3.4 Trumps Plan to Destroy Chapter 14

1. How did the Obama Administration prepare for the Trump Administration's plans for the EPA? Obama knew Trump would try to dismantle his energy policies, so he tried to pass as many regulations before he leaves office.

2. What does Trump have to do to policies that Obama enacted by Executive Order instead of Congressional action? To reverse Obama's executive orders, he just have to pass some of his own, and besides it is easier to override the executive orders than congressional decisions, because congress hard to please. 

3, What policies did Obama's Administration pass through the rule making process and what does Trump have to do to get rid of these? Obama passed many fuel economy standards, the Clean Power Plan, and rules on pollution. To reverse these rules, the Trump administration has to restart the formal rule making process, and rewrite his policies, notifying the public, and justify the changes to everyone.

4. What history does Trump's pick for head of the EPA have with the agency? Trump's pick is an Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has sued Obama's EPA a lot (but luckily to no avail). But by placing him in this position, he's probably going to change everything.

5. What is the main way that Congress can limit the effectiveness of the EPA? Using the Congressional Review Act, they can probably stop certain restrictions Obama has put into place, but since it requires majority vote in both houses, they won't resort to it. They could also cut off the EPA's fundings.

6. How could Trump and Congress alter the future of all EPA rule making? (What would the REINS act do?) The REINS act can restrict EPA regulations some more, and then all their policies and stuff must go through the government to be approved. 

7. Based on what you know about environmental protection and Congress - what do you think the impact of this would be if it were to pass? Congress would definitely get more inefficient, and they will reverse many of the thing Obama advocated for because of their ideology, and due to Republican majority in both houses, it'll be so hard for EPA policies to succeed. The two parties will clash. 

3.3 Cory Booker & President Trump

1. How does Paste Magazine characterize Cory Booker? Cory Booker seems to teeter totter on his stances, and he usually agrees with what's popular to try to appeal to the audience and get more popularity, regardless of what he supported in the past. He is inconsistent.

2. Why did Cory Booker vote against an amendment that seems like it would help people? New Jersey (his home state) has many pharmaceutical companies, so it would make sense that he'd want to side with them and corporate interests. 

3. How does Cory Booker justify his vote publicly? He was weary about the drugs imported from Canada and the safety of them.

4. Where does Cory Booker get his campaign funding from? He gets it from pharmaceutical companies of course. 

5. What else, besides sources of campaign funding, may impact his vote? His allies on Wall Street may influence his votes, and also he must please his constituency who are in pharmaceuticals.  

6. Why did Cory Booker testify against Jeff Sessions? He wanted to gain support/popularity and seem more progressive to the people. 

7. Why would this impact his "national ambitions"? He wants to appeal to wider audience, so if he is well-liked in his constituency, he might reach national popularity. 

8. How do his ties to industry & special interest jeopardize those? He is separate from true progressives, and he teeter totters in his stances, because he is loyal to his state and their pharmaceutical ties, and has business allies who are influential. 

9. What will serve as Trump's "bully pulpit"? Social media of course, with his twitter account, and he can stage events and such. 

10. How are Trump's nominations serving to keep his party happy? The people he nominated have all been conservative, and these people would no doubt back the party agenda because of their stance.

11. Why is it important that Trump get more attention than the policies he is likely to enact? His goal is to win over some of the country so they like him more.

12. Why would Trump meet with high profile candidates like Al Gore, but chose someone else for the job? He wants to appear more likable with his meetings and wants people to think that he is not as bad as people think he is, but end up chosing far right people. 

13. In what ways might the role of the Cabinet change under a Trump presidency? The power might shift back to the Cabinet, whereas in the Obama years :'( more focus was on the White House staff, rather than the Cabinet. 

3.2 Congress and Trump

1. How did the public deal with the attempt (from last week's blog) to shut down the Office of Congressional Ethics? The public was angry and there were a lot of phone calls toward congressmen, as well as tweets.

2. How did sharing control of the government with Democrats actually end up helping Republicans in Congress? Sharing government control allowed the Republicans to be protected from the public, caused more Democrat seats to be lost, and lowered President Obama's approval rating.

3. What does the professor from University of Miami mean when saying that the Republicans were more of a "protest party"? He means that the Republicans have been more about reacting to legislation, rather than creating policies for the people's benefits. They really just want to stop the Democratic Party and the Obama administration.

4. Why is Trump a potential problem for Republicans in Congress? Trump isn't a loyal Republican and does not have purely Republican ideals. He's a wild card and very unpredictable.

5. In what situations will Trump be willing to oppose Republicans in Congress? He'd be willing to oppose Congressional Republicans for popular support. An example of his opposing of Republicans in Congress is when he wants to modify ObamaCare and not take it down immediately. He sees the benefits it gives toward the people of the country and is willing to stick with the program, albeit a different version--his version.

6. How are some Republicans, like the Freedom Caucus, adjusting their stances preparing for a Trump presidency? They are changing their stances and opinions to look more Trump-like and seem like his biggest supporters to prepare for this new presidency.

7.  How will the public view Republicans differently now that they are in charge of lawmaking? The public will hold the Republicans to a higher standard than ever, and there will be lots of scrutiny of policymaking and relationships, especially under this unpredictable new presidency.

3.1 First Day of Coongress

1. What types of policies is the new Congress going to pursue? Why is the Ethics office an obstacle to these? The new Congress with a  Republican majority, plans to reform healthcare system and infrastructure. They know many people will try to lobby these issues, they want to gain control of the Ethics office so they have more leeway in their decisions. It would give them more freedom.

2. What changes did the incoming Congress make to the Office of Congressional Ethics? Under the House Ethics Committee, they want a new Office of Congressional Complaint Review. 

3. How does Republican leadership feel about these changes? Some people think it is a good idea because it strengthens party oversight; but opposers dislike it because it breeds distrust and scandals since the party will have too much power, as they would want to protect the accused people. 

4. Why do current Congressmen dislike the Office of Congressional 

Ethics? A congressman says that it could give lawmakers better protection against the overzealous OCE.

5. What was the role of the Office of Congressional Ethics? The OEC has investigators collect documents and interview people if someone files a complaint about someone in the house, and they find any possible violation of federal laws. The board then votes to decide whether to send it to the Ethics committee or not for further investigation. 

6. Why do Congressmen want to be able to control the spokesperson for this office? Findings must be published so politicians want to be able to control them to save face and not have their reputation tainted if something scandalous were to happen. 

7. What are the likely outcomes of these changes? Scandals will be prevalent because of the freedom they have, compared to the past years. It could also cause more public distrust since the government can hide things better with these changes.