Ugh Congress

1. democrats had 16 senate majority and a 79 seat house edge
2. republicans controlled the house while democrats controlled the senate
3. the senate controlls whoever is appointed by the president into office. they must approve whoever is sent to them before they get in.
4. this past election, and in 2014
5. Boehner had too good of a relationship with obama and too many liberal policies were passed
6. Obamacare
7. the Tea Part caucus wanted to organize a 24 members that saw themselves as more than conservative. and the House Freedom Caucus was just republicans who werent satisfied with the current agenda.
8. since there was a huge conservative surge on capitol hill, the moderate republicans have all but dissappeared. even the moderate democrats are going away. this is mostly due to jerrymandering.
9. Neither sides want another government shutdown or major fight leading up to the presidential election.

electoral college questions

1. people in states vote and the person who receives more votes gets more electoral votes in the electoral college
2. they are voting for their electors to choose who to cast their vote for in the college
3. on december 19
4. it focuses on competitve states, small states get over-represented, popular vote doesnt matter, swing states dominate.
5. a fine
6. because elecotrs like to keep their jobs and they are usually pretty hardcore.
7. they did not want the president to be chosen by the people alone
8. they said that not just white men should vote and changed the voter base
9. swing states usually swing with the nation, there arent contested nationwide recounts, and it ensures regional balance
10. most people dont know about it, but most would perfer a different system than what is in place.
11. a state will pledge all its electors not to its state winner but to the victor in the national popular vote — but only if states controlling 270 or more electoral votes have agreed to do the same. If they do, and everything works as planned, then whoever wins the popular vote will necessarily win the electoral vote too.
12. republican states dont want this

do interest groups make you sad?

1. the american heart association, the american diabetes association, and the centers of disease control and prevention.
2. they lobby against drink regulations proposed by the government
3. they funded harvard research studies that showed saturated fat and cholesterol as the reasons for heart disease and played down other studies that linked sugar to heart disease
4. they are trying to keep out studies linking soda to obesity
5. they were trying to make it more difficult to rent drivers using uber and lyft, and of course uber and lyft did not approve.
6. 900000 dollars combined
7. the democrats
8. this would hurt people who have no option but to drive taxis since the alternatives are so much cheaper.
9. I DONT WANT TO PAY FOR A SAN ANTONIO NEWSPAPER