1.
Barack Obama
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Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He is the first African American to have served as president and he previously served in the U. S. Senate representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008, and in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2004. Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, two years after the territory was admitted to the Union as the 50th state and he grew up mostly in Hawaii, but also spent one year of his childhood in Washington State and four years in Indonesia. After graduating from Columbia University in 1983, he worked as a community organizer in Chicago, in 1988 Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, he became a civil rights attorney and professor, Obama represented the 13th District for three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, when he ran for the U. S. Senate. In 2008, Obama was nominated for president, a year after his campaign began and he was elected over Republican John McCain, and was inaugurated on January 20,2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, during his first two years in office, Obama signed many landmark bills. Main reforms were the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, after a lengthy debate over the national debt limit, Obama signed the Budget Control and the American Taxpayer Relief Acts. In foreign policy, Obama increased U. S. troop levels in Afghanistan, reduced nuclear weapons with the U. S. -Russian New START treaty, and ended military involvement in the Iraq War. He ordered military involvement in Libya in opposition to Muammar Gaddafi, after winning re-election over Mitt Romney, Obama was sworn in for a second term in 2013. Obama also advocated gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and issued wide-ranging executive actions concerning climate change and immigration. In foreign policy, Obama ordered military intervention in Iraq in response to gains made by ISIL after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, Obama left office in January 2017 with a 60% approval rating. He currently resides in Washington, D. C and his presidential library will be built in Chicago. Obama was born on August 4,1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu and he is the only President to have been born in Hawaii. He was born to a mother and a black father. His mother, Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas, of mostly English descent, with some German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss and his father, Barack Obama Sr. was a married Luo Kenyan man from Nyangoma Kogelo. Obamas parents met in 1960 in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the couple married in Wailuku, Hawaii on February 2,1961, six months before Obama was born. In late August 1961, Obamas mother moved him to the University of Washington in Seattle for a year
Barack Obama
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Barack Obama
Barack Obama
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Obama with his half-sister
Maya Soetoro-Ng, mother
Ann Dunham and grandfather
Stanley Dunham, in
Honolulu, Hawaii
Barack Obama
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Obama and others celebrate the naming of a street in Chicago after
ShoreBank co-founder Milton Davis in 1998
Barack Obama
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Obama in his official portrait as a member of the United States Senate
2.
Joint session of the United States Congress
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Joint sessions and meetings are traditionally presided over by the Speaker of the House and take place at the House chamber. However, the Constitution requires the Vice President to preside over the counting of electoral votes, the speech is modeled on the Speech from the Throne, given by the British monarch. There is a difference, however. The President is the author of his own State of the Union message. Written reports were standard until 1913, when Woodrow Wilson reestablished the practice of attending to deliver the speech. Few Presidents have deviated from this custom since, the Twelfth Amendment mandates that the Congress assemble in joint session to count the electoral votes and declare the winners of the election. The session is ordinarily required to place on January 6 in the calendar year immediately following the meetings of the presidential electors. Since the Twentieth Amendment, the newly elected Congress declares the winner of the election, in elections before 1936, the outgoing Congress counted the electoral votes. The meeting is held at 1,00 p. m. Eastern time in the Chamber of the U. S. House of Representatives. The sitting Vice President is expected to preside, but in cases the President pro tempore of the Senate has chaired the proceedings instead. The Vice President and the Speaker of the House sit at the podium, Senate pages bring in the two mahogany boxes containing each states certified vote and place them on tables in front of the Senators and Representatives. Each house appoints two tellers to count the vote, relevant portions of the Certificate of Vote are read for each state, in alphabetical order. Members of Congress can object to any states vote count, provided that the objection is supported by at least one member of house of Congress. Bush of Texas and the Vice President of the United States, if there are no objections or all objections are overruled, the presiding officer declares the result of the vote and states who is elected President and Vice President. The Senators then depart from the House Chamber, in addition to State of the Union Addresses, inaugurals and counting of electoral votes, Joint Sessions usually fall into one of several topics. Foreign heads of state and heads of government from 48 countries have addressed joint meetings of Congress more than a hundred times, Israel, the United Kingdom, and France lead the list with eight joint meeting addresses by heads of state or dignitaries. Other leading countries are, Mexico, Italy, Ireland, South Korea, Germany, including West Germany and unified Germany, India, Canada, Australia, Argentina, and the Philippines. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill have each made three joint addresses to Congress, more than any other foreign dignitaries
Joint session of the United States Congress
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United States Congress Joint Session
Joint session of the United States Congress
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3.
State of the Union Address
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The State of the Union address is a speech presented by the President of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress, except in the first year of a new presidents term. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the President to outline his legislative agenda, during most of the countrys first century, the President primarily only submitted a written report to Congress. With the advent of radio and television, the address is now broadcast live across the country on most networks, although the language of this Section of the Constitution is not specific, by tradition, the President makes this report annually in late January or early February. Between 1934 and 2013 the date has been as early as January 3, before that time, most presidents delivered the State of the Union as a written report. When a presidential inauguration occurs in January, the date may be delayed until February, what began as a communication between president and Congress has become a communication between the president and the people of the United States. Since the advent of radio, and then television, the speech has been broadcast live on most networks, to reach the largest audience, the speech, once given during the day, is now typically given in the evening, after 9pm ET. George Washington delivered the first regular annual message before a joint session of Congress on January 8,1790, in New York City, in 1801, Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of delivering the address in person, regarding it as too monarchical. Instead, the address was written and then sent to Congress to be read by a clerk until 1913 when Woodrow Wilson re-established the practice despite some initial controversy, however, there have been exceptions to this rule. Presidents during the half of the 20th century have sent written State of the Union addresses. The last President to do this was Jimmy Carter in 1981, for many years, the speech was referred to as the Presidents Annual Message to Congress. The actual term State of the Union first emerged in 1934 when Franklin D. Roosevelt used the phrase, prior to 1934, the annual message was delivered at the end of the calendar year, in December. The ratification of the 20th Amendment on January 23,1933 changed the opening of Congress from early March to early January, since 1934, the message or address has been delivered to Congress in January or February. The Twentieth Amendment also established January 20 as the beginning of the presidential term, in years when a new president is inaugurated, the outgoing president may deliver a final State of the Union message, but none has done so since Jimmy Carter sent a written message in 1981. In 1953 and 1961, Congress received both a written State of the Union message from the president and a separate State of the Union speech by the incoming president. In 1936, President Roosevelt set a precedent when he delivered the address at night, only once before—when Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to order the U. S. into World War I—had a sitting president addressed Congress at night. Calvin Coolidges 1923 speech was the first to be broadcast on radio, harry S. Trumans 1947 address was the first to be broadcast on television. Johnsons address in 1965 was the first delivered in the evening, three years later, in 1968, television networks in the United States, for the first time, imposed no time limit for their coverage of a State of the Union address. Johnson, this address was followed by extensive televised commentary by, among others, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ronald Reagans 1986 State of the Union Address is the only one to have been postponed
State of the Union Address
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2011 State of the Union Address given by
President Barack Obama
State of the Union Address
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George Washington 's handwritten notes for the first State of the Union Address, January 8, 1790.
Full 7 pages.
State of the Union Address
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt
State of the Union Address
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The Sergeants at Arms of the
House (left) and
Senate (right) wait at the doorway to the House chamber before President
Barack Obama enters to deliver the
2011 State of the Union Address.
4.
President of the United States
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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. The president is considered to be one of the worlds most powerful political figures, the role includes being the commander-in-chief of the worlds most expensive military with the second largest nuclear arsenal and leading the nation with the largest economy by nominal GDP. The office of President holds significant hard and soft power both in the United States and abroad, Constitution vests the executive power of the United States in the president. The president is empowered to grant federal pardons and reprieves. The president is responsible for dictating the legislative agenda of the party to which the president is a member. The president also directs the foreign and domestic policy of the United States, since the office of President was established in 1789, its power has grown substantially, as has the power of the federal government as a whole. However, nine vice presidents have assumed the presidency without having elected to the office. The Twenty-second Amendment prohibits anyone from being elected president for a third term, in all,44 individuals have served 45 presidencies spanning 57 full four-year terms. On January 20,2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th, in 1776, the Thirteen Colonies, acting through the Second Continental Congress, declared political independence from Great Britain during the American Revolution. The new states, though independent of each other as nation states, desiring to avoid anything that remotely resembled a monarchy, Congress negotiated the Articles of Confederation to establish a weak alliance between the states. Out from under any monarchy, the states assigned some formerly royal prerogatives to Congress, only after all the states agreed to a resolution settling competing western land claims did the Articles take effect on March 1,1781, when Maryland became the final state to ratify them. In 1783, the Treaty of Paris secured independence for each of the former colonies, with peace at hand, the states each turned toward their own internal affairs. Prospects for the convention appeared bleak until James Madison and Edmund Randolph succeeded in securing George Washingtons attendance to Philadelphia as a delegate for Virginia. It was through the negotiations at Philadelphia that the presidency framed in the U. S. The first power the Constitution confers upon the president is the veto, the Presentment Clause requires any bill passed by Congress to be presented to the president before it can become law. Once the legislation has been presented, the president has three options, Sign the legislation, the bill becomes law. Veto the legislation and return it to Congress, expressing any objections, in this instance, the president neither signs nor vetoes the legislation
President of the United States
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Incumbent
Barack Obama since January 20, 2009 (2009-01-20)
President of the United States
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Presidential Seal
President of the United States
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Obama signing legislation at the
Resolute desk
President of the United States
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Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, successfully preserved the
Union during the
American Civil War
5.
