American Government Pre-Test 4

Currently, the United Nations has ______ member states.

192

In 1978 the federal government banned the use of lead in paint, even though health hazards associated with lead have been documented since the early

1920s

When did the American welfare state begin?

1930s

The Department of Defense was created in

1947

When was NATO formed?

1949

When was Medicare established?

1965

The final collapse of the Soviet Union occurred in

1991

The Department of Homeland Security was established in

2002

What important noncontributory program was abolished by Congress in 1996?

Aid to Families with Dependent Children

In the sphere of foreign policy, which of the following is a constitutional power possessed by Congress?

All of the above.

The government intervenes in the economy to bring equity as well as efficiency to the marketplace.

All of the above.

When did Congress stepped in with hundreds of billions in loans to keep Bank of America, Citibank, and other major banks from going bankrupt because they were considered "too big to fail."

During the 2008 Subprime Home Mortgage Crisis.

Which two government programs assist the working poor?

Earned Income Tax Credit and food stamps

Which president warned the nation to beware of the powerful "military-industrial complex" as he was leaving office?

Eisenhower

Around 60 percent of government benefits fraud offenders were women, and the average offender is 36 years old.

False

During the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy centered around the idea of appeasement.

False

Economic subsidies were first introduced in the United States during the 1930s.

False

Food stamps and Medicaid are both forms of contributory programs.

False

Franklin D. Roosevelt established a Job Corps was established to provide valuable vocational training.

False

Government intervention to promote economic equity was initiated during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

False

In 1980, Pres. Jimmy Carter called for a renewed hard line toward the Soviet Union, which he described as the "evil empire."

False

No Child Left Behind created a national test on math and reading that all elementary school children must pass.

False

Pres. Clinton visited the People's Republic of China, the first official contact with the country since the communists seized power in 1949.

False

Social Security provides a vital role for younger people by providing food stamps for those who fall under the poverty line.

False

Terrorism is a new form of warfare that has never been employed before.

False

The "Lesson of Munich" was that totalitarian leaders should be appeased in order to avoid escalating a conflict.

False

The Greek Civil War (1946-1949), was the last conflicts in the Cold War.

False

The Korean War was the most painful and costliest application of the containment doctrine

False

The Korean war ended when the communists were driven by American forces out of the Korean peninsula.

False

The Korean war ended when the communists were driven by American forces out of the Korean penninsula.

False

The US convinced the United Nations of the existence of WMDs in Iraq.

False

The Vietnam War was the last time Congress officially declared war.

False

The earliest form of public welfare in the United States was distributed by the individual states and paid for with property taxes.

False

The first military action in the war on terrorism was the invasion of Iraq.

False

The first national regulatory policy was established during the Great Depression.

False

The formula by which Social Security retirement benefits are calculated is designed to provide every worker with an equal amount of income.

False

The most important institution in formulating and executing American foreign policy is Congress.

False

The poverty rate among women is less than half the rate for men.

False

The rate of child poverty in the US is far lower than the average rate of western European countries.

False

The idea that the government can stimulate a slow economy by increasing public spending or cutting taxes is called

Keynesianism

In 1997, the United States withdrew from (the):

Kyoto Protocol

A program that provides extended medical services to all low-income persons who have already established eligibility through means testing under TANF is

Medicaid

Because there is no provision for long-term care in the United States, ________ has become the de facto program financing nursing home residents when they have exhausted their savings.

Medicaid

Which of the following is an in-kind benefit?

Medicaid

Which of the following is a program of forced savings?

Medicare

Which organization within the White House oversees the vast foreign policy establishment?

National Security Council

What did Prussian military strategist Carl von Clausewitz mean when he called war "politics by other means"?

Nations use force to achieve their foreign policy goals and not simply to demonstrate their capacity for violence

The ____________ created stronger federal requirements for testing and school accountability, requiring that every child in grades 3 through 8 be tested yearly for proficiency in math and reading.

No Child Left Behind Act

During Ford's testing of the Pinto, it was discovered that any impact to the rear-end at a speed over 30 miles per hour would result in a severed fuel tank. Which of the solutions provided by Ford engineers were adopted by Ford?

No solutions were adopted because it was more expensive to eliminate the hazard than to pay those who burn in the car due to a collision.

Which of the following statements about Social Security is FALSE?

Contributors receive benefits in strict proportion to their contribution.

The military services in America ultimately remain under civilian control and are housed in which part of the executive branch?

Department of Defense

Which new governmental department was created in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, to coordinate intelligence coming from multiple sources?

Department of Homeland Security

Which American president proclaimed that the US could no longer act as the free world's "Lone Ranger" and sought to reduce tensions with communist countries.

Richard M. Nixon

Although global warming is a fact proven by both scientists and current events, lack of agreement among policy makers has stymied efforts to develop a comprehensive policy to climate change. Which of the following policy maker's opinion is most likely to stand in the way of necessary legislation?

Scientific proof is inconclusive, exaggerated or "fake".

The National Security Council includes all of the following actors EXCEPT the

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair.

Adam Smith coined the concept of laissez-faire economics which holds that the free market promoted competition, and economic efficiency, but

Smith also indicated that laissez faire capitalism has limits, and that certain areas of the economy are better handled by government than by private firms.

Which of the following is NOT a component of American foreign policy?

Social Security

Which of the following social policies is currently the most costly to the government?

Social Security

Which agreement did Pres. Nixon and Soviet president, Leonid Brezhnev, signed in 1972.

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

______ are government grants of cash or other valuable commodities, such as land, used to promote activities desired by the government.

Subsidies

Which program was designed to help augment the benefits to the aged, blind, and disabled?

Supplemental Security Income

______ were the centerpiece of George W. Bush's economic policy.

Tax cuts

Who saved the banks when the Subprime Home Mortgage Crisis threatened them with collapse?

The American taxpayers.

The two sides in the Cold War were

The United States and the USSR

In terms of receiving benefits of social policies, what distinguishes the elderly from the working poor?

The elderly are more organized and more politically powerful than are the working poor.

What was the primary way federal housing policy changed during the 1980s?

The federal government began providing low-income citizens with housing choice vouchers that provide support in paying rent in the private market.

The Kyoto Protocol was a(n)

agreement setting limits on emissions of greenhouse gases from industrial countries

The UN General Assembly

allocates one vote to each member country, regardless of population size

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly

allocates one vote to each member country, regardless of population size.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act passed by Congress in 1996

allowed states much more discretion in designing their cash-assistance programs to needy families and restricted most legal immigrants from receiving benefits

In 2014, Russia challenged the United States and its European allies by

amassing troops along several portions of the Ukrainian border.

An agreement between the president and another country that has the force of a treaty but does not require the Senate's "advice and consent" is called:

an executive agreement

Dispute arbitration occurs when:

an international disagreement is referred to a neutral third party for resolution

Imagine that Canada is threatening to invade the United States over disputed territory. The United States decides to cede some of the territory to Canada in order to forestall the war from happening. This is an example of

appeasement.

Economist Paul Krugman describes moral hazard

as the situation where "one person makes the decision about how much risk to take, while someone else bears the cost if things go badly."

Poor Americans had strong incentives to establish their eligibility for AFDC in the 1970s because AFDC recipients

automatically received Medicaid and food stamps

After WWII, the United States

became a nation deeply involved in world affairs.

Laissez-faire economics prevailed in the US during the nineteenth century,

but government participation in economic matters was not excluded completely.

The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program is administered:

by the states, with benefit levels varying between states

Foreign aid is an economic ______. Sanctions are an economic ______.

carrot; stick

Deterrence assumes the ______ of the U.S. response and the ______ of an adversary.

certainty; rationality

Which of the following groups receives the least benefits from government's social policies?

children

Which of the following played an important role in caring for the poor during the nineteenth century?

churches and religious organizations

The growing use of executive agreements by presidents over time has had the effect of

diminishing the importance of the Senate's constitutional treaty power

The representation of a government to other foreign governments is called:

diplomacy

Most American presidents have been:

domestic politicians who set out to make their place in history through achievements in domestic policy

The term "soft power" refers to

efforts by one nation to influence the people and governments of other nations by persuasion rather than coercion.

