Domestic Policy: Drugs and Energy

For Monday, Davidson, ch. 15.

DRUGS

Senators Orrin Hatch, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Charles Grassley, Don Nickles, and Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld in Traffic (2000)

The Early Days: WAR changes things

Civil War wounded warriors develop opiate addictions

1897 Sears Catalog

1885 ad:

War and Race

• Spanish American war and opium in the Philippines
• First International Opium Convention
• The impact of race, 1914

Legislation

• 1909   – Smoking Opium Exclusion Act Banned the importation, possession and use of "smoking opium". Did not regulate opium-based "medications". First Federal law banning the non-medical use of a substance.
• Harrison Act of 1914.  To implement it, Treasury started the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930

Prohibition

Marijuana Tax Act of 1937

Then came the Sixties

LSD

Illicit drug use really did increase during the 1970s. 

Public Opinion

War on Drugs 1971

John Ehlichman:

You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

The Controlled Substances Act of 1970

DEA 1973

The Len Bias Law of 1986

Rudy and Alfonse go undercover  in very convincing disguises

Drug Czar 1988

Crack 1989

The bag at 1 minute in, the response at 25 minutes

ENERGY

US Crude Oil Production

Economic Policy

 Wednesday readings will be on Sakai later today.

A few questions

• Suppose your income places you in the 22% bracket.  How much of your income do you think is taxed at a rate of 22%?
• Agree or disagree: large tax refunds are a good thing.
• What tax rate applies to the top US federal income tax bracket?
• How much do you think the top 1% of taxpayers by income account for in terms of share of total federal income taxes paid?

Constitutional Provisions

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.”
— U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 7, clause 1

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

-- U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 8, clause 12

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”
— U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 9, clause 7

What follows would baffle a Martian.

Authorization (Davidson 398)

• Reauthorization as a form of oversight
• Lapsed authorizations:

Appropriation

• Also a form of oversight 

• Budget Authority
• Outlay
• Continuing resolutions

"The Budget Process" and key documents:

• The president's budget
• CBO reports

Revenue Bills and RECONCILIATION (Davidson 408-409)

Revenues -- Where the money comes from:

The federal tax system is more progressive than most people realize: 

Average Federal Tax Rates, by Income Group, 1979 to 2019

 

Average Federal Tax Rates, by Tax Source, 2019

Percent

(Similar patterns in 2020)

Tax expenditures

Outlays -- Where the money goes:

Percentage of GDP

CBPP

Budget tables:  function, subfunction, agency

Debt as share of GDP

THE DEBT LIMIT

  What happens if the US government defaults on the federal debt?

CBS poll founds that people oppose raising the debt limit -- until they find out what it means.

Last Paper

 Answer one of the following:

• The authors of Congress and Its Members finished writing the 19th edition in mid-2023. Pick any chapter in the book and write a three-page update. What events of the past year -- other than the election of a new speaker -- should materially change their analysis when they write the 20th edition?
• Pick either Mike Johnson or Hakeem Jeffries.  What practical, politically feasible steps can he take to prevent a government shutdown this fall?  And why would he want to?
• Read the famous Evans-Novak essay on LBJ's leadership of the Senate in the 1950s. (On Sakai).  To what extent could  "the Johnson system" succeed in today's Senate?  

You may also write on a relevant topic of your choice, subject to my approval.

• Essays should be typed, double-spaced, and no more than three pages long. I will not read past the third page. 
• Submit papers as Word documents, not pdfs or Google docs.
• Cite your sources with endnotes in standard Turabian format. Endnote pages do not count against the page limit.
• Misrepresenting AI-generated content as your own work is plagiarism and will result in severe consequences.
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you  -- especially errors that I have noted on previous papers.
• Graduating seniors should return papers to the Sakai dropbox for this class by 11:59 PM, Wednesday, May 1.  All others should return papers by 11:59 PM, Friday, May 3.

Impeachment and Judiciary

For Monday, read Davidson ch. 14.  What domestic issues do you want to discuss on Wednesday of next week?

Trump Impeachment I

Trump Impeachment II -- The 7

The J6 Committee

• The two GOP members worked in tandem;
• In each hearing, one member took the helm;
• Careful TV production
• Public opinion impact: reinforcement, not persuasion

Biden impeachment effort falls apart.

Mayorkas impeachment -- McClintock comments

Court-packing  (Davidson 347-348).

A check on the court:  jurisdiction-stripping, or court-stripping (Davidson 344-345 -- a 2020 article)

Constitutional Amendments

Response to statutory (vs. constitutional) interpretation (Davidson p. 363)  Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and ADA

Supreme Court Nominations (355-356)

Clarence Thomas:



In hearings, senators try to get judicial nominees on the record.  NOTE WHAT ALITO SAYS (START AT 18:45) ABOUT STARE DECISIS.





