Download Understanding Welfare Reform & Economic Policies: TANF, Spending Power & Economic Cycles - and more Study notes Political Science in PDF only on Docsity! I. Welfare Reform A. Aid to families with dependent children – (AFDC) – the old system, an entitlement, people qualified could remain on the program as long as they qualified, replaced TANF B. TANF – aid for needy families, new system, not an entitlement. People can only be on welfare roles for only a limited time. – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families II. Online reader – Divided welfare state - Hacker makes two basic points, know these points III. Spending Power – Ch. 13 A. A combination of subsidies and contracts that the government can redistribute income, B. Talking very broadly about fiscal policy and using the tax dollars to spend. C. Recessionary Cycle – Cut taxes, spend more D. Spending power – being used to bail out banks and mortgage lenders, may be used to bailout autos, designed to create economic activity and create jobs. E. Cannot be done by presidents. Only Congress can appropriate the money. IV. 3 Basic Kinds of Economic Policies A. Oldest and most common form of econ policy is Promotional Policy – designed to help some part of the economy to do well. Building infrastructure (airports, highways, etc.) Any money spent to help businesses, agriculture, etc. Government helping labor – laws to allow unions., etc. B. Regulatory Policy - puts limits on what people can do in order to achieve some public purpose. Anything from regulating food and drugs to regulating business practices so there won’t be monopolies, to regulating the airwaves on tv, etc. C. Policy Designed to Counter Economic Cycles - Stabalization/Redestributive Policy to smooth out the cycles of inflation and recession. 1. Fiscal Policy – blunt instrument, by the time you’ve raised taxes, spent money, it takes a lot of time. Can’t really use fiscal policy for immediate relief. 2. Monetary Policy – controlling how much is able to borrow from banks, etc. Federal reserve board controls monetary policy. Usually the first tool to even out economic cycles. V. Congress, the Budget and Deficits in Online Reader – look for criticisms in Congress. What does Ferrier think is wrong with Congress that leads us to get into deficits constantly? Start at te back of the passage. VI. Foreign Policy A. Current foreign policy, which role does the current policy resemble? B. BOP, Napoleonic, etc. C. Apply the content VII. Freedman – the world is flat. VIII. The International System – A. Refers to the interactions of nation-states, mostly B. A political system involving states as actors. C. Increasingly, we cannot stop with just states as actors, we have to include everything from informal international actors (Al Quaeda) or international organizations (UN, NATO) D. Trade, economic activity, etc.
