The President’s Program1. Once elected, a president (helped by aides) must put together a program that helps him appoint hundreds of posts, make a State of the Union address, form a complicated budget, and do other things that are duties of the president.
2. To develop policies quickly, a president will draw on interest groups (have specific plans and ideas but have narrow views), aides and campaign advisors (will test new ideas but are inexperienced), federal bureaus and agencies(know what’s feasible in terms of gov’t realities but promote own agencies, not others), and outside, academic, and other specialists and experts (have many good ideas but don’t know the details or what is feasible).
i. A president can develop a program by having a policy on almost everything OR simply focus on three or four broad subjects and leave the rest to subordinates.
ii. A president also has to “leak” his ideas out to the public (let them know unofficially) to see if they like them, and if they do, THEN he can commit himself to them.
3. A president has other constraints: lack of time (he has so much to do, so many people to see him, and so many jobs), an unexpected crisis (war, depression, attacks… usually unexpected), and the fact that federal gov’t and most federal programs and the federal budget can only be changed marginally.
i. The result of these constraints is that the president normally has to be selective about what he wants and get the most “return” out of his choices.
ii. Recently, the president has had to devote his time to two key issues: the economy and foreign affairs, and what he devotes other time to depends on his own beliefs and opinions.
4. Almost every president since Herbert Hoover has tried to re-arrange the executive branch of gov’t because the number of agencies that reported to them and the apparently messy manner in which they have grown has appalled them.
i. Reorganization often solves many problems at once and is much better at getting things done than simply abolishing a program or passing a new law, and it has been done numerous times.
ii. The president can reorganize his White House staff any time he wishes, but to reorganize the Executive Office or other executive agencies, he must first consult Congress.
a. This usually meant showing Congress a reorganization plan that would take effect unless the House or Senate passed, within 60 days, a legislative veto that rejected it.
b. Today, that’s unconstitutional, and reorganization is done through passing a law.
iii. There have been many fights over reorganization, since there have been differing beliefs over what agency should do what and what department should be in charge of what other one.
a. Sometimes, Congressmen don’t like who will head a new agency, or how a new agency will operate, and will fight against its creation.
iv. Outsiders may think that the American president is very powerful, but actual presidents have often lamented on how “helpless” that position is; the presidency is a very hard and stressful job, but past presidents have still used it to wield great power, control, and influence.