In the United States, the government's right to take private property for public use is referred to as

eminent domain

The "shadow welfare state" refers to

employer-provided benefits like health insurance and pensions.

The goal of Social Security is to

ensure a basic income to all workers once they retire

In "La Cancion del Final del Mundo", Ruben Blades says that if a nuclear war breaks out, the only thing one can do is____________________.

find a partner and dance

The power to raise or lower the tax rate is part of

fiscal policy

Congress has exercise its power to declare war _________ times in American history.

five

The UN Security Council has ______ permanent members and ______ elected members.

five; ten

An economic theory that postulates tax cuts for the wealthy result in increased savings and investment capacity for them that benefit the overall economy is known as

supply-side economics, trickle-down economics, or Reaganomics.

A policy of deterrence is likely to fail against terrorist groups because:

terrorist groups are nonstate actors who may believe that their lack of a fixed geographic location prevents their targets from retaliating militarily

What event marked the major historical turning point in the relationship between the government and the marketplace?

the Great Depression

ISIS stands for

the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

The first time that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty had to be invoked was in response to

the September 11, 2001, attack on the United States

The world's wealthiest nation is

the United States

Preventive war is the idea that

the United States should use military force to attack a threat before that threat attacks the United States.

Which of the following set off a new set of power struggles in Washington, D.C., over control of the intelligence community?

the appointment of a national intelligence "czar"

When the government sets conditions on companies seeking to sell goods or services to government agencies it is called

the contracting power

What was the Marshall Plan?

the economic recovery package of aid from the United States to western Europe after World War II

What event brought federal attention to elementary school education?

the fear that the Soviets were winning the Cold War through better technology

The GI Bill of Rights of 1944 and the National Defense Education Act were examples of:

the federal government's approach to education policy during the 1940s and 1950s

The Monroe Doctrine refers to:

the idea that foreign powers should not meddle in the Western Hemisphere

What was the primary goal of American foreign policy in the nineteenth century?

the maintenance of security based on geographic isolationism

Which of the following is the most important actor in the foreign policy establishment?

the president

The "individual mandate" refers to:

the requirement that uninsured individuals purchase health insurance

The Nuclear Triad refers to

the three ways in which America's nuclear weapons are deployed: land-based missiles; submarine missiles; and bombers.

What is the main job of the director of national intelligence?

to collate and coordinate intelligence coming in from multiple sources and to report this to the president

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is a(n)

trade treaty between Mexico, Canada, and the United States designed to lower and eliminate tariffs.

The Subprime Home Mortgage Crisis

triggered the near collapse of the US financial sector in 2008.

A homeowner who owes more on the mortgage than the mortgaged property is worth is referred to as owning a home that is

underwater or upside-down

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

was amended on March 2018, when the Senate passed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act exempting dozens of U.S. banks from the Dodd-Frank Act's banking regulations.

In 1977 Congress initiated a process of deregulation by passing the Airlines Deregulation Act, which eliminated the requirement that airlines provide service to small-sized cities and gave them authority to set ticket prices,

which promoted competition between airlines, increased routes between large-sized cities, and resulted in cheaper airfares on those routes.

The United States moved away from the policy of isolationism

with the decision to enter World War I.

The term "feminization of poverty" refers to the fact that

women are more likely to be poor than men.

If the United States were to provide millions of dollars in grants to pay the medical and legal expenses incurred by individuals who have been the victims of political retaliation in their own countries, doing so

would increase the United States' "soft power."

Why has Congress become a major foreign policy maker since World War II?

Congress is regularly called upon to approve financing of foreign policies.

The individual mandate requires uninsured individuals to purchase health insurance.

True

The invasion of Afghanistan marked the start of what became the longest war in US history.

True

The military industrial complex is the result of governmental contracting.

