Billion Dollar Congress

Examples of Billion Dollar Congress in the following topics:

• Republican Reform Under Harrison

  • Civil service reform, pension reform, and the "Billion Dollar Congress" characterized the Harrison administration's Republican reforms.
  • Congress, referred to by some critics as the "Billion Dollar Congress," was a meeting of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government that met in Washington, D.C., from March 4, 1889, to March 4, 1891, during the first two years of the administration of President Benjamin Harrison.
  • The 51st Congress was criticized as the "Billion Dollar Congress'" for its lavish spending, and for this reason, it incited drastic reversals in public support that led to Cleveland's reelection in 1892 .
  • The 51st Congress also was responsible for passing the Land Revision Act of 1891, which created the national forests.
  • In this cartoon from Puck, Benjamin Harrison and the "Billion Dollar Congress" are portrayed as wasting the surplus.

• Federal Income Tax Rates

  • The tax rate was 3 percent of all incomes over $800 ($20,693 in 2011 dollars).
  • In 1894, Democrats in Congress passed the Wilson-Gorman tariff, which imposed the first peacetime income tax.
  • The rate was 2 percent on income over $4,000 ($107,446.15 in 2011 dollars).
  • They ruled that it simply prevented the courts from taking the power of income taxation from Congress.
  • In fiscal year 1918, annual internal revenue collections for the first time passed the billion-dollar mark, rising to 5.4 billion by 1920.

• The Nixon Shock

  • Many holders of the U.S. dollar lost faith in the U.S. government's ability to improve the economy and maintain the value of the dollar.
  • Due to both the excess printed dollars and the negative U.S. trade balance, other nations began demanding fulfillment of America's "promise to pay" – that is, the redemption of their dollars in exchange for gold.
  • In the first six months of 1971, $22 billion in assets left the United States.
  • Switzerland redeemed $50 million in paper dollars for gold in July of the same year.
  • On August 5, 1971, Congress released a report recommending devaluation of the dollar in an effort to protect the dollar against "foreign price-gougers. " Meanwhile, European countries began leaving the Bretton Woods international financial system, which had based the value of foreign currencies on the value of the gold-backed dollar.

• Banking and Finance Reform

  • On March 9, Roosevelt sent to Congress the Emergency Banking Act, drafted in large part by Hoover's top advisors.
  • Their deposits totalled $3.6 billion; depositors lost a total of $540 million, and eventually received on average 85 cents on the dollar for their deposits.
  • As the banks reopened, billions of dollars in hoarded currency and gold flowed back into the banks within a month, thus stabilizing the banking system.
  • Under the Gold Standard, dollars were convertible to gold at a fixed exchange rate.
  • The dollar was allowed to float freely on foreign exchange markets with no guaranteed price in gold.

• The Fed as a Check Clearer

  • Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, respectively; the powers and duties of these branches are further defined by acts of Congress, including the creation of executive departments and courts inferior to the Supreme Court.
  • By creating the Fed, Congress intended to eliminate the severe financial crises that had periodically swept the nation, especially the sort of financial panic that occurred in 1907.
  • To address these problems, Congress gave the Federal Reserve System the authority to establish a nationwide check-clearing system.

• The Election Year Budget

  • Congress which recommends funding levels for the next fiscal year, beginning October 1.
  • However, Congress is the body required by law to pass a budget annually and to submit the budget passed by both houses to the President for signature.
  • Instead, the budget request was projected to reduce government deficits by 1.1 trillion dollars over the next ten years.
  • His proposal called for 74 billion in additional discretionary spending above the sequestration caps set in place.
  • The budget also includes $478 billion in additional infrastructure spending over the next six years, which would pay for surface transportation improvements such as roads and bridges.

• Debt and the Stock Market Plunge

  • The ultimate cost of the Savings and Loan crisis is estimated to have been around 150 billion dollars, about 125 billion of which was directly subsidized by the U.S. government.
  • John Kenneth Galbraith called the Saving and Loans crisis "the largest and costliest venture in public misfeasance, malfeasance and larceny of all time. " In order to compensate for these new federal budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily, both domestically and abroad, raising the national debt from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion.
  • However, Congress was reluctant to follow Reagan's proposed cuts in domestic programs.
  • Tax breaks and increased military spending resulted in an increase of the national budget deficit, which influenced Reagan and Congress to approve two tax increases that aimed to preserve funding for Social Security.

• Financial Chaos and Paper Money

  • Under the Articles of Confederation, the central government's power was kept quite limited: the Confederation Congress could make decisions, but lacked the power to enforce them.
  • Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was denied any powers of taxation and could only request money from the state legislatures.
  • States often failed to meet these requests in full, leaving both Congress and the Continental Army chronically short of funds.
  • As more money was printed by Congress, the continental dollars depreciated, and currency depreciation became rampant.
  • Jay and the Congress responded in May by requesting $45 million from State legislatures.

• The Transition to Peacetime

  • Following the Republican takeover of Congