DOMESTIC POLICY WHAT IS PUBLIC POLICY Public Policy

DOMESTIC POLICY

WHAT IS PUBLIC POLICY • Public Policy is government actions that address public concerns • Healthcare • Gun Control • Environmental Policy • Members of Congress pass bills • President signs executive orders

CATEGORIZING PUBLIC POLICY • Types of goods • Private • Public • Common • Tragedy of the commons • Free-Market Economics: Supply and Demand • Just about any good can be privatized • Libertarians • Problems with the logic

CATEGORIZING PUBLIC POLICY • Policy Types • Distributive Policy • Hoover Dam • Regulatory Policy • The Jungle and the FDA • Redistributive Policy • Medicaid

POLICY ARENAS • Social Welfare • Social Safety Net • Economic Benefits • Entitlement Programs • Social Security • Medicare • Medicaid and TANF • Means tested

POLICY ARENAS • Science, Technology, and Education • NASA, NSF, and NOAA • Public Education • Role of the states • Student loans and Pell Grants • Business • Regulatory in nature • Food and Drug Admin and Occupational Safety Hazard Admin

POLICY MAKERS • Policy Advocates • Special Interest Groups (AARP) and Activists • Policy Analysts • Thinks Tanks • Congressional Budget Office • Executive Branch Agencies

POLICY MAKERS

POLICY MAKERS • Policy Process • • • Problem Identification Agenda Setting Policy Formulation Policy Enactment Policy Implementation Policy Evaluation • Top-Down and Bottom-Up Implemenations

BUDGETING AND TAX POLICY • Economic Approaches • Laissez-faire • Recessions • Depression • Fiscal Policy: Keynesian Economic Philosophy • Focusses on consumption • Increase Spending and Cutting Taxes • Increases Deficits • When to raise taxes and cut spending

BUDGETING AND TAX POLICY • Fiscal Policy: Supple-Side Economics • Focusses on Production • Cut Taxes and Spending Simultaneously • Mostly upper-class benefit from cuts • Reduce Government Regulations

BUDGETING AND TAX POLICY • Mandatory Spending • Interest on the debt • Entitlements • Medicare • Social Security • Discretionary Spending • Military • Government Projects • Deficits

BUDGETING AND TAX POLICY

BUDGETING AND TAX POLICY • Tax Policy • Progressive Tax: preferred by Keynesians • Income Tax • Not broad based • Regressive Tax: preferred by Supply Siders • Sales Tax or flat tax • Broad based • Where does the tax burden primarily fall? • The politics of “fairness” and who can afford to pay

BUDGETING AND TAX POLICY

BUDGETING AND TAX POLICY • Federal Reserve Board and Interest Rates • Federal Reserve System • Central Bank of US • Monetary Policy • Value of the Dollar • Tools of the “Fed” • Interest rates • Reserve Requirement • Buying or selling US bonds