Domestic Policy

1
Domestic Policy
2
The Policy-Making Process

• Agenda Building identifying a problem and
  getting it on the agenda.
• Policy Formulation the debate that occurs among
  government officials and the public in the media,
  in Congress, and through campaigns.
• Policy Adoption selection of a strategy for
  addressing the problem from among the solutions
  discussed.
• Policy Implementationthe administration of the
  policy adopted
• Policy Evaluation. Groups evaluate the policy to
  determine if it has had the desired impact. The
  feedback also evaluates unintended consequences
  of the policy adoption.

3
Health Care

• The Rising Cost of Health Care
• Advanced Technology diagnostic machinery is very
  expensive
• The government funds about 45 percent of health
  care spending, private insurance provides about
  35 percent, and the rest is picked up by
  individuals or charity.
• Medicare Medicare, a federal health-insurance
  program that covers U.S. residents over the age
  of sixty-five. The costs are met by a tax on
  wages and salaries.
• Medicaid, a joint state-federal program that
  provides medical care to the poor (including
  indigent elderly persons in nursing homes). The
  program is funded out of general government
  revenues.

4
Medicare

• In 1965, Medicare did not cover medicine.
• Beginning in 2006, the Medicare program will
  begin paying part of the cost of medicines.
• Medicare is the second-most expensive federal
  program after Social Security.
• To contain costs, the government has placed caps
  on payments for procedures, with mixed results.
• Some health care providers now will not serve
  Medicare clients.
• The Uninsured
• 15 percent of the population lacks health
  insurance.
• 35 percent of working Hispanic Americans lack
  coverage.

5
The Uninsured Employed.

• Smaller businesses often find it hard to supply
  health insurance to their employees, as it costs
  9,000 or more per employee.
• A health catastrophe for such a person, however,
  could force them into bankruptcy.
• Shifting Costs to the Uninsured.
• A special problem is that many health care
  providers charge the uninsured steeply higher
  rates for services than the insured, because
  insurance companies and the government have the
  power to negotiate lower prices for their
  clients.

6
Alternatives

• National Health Insurance. The United States is
  the only advanced industrial country that does
  not have a system of universal health insurance
  run by the government.
• Such systems have lower administrative expenses
  than the U.S. system, but may have trouble
  controlling spending on unnecessary procedures.
• The Canadian System. The Canadian system is
  sometimes cited as a possible model, but Canada
  bans supplemental insurance, a non-starter in the
  U.S.
• National Health Insurance in the United States?
  President Bill Clinton made a major attempt to
  push a national health insurance plan through
  Congress, but failed.
• Another Alternative A Health Savings Account.
  This plan has been passed by Congress under
  George W. Bush.
• It allows people to create tax-free savings
  accounts for health-care expenses, providing the
  participant also buys a high-deductible insurance
  policy.

7
Percentage of Total National Income Spent on
Health Care in the U.S.
8
Cost of Health Care in Economically Advanced
Nations
9
Life Expectancy in the U.S.
10
Poverty and Welfare

• Income transfers, transfers of income from some
  individuals in the economy to other individuals
  done by the government.
• The Low-Income Population.
• To define poverty, the government devised a
  system beginning in 1963 that defined poverty
  based on family income in comparison to the cost
  of a nutritious food plan.
• Since 1969 the government has revised the formula
  based on changes in the consumer price index
  (CPI).
• In an attempt to assist these families, the
  government made transfer payments to them in the
  form of programs like food stamps and housing
  vouchers.

11
The Antipoverty Budget

• In an effort to resolve some of the most
  pressing problems of poverty, the federal
  government has established a variety of programs.
  
• The 2005 budget allocated about 396 billion, or
  about one-sixth of all federal expenditures, to
  programs that support persons of limited income
  (scholarships included).
• Of this amount, 188 billion, or almost half, was
  for Medicaid.
• The states were expected to contribute an
  additional 142 billion to Medicaid.

12
Basic Welfare.

• Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
  provided aid to children in poverty.
• This program was administered by state
  governments but was financed by the federal
  government.
• This program was eliminated by the Welfare Reform
  Act of 1996 and replaced with Temporary
  Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
• TANF is a state-administered bloc grant program.
  
