Partisan motivations - When it's one chamber versus the president.

There will always be

fighting, even when both are in the same party.

Institutional movement - This is caused because Congress and President often relay on
one another to do each others job. Congress specifically is always overstepping
boundaries. The president must also work with existing bureaucracy-can't just make an
order and hand it to congress.

Laws vs. Executive Orders - Executive Orders do have the force of law but have much
more limited jurisdiction. EOs can only govern executive branch activities, for example,
mandating federal agencies or regulating the status of gays in the military. The
president could not raise or cut taxes through executive orders or directly regulate the
activities of the American public at large the way Congress can. The president can issue
executive orders but these can't get funded easily since congress still has power over
treasury.

Legacy - When a new president eliminates orders from previous president and makes
new (sometimes better) ones. For example, FDR wrote eleven new orders in 80 days
when he first became president and they helped re-shaped government and bring back
recovery to business and agriculture.

Maturity of Congress - No legacies (profound laws) can get issued anymore since
congress lacks maturity. Members often get jealous when others get attention from
president. Also, everyone wants something different so it's hard to anyone in congress
to agree with each other.

Competence of Congress - The War Powers Act of 1973 provides that the U.S.
President can send U.S. Armed Forces into action abroad only by declaration of war by
Congress, "statutory authorization," or in case of "a national emergency created by
attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces."
President must notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military
action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days if not approved
by Congress. Even with this law trying to give the president power Congress still has the
ability to interfere. However, the president doesn't feel threatened by this power of
Congress since president is still head of military.

Key veto player - Article I, section 7 of the Constitution grants the President the
authority to veto legislation passed by Congress. This authority is one of the most
significant tools the President can employ to prevent the passage of legislation. Has ten
days to decide, otherwise becomes law.
Regular veto-qualified negative veto. 2/3 Congress can override it though
pocket veto- occurs when a bill fails to become law because the president does not sign
the bill and cannot return the bill to Congress within a 10-day period because Congress
is not in session
Primary agenda setter - State of the Union- Where the president talks about the plans
for the new year and the current issues. After hearing all the issues, congress feels like
they have to do something about them.

Policy- Policies change with each new president

legislative affairs- President will meet with congress on matters of conflict, like
education. This makes congress feel wanted, especially those in the House since they
aren't in Senate. They also feel honored because members think President has all these
powers, but he/she actually does not.

Executive Orders-mentioned above

Partisan leader- President are leaders of their party, not speaker/majority leader.

Power - The president does not have much power actually, people only think he/she
does because of the "power of the signature." What he/she says also is not very
important, but what gets people is the way he/she says things-must use emotion.

Persuading congress - Persuading congress can be challenging:

Elections- Congress is all about partisanship so it is difficult to persuade congress

members of opposite parties for policy changes and such.

Incentives- few incentives because congress is pretty much where laws are made and if
they don't like something the president proposes then they can vote it out with 2/3's
vote.

Length of term- Senators have 6 year terms, thus longer then presidents, so they can
slow decisions down until it's close to president or their re-election. Because of long
term they are also not affected by public opinion.

Popular Mood- Public wants to know what's going on inside of DC

Bully Pulpit - Coined by Theodore Roosevelt, who referred to the White House as a
"bully pulpit", by which he meant a terrific platform from which to advocate an agenda;
an opportunity to speak out and be listened to. This is seen a lot in the media because
whenever the president is in the media, people listen, which then takes attention away
from congress.

Administration - The core strategy is to win policy goals by statute (written law passed
by a legislative body). Presidents use EO's to achieve objectives not authorized by
Congress. An example is when Kennedy created the Peace Corps. He created this
agency using an EO and by the time Congress got around to reviewing it the Peace
Corps had employed 300+ members and 600+ volunteers in 8 countries.
"Go-it-alone" strategy - Coined by Clinton. He pressed the limits of his authority, signed
EOs and used unilateral means (focusing on ones self or group and not the others) to
obtain policy priorities when Congress fail(ed) to embrace them

Veto - The president will use the power of the veto to get what he/she wants. However,
if they actually have to veto a bill, it shows weakness because it means that Congress
forced this decision on the President.

Line-Item Veto - Authorizes a chief executive to reject particular provisions of a bill

enacted by a legislature without vetoing the entire bill. To much power!

Signing Statements - a written comment issued by a President at the time of signing

legislation. They comment on the bill signed, saying that it is good legislation or meets
some pressing needs. However, today more controversial statements involve claims by
presidents that they believe some part of the legislation is unconstitutional and therefore
they intend to ignore it or to implement it only in ways they believe is constitutional.
Mainly seen with Bush and Obama.

Evolution - What gave the President more power over the years is the size of his/her
workforce. However, the speed of things getting done decreased since the increase in
work force, specifically in Congress. because bills take forever to get voted on and such
that's why President just uses Executive Orders now to get what he or she wants