06:11.085 --> 00:06:13.018
All of that over 10.

00:06:13.018 --> 00:06:15.139
See 15 over 10 is just 1.5 so let me just

00:06:15.139 --> 00:06:17.706
write that as 1.5 right over here.

00:06:17.706 --> 00:06:21.955
And then if I square both
sides I would get that n

00:06:21.955 --> 00:06:24.955
needs to be greater than or equal to

00:06:25.884 --> 00:06:27.051
1.645 times...

00:06:30.450 --> 00:06:31.283
Times 1.5.

00:06:32.453 --> 00:06:34.342
And then all of that squared.

00:06:34.342 --> 00:06:35.755
I just squared both sides.

00:06:35.755 --> 00:06:36.911
All of that squared.

00:06:36.911 --> 00:06:38.807
And so let's get our calculator back.

00:06:38.807 --> 00:06:41.474
We are going to have 1.645 times

00:06:44.548 --> 00:06:48.465
1.5 and then we want to
square it and we get 6.

00:06:50.414 --> 00:06:52.664
Approximately 6.0,

00:06:52.664 --> 00:06:53.497
6.09.

00:06:56.170 --> 00:06:59.920
So n has to be greater
than or equal to 6.09.

00:07:00.923 --> 00:07:02.909
And of course our sample
size needs to actually

00:07:02.909 --> 00:07:04.274
be a whole number.

00:07:04.274 --> 00:07:06.299
So what's the smallest whole number that

00:07:06.299 --> 00:07:08.250
is larger than 6.09?

00:07:08.250 --> 00:07:10.368
Well that's going to be seven.

00:07:10.368 --> 00:07:12.936
So that would be this
choice right over here.

00:07:12.936 --> 00:07:15.199
This is the smallest
approximate sample size

00:07:15.199 --> 00:07:19.015
required to obtain the
desired margin of error.

00:07:19.015 --> 00:07:21.095
And of course we won't
really really know until we

00:07:21.095 --> 00:07:23.282
actually conduct the study.

00:07:23.282 --> 00:07:25.223
We obviously here use an estimate of the

00:07:25.223 --> 00:07:28.307
population standard deviation.

00:07:28.307 --> 00:07:32.307
And we used a z table but
it will be interesting

00:07:33.372 --> 00:07:35.285
when Nadia actually conducts
the study to see if her

00:07:35.285 --> 00:07:38.997
margin of error is indeed
no more than 10 kilometers

00:07:38.997 --> 00:07:41.493
with a 90% level of confidence.