This blog serves CMC Government 191, Public Policy Since the New Deal, Fall 2025. During the semester, I shall post course material and students will comment on it. Students are also free to comment on any aspect of American politics, either current or historical. There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges. This blog is on the open Internet, so post nothing that you would not want a potential employer to see
Books: Bush 43 develops a playbook after reading The Great Influenza. Also World War Z
Path dependency
Revival of early-20th-century public-health playbooks (masking & distancing): U.S. officials drew heavily on historical precedents from the 1918 influenza pandemic—particularly NPIs (non-pharmaceutical interventions) Responses were familiar, legally defensible, and embedded in existing federal and state guidance.
Reliance on decentralized federalism: Long-standing U.S. public-health federalism—where states control health powers and the federal government plays a coordinating role—predetermined widely uneven state policies, replicating previous fragmented responses to polio, H1N1, and earlier outbreaks.
Existing CDC guidance structures: Pre-COVID emergency-preparedness frameworks (from SARS, H5N1, and post-9/11 bioterror planning) channeled the federal response into established “pandemic phases,” guidance documents, and communication patterns—even when COVID-19’s characteristics differed.
Legacy surveillance systems (e.g., patchworked state reporting, outdated data pipelines, hospital-centric metrics) limited real-time situational awareness because upgrading systems mid-crisis was institutionally difficult.
Operation Warp Speed built on prior mRNA research, BARDA’s existing contracting mechanisms, and the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization framework—all created before 2020—making them the default pathways for vaccine approval and distribution.
Voters in the U.S. and around the worldare unhappy with the direction of their countries and keep voting to “throw the bums out”. In the U.S. there were just 3 change elections (where the party controlling the House, Senate and/or White House changed) out of the 10 held in the 1960’s & 70s. In the 80’s & 90’s it happened 4 times in 10 elections. This century? 11 out of 13 elections.
One reason is partisan parity (scroll down to see data on leaned partisanship.)
The following will give you an idea of the format of the final exam. As you prepare, reread the air midterm and the Johnson appendices that I emailed you.
I. Briefly identify 12 of 14 items (4 points each). Explain each item's meaning and significance. What is fair game for an identification?
Items that we have covered in class or on the blog;
Items that appear in bold or italics in the readings;
Items that cover several pages in the readings.
Items
ACA premium subsidies
Hurricane Katrina
Robert F. Wagner
No Child Left Behind
Defense of Marriage Act
Family Assistance Plan
Presidential line-item veto
Title IX
Taft-Hartley
NEPA
Tea Party
The Laffer Curve
Stagflation
The Townsend Plan
II. Short essays. Answer three of four. Each answer should take about half a page. (6 points each).
Why did Bush and Gore support faith-based initiatives in 2000?
Why did Joseph Califano oppose the establishment of the Department of Education?
Why did Truman succeed with desegregating the armed forces but not achieve national health insurance?
David Stockman said: "None of us really understands what’s going on with all these numbers." Explain.
III. Answer two of three essay questions (17 points each). Each answer should take about 2-3 large bluebook pages or 3-4 small bluebook pages.
During the course, we have often discussed the unanticipated consequences of public policy. Describe and explain three examples.
"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Explain how this passage describes the cyclical character of federal education policy.
Compare and contrast the federal response to the Great Depression and the Great Recession. Did policymakers apply lessons from the first to the second?
Bonus Questions (one point each). Very briefly identify the following:
Economic Recovery Act and the difficulty of implementation
Obama on construction:
December 15, 2008: "We've got shovel-ready projects all across the country that governors and mayors are pleading to fund. And the minute we can get those investments to the state level, jobs are going to be created."
September 27, 2010: "But the problem is, is that spending it out takes a long time, because there's really nothing -- there's no such thing as shovel-ready projects."
Policy Window: unified control of government and brief supermajority in the Senate
Path Dependency: Adding onto existing insurance, not replacing it
Health Insurance Marketplaces: The law established state-based Health Insurance Marketplaces (also known as exchanges) where individuals and families can compare and purchase private health insurance plans
Premium Tax Credits: The ACA provides tax credits on a sliding scale to help make insurance premiums affordable for eligible individuals and families purchasing coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace. Enhanced credits in 2021, just expired.
Medicaid Expansion: The law offered states the option to expand their Medicaid programs to cover nearly all low-income adults under age 65, significantly extending health coverage to millions who were previously uninsured.
Young Adult Coverage: One of the most popular provisions allows young adults to remain on a parent’s health insurance plan until they turn 26, which is particularly beneficial as they often have limited income after high school or college.
Preventive Services Without Cost: The ACA mandates that most health insurance plans cover a broad range of preventive services, such as vaccinations, screenings, and counseling, at no extra cost to the patient (no copayment or coinsurance).
Guaranteed Issue and Renewability: The ACA prohibits insurers from denying coverage or charging more based on a person's pre-existing health conditions, ensuring access for everyone regardless of their health history
Once again, the problem of overpromising
June 13, 2009: "If you like your plan and your doctor, you can keep them. The only changes that you'll see are lower costs and better health care."
Q: At this point, though, it''s obviously something — a promise that has not been able to be kept. Just today the Denver Post reported 250,000 people in Colorado are seeing health insurance policies cancelled. Some of those people like those policies, and they can''t keep them. What happened?
A: But even though it''s a small percentage of folks who may be disadvantaged, you know, it means a lot to them and it''s scary to them. And I am sorry that they, you know, are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me.
"Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001." (Johnson 364-365)
Expanded Surveillance and Search Authority: The act expanded law enforcement's ability to surveil communications, including domestic and international wiretaps, and allowed for secret "sneak and peek" searches .