• The states, not the national government, now bear
  the burden of any increased welfare spending.
• The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 had several key
  components.
• Importantly it provided for devolution of the
  welfare system.
• Most welfare recipients are now limited to two
  years of assistance at one time, with a lifetime
  limit of five years.
• The act sought to reduce the number of people
  receiving benefits and in fact the number has
  been cut about in half.

13
Other Forms of Government Assistance

• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) was
  established as part of Social Security in 1974 to
  provide a minimum income for the aged, the blind,
  and the disabled.
• Food Stamps are designed to help provide adequate
  nutrition for low-income families.
• The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) helps
  lower-income workers by providing a rebate on
  Social Security taxes.

14
Homelessness

• Many advocates for the homeless argue that the
  Welfare Reform Act has exacerbated the problem.
• Estimates are that on any given night there are
  anywhere from 230,000 to 750,000 people who are
  homeless.
• The fastest growing sub-group of the homeless is
  families.
• What are solutions to homelessness?

15
The Official Number of Poor in the U.S.
16
Immigration

• The Continued Influx of Immigrants. Immigration
  rates are now higher than they were a few decades
  ago.
• About a million people a year immigrate to this
  country.
• Four out of five immigrants come from Latin
  America or Asia.
• Late in the twenty-first century immigration
  could help lead to the United States becoming a
  majority-minority country.
• Immigration has certain economic benefitsfor
  example it may make it easier to fund Social
  Security in future years.

17
Immigration and Americas Security.

• Student VisasThen and Now.
• Many of the hijackers who destroyed the World
  Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon were in
  the country on student visas.
• New Security Guidelines.
• The government has therefore made it harder to
  obtain student visas, a problem for many colleges
  and universities.

18
Crime in the Twenty-First Century

• Crime in American History
• Crimes Committed by Juveniles
• The Cost of Crime to American Society
• The Prison Population Bomb
• The Incarceration rate the number of persons
  held in jail or prison for every 100,000 persons
  in a particular population group
• International Comparisons At 701 for men and
  women together, the United States has the highest
  reported incarceration rate of any nation on
  earth
• Prison Construction
• Effects of Incarceration

19
Crime In History

• Crime has always been considered a problem in
  American society.
• After rising for many years, violent crime rates
  have come down over the last ten years.
• The reasons for this are not clear.
• One explanation might be the large number of
  perpetrators who have been sent to prison,
  putting them out of commission.
• High spending on law enforcement has also been
  suggested as a reason.
• One study even claimed that legalized abortion
  has had a major effect by reducing the population
  likely to commit crimes.

20
Crimes Committed by Juveniles

• These crimes have been a special concern, though
  juvenile crime rates are dropping as well.
• Curfews and boot camps are two solutions that
  have been advanced.
• Increasingly, young offenders are being tried as
  adults, especially for violent offenses.

21
The Prison Population Bomb

• Stiff sentences are now national policy.
• In 2002, the number of persons held in jail or
  prison exceeded two million for the first time.
• In 1990, the figure was only 1.1 million.
• The Incarceration Rate.
• Key term Incarceration rate, the number of
  persons held in jail or prison for every 100,000
  persons in a particular population group.
• Today, the rate for U.S. men is 1,309 and for
  U.S. women, 113.
• Among the most-frequently incarcerated
  demographic group, non-Hispanic black men aged 25
  to 29, the rate is a stratospheric 12,877.
• At any given time, almost 13 percent of this
  group is in jail or prison.

22

• Prison Construction
• It follows that prison construction is a booming
  business.
• In 1923, there were only 63 prisons in the entire
  country.
• Since 1980, Texas alone has built 120 new
  prisons, Florida 84, and California 83.
• Effects of Incarceration
• A majority of all persons arrested each year are
  arrested for drug offenses.
• From twenty to forty million people may violate
  the drug laws each year.
• The supply of potential prisoners seems virtually
  limitless.

23
Violent Crime Rates
24
Homicide Rate
25
Theft Rates
26
Incarceration Rates for Selected U.S. Population
Groups, 2002
27
Crime in the Twenty-First Century (cont.)

• Federal Drug Policy
• Money spent on federal drug interdiction programs
  had not met with much success, as illegal drug
  consumption in the U.S. has remained steady.
  State and local governments, however, have been
  attempting new remedies to curtail the drug
  problem.
• Confronting Terrorism
• Counter-terrorism strategies will necessarily be
  a part of federal government policy for years to
  come.

28
Environmental Policy

• Environmentalism. Early in the twentieth century,
  environmentalism was focused on wilderness land
  use issues.
• Conservation was a policy under which natural
  resources should be used, but not abused.
• Preservation called for natural preserves that
  are isolated from the effects of human activity.

29

• The Environmentalist Movement.
• Beginning in the 1960s, a new movement arose that
  was more focused on pollution. A series of
  well-publicized pollution catastrophes helped
  bring attention to the problem.
• Ecology.
• In the 1970s, some environmentalists began to
  advocate policies that were a radical elaboration
  of the old preservationist philosophy.
• Many even claimed that the human race itself was
  the problem.

30
Cleaning Up the Air and Water

• The public had a growing awareness of
  environmental problems throughout the 1970s and
  1980s.
• oil spills
• toxic waste sites
• The following polices reflect the concern the
  government has had for the need to protect the
  environment.

31
The National Environmental Policy Act.

• This was enacted in 1969 in an attempt to set
  national standards for assessing the impact that
  major federal projects (construction of roads,
  buildings, etc.) would have on the environment.
• Such projects could not be started without first
  receiving an environmental impact statement
  (EIS).
• Curbing Air Pollution
• The 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1963
  constitute a comprehensive policy mandating
  cleaner air in urban areas.
• Utility plant emission levels are monitored and
  the plants must significantly reduce the amount
  of carbon monoxide emissions.
• Automobile manufacturers must reduce emissions of
  nitrogen oxide progressively until 2007.

32
Water Pollution

• The Clean Water Act of 1972 amended the Federal
  Water Pollution Control Act of 1948.
• The Clean Water Act sought
• to make waters safe for swimming, protect fish
  and wildlife, and
• eliminate the discharge of pollutants into the
  water.
• The Clean Water Act has proven controversial,
• because of its broad definition of wetlands
• because of the migratory bird rule
• which ruled any waters suitable for use by
  migratory birds were subject to regulation as
  wetlands.

33
Cost-Effective Solutions

• One method of supporting cost-effective solutions
  was part of the Clean Air Act of 1990.
• As a result, the sulfur dioxide emissions are
  made by the companies that reap the greatest
  economic advantage from their right to emit.
• As a result of legislation, air and water
  pollution is down dramatically from what it was
  three or so decades ago.
• Lead content in the air is 3 percent of what it
  was.
• Sulfur dioxide is down by four-fifths.

34
Regulating Hazardous Waste

• Superfund, created in 1980 and modified in 1986,
  is a program to clean up leaking hazardous-waste
  disposal sites.
• Superfund has been controversial because costs
  can be recovered from any persons who may be
  legally responsible.
• Clean-ups have been very expensive and have
  resulted in large legal expenses as well.

35
The Endangered Species Act (ESA)

• Passed in 1973, ESA made it illegal to kill,
  harm, or otherwise take a species listed as
  endangered or threatened.
• The government could prevent landowners from
  engaging in development that would harm a listed
  species.
• Restrictions on development and on property
  rights in general have made ESA controversial.

36
Global Warming

• In the 1990s, climate scientists determined that
  CO2 emissions were causing the earth to warm up
  due to a greenhouse effect.
• The results are most noticeable in the arctic and
  Antarctic.
• The Kyoto Protocol
• In 1997, a meeting in Kyoto, Japan, drew up a
  treaty to limit CO2 emissions.
• The treaty did not place restrictions on
  developing nations.
• As a result, the U.S. Senate opposed the treaty
  in a resolution and President Bush refused to
  submit it.