Unit Five:The Executive Branch

The Executive Branch:Structure Review

President & Vice President Main Function: Lead

Executive Branch

Regulatory AgenciesMain Function: Enforce laws

and regulations

CabinetMain Function:

Advisors to the President

Think About It…

• Interpret each of the following quotes.

• What message can be gleaned from each quote?

• What seem to be the Presidents attitudes’ toward their jobs?

33rd President, 1945-53

"I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have the sense to

do without my persuading them. That's all the powers of the

President amount to."

"I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have the sense to

do without my persuading them. That's all the powers of the

President amount to."

35th President, 1961-1963National television address during the Cuban

Missile Crisis, October 1962

"No easy problem ever comes to the President of the

United States. If they are easy to solve,

somebody else has solved them."

"No easy problem ever comes to the President of the

United States. If they are easy to solve,

somebody else has solved them."

36th President, 1963-69

"The presidency has made every man who occupied it,

no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no

matter how big, not big enough for its demands."

"The presidency has made every man who occupied it,

no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no

matter how big, not big enough for its demands."

37th President, 1969-1974In the aftermath of the Watergate

scandal, President Nixon departs the White House after his resignation,

August, 1974

"Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the

manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned

executive powers is not subject to questioning by

another branch of government."

"Under the doctrine of the separation of powers, the

manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned

executive powers is not subject to questioning by

another branch of government."

The President

Current: Barack Obama

Elected: 2008

Terms: 1

Party: Democratic

The PresidentThe President

performs many roles and functions within the Executive Branch

• Wears Many Hats

The President’s Roles• Chief of State• Chief Executive• Chief

Administrator• Chief Diplomat• Commander in

Chief

• Chief Legislator• Party Chief• Chief Citizen• Economic

Leader• Judicial Leader

Are the roles of a Republican or

Democratic President the same?

Chief of State• Ceremonial head of government• Symbol of the nation• Reigns and rules• Which nations do we currently not

“recognize?”• Does this change from presidency to

presidency?

Chief Executive• Execute the tasks of Congress and

the nation• Get it done• Job approval

Chief Administrator• Heads an administration that employs

more than 2.7 million civilians and spends more than $2 trillion a year.

• Numerous federal agencies and commissions

Chief Diplomat• Main architect of American foreign

policy• Nation’s spokesperson to the world• Secretary of State

Commander in Chief• Civilian leading the nation’s armed forces• 1.4+ million men and women in uniform

and the nation’s entire military arsenal• Secretary of Defense

Chief Legislator• Architect of public policy and public policy

matters• Sets Congressional agenda• Initiates, suggests, requests, insists, and

sometimes demands legislation• State of the Union• Check and balance of Congress

Chief of Party• Acknowledged leader of the political party• Leads party and its members• If president is successful, ride the coattails.• If the president is not perceived as successful,

run the opposite direction or ignore him/her

Chief Citizen• Representative of all the people (Chief of

State)• Represent the public interest rather than

private / interest groups • Moral compass of nation• Votes and follows the rules

Economic Leader

• Monitor and make adjustments to help the nation’s economic

• Philosophical differences between political parties?

• Secretary of Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Labor, Energy, etc.

Judicial Leader

• Set the judicial enforcements of the laws of Congress

• Appointments of federal court judges up to the Supreme Court

• Attorney General

What do you think is the most important

role the President has?

The President: Qualifications and Term of Office

• Article II of the Constitution: the president must be – A natural born citizen of US– At least 35 years old– A resident of the US for 14 years before office

• Informal Requirements: government experience, education, money, character

• The 22nd Amendment in 1951 set 2 4-year term limit on presidency

The President’s Term(s)

•Presidents may serve two 4-Year Terms• A maximum of 10 years total

•Until 1951, the Constitution placed no limit on the number of terms a President might serve. • Several Presidents, beginning with George

Washington, refused to seek more than two terms.• Soon the ‘No Third Term’ tradition became an

unwritten rule.

• The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other Emolument from the United States,or any of them.

The President’s Salary

Originally, the President’s salary was $25,000 per year. The President’s current salary is $400,000 plus a $50,000 taxable expense account per year. The President also receives $120,000 nontaxable allowance for travel and entertainment, and living accommodations in two residences- the White House and Camp David.

The President’s Salary

Presidential Succession and the Vice President

Who’s in Line?•Not originally in the Constitution

•25th Amendment• Vice President

•Speaker of the House

•President Pro Tempore of the Senate

•Secretary of Treasury

•Secretary of Defense

•Attorney General

Who’s in Line?Everyone in the

Presidential Succession may never all be in the same room at the same time. During the Annual

State of the Union Address, when everyone

in Government meets, there is always someone

in the chain who is hidden away in a secret

location.

Presidential Succession Act of 1947•Determined the list followed by 14 heads of Cabinet

Departments in the order that they were created by Congress.

•Was There a reason they went in that order?

Presidential Disability•Before the 25th Amendment no provisions for Presidential Disability.

•Or who was to make that decision.

The Vice Presidency•“ I am Vice President. In this I am nothing, but I may be everything.” –John Adams

•1st Vice President

Importance of the Office•Two Formal Duties:• Preside over the Senate• Help Decide the question of Presidential Disability

• “President in Waiting.”

Balance the Ticket•How a Vice President is chosen

•Running mate chosen to strengthen Presidential election chances• Ideological• Racial• Geographic• Gender

Vice Presidential Vacancy•18 times•25th Amendment in 1967• President nominates a replacement• Confirmed by Congress

Spiro Agnew Gerald Ford Gerald Ford Nelson Rockefeler