Eastern Time Zone
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Places that use Eastern Standard Time when observing standard time are 5 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Eastern Daylight Time, when observing daylight saving time DST is 4 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time, in the northern parts of the time zone, on the second Sunday in March, at 2,00 a. m. EST, clocks are advanced to 3,00 a. m. EDT leaving a one-hour gap, on the first Sunday in November, at 2,00 a. m. EDT, clocks are moved back to 1,00 a. m, southern parts of the zone do not observe daylight saving time. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 ruled that daylight saving time would run from the last Sunday of April until the last Sunday in October in the United States, the act was amended to make the first Sunday in April the beginning of daylight saving time as of 1987. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended daylight saving time in the United States beginning in 2007. So local times change at 2,00 a. m. EST to 3,00 a. m. EDT on the second Sunday in March, in Canada, the time changes as it does in the United States. However, a handful of communities unofficially observe Eastern Time because they are part of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area – Phenix City, Smiths Station, Lanett, and Valley. Florida, All of Florida is in the Eastern Time zone except for the portion of the Florida Panhandle west of the Apalachicola River, as the Eastern–Central zone boundary approaches the Gulf of Mexico, it follows the Bay/Gulf county line. Indiana, All of Indiana observes Eastern Time except for six counties in the Chicago metropolitan area. Kentucky, Roughly, the half of the state, including all of metropolitan Louisville, is in the Eastern Time Zone. Historically the entire state observed Central Time, when daylight saving time was first introduced, the Lower Peninsula remained on DST after it formally ended, effectively re-aligning itself into the Eastern Time Zone. The Upper Peninsula continued to observe Central Time until 1972, when all, Tennessee, Most of the eastern third of Tennessee is legally on Eastern Time. Eastern Time is also used somewhat as a de facto official time for all of the United States, since it includes the capital and the largest city. Major professional sports leagues also post all game times in Eastern time, for example, a game time between two teams from Pacific Time Zone will still be posted in Eastern time. Most cable television and national broadcast networks advertise airing times in Eastern time, national broadcast networks generally have two primary feeds, an eastern feed for Eastern and Central time zones, and a tape-delayed western feed for the Pacific Time Zone. The prime time is set on Eastern and Pacific at 8,00 p. m. with the Central time zone stations receiving the eastern feed at 7,00 p. m. local time. Mountain Time Zone stations receive a separate feed at 7,00 p. m. local time, as Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, during the summer months, it has its own feed at 7,00 p. m. local time
Eastern Time Zone
–
(farthest right pink)
6.
United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House
United States House of Representatives
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United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
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Seal of the House
United States House of Representatives
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Republican
Thomas Brackett Reed, occasionally ridiculed as "Czar Reed", was a U.S. Representative from
Maine, and
Speaker of the House from 1889 to 1891 and from 1895 to 1899.
United States House of Representatives
–
House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader
Steny Hoyer, and Education and Labor Committee Chairman
George Miller confer with President
Barack Obama at the
Oval Office in 2009.
7.
Vice President of the United States
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The executive power of both the vice president and the president is granted under Article Two, Section One of the Constitution. The vice president is elected, together with the president. The Office of the Vice President of the United States assists, as the president of the United States Senate, the vice president votes only when it is necessary to break a tie. Additionally, pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the president presides over the joint session of Congress when it convenes to count the vote of the Electoral College. Currently, the president is usually seen as an integral part of a presidents administration. The Constitution does not expressly assign the office to any one branch, causing a dispute among scholars whether it belongs to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or both. The modern view of the president as a member of the executive branch is due in part to the assignment of executive duties to the vice president by either the president or Congress. Mike Pence of Indiana is the 48th and current vice president and he assumed office on January 20,2017. The formation of the office of vice president resulted directly from the compromise reached at the Philadelphia Convention which created the Electoral College, the delegates at Philadelphia agreed that each state would receive a number of presidential electors equal to the sum of that states allocation of Representatives and Senators. The delegates assumed that electors would typically choose to favor any candidate from their state over candidates from other states, under a plurality election process, this would tend to result in electing candidates solely from the largest states. Consequently, the delegates agreed that presidents must be elected by a majority of the number of electors. To guard against such stratagems, the Philadelphia delegates specified that the first runner-up presidential candidate would become vice president, the process for selecting the vice president was later modified in the Twelfth Amendment. Each elector still receives two votes, but now one of those votes is for president, while the other is for vice president. The requirement that one of those votes be cast for a candidate not from the electors own state remains in effect. S, other statutorily granted roles include membership of both the National Security Council and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. As President of the Senate, the president has two primary duties, to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock and to preside over. For example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and Dick Cheneys tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority, as President of the Senate, the vice president oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. As President of the Senate, John Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes that was surpassed by John C. Calhoun with 31. Adamss votes protected the presidents sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, on at least one occasion Adams persuaded senators to vote against legislation he opposed, and he frequently addressed the Senate on procedural and policy matters
Vice President of the United States
–
Incumbent
Joe Biden since January 20, 2009
Vice President of the United States
–
Vice Presidential seal
Vice President of the United States
–
John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency following the death of his
predecessor. In doing so, he insisted that he was the president, not merely an acting president.
Vice President of the United States
–
President
Lyndon Johnson is sworn in, following the
assassination of President
John Kennedy.
8.
Joe Biden
–
Joseph Robinette Joe Biden Jr. is an American politician who was the 47th Vice President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, having been jointly elected twice with President Barack Obama. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Delaware as a United States Senator from 1973 until becoming Vice President in 2009, Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1942, and lived there for ten years before moving to Delaware. He became an attorney in 1969, and was elected to the New Castle County council in 1970 and he was first elected to the Senate in 1972, and became the sixth-youngest senator in U. S. history. He was re-elected to the Senate six times, and was the fourth most senior senator at the time of his resignation to assume the Vice Presidency in 2009 and he was a long-time member and former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He opposed the Gulf War in 1991, but advocated U. S. and he voted in favor of the resolution authorizing the Iraq War in 2002, but opposed the surge of U. S. troops in 2007. He chaired the Judiciary Committee during the contentious U. S. Supreme Court nominations of Robert Bork, Biden unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and in 2008, both times dropping out after lacklucster showings. In the 2008 U. S. presidential election, Barack Obama chose Biden to be his mate in the race. He became the first Roman Catholic, and the first Delawarean, in 2011, he opposed going ahead with the military mission that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. Obama and Biden were re-elected in 2012, in October 2015, after months of speculation, Biden chose not to run for President of the United States in 2016. On January 12,2017, Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, after leaving office, Biden was named the Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Biden was born on November 20,1942, at St. Marys Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Catherine Eugenia Jean Biden and Joseph Robinette Joe Biden Sr. He was the first of four siblings in a Catholic family, with a sister, Valerie and his mother was of either Irish or Northern Irish descent, with roots variously attributed to County Louth or County Londonderry. His paternal grandparents, Mary Elizabeth and Joseph H. Biden, an oil businessman from Baltimore, Maryland, were of English, French and his paternal great-great-great grandfather, William Biden, was born in Sussex, England, and immigrated to the United States. His maternal great-grandfather, Edward Francis Blewitt, was a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate, Bidens father had been very well-off earlier in his life, but suffered several business reversals by the time his son was born. For several years, the family had to live with Bidens maternal grandparents, when the Scranton area went into economic decline during the 1950s, Bidens father could not find enough work. In 1953, the Biden family moved to an apartment in Claymont, Delaware, Joe Biden Sr. was then more successful as a used car salesman, and the familys circumstances were middle class. He played on the team as well. During these years, he participated in an anti-segregation sit-in at a Wilmington theatre, academically, he was an above-average student, was considered a natural leader among the students, and was elected class president during his junior and senior years
Joe Biden
–
Joe Biden
Joe Biden
–
Drawer of chamber desk XCI occupied by Biden in the U.S. Senate. Note signature at upper center inside of drawer. President
John F. Kennedy once occupied the desk in the U.S. Senate.
Joe Biden
–
Joe Biden met his second wife,
Jill (here seen dancing together in 2009), in 1975 and they married in 1977.
Joe Biden
–
Biden with President
Jimmy Carter in the
Oval Office
9.