True

The periodic adjustment of benefits or wages that takes into account the increased cost of living is called indexing.

True

The policy goal of alleviating poverty has been controversial in American society.

True

The poverty line is the minimum amount of money a person needs to fulfill the necessities of life, like shelter and food.

True

The poverty rate among African Americans and Hispanics is more than double the rate for non-Latino Whites.

True

The public exerts influence on war policy, but it is not informed or interested enough to affect national security policies.

True

The top employers of Americans enrolled in welfare programs were Walmart and McDonald's—companies that have historically paid their workers low wages.

True

Trade is a source of both conflict and cooperation as nations compete for economic advantages, including access to natural resources.

True

United States intelligence (FBI and CIA) was not prepared for a terrorist war when it was attacked on 9/11.

True

Vietnam guerrilla tactics, where there are no front lines and few set battles, outmatched the American forces.

True

When terrorists attacked the US in 2001, or Paris in 2015, they were not seeking to take over the US or France.

True

When the US was attacked on 9/11, it was not focused on terrorist activity and its military units had few linguists who spoke the terrorists' languages.

True

Pharmaceutical firms have fostered relationships with the FDA that have served their interests. In the 1990s, drug companies convinced the FDA to streamline its drug-safety reviews in order to speed the marketing of new drugs.

Vioxx, one of those fast-tracked drugs, had to be taken off the market in 2004 when it was found to cause strokes and heart attacks.

Which of the following groups of Americans tend to benefit the most from free trade?

Consumers

The two largest recipients of military assistance from the United States are

Israel and Egypt

How did deregulation of the mortgage industry in 1999 help produce the housing crisis of 2007 and 2008?

It allowed many new mortgage companies to form, offering "predatory" loans that people could not afford to repay.

What is the role of the State Department in American foreign policy?

It carries out routine diplomatic activities.

How did the Great Depression change American attitudes about welfare?

It revealed that poverty could be caused by a flawed economic system, not just by personal irresponsibility.

During the period of the New Deal, ________ theory that a government could boost employment by stimulating demand became quite influential.

John Maynard Keynes's

How does the balance of control over foreign policy between Congress and the president differ from the intentions of the framers of the Constitution?

The president has far more authority and control now than what the framers intended.

Which statement best describes Russian and American goals in the Syrian civil war?

While Russian forces entered the Syrian civil war to support the Assad regime, the United States was attempting to oust the Assad regime

A way to reduce the disparities in wealth between the rich and poor is called a(n)

a policy of redistribution

If a new tax on luxury goods such as sports cars, boats, and helicopters were passed in order to reduce the disparities between the highest and lowest income brackets, we would refer to this as:

a policy of redistribution

The fact that taxpayers can deduct the amount they paid in interest on a home mortgage from the income they report on their tax returns is an example of

a tax expenditure

The North American Free Trade Agreement is:

a trade treaty between Mexico, Canada, and the United States designed to lower and eliminate tariffs

All important issues must receive ________ in order to pass through the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

a two-thirds-majority vote

Amnesty International is a(n)

interest group that works to protect human rights.

The United States withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol because:

it would be too harmful to American national economic interests

During the 1990s, the importance of the International Monetary Fund increased due to

its efforts to reform communist countries and bring them more fully into the global capitalist economy

The best way for Federal Reserve Board officials to help boost a stagnant economy is to

lower interest rates so that banks can provide more loans at cheaper rates to individuals and businesses.

Part of the reason welfare programs became so unpopular was that:

many Americans came to believe welfare recipients did not want to work

In 2007 and 2008, the government faced a housing crisis caused by:

millions of foreclosures due to unethical and risky lending prices by banks.

In Japan most of the population shares a similar common heritage and the population shares a common political authority that is recognized by other states. We would say Japan is a(n)

nation-state

The United States spends:

nearly as much on its military each year as the rest of the world combined

Deterrence Policy is based

on the concept of mutually assured destruction

In foreign policy, the Bush Doctrine refers to:

preemptive war

In 2003, Congress and President George W. Bush added what new benefit to Medicare?

prescription drugs

The Bush administration's "global war on terror" and the war in Iraq were expressions of

preventive war.

The central thrust of federal housing policy has been to:

promote homeownership

The fact that the United States remains silent in the face of human rights violations by countries like Saudi Arabia illustrates that:

promoting human rights is less important to American foreign policy than security concerns and economic interests

The World Bank's chief mission is to

provide development aid to poor countries

An officially expressed purpose or goal backed by a sanction is a

public policy

Charter schools are best described as:

public schools that are free to design special curricula

In 1996, President Clinton signed a law reforming the welfare system. This law

put time limits on how long a person could receive government aid.

A cost-of-living adjustment is based on the

rate of inflation

Supply-side economics is the idea that

reducing the marginal rate of taxation will promote higher levels of work and investment.

The most important task of the Senate in foreign policy is:

reviewing and approving treaties

A ______ nation is one with unstable leadership, whose polices are driven by ideology rather than by economic or human costs and benefits.

rogue

Which official is not a major actor in American foreign policy?

secretary of Veterans Affairs

The two primary goals of American foreign policy are

security and prosperity

In the sphere of foreign policy, which of the following is NOT a constitutional power possessed by Congress?

signing executive agreements

Which of the following groups are more than twice as likely as other Americans to be below the poverty line?

single mothers

American foreign aid

sometimes has a humanitarian purpose, but more often is used to promote security interest or economic concerns.

There are considerable disparities in benefits from state to state in noncontributory programs because:

state governments are given grants-in-aid from the federal government to establish and operate their own programs rather than having one, uniform national program

If government land is leased or sold for oil and coal exploration at lower-than-market rates, it is an example of a(n)

subsidy

Because paying consumers _________ per death would cost Ford approximately $49.5 million while making the changes to the production line would cost $137.5 million, Ford decided that it was cheaper to market the car as it was and pay for the fatalities.

$200,000

Who stated that ""...the free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get"

Barack Obama

Which of the following would have been a violation of the Monroe Doctrine in the nineteenth century?

Britain sending military forces to Canada and Cuba in an attempt to overthrow those country's existing regimes

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in 1948 by the United States,

Canada, and most of Western Europe.

Why is it difficult to lobby for the interests of poor children?

Children cannot vote

Which group is the most likely to be poor?

Children under 18

Since the welfare reforms of 1996, what is the primary reason for receiving federal cash assistance if one is nonworking and able-bodied?

The recipient is caring for children.

Which of the following is true about non-state actors?

They have become a much bigger threat since the 1990s than they were prior to then.

What was the primary problem with private charities before the development of the welfare state?

They would make subjective decisions on who was deserving or undeserving of aid.

What is the chief task of the National Security Council?

To coordinate intelligence activities and prepare the president's daily intelligence briefing

The United States adopted strategies of multilateralism during the struggles of the Cold War.

True

The United States is the only advanced industrial nation without universal access to health care.

True

The United States spends nearly as much on its military each year as the rest of the world combined.

True

The concept of "preemptive action" was not new. What was new in Bush's doctrine, was its embrace of a first-strike option, before a threat became imminent.

True

The elderly and the middle class receive the largest share of benefits from social policies.

True

The federal government did not become actively involved in elementary education policy until the 1950s.

True

Much of President Trump's foreign policy initiatives, including the use of tariff barriers, have been targeted at ________, one of the world's great military powers.

China

President ________ vowed "to end welfare as we know it."

Clinton

When two sides of an international conflict possess such enormous arsenals of nuclear missiles that each has the ability to destroy the other in the event of war, it is called

"mutually assured destruction."

Following World War II, ________ brought together a wide range of nations for regular negotiations designed to reduce barriers to trade.

GATT

Which president established preemption as the centerpiece of his foreign policy?

George W. Bush

What eighteenth-century politician warned Americans against too much involvement with foreign nations?

George Washington

The Axis alliance during World War II consisted of

Germany, Japan, and Italy

Which statement is the key argument of John Maynard Keynes?