Increased Information Sharing: It broke down legal barriers that had kept law enforcement, intelligence, and national defense agencies from sharing information, allowing them to "connect the dots" to prevent attacks.
Strengthened Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Controls: The act implemented stricter anti-money laundering measures, such as customer identification requirements for U.S. banks and expanded scrutiny of high-risk accounts, to hinder the financing of terrorism.
Tocqueville's warning that "any alliance with any political power whatsoever is bound to be burdensome for religion. It does not need their support in order to live, and in serving them it may die."
Medicare Prescription Drugs (Johnson 367-368):
Social Security reform flops in 2005.
Bush thought his narrow victory was a mandate. It wasn't.
Deficit had gone from $128b in FY2001 to $413b in FY2004.
Black-Koopman reading for Wed: Of Little Faith excerpt
Prelude: The Election of 2000
In his memoirs, Karl Rove recalled: “What really matters is the first 180 days, because voters look for real achievements by the August recess. Most pieces of legislation need to be well along by then if they are to pass in the president’s first year.”
The cut (Johnson 362-363)
Why kick off with a tax cut?
Informal adviser to Bush 41
1994 race for Governor of TX: “Read my
ears.There will not be a tax increase
when I'm the governor.” The boom helped him keep the promise.
In his campaign book, he wrote:“Reducing marginal tax rates will increase
economic growth and create higher-paying jobs. By returning money to the
taxpayers, we can also limit government. Money returned to Americans will not
be spent on new or expanded government programs.”
OMB Director Mitch Daniels: “ So even by the time of the tax cut the rationale was beginning to shift to fighting recession. I always thought it was maybe the luckiest fiscal move that we’ve seen. Again, it was crafted for a different reason. It came into effect at about the right time and it turned out to be a very mild recession. That probably helped.”
Bipartisan majorities passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut spread over 10 years.
Bush legislative staffer Jack Howard: "There was a real conscious effort, up until 9/11, to try to find, who is that Democratic dealmaker out there that I can work with?”
Rep. George Miller (D-CA), ranking D on Education & Workforce: on how he and Ted Kennedy worked with Bush: "There was no question that we flew cover for this with the center-left crowd—and John Boehner flew a great deal of cover, obviously George Bush, with conservatives who saw this as a massive intrusion, with all of the testing, the reporting."
Passes in 2002:
Annual testing and standards: NCLB mandated that states establish "challenging" academic standards and test all students annually in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school to measure progress.
Accountability and reporting: Schools had to report test results publicly, disaggregated by race, income, disability, and other subgroups. This was to hold them accountable for the performance of all students, especially those who were underperforming.
Teacher qualifications: States were required to ensure all students had access to "highly qualified" teachers, with each state defining what that meant for their teachers.
Parental options: Parents of students in schools that failed to meet state standards for two consecutive years were given the option to transfer their children to a better-performing public or charter school.
Support for struggling students: Children from low-income families in schools that failed to meet standards for three years or more qualified for supplemental educational services, such as free tutoring
"Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001." (Johnson 364-365)
Expanded Surveillance and Search Authority: The act expanded law enforcement's ability to surveil communications, including domestic and international wiretaps, and allowed for secret "sneak and peek" searches .
Increased Information Sharing: It broke down legal barriers that had kept law enforcement, intelligence, and national defense agencies from sharing information, allowing them to "connect the dots" to prevent attacks.
Strengthened Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Controls: The act implemented stricter anti-money laundering measures, such as customer identification requirements for U.S. banks and expanded scrutiny of high-risk accounts, to hinder the financing of terrorism.
Reaction to the tax increase and failed health bill
Ironically, GOP control of the White House suppressed GOP gains downballot.
The Contract with America (Johnson 327-328)
Before 1994 ElectionAfter GOP Gain
House176 R 258 D230 R-204D +54
Senate 44R-56D 52R-48D +8
Governors 20R-29D 30R-19D +10
Leg. Chamber 14 31 +17
The Contract:
1. Fiscal Responsibility Act (Balanced Budget Amendment & Line-Item Veto)The Balanced Budget Amendment passed the House but failed by one vote in the Senate. The Line-Item Veto Act passed in 1996 but was struck down by the Supreme Court in Clinton v. City of New York (1998).See Johnson 342-343.
2. Taking Back Our Streets ActContained anti-crime measures like increased prison funding and “truth in sentencing.” Parts were enacted through the 1996 crime legislation, but not as a single comprehensive law.
3. Personal Responsibility ActAimed to end welfare “as we know it.” After several vetoes, a modified version became the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, replacing AFDC with TANF.(Johnson 334-335)
4. Family Reinforcement ActPromoted tax incentives for families and tougher child support enforcement. Some provisions—.e.g, child support reforms—were enacted, but broader family and adoption measures failed.
5. American Dream Restoration ActProposed a $500-per-child tax credit and tax cuts for married couples. Versions were in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, creating the child tax credit.
6. National Security Restoration ActSought to strengthen defense and restrict U.N. control over U.S. troops. Passed the House but not the Senate; many elements resurfaced in later defense appropriations bills.
7. Senior Citizens Fairness ActProposed raising the Social Security earnings limit and repealing the 1993 tax on Social Security benefits. Some earnings-limit changes passed in 1996; benefit-tax repeal failed.
8. Job Creation and Wage Enhancement ActFocused on capital gains tax cuts and regulatory reform. Partial capital gains cuts were in the 1997 tax lawd
9. Common Sense Legal Reform ActAimed to limit product-liability lawsuits and curb “frivolous” litigation. Passed Congress but vetoed by President Clinton.
10. Citizen Legislature Act (Term Limits)Proposed constitutional amendment to limit congressional terms. Failed in the House (227–204, short of two-thirds).
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