President of the United States Senate
–
The executive power of both the vice president and the president is granted under Article Two, Section One of the Constitution. The vice president is elected, together with the president. The Office of the Vice President of the United States assists, as the president of the United States Senate, the vice president votes only when it is necessary to break a tie. Additionally, pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the president presides over the joint session of Congress when it convenes to count the vote of the Electoral College. Currently, the president is usually seen as an integral part of a presidents administration. The Constitution does not expressly assign the office to any one branch, causing a dispute among scholars whether it belongs to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or both. The modern view of the president as a member of the executive branch is due in part to the assignment of executive duties to the vice president by either the president or Congress. Mike Pence of Indiana is the 48th and current vice president and he assumed office on January 20,2017. The formation of the office of vice president resulted directly from the compromise reached at the Philadelphia Convention which created the Electoral College, the delegates at Philadelphia agreed that each state would receive a number of presidential electors equal to the sum of that states allocation of Representatives and Senators. The delegates assumed that electors would typically choose to favor any candidate from their state over candidates from other states, under a plurality election process, this would tend to result in electing candidates solely from the largest states. Consequently, the delegates agreed that presidents must be elected by a majority of the number of electors. To guard against such stratagems, the Philadelphia delegates specified that the first runner-up presidential candidate would become vice president, the process for selecting the vice president was later modified in the Twelfth Amendment. Each elector still receives two votes, but now one of those votes is for president, while the other is for vice president. The requirement that one of those votes be cast for a candidate not from the electors own state remains in effect. S, other statutorily granted roles include membership of both the National Security Council and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. As President of the Senate, the president has two primary duties, to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock and to preside over. For example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and Dick Cheneys tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority, as President of the Senate, the vice president oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. As President of the Senate, John Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes that was surpassed by John C. Calhoun with 31. Adamss votes protected the presidents sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, on at least one occasion Adams persuaded senators to vote against legislation he opposed, and he frequently addressed the Senate on procedural and policy matters
President of the United States Senate
–
Incumbent
Joe Biden since January 20, 2009
President of the United States Senate
–
Vice Presidential seal
President of the United States Senate
–
John Tyler was the first vice president to assume the presidency following the death of his
predecessor. In doing so, he insisted that he was the president, not merely an acting president.
President of the United States Senate
–
President
Lyndon Johnson is sworn in, following the
assassination of President
John Kennedy.
10.
John Boehner
–
John Andrew Boehner is an American politician who served as the 53rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Boehner was the U. S, Representative from Ohios 8th congressional district, serving from 1991 to 2015. The district included several rural and suburban areas near Cincinnati and Dayton, Boehner previously served as the House Minority Leader from 2007 until 2011, and House Majority Leader from 2006 until 2007. Boehner resigned from the House of Representatives in October 2015 due to opposition from within the Republican caucus, in September 2016, Squire Patton Boggs, the third-largest lobbying firm in the U. S. announced that Boehner would join their firm. Also, Boehner will become a member of Reynolds American. Boehner was born in Reading, Ohio, the son of Mary Anne and Earl Henry Boehner and his father was of German descent and his mother had German and Irish ancestry. He grew up in modest circumstances, having shared one bathroom with his siblings in a two-bedroom house in Cincinnati. He started working at his familys bar at age 8, a business founded by their grandfather Andy Boehner in 1938 and he has lived in Southwest Ohio his entire life. Boehner attended Cincinnatis Moeller High School and was a linebacker on the football team. Shortly after his graduation in 1977, Boehner accepted a position with Nucite Sales and he was steadily promoted and eventually became president of the firm, resigning in 1990 when he was elected to Congress. From 1981 to 1984, Boehner served on the board of trustees of Union Township, Butler County and he then served as an Ohio state representative from 1985 to 1990. In 1990, Boehner ran against incumbent congressman Buz Lukens, who was under fire for having a relationship with a minor. He defeated Lukens in the primary, taking 49 percent of the vote and he was subsequently re-elected to Congress 12 times, each by a substantial margin. During his freshman year, Boehner was a member of the Gang of Seven which was involved in bringing attention to the House banking scandal. From 1995 to 1999, Boehner served as House Republican Conference Chairman which is the party caucus for Republicans in the United States House of Representatives, in this post, he was the fourth-ranking House Republican, behind Gingrich, Majority Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay. In the summer of 1997 several House Republicans, who saw Speaker Newt Gingrichs public image as a liability, the attempted coup began July 9 with a meeting between Republican conference chairman Boehner and Republican leadership chairman Bill Paxon of New York. According to their plan, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, Boehner and Paxon were to present Gingrich with an ultimatum, resign, or be voted out. However, Armey balked at the proposal to make Paxon the new Speaker, on July 11, Gingrich met with senior Republican leadership to assess the situation
John Boehner
–
Boehner in 2009
John Boehner
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Boehner, as House Minority Leader, campaigns for fellow Ohio Congressman
Steve Stivers (left) during the
2010 midterm elections
John Boehner
–
2006 portrait of Boehner
John Boehner
–
Speaker Boehner greets U.S. President
Barack Obama before the
2011 State of the Union Address.
11.
2011 Tucson shooting
–
Representative Gabrielle Giffords and eighteen others were shot during a constituent meeting held in a supermarket parking lot in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in the Tucson metropolitan area. Six people died, including federal District Court Chief Judge John Roll, Gabe Zimmerman, one of Rep. Giffords staffers, one additional person was injured in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. News reports identified the target of the attack as Giffords, a Democrat representing Arizonas 8th congressional district and she was shot through the head at point-blank range, and her medical condition was initially described as critical. Loughner, a 22-year-old Tucson man who was fixated on Giffords, was arrested at the scene, Federal prosecutors filed five charges against him, including the attempted assassination of a member of Congress and the assassination of a federal judge. Loughner previously had been arrested once on a drug charge and had been suspended by his college for disruptive behavior. Court filings include notes handwritten by Loughner indicating he planned to assassinate Giffords, the motive for the shooting remains unclear, Loughner did not cooperate with authorities, invoking his right to remain silent. He was held without bail and indicted on 49 counts, in January 2012, Loughner was found by a federal judge to be incompetent to stand trial based on two medical evaluations, which diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. Judged still incompetent to stand trial on May 25, finally on August 7 and he pleaded guilty to 19 counts, and in November 2012 was sentenced to life in prison. Following the shooting, American and international politicians expressed grief and condemnations, gun control advocates pushed for increased restrictions on the sale of firearms and ammunition, specifically high-capacity ammunition magazines. Palin rejected claims that she bore responsibility for the shooting, President Barack Obama led a nationally televised memorial service on January 12, and other memorials took place. The shooting took place on January 8,2011, at 10,10 a. m, Giffords had set up a table outside the store and about 20 to 30 people were gathered around her when Jared Lee Loughner drew a pistol and shot Giffords in the head. The shooting was caught on video by a security camera but has not yet been released to the public. Loughner proceeded to fire apparently randomly at other members of the crowd and he reportedly used a 9×19mm Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol with a 33-round magazine. A nearby store employee said he heard 15 to 20 gunshots, Loughner stopped to reload, but dropped the loaded magazine from his pocket to the sidewalk, from where bystander Patricia Maisch grabbed it. Another bystander clubbed the back of the head with a folding chair, injuring his elbow in the process. Loughner was tackled to the ground by Bill Badger, a 74-year-old retired United States Army Colonel who had also shot himself. Loughner was further subdued by Maisch and bystanders Roger Sulzgeber and Joseph Zamudio, Zamudio, a concealed weapon permit holder, had a weapon on his person, but arrived after the shooting had stopped and did not draw his firearm. Thirty-one shell casings were found at the scene by investigators, the first call from the scene to emergency services was received at 10,11 a. m
2011 Tucson shooting
–
First responders at the
crime scene outside the
Casas Adobes Safeway Congresswoman
Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona's
8th Congressional District, (D)
2011 Tucson shooting
2011 Tucson shooting
–
La Toscana Village mall. The attack occurred near the Safeway main entrance, which is below the gable-end.
12.
Gabrielle Giffords
–
Gabrielle Dee Gabby Giffords is an American politician from the U. S. state of Arizona. She is the woman in Arizonas history to be elected to the U. S. Congress. Giffords is a native of Tucson, Arizona, and a graduate of Scripps College and she also worked as an associate for regional economic development for Price Waterhouse in New York City, and as CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a local automotive chain owned by her grandfather. She is married to former astronaut and Space Shuttle Commander Mark E. Kelly, on January 8,2011, just a week into her third term, Giffords was a victim of an assassination attempt near Tucson, at a Safeway supermarket where she was meeting publicly with constituents. Giffords was later brought to a facility in Houston, Texas. On May 16,2011, Giffords traveled to Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch of STS-134, the flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. On August 1,2011, Giffords returned to the House floor to vote and was greeted with a standing ovation. On January 22,2012, Giffords announced her resignation from her seat in order to concentrate on recovering from her wounds. Gabrielle Dee Giffords was born and grew up Tucson, Arizona, to Gloria Kay and she was raised in a mixed religious environment by her Jewish father and Christian Science-practicing mother. Her grandfather, Akiba Hornstein, was a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania who changed his name to Giffords to avoid anti-Semitism, through her father, Giffords is a second cousin of actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Giffords has identified herself solely with Judaism since 2001, belonging to Congregation Chaverim and she was Arizonas first Jewish congresswoman. Giffords graduated from Tucsons University High School and she is a former Girl Scout. Giffords worked as an associate for regional economic development at Price Waterhouse in New York City, in 1996, she became president and CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a local chain of auto service centers founded by her grandfather. The business was sold to Goodyear Tire in 2000, at the time of the sale, she commented on the difficulties local businesses face when competing against large national firms. Giffords was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives and served from 2001 to 2003 and she was elected to the Arizona Senate in the fall of 2002, and at the time was the youngest woman elected to that body. She took office in January 2003 and was re-elected in 2004 and she resigned from the Arizona Senate on December 1,2005, in preparation for her congressional campaign. Sarn, repayments due under Ladewig v. Arizona, the No Child Left Behind mandate, low achievement, health care costs. She noted that Arizona was not alone in facing such challenges, expanding health care access was an issue of interest for Giffords when she served in the legislature
Gabrielle Giffords
–
Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Giffords
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Giffords in 2008
Gabrielle Giffords
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Giffords during a press conference following her 2010 election victory
Gabrielle Giffords
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Roadside sign at the scene of the shooting
13.
Third Way think tank
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The Third Way is promoted by some social democratic and social liberal movements. Major Third Way social democratic proponent Tony Blair claimed that the socialism he advocated was different from conceptions of socialism. Blair said My kind of socialism is a set of values based around notions of social justice, socialism as a rigid form of economic determinism has ended, and rightly. Blair in 2009 publicly declared support for a new capitalism, the Third Way has been criticized by some conservatives and libertarians who advocate laissez-faire capitalism. It has also heavily criticized by many social democrats, democratic socialists, anarchists and communists in particular as a betrayal of left-wing values. Specific definitions of Third Way policies may differ between Europe and America, the term Third Way has been used to explain a variety of political courses and ideologies in the last few centuries. These ideas were implemented by progressives in the early 20th century, the term Third Way was picked up again in the 1950s by German ordoliberal economists such as Wilhelm Röpke, resulting in the development of the concept of the social market economy. Later Röpke distanced himself from the term and located the market economy as first way in the sense of an advancement of the free market economy. Most significantly, Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963, based his philosophy of government on what he entitled in a book, the Third Way has been defined as. Something different and distinct from liberal capitalism with its belief in the merits of the free market and democratic socialism with its demand management. Anthony Giddens of the LSE the Third Way rejects top down socialism as it rejects traditional neo liberalism, a variant of the Third Way exists which approaches the centre from a social democratic perspective. It advocates ethical socialism, reformism, gradualism - that includes advocating the humanization of capitalism, an economy, political pluralism. It has been advocated by proponents as a competition socialism - an ideology in between traditional socialism and capitalism, in defining the Third Way, Tony Blair once wrote “The Third Way stands for a modernized social democracy, passionate in its commitment to social justice. Keating also proposed a Goods and Services Tax in 1985, however this was scrapped due to its unpopularity amongst both Labor and electorate, the Whitlam government was first to use the term economic rationalism. The Gough Whitlam Labor government from 1972 to 1975 changed from a democratic socialism platform to social democracy, under the Whitlam government, tariffs across the board were cut by 25 percent after 23 years of Labor being in opposition. Former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudds first speech to parliament in 1998 stated, Competitive markets are massive and they must therefore have a central place in the management of the economy. But markets sometimes fail, requiring direct government intervention through instruments such as industry policy, there are also areas where the public good dictates that there should be no market at all. We are not afraid of a vision in the Labor Party, parties of the Centre Left around the world are wrestling with a similar challenge—the creation of a competitive economy while advancing the overriding imperative of a just society
Third Way think tank
–
Bill Clinton and
Tony Blair, adherents of the "Third Way".
Third Way think tank
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Matteo Renzi and
Manuel Valls, politicians considered to follow the "Third Way".
Third Way think tank
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The Italian Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi is considered a Third Way politician.
Third Way think tank
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Two Third Way proponents: Professor Anthony Giddens and former U.S. President Bill Clinton
14.
Mark Udall
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Mark Emery Udall is an American politician who was a United States Senator from Colorado from 2009 to 2015. He previously served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Colorados 2nd congressional district, prior to being elected to Congress, he represented parts of Boulder, Colorado in the Colorado House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, throughout his career he has proposed legislation to support renewable energy, expand national parks, born in Tucson, Arizona, he is the son of former U. S. A member of the Udall family, a western American political family, his relatives include New Mexicos Tom Udall, Udall ran in 2014 for a second term in the U. S. Senate, but was defeated by Republican Cory Gardner. Mark Udall was born in Tucson, Arizona to Patricia J. and Morris Mo Udall, Representative for Arizonas 2nd congressional district from 1961 to 1991, and candidate for the 1976 Democratic nominee for President. Udall attended and graduated from Canyon del Oro High School in 1968, Udall won the Arizona State Golf Championship Boys division in 1968. Udall later graduated from Williams College in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts in American civilization, in 1976 Udall worked as a field coordinator for his fathers campaign to win the Democratic nomination against Jimmy Carter. After college, Udall moved to Colorado and began his career with Outward Bound, for ten years Udall work as a course instructor, in which he would bring patrons on outdoor expeditions. Afterward, Udall served as Outward Bounds Executive Director for ten years, after which Udall decided to retire, in 1996, Udall was encouraged to run for the Colorado House of Representatives by Peggy Lamm of the 13th district, who had decided to retire. After running a campaign in the swing district, Udall narrowly defeated Republican Drew Bolin to represent the Longmont. During his two years in office, Udall served on the Judiciary and Agriculture Livestock & Natural Resources Committees, while in the Colorado House, Udall proposed legislation titled Renewable Electricity Standard. It would have required at least 10% of energy consumed in Colorado to be provided by renewable sources rather than fossil fuels, Udall chose not to run for re-election, instead decided to run for the United States Congress. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat, Tom Plant, after one term in the Colorado House of Representatives, Udall opted to run for Colorados 2nd congressional district, which was being vacated by incumbent David Skaggs. Udall ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, and faced the Republican nominee, Boulder, the race was unexpectedly close, with Udall narrowly winning, 49-47%. Udall was consecutively elected to five terms in the House, without major opposition and he was eventually succeeded by Jared Polis, after he decided to run for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican, Wayne Allard. 2004 In 2004, Udall announced his candidacy for the Senate seat which was being vacated by Ben Nighthorse Campbell, however, the following day Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar announced his candidacy as well. Udall bowed out of the race and endorsed Salazar,2008 On January 15,2007, incumbent Senator Wayne Allard announced he would not run for a third term. Later that year, in April Udall announced his campaign for the Senate, Udall became the Democratic nominee for the race after running unopposed in the primary
Mark Udall
–
Mark Udall
15.
John Kerry
–
John Forbes Kerry is an American politician who served as the 68th United States Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017. A Democrat, he previously served Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1985 to 2013 and he was the Democratic nominee in the 2004 presidential election, losing narrowly to Republican incumbent George W. Bush. Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado and attended boarding school in Massachusetts and he graduated from Yale University in 1966 with a major in political science. Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966, and between 1968 and 1969, he served an abbreviated four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge of a Swift Boat. For that service, he was awarded combat medals that include the Silver Star Medal, Bronze Star Medal and he appeared in the Fulbright Hearings before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of war crimes. After receiving a J. D. from Boston College Law School and he served as Lieutenant Governor under Michael Dukakis from 1983 to 1985 and was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1984 and was sworn in the following January. On the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he led a series of hearings from 1987 to 1989 which were a precursor to the Iran–Contra affair, Kerry was re-elected to additional terms in 1990,1996,2002, and 2008. In his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry criticized George W. Bush for the Iraq War and he and his running mate, North Carolina Senator John Edwards, lost the election, finishing 35 electoral votes behind Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Kerry returned to the Senate, becoming Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in 2007 and then of the Foreign Relations Committee in 2009. In January 2013, Kerry was nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then confirmed by the U. S. Senate, John Forbes Kerry was born on December 11,1943, in Aurora, Colorado, at Fitzsimons Army Hospital. He is the second of four born to Richard John Kerry, a Foreign Service officer and lawyer, and Rosemary Isabel Forbes. His father was raised Catholic and his mother was Episcopalian and he was raised with an elder sister named Margaret, a younger sister named Diana and a younger brother named Cameron. The children were raised in their fathers faith, John Kerry served as an altar boy, Kerry grew up a military brat until his father was discharged from the Army Air Corps, causing the family to settle in Washington, D. C. in 1949. While in Washington, Richard took a spot in the Department of the Navys Office of General Counsel and his extended maternal family enjoyed great wealth as members of the Forbes and Dudley–Winthrop families. Kerrys parents themselves were upper-middle class, and a great aunt paid for him to attend elite boarding schools. In 1957, his father was stationed at the U. S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, and Kerry was sent back to the United States to attend boarding school. He first attended the Fessenden School in Newton, Massachusetts, and later St. Pauls, Concord, New Hampshire, Kerry founded the John Winant Society at St. Pauls to debate the issues of the day, the Society still exists there. In 1962, Kerry entered Yale University, majoring in political science and he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966
John Kerry
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John Kerry
John Kerry
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Kerry receiving a medal after serving in the Vietnam War.