Government can pull an economy out of a recession by stimulating demand and creating a cycle of increased production and jobs.

The health care reform bill (OBAMACARE) passed by Congress in 2010 prohibits insurers from denying benefits for preexisting conditions.

True

Which of the following statements about who really makes American foreign policy is FALSE?

The influence or power of the president varies depending on which particular country or group of countries the United States is dealing with.

In a crisis, which of the following has the greatest foreign policy influence?

The president

51 percent of adults enrolled in SNAP work at least 35 hours a week for nearly the whole year.

True

Adam Smith argued that government is also needed to impose order on private transactions by regulating banking, currency, and contracts.

True

America's culture of individualism emphasizes that public assistance should be available only to those who can prove they can't make it on their own.

True

American foreign policy is shaped by the president, Congress, and private interests.

True

Before WWII, except within its own hemisphere, the US was a mostly concerned with its internal development.

True

Children and the working poor receive the fewest benefits from government social policies.

True

Cooperation between the United States and the USSR ended with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979

True

Despite strong opposition from France, Germany, and Russia, Bush with the support of British troops ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

True

Deterrence Policy is based on the concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD).

True

Economic equity occurs when an economic transaction is fair to each party.

True

Government administrative costs account for 10 percent of federal spending in food stamps and 5 percent on Medicaid.

True

Government allows monopolies in industries, such as oil and automobiles, where the capital costs are so high that small firms cannot compete.

True

If smoking continues at the current rate among U.S. youth, 5.6 million of today's Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about 1 in 13 Americans, aged 17 years or younger, who are alive today.

True

In 1789 Congress gave a boost to the nation's shipping industry by imposing a tariff on goods brough into the US on foreign ships.

True

In 2002 a new agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created to coordinate domestic antiterrorism efforts.

True

In nearly all military initiatives, the American public have supported the action at the outset.

True

Lyndon B. Johnson's administration enacted the largest set of antipoverty programs in the nation's history.

True

Pres. Eisenhower warned Americans against the "unwarranted influence" and "misplaced power" of what he called "the military-industrial complex."

True

Republicans tend to draw on the ideas of laissez-faire economics as they argue for significant reductions in nonmilitary spending; Democrats stress the importance of government regulation in promoting a strong economy.

True

Tax expenditures are programs where the government provides a tax deduction for spending on health insurance and other benefits by both employers and employees.

True

The "Lesson of Vietnam" was that there were limits to US ability to assert its will in the world.

True

The American government uses diplomacy, military force, and money to achieve its goals.

True

The Domino Theory argues that a political event in one country will cause similar events in neighboring countries

True

The G.I. Bill allowed veterans returning from World War II to attend college.

True

The Great Depression altered American attitudes about the causes of and responsibility for poverty.

True

The Soviet Bloc was created when Soviet backed communists seized power in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and other European nations.

True

The US accounts for approximately 35 percent of all military spending worldwide.

True

The US armed forces are structured to be capable of fighting two medium-size wars simultaneously.

True

The US has not fought a conventional war since WWII; and it is most likely that it lacks at this time the capability to do so.

True

The US relies on an all-volunteer military force, that is second to none in its destructive power.

True

The most important international organization for promoting trade is the

World Trade Organization (WTO)

Social Security is a good example of:

a contributory program

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was

a free-trade agreement between the United States and 11 Pacific-rim nations

What was the key to American security during the nineteenth century?

geographic isolation

With respect to government public welfare assistance, by 1933 the question was

how generous or restrictive the system was going to be.

Congress for the first time authorized the issuance of government bonds and the use of public lands

in 1862 to build the transcontinental railroad.

When did the Cold War begin?

in the 1940s, soon after World War II

In 2015, the United States and Iran signed an agreement

in which the Iranians pledged not to build nuclear weapons in exchange for the United States lifting its economic sanctions against Iran

Starting in 2014, a provision in the Affordable Care Act

increased Medicare taxes for households earning more than $250,000 a year by 0.9 percent.

The main change in welfare policies since 1996 is:

increased use of non-cash assistance