Political Science 2244E Midterm: American Politics Midterm Notes.docx

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Chapter 1 the study of american government. Then: in 1788 james madison (the constitution"s chief architect) said that the federal government needed its won power of taxation and collectors of revenue but its overall powers would remain few and defined. Critics of the proposed constitution (including the famous patriot patrick henry) predicted that if the constitution was ratified there would over time be an immense increase of taxation spent by a growing federal government. Now: in 2010 a presidential commissions warned that by 2015 the federal government would be paying over billion a year in interests on a trillion national debt. The federal budget proposed for 2012 called for spending about . 7 trillion (over a third of it is deficit spending). 2012 total state government spending was about trillion. In each case, then and now, there was no consensus about what actions should be taken to fix the governments" financial mess: solution: spend and borrow less.