John Kerry
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Kerry at the
Fulbright Hearings
John Kerry
–
Kerry during his 1984 campaign
16.
John McCain
–
John Sidney McCain III is an American politician who currently serves as the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for the 2008 U. S. presidential election, McCain followed his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, into the United States Navy, graduating from the U. S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became an aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire, in October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973, McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. His war wounds have left him with physical limitations. He retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona, elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1982, McCain served two terms. He was first elected to the U. S. Senate in 1986, winning re-election easily five times, while generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain at times has had a media reputation as a maverick for his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues. He is also known for his work in the 1990s to restore relations with Vietnam. McCain ran for the Republican nomination in 2000 but lost a primary season contest to George W. Bush of Texas. He subsequently adopted more orthodox conservative stances and attitudes and largely opposed actions of the Obama administration, by 2013, however, he had become a key figure in the Senate for negotiating deals on certain issues in an otherwise partisan environment. In 2015, McCain became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, John McCain was born on August 29,1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, to naval officer John S. McCain Jr. and Roberta McCain. He has a brother named Joe and an elder sister named Sandy. At that time, the Panama Canal was under U. S. control, McCains family tree includes Scots-Irish and English ancestors. Both his father and his grandfather, John S. McCain Sr. became four-star United States Navy admirals. The McCain family followed his father to various postings in the United States. Altogether, he attended about 20 schools, in 1951, the family settled in Northern Virginia, and McCain attended Episcopal High School, a private preparatory boarding school in Alexandria. He excelled at wrestling and graduated in 1954, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, McCain entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis
John McCain
–
John McCain
John McCain
John McCain
John McCain
17.
John Cornyn
–
John Cornyn III /ˈkɔːrnᵻn/ is an American politician and the senior United States Senator from Texas, serving since 2002. He is a member of the Republican Party and the current Senate Majority Whip for the 115th Congress, Cornyn previously served as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 2007 to 2011. Born in Houston, Cornyn is a graduate from Trinity University and St. Marys University School of Law, receiving his LL. M. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Cornyn was a Judge on Texas 37th District Court from 1985 to 1991, until he was elected a justice of the Texas Supreme Court. In 1998, Cornyn was elected Attorney General of Texas, serving one term until winning a seat in the U. S. Senate in 2002 and he was re-elected to a second term in 2008 and to a third term in 2014. Cornyn was born in Houston, the son of Atholene Gale Cornyn and John Cornyn II and he attended the American School in Japan while growing up when his family moved to Tokyo. He graduated from Trinity University in 1973, where he majored in journalism and was a member of Chi Delta Tau. He earned a J. D. from St. Marys University School of Law in 1977 and he was named the St. Marys Distinguished Law School Graduate in 1994 and a Trinity University Distinguished Alumnus in 2001. He served in San Antonio for six years as a judge before being elected as a Republican in 1990 to the Texas Supreme Court. In 1998 Cornyn decided to run to become Texas Attorney General, in the March primary, Barry Williamson, Railroad Commissioner, placed first with 38% of the vote but failed to get the 50% threshold necessary to win the Republican nomination. Cornyn, then a state Supreme Court Justice, got second place with 32%, in the April run-off election, Cornyn defeated Williamson 58% to 42%. In the general election, Cornyn defeated Jim Mattox, former general and U. S. Congressman. Cornyn became only the second Republican to hold the position and he created the Texas Internet Bureau to investigate illegal internet practices. He fought against government waste and corruption with his investigation of fraudulent Medicare, however, Cornyn was criticized for failing to investigate in a timely manner the notorious false drug convictions of numerous African-Americans in Tulia, Texas. In most cases, the testimony of a narcotics agent led to the arrests of 46 people—43 of whom were black. The accused represented 16% of the black population,14 still languish in prisons scattered around Texas. In 2005 Cornyns name was mentioned among possibilities to replace Supreme Court justices Sandra Day OConnor or William Rehnquist,2002 In the 2002 U. S. Senate Primary in Texas, Cornyn was the candidate promoted and supported by the Texas Republican Party. He easily defeated the five candidates in the Republican Primary while disdaining the opportunity to debate the other candidates
John Cornyn
–
John Cornyn
John Cornyn
–
John Cornyn speaking at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland.
18.
Patty Murray
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Patricia Lynn Patty Murray is the senior United States Senator from the State of Washington and a member of the Democratic Party. Murray was first elected to the Senate in 1992, becoming Washingtons first female senator, Murray was re-elected in 1998,2004,2010, and 2016. Murray has served as the Senate Majority Conference Secretary from 2007 until 2017, making her the fourth-highest-ranking Democrat, in 2017 Murray became the Senate Assistant Minority Leader, making her the third-highest-ranking Democrat and still the highest-ranking woman in the Senate. Murray chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2001 to 2003, Murray chaired the Senate Budget Committee from 2013 to 2015. She also previously served as co-chair of the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, beginning in January 2015, Murray will be the Ranking Democratic Member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She is currently the 9th most senior member of the United States Senate, on December 10,2013, Murray and Republican Representative Paul Ryan announced that they had negotiated a two-year, bipartisan budget, known as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. One of seven children, Murray was born in Bothell, Washington and her father served in World War II and was awarded a Purple Heart. Her ancestry includes Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and French-Canadian, when she was a teenager, her family was forced to apply for welfare assistance when her father became disabled by the onset of multiple sclerosis. He had previously been the manager of a five-and-ten store and she attended Saint Brendan Catholic School as a young child. Murray received her Bachelor of Arts degree in education from Washington State University in 1972. She was a teacher for several years and taught a parenting class at Shoreline Community College from 1984–87. As a citizen-lobbyist for environmental and educational issues, she says she was told by a state representative that she could not make a difference because she was just a mom in tennis shoes. The phrase stuck, and she used it in her successful campaigns for Shoreline School District Board of Directors, Washington State Senate. Murray was successful in gathering support to strike down proposed preschool program budget cuts. Her 1988 State Senate campaign was successful and she unseated two-term incumbent Republican Bill Kiskaddon, Murray argued that the bill should be passed in order to help the tourism industry in the area, but protecting the lookout point in question. The bill would be a small step in what will be a very long recovery. Murray was referring to the recovery of the area from the casualties, the bill passed in both the House and the Senate. In October 2002, Murray was one of 21 Democrats in the Senate to vote against the War Authoritization for invading Iraq, quoted from her Senate speech, Mr. President, if we do take action in Iraq, there is no doubt that our armed forces will prevail
Patty Murray
–
Patty Murray
Patty Murray
–
Senator Murray at the podium, joined by (left to right), Sen.
Barbara Boxer (D-
CA), Sen.
Debbie Stabenow (D-
MI), Sen.
Maria Cantwell (D-
WA) and Sen.
Barbara Mikulski (D-
MD), launching an interactive website regarding the nomination of Judge
John Roberts as the
Chief Justice of the United States.
Patty Murray
–
Galen Jackman briefs Senator Patty Murray on the
Manned Ground Vehicle program in Washington D.C.
19.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
–
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission 558 U. S.310 is a U. S. constitutional law and corporate law case dealing with the regulation of campaign spending by organizations. The United States Supreme Court held on 21 January 2010 that freedom of speech prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by a nonprofit corporation. The principles articulated by the Supreme Court in the case have also extended to for-profit corporations, labor unions. This would violate a federal statute prohibiting certain electioneering communications near an election, the court found the provisions of the law that prohibited corporations and unions from making such electioneering communications to conflict with the U. S. Constitution. However, the court upheld requirements for disclosure by sponsors of advertisements. The case did not affect the federal ban on contributions from corporations or unions to candidate campaigns or political parties. The Supreme Court reversed this decision, striking down those provisions of BCRA that prohibited corporations and unions from making independent expenditures, the majority decision overruled Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and partially overruled McConnell v. Federal Election Commission. The Court, however, upheld requirements for disclosure by sponsors of advertisements. The case did not involve the federal ban on contributions from corporations or unions to candidate campaigns or political parties. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 – specifically §203, which modified the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971,2 U. S. C. § 441b – prohibited corporations and unions from using their general treasury to fund electioneering communications within 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election. The FEC dismissed the complaint after finding no evidence that broadcast advertisements for the film, in the wake of these decisions, Citizens United sought to establish itself as a bona fide commercial film maker, producing several documentary films between 2005 and 2007. By early 2008, it sought to run television commercials to promote its political documentary Hillary, The Movie and it also sought to enjoin the funding, disclosure, and disclaimer requirements as applied to Citizens United’s intended ads for the movie. In accordance with rules in section 403 of the BCRA. The court held that the Supreme Court in McConnell v, on July 18,2008, the District Court granted summary judgement to the Federal Election Commission. In accordance with the rules in the BCRA, Citizens United appealed to the Supreme Court which docketed the case on August 18,2008. The Supreme Court heard oral argument on March 24,2009 and then asked for briefs on June 29. During the original argument, Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm L. Stewart argued that under Austin v
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
–
Justice Kennedy, the author of the Court's opinion.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
–
Supreme Court of the United States
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
–
Justice Stevens, the author of the dissenting opinion.
20.
Supreme Court of the United States
–
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. In the legal system of the United States, the Supreme Court is the interpreter of federal constitutional law. The Court normally consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight justices who are nominated by the President. Once appointed, justices have life tenure unless they resign, retire, in modern discourse, the justices are often categorized as having conservative, moderate, or liberal philosophies of law and of judicial interpretation. Each justice has one vote, and while many cases are decided unanimously, the Court meets in the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D. C. The Supreme Court is sometimes referred to as SCOTUS, in analogy to other acronyms such as POTUS. The ratification of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court in 1789 and its powers are detailed in Article Three of the Constitution. The Supreme Court is the court specifically established by the Constitution. The Court first convened on February 2,1790, by which five of its six initial positions had been filled. According to historian Fergus Bordewich, in its first session, he Supreme Court convened for the first time at the Royal Exchange Building on Broad Street and they had no cases to consider. After a week of inactivity, they adjourned until September, the sixth member was not confirmed until May 12,1790. Because the full Court had only six members, every decision that it made by a majority was made by two-thirds. However, Congress has always allowed less than the Courts full membership to make decisions, under Chief Justices Jay, Rutledge, and Ellsworth, the Court heard few cases, its first decision was West v. Barnes, a case involving a procedural issue. The Courts power and prestige grew substantially during the Marshall Court, the Marshall Court also ended the practice of each justice issuing his opinion seriatim, a remnant of British tradition, and instead issuing a single majority opinion. Also during Marshalls tenure, although beyond the Courts control, the impeachment, the Taney Court made several important rulings, such as Sheldon v. Nevertheless, it is primarily remembered for its ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which helped precipitate the Civil War. In the Reconstruction era, the Chase, Waite, and Fuller Courts interpreted the new Civil War amendments to the Constitution, during World War II, the Court continued to favor government power, upholding the internment of Japanese citizens and the mandatory pledge of allegiance. Nevertheless, Gobitis was soon repudiated, and the Steel Seizure Case restricted the pro-government trend, the Warren Court dramatically expanded the force of Constitutional civil liberties. It held that segregation in public schools violates equal protection and that traditional legislative district boundaries violated the right to vote
Supreme Court of the United States
–
Chief Justice Marshall
Supreme Court of the United States
–
Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
–
The Roberts Court, October 2010 Back row (left to right):
Sonia Sotomayor,
Stephen G. Breyer,
Samuel A. Alito, and
Elena Kagan. Front row (left to right):
Clarence Thomas,
Antonin Scalia,
Chief Justice John Roberts,
Anthony Kennedy, and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court of the United States
–
Roberts, John
John Roberts (
Chief Justice)
21.
Samuel Alito
–
Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and has served on the court since January 31,2006 and he is the 110th justice, the second Italian-American, and the eleventh Roman Catholic to serve on the court. Alito is considered one of the most conservative justices on the Court and he has described himself as a practical originalist. Alitos majority opinions in cases include McDonald v. Chicago. Alito was born in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Samuel A. Alito, Sr. an Italian immigrant, and the former Rose Fradusco, an Italian-American. Alitos father, now deceased, was a school teacher and then became the first Director of the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services. Alitos mother is a retired schoolteacher, Alito grew up in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, a suburb of Trenton. It also called for the decriminalization of sodomy, and urged for an end to discrimination against gays in hiring by employers and he also led the American Whig-Cliosophic Societys Debate Panel during his time at Princeton. While a sophomore at Princeton, Alito received a low number,32. In 1970, he became a member of the schools Army ROTC program, attending a basic training camp that year at Fort Knox. Alito was a member of the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, which was formed in October 1972 at least in part to oppose Princetons decisions regarding affirmative action, Alito has cited the banning and subsequent treatment of ROTC by the university as his reason for belonging to CAP. During his senior year at Princeton, Alito moved out of New Jersey for the first time to study in Italy, where he wrote his thesis on the Italian legal system. Graduating in 1972, Alito left a sign of his lofty aspirations in his yearbook and he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U. S. Army Signal Corps after his graduation from Princeton and assigned to the United States Army Reserve. Following his graduation from Yale Law School, he served on duty from September to December 1975. The remainder of his time in the Army was served in the inactive Reserves and he was a captain when he received an honorable discharge in 1980. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1975, where he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal, garth in Newark, New Jersey in 1976 and 1977. He interviewed with Supreme Court Justice Byron White for a clerkship but was not hired, between 1977 and 1981, Alito was Assistant United States Attorney, District of New Jersey. While serving as an Assistant U. S. Attorney for New Jersey, he prosecuted many cases that involved drug trafficking, from 1981 to 1985, Alito was Assistant to Solicitor General Rex E. Lee
Samuel Alito
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The Honorable Samuel Alito
Samuel Alito
–
With President
George W. Bush looking on, Samuel Alito acknowledges his nomination.
Samuel Alito
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Alito ceremonially sworn in by
Chief Justice John Roberts the day after his confirmation, February 1, 2006.
22.
Antonin Scalia
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Antonin Gregory Scalia was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. Appointed to the Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, Scalia was described as the anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the Courts conservative wing. Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey and he attended Xavier High School in Manhattan and then college at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. He obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School and spent six years in a Cleveland law firm before becoming a law professor at the University of Virginia. In the early 1970s, he served in the Nixon and Ford administrations and he spent most of the Carter years teaching at the University of Chicago, where he became one of the first faculty advisers of the fledgling Federalist Society. In 1982, Ronald Reagan appointed him as judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in 1986, Reagan appointed him to the Supreme Court. Scalia was unanimously confirmed by the Senate, becoming the first Italian-American justice and he was a strong defender of the powers of the executive branch, believing presidential power should be paramount in many areas. He opposed affirmative action and other policies that treated minorities as special groups and he filed separate opinions in many cases and often castigated the Courts majority in his minority opinions using scathing language. Antonin Scalia was born on March 11,1936, in Trenton, New Jersey and his father, Salvatore Eugene Scalia, an Italian immigrant from Sommatino, Sicily, was a graduate student at Columbia University and clerk at the time of his sons birth. The elder Scalia would become a professor of Romance languages at Brooklyn College and his mother, Catherine Louise Scalia, was born in Trenton to Italian immigrant parents and worked as an elementary school teacher. In 1939, Scalia and his moved to the Elmhurst section of Queens, New York. He later stated that he spent much of his time on schoolwork and admitted, while a youth, he was also active as a Boy Scout and was part of Scoutings national honor society, the Order of the Arrow. Classmate and future New York State official William Stern remembered Scalia in his school days. He could have been a member of the Curia and he was the top student in the class. He was brilliant, way above everybody else, in 1953, Scalia enrolled at Georgetown University, where he graduated valedictorian and summa cum laude in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. While in college, he was a champion debater in Georgetowns Philodemic Society. He took his junior year abroad at the University of Fribourg, Scalia studied law at Harvard Law School, where he was a Notes Editor for the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1960, becoming a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University, the fellowship enabled him to travel throughout Europe during 1960–1961
Antonin Scalia
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The Honorable Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia
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President Reagan and then-nominee Scalia, July 7, 1986
Antonin Scalia
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Judge and Mrs. Scalia (left) and President Reagan (right) watch as Chief Justice
Warren Burger swears in
William Rehnquist as his successor, September 26, 1986.
Antonin Scalia
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The 2009–2010 Court, with President
Barack Obama, Vice President
Joe Biden and retiring justice
David Souter with Scalia fourth from right
23.