Merrick Garland and "the Biden Rule" 

Gorsuch and the nuclear option 

KBJ

Blue Slips and Senatorial Courtesy (Davidson, 357)

The Trump record on the courts (Davidson 357)

Impeachment

FOR WEDNESDAY, DAVIDSON, CH. 12. 

The Founders knew about the possibility of crooked presidents:

Article I, Section 3, Clause 7:

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Alexander Hamilton (in Federalist No. 72) 

An avaricious man, who might happen to fill the office, looking forward to … yield[ing] up the emoluments he enjoyed … might not scruple to have recourse to the most corrupt expedients.

An ambitious man, too, when … seated on the summit of his country’s honors, … would be … violently tempted to embrace a favorable conjuncture for attempting the prolongation of his power, at every personal hazard.

The Grounds

• Treason
• Bribery
• High Crimes and Misdemeanors
• Precedent from England?
• Gerald R. Ford 1970: "An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.” 

 There is no appeal.

Andrew Johnson Impeachment -- see esp. Article Ten

Impeachment v. Bill of Attainder

Persons subject to impeachment 

(A separate process for disciplining members of Congress.)

The list

The House

• "Due process" does not apply.  
• The Fifth Amendment says no person shall "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Impeachment merely removes a person from office.
  

The Senate

• The rules
• The role of the Chief Justice

The Special Case of the President

• The "take care" clause
• At Harvard Law Review, Andrew Kent.Ethan J. Leib, and Jed Handelsman Shugerman have an article titled "Faithful Execution and Article II." From the abstract:
  Article II of the U.S. Constitution twice imposes a duty of “faithful execution” on the President, who must “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” and take an oath or affirmation to “faithfully execute the Office of President.

Nixon

• Yes, there was a partisan dimension.
• A key staffer remembers...

Clinton

Other accusations:  how would they play out in the #MeToo era?

Trump Impeachment I

Trump Impeachment II -- The 7

Biden impeachment effort falls apart.

Mayorkas impeachment -- McClintock comments

Congress and the Executive IV

Strauss and confirmation hearings.

REVIEW: Legislation:  Executive Branch Organization and Laws on Reporting 

• Inspectors General  (Trump firings)
• Reporting requirements
• The old legislative veto and the Congressional Review Act.  (A rare example of one that became law)  See Davidson, p. 318
• Congress "organizes" the executive:
  --  The "organization" of DHS.
-- DNI and the intelligence community
• AUMF: More in 2 weeks.

• The definitive encyclopedia article!
• Inherent contempt
• Civil contempt 
• Criminal contempt

Actions in the Public Sphere: moves by members of Congress that catch the attention of alert publics.  Besides legislation (duh), the moves could include:

• Speeches and filibusters
• Writings -- Senator Biden and the War Power
• Electronic communications (e.g., tweets)
• Demonstrations & Photo Ops
• Interviews
• Hearings (esp. Investigative Hearings)

Key hearings

• Hiss-Chambers
• McCarthy
• Kefauver (and the fictional version)
• Vietnam hearings
• Senate Watergate hearings
• Iran-Contra hearings (4:20)
• J6

Congress and the Executive III: NAIL

 LARP v IRL

• Compressed time
• No dilatory tactics
• No press, public, staff, House, or SCOTUS
• Limited role of POTUS (see below)
• Inherent limitations of simulation
• But role-play is still powerful

NAIL: Nominations, Appropriations, Investigations, Legislation

Nominations 

• Extent of confirmation power (about 1200 jobs)
• Schedule F?
• Nominations: Senate data
• Cabinet nominations rejected or withdrawn
• Pending:  Julie Su
• Hearings:  Whitehouse and White; DeVos

Appropriations

• Limitation riders and the case of ACA

Investigation and Oversight 

• GAO 
• CBO
• CRS
• Diminished institutional capacity

• Congress has fewer committee staff and nonpartisan wonks to help it than it did in 1990.
  
  Source: https://t.co/MK5SK2rZSM pic.twitter.com/5l9dNU8mu0

  — Kevin R Kosar (@kevinrkosar) March 13, 2024

• The role of the press -- featuring an alum of this course!!

Legislation:  Executive Branch Organization and Laws on Reporting 

• Inspectors General  (Trump firings)
• Reporting requirements
• The old legislative veto and the Congressional Review Act.  (A rare example of one that became law)  See Davidson, p. 318
• Congress "organizes" the executive:
  --  The "organization" of DHS.
-- DNI and the intelligence community

• The definitive encyclopedia article!
• Inherent contempt
• Civil contempt 
• Criminal contempt