Clarence Thomas
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Clarence Thomas is an American judge, lawyer, and government official who currently serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Thomas succeeded Thurgood Marshall and is the second African American to serve on the court, Thomas grew up in Savannah, Georgia, and was educated at the College of the Holy Cross and at Yale Law School. In 1974, he was appointed an Assistant Attorney General in Missouri, in 1979, he became a legislative assistant to Senator John Danforth and in 1981 was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U. S. Department of Education. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed Thomas Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He served in that role for 16 months and on July 1,1991, was nominated by Bush to fill Marshalls seat on the United States Supreme Court, the U. S. Senate ultimately confirmed Thomas by a vote of 52–48. Since joining the court, Thomas has taken a textualist approach, seeking to uphold the original meaning of the United States Constitution and he is generally viewed as the most conservative member of the court. Clarence Thomas was born in 1948 in Pin Point, Georgia and he was the second of three children born to M. C. Thomas, a worker, and Leola Williams, a domestic worker. They were descendants of American slaves, and the family spoke Gullah as a first language, Thomass earliest-known ancestors were slaves named Sandy and Peggy who were born around the end of the 18th century and owned by wealthy Liberty County, Georgia planter Josiah Wilson. M. C. left his family when Thomas was two years old, Thomass mother worked hard but was sometimes paid only pennies per day. She had difficulty putting food on the table and was forced to rely on charity, after a house fire left them homeless, Thomas and his younger brother Myers were taken to live with his maternal grandparents in Savannah, Georgia. Thomas was seven when the family moved in with his grandfather, Myers Anderson. Living with his grandparents, Thomas enjoyed amenities such as indoor plumbing and his grandfather Myers Anderson had little formal education, but had built a thriving fuel oil business that also sold ice. Thomas calls his grandfather the greatest man I have ever known, when Thomas was 10, Anderson started taking the family to help at a farm every day from sunrise to sunset. His grandfather believed in hard work and self-reliance, he would counsel Thomas to never let the sun catch you in bed, Thomas grandfather also impressed upon his grandsons the importance of getting a good education. Thomas was the black person at his high school in Savannah. He considered entering the priesthood at the age of 16, and he also briefly attended Conception Seminary College, a Roman Catholic seminary in Missouri. No one in Thomass family had attended college, Thomas has said that during his first year in seminary, he was one of only three or four blacks attending the school
Clarence Thomas
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The Honorable Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
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Official Equal Employment Opportunity Commission portrait of Thomas
Clarence Thomas
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Clarence Thomas being sworn in by
Byron White, as wife
Virginia Lamp Thomas looks on.
24.
United States Secretary of the Interior
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The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the U. S. Department of the Interior. The Secretary also serves on and appoints the private citizens on the National Park Foundation board, the Secretary is a member of the Presidents Cabinet. The U. S. Department of the Interior should not be confused with the Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries. Ministries of the Interior in these other countries correspond primarily to the Department of Homeland Security in the U. S, Cabinet and secondarily to the Department of Justice. On December 13,2016, President-elect Donald Trump picked Ryan Zinke for the position of Interior Secretary, the most recent to die was William P. Clark, Jr. on August 10,2013. List of Secretaries of the Interior List of Secretaries of the Interior The Department of Everything Else, Highlights of Interior History
United States Secretary of the Interior
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Incumbent
Sally Jewell since April 12, 2013
United States Secretary of the Interior
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Seal of the U.S. Department of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
25.
Ken Salazar
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Kenneth Lee Ken Salazar, served as the 50th United States Secretary of the Interior, in the administration of President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009. He and Mel Martinez were the first Hispanic U. S, senators since 1977, they were joined by Bob Menendez in January 2006. Prior to his election to the U. S. Senate, on December 17,2008, President-elect Obama announced he would nominate Salazar as U. S. Secretary of the Interior. The environmentalist movements reaction to this nomination was mixed, previously, Salazar supported the nomination of Gale Norton to Secretary of the Interior, President George W. Bushs first appointee who preceded Salazar as Colorado Attorney General. On January 20,2009, Salazar was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate, on June 10,2013 he became a partner in the major international law firm of WilmerHale, and was tasked with opening a Denver office for the firm. On August 16,2016, Salazar was appointed to head presidential candidate Hillary Clintons transition team, Ken Salazar was born in Alamosa, Colorado, the son of Emma M. and Henry S. Salazar. His elder brother is former Congressman John Salazar and he grew up near Manassa, in the community of Los Rincones in the San Luis Valley area of south-central Colorado. Salazar attended St. Francis Seminary and Centauri High School in La Jara and he later attended Colorado College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1977, and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981. Later Salazar was awarded degrees from Colorado College and the University of Denver. After graduating, Salazar started private law practice, Salazar has ancestors in the Southwestern United States dating back from the 16th century, when that region was part of New Spain. He has identified as Mexican American and said, Ive been taunted, called names—from dirty Mexican to lots of other names—as I was growing up, Salazar and his wife, Hope, have two daughters and one granddaughter. In 1986, Salazar became chief counsel to then Governor Roy Romer, in 1990. In this position, he authored the Great Outdoors Colorado Amendment, Salazar also created the Youth in Natural Resources program, giving thousands of Colorados youth an opportunity to work and learn about Colorados natural resources in public schools. The Great Outdoors Colorado program’s success was a model for President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative to create a 21st century agenda for conservation, in 1994, Salazar returned to private practice. In 1998, he was elected attorney general, he was reelected to this position in 2002. He also worked to strengthen consumer protection and anti-fraud laws, as well as to children through new policy designed to crack down on sex offenders. As Colorado Attorney General, he led numerous investigations, including into the 1999 Columbine High School massacre
Ken Salazar
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Ken Salazar
Ken Salazar
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Ken Salazar as U.S. Senator from Colorado
Ken Salazar
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Maria Burks, commissioner of the
National Parks of New York Harbor, and
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar at the
Statue of Liberty in May 2009
Ken Salazar
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Secretary of State
26.
Jon Favreau (speechwriter)
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Jonathan E. Jon Favreau is a political commentator and the former Director of Speechwriting for President Barack Obama. Favreau attended the College of the Holy Cross, graduating as valedictorian, in college, he accumulated scholastic honors, and took part in and directed community and civic programs. After graduation, he went to work for the John Kerry presidential campaign in 2004, working to collect talk radio news for the campaign, while working for the Kerry campaign, he first met Barack Obama. In 2005, Obamas communications director Robert Gibbs recommended Favreau to Obama as a speechwriter, Favreau was hired as Obamas speechwriter shortly after Obamas election to the United States Senate. Obama and Favreau grew close, and Obama referred to him as his mind reader and he went on the campaign trail with Obama during his successful presidential election campaign. In 2009, he was named as a White House staff member as Director of Speechwriting, since January 2017 he has co-hosted the political podcast Pod Save America. Favreau was born in Winchester, Massachusetts, the son of Lillian, a schoolteacher and his father is of French Canadian descent and his mother is of Greek descent. A former resident of North Reading, Massachusetts, Favreau graduated from the Jesuit College of the Holy Cross in 2003 as his classs valedictorian, at the College of the Holy Cross, he was treasurer and debate committee chairman for the College Democrats, and studied classical piano. From 1999 to 2000, he served on the Welfare Solidarity Project, in 2001, Favreau worked with Habitat for Humanity and a University of Massachusetts Amherst program to bring visitors to cancer patients. In 2002, he head of an initiative to help unemployed individuals improve their resumes. He was an editor on his newspaper, and during summers in college, he earned extra income selling newspapers as a telemarketer. Favreaus nickname is Favs, and he is afraid of flying and he joined Senator John Kerrys 2004 presidential campaign soon after graduation from the College of the Holy Cross. While working for the Kerry campaign, his job was to assemble audio clips of radio programs for the Kerry camp to review for the next day. When the Kerry campaign began to falter at one point, they themselves without a speechwriter. Following Kerrys defeat, Favreau became dispirited with politics, and was if he would do such work again. Favreau first met Obama, while working for Kerry, backstage at the 2004 Democratic National Convention as Obama was rehearsing his keynote address. Favreau, then 23 years old, interrupted Obamas rehearsal, advising the soon-to-be-elected Senator that a rewrite was needed to avoid an overlap with Kerrys address and his interview with Obama was on the Senators first day. Uninterested in Favreaus résumé, Obama instead questioned Favreau on what motivated him to work in politics and he described this theory to Obama as, A speech can broaden the circle of people who care about this stuff
Jon Favreau (speechwriter)
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Favreau in February 2013.
Jon Favreau (speechwriter)
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President
Barack Obama meets with Jon Favreau, in the
Oval Office to review a speech April 14, 2009. Official White House Photo by
Pete Souza.
Jon Favreau (speechwriter)
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President Barack Obama works with Jon Favreau on the President's Normandy speech aboard
Air Force One en route to Paris on June 5, 2009.
27.
Oval Office
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The Oval Office is the official office of the President of the United States. It is located in the West Wing of the White House Complex, the room features three large south-facing windows behind the presidents desk, and a fireplace at the north end. Presidents generally decorate the office to suit their taste, choosing new furniture, new drapery. Artwork is selected from the White Houses own collection, or borrowed from museums for the term in office. The Oval Office has become associated in Americans minds with the presidency itself through memorable images, such as a young John F. Kennedy, several presidents have addressed the nation from the Oval Office on occasion. George Washington never occupied the White House and he spent most of his presidency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which served as the temporary national capital for 10 years, 1790–1800, while Washington, D. C. was under construction. In 1790, Washington built a large, two-story, semi-circular addition to the rear of the Presidents House in Philadelphia, Washington received his guests, standing between the windows in his back drawing-room. The company, entering a front room and passing through a door, made their salutations to the President. The apsidal end of a room was a site of honor, for a host. President John Adams occupied the Philadelphia mansion beginning in 1797, curved foundations of Washingtons Bow Window were uncovered during a 2007 archaeological excavation of the Presidents House site. Architect James Hoban visited President Washington in Philadelphia in June 1792, the following month, he was named winner of the design competition for The White House. The elliptic salon at the center of the White House was the feature of Hobans original plan. An oval interior space was a Baroque concept that was adapted by Neoclassicism, Oval rooms became popular in eighteenth century neoclassical architecture. In November 1800, John Adams became the first President to occupy the White House, during the 19th century, a number of presidents used the White Houses second-floor Yellow Oval Room as a private office or library. The one-story Executive Office Building was intended to be a temporary structure, Building it to the west of the White House allowed the removal of a vast, dilapidated set of pre-Civil War greenhouses that had been constructed by President James Buchanan. Roosevelt moved the offices of the branch to the newly constructed wing in 1902. His workspace was a suite of Executive Office and Cabinet Room. The furniture, including the desk, was designed by architect Charles Follen McKim and executed by A. H. Davenport and Company
Oval Office
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President
Barack Obama edits his remarks in the Oval Office prior to making a televised statement detailing the
May 1, 2011 mission which killed Osama bin Laden.
Oval Office
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The Oval Office in 1981, during the administration of
Ronald Reagan. President Reagan used the
Resolute Desk, which President
Jimmy Carter had returned to the White House. The rug from the
Gerald R. Ford administration was replaced when the Reagans redecorated in 1988.
Oval Office
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President's House, Philadelphia, PA. George Washington's Bow Window is echoed in the shape of the Oval Office.
Oval Office
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The
Yellow Oval Room as President
Grover Cleveland 's library and study, 1886. Note his use of the
Resolute Desk.
28.
Medicare (United States)
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United States Medicare is funded by a payroll tax, premiums and surtaxes from beneficiaries, and general revenue. It provides health insurance for Americans aged 65 and older who have worked, in 2015, Medicare provided health insurance for over 55 million—46 million people age 65 and older and nine million younger people. On average, Medicare covers about half of the health care charges for those enrolled, the enrollees must then cover their remaining costs either with supplemental insurance, separate insurance, or out-of-pocket. Out-of-pocket costs can vary depending on the amount of care a Medicare enrollee needs. They might include the costs of uncovered services—such as for long-term, dental, hearing, a similar but different CMS system determines the rates paid acute care and other hospitals—including skilled nursing facilities—under Medicare Part A. Medicare was the originally given to a program providing medical care for families of individuals serving in the military as part of the Dependents Medical Care Act passed in 1956. President Eisenhower held the first White House Conference on Aging in January 1961, johnson signed the bill into law on July 30,1965 at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri. Former President Truman and his wife, former First Lady Bess Truman became the first recipients of the program, many of this latter group became dual eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid with the passage of the law. In 1966, Medicare spurred the racial integration of thousands of waiting rooms, hospital floors, Medicare has been in operation for a half century and, during that time, has undergone several changes. Since 1965, the provisions of Medicare have expanded to include benefits for speech, physical, Medicare added the option of payments to health maintenance organizations in the 1980s. The association with HMOs begun in the 1980s was formalized under President Clinton in 1997 as Medicare Part C, in 2003, under President George W. Bush, a Medicare program for covering almost all drugs was passed as Medicare Part D. Since the creation of Medicare, science and medicine have advanced, the fact that people are living longer necessitates more services for later stages in life. Thus in 1982, the government added hospice benefits to aid the elderly on a temporary basis, two years later in 1984, hospice became a permanent benefit. Congress further expanded Medicare in 2001 to cover people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The Chief Actuary of CMS is responsible for providing accounting information, contracted processes include claims and payment processing, call center services, clinician enrollment, and fraud investigation. Beginning in 1997 and 2005 respectively, these and other companies also began administering Part C. Medicare has several sources of financing, Part As inpatient admitted hospital and skilled nursing coverage is largely funded by revenue from a 2. 9% payroll tax levied on employers and workers. Beginning January 1,1994, the limit was removed
Medicare (United States)
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A sample Medicare card. There are separate lines for basic Part A and Part B's supplementary medical coverage, each with its own date. There are no lines for Part C or D, which are additional supplemental policies for which a separate card is issued.
Medicare (United States)
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President Johnson signing the Medicare amendment. Former President
Harry S. Truman (seated) and his wife,
Bess, are on the far right
29.
Medicaid
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Medicaid in the United States is a social health care program for families and individuals with limited resources. The Health Insurance Association of America describes Medicaid as a government insurance program for persons of all ages whose income, Medicaid is the largest source of funding for medical and health-related services for people with low income in the United States. States are not required to participate in the program, although all have since 1982, Medicaid recipients must be U. S. citizens or legal permanent residents, and may include low-income adults, their children, and people with certain disabilities. Poverty alone does not necessarily qualify someone for Medicaid, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act significantly expanded both eligibility for and federal funding of Medicaid. Under managed care, Medicaid recipients are enrolled in a health plan. The health plan is then responsible for providing for all or most of the healthcare needs. Today, all but a few states use managed care to provide coverage to a significant proportion of Medicaid enrollees, as of 2014,26 states have contracts with managed care organizations to deliver long-term care for the elderly and individuals with disabilities. The states pay a monthly capitulated rate per member to the MCOs that provide comprehensive care, nationwide, roughly 80% of enrollees are enrolled in managed care plans. Because the service level costs vary depending on the care and needs of the enrolled, the annual cost of care will vary state to state depending on state approved Medicaid benefits, as well as the state specific care costs. 2008 average cost per senior was reported as $14,780, in a 2010 national report for all age groups, the per enrolled average cost was calculated to $5,563 and a listing by state and by coverage age is provided. As of 2013, Medicaid is a program intended for those with low income, the details of how each category is defined vary from state to state. People with disabilities who do not have a history and who receive Supplemental Security Income. Persons with a disability, including blindness or physical disability, deafness, however, in order to be enrolled, applicants must prove that they are disabled to the point of being unable to work. Some states operate a program known as the Health Insurance Premium Payment Program and this program allows a Medicaid recipient to have private health insurance paid for by Medicaid. As of 2008 relatively few states had premium assistance programs and enrollment was relatively low, interest in this approach remained high, however. Included in the Social Security program under Medicaid are dental services and these dental services are optional for adults above the age of 21, however, this service is a requirement for those eligible for Medicaid and below the age of 21. Minimum services include pain relief, restoration of teeth, and maintenance for dental health, early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment is a mandatory Medicaid program for children that aims to focus on prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. Oral screenings are not required for EPSDT recipients, and they do not suffice as a direct dental referral, the Social Security Amendments of 1965 created Medicaid by adding Title XIX to the Social Security Act,42 U. S. C. §§1396 et seq
Medicaid
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Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Medicaid administrator) logo
30.
Tort reform
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Tort reform refers to proposed changes in the civil justice system that aim to reduce the ability of victims to bring tort litigation or to reduce damages they can receive. Tort reform advocates focus on personal injury common law rules in particular, in the United States, tort reform is a contentious political issue. US tort reform advocates propose, among other things, procedural limits on the ability to file claims, in Commonwealth countries as well as U. S. states including Texas, Georgia, and California, the losing party must pay court costs of the opposing party. Some legal scholars propose to replace tort compensation with a security framework that serves victims without respect to cause or fault. Its goal is to achieve equality of compensation, while reducing costs of litigation, in the 1970s, Australia and the United Kingdom drew up proposals for similar no-fault schemes but they were later abandoned. Tort requires those responsible for harming others to compensate the victims, typical harms can include loss of income, medical expenses, payment for pain, suffering, or even loss of a body part, or loss of future income. The classical purpose of tort is to full compensation for proved harm. This is known under the Latin phrase restitutio in integrum, in other words, the idea underpinning the law of tort is that if someone harms someone else, they should make up for it. A number of recurrent issues can be identified in the debates about tort reform, the primary criticism of the tort system is economic. Critics decry the cost of compensation payments themselves, especially when they are out of proportion to the damage, even if it is held that extreme compensation is a worthy goal — litigation is arguably an inefficient method of giving compensation. In Britain, for instance, it has argued that 85p is spent on litigation for every £1 of compensation paid. In contrast, the security system costs 8p or 12p for every £1 delivered. This figure is disputed, because there is no method for accounting for transaction costs particularly when pre-litigation settlements are considered. Three particular charges are levelled at the system, for having distorting economic effects. First, the costs of litigation and compensation payouts raise the cost of insurance, secondly, and related to insurance in countries which do not have universal health care, the costs of the tort system, and in particular medical malpractice suits, raise the costs of health care. The difficulty in this area is to distinguish between public and private health care providers, in the UK, the cost was £1. 6B a year as for 2014, increasing at 10%+ yearly Rising from £446m a year a decade earlier. The UK, however, has exceptionally low claims, as tort claims have been restricted, the Medical Defence Union actively combats, and attempts to settle all cases where potential negligence claims are at stake. While successful, the costs of litigation to the system are steadily growing
Tort reform
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Lawyer jokes from 1900. Top-hatted lawyer to workman falling off scaffolding: "Take this card, my man, and if you're not killed call on me and I'll recover big damages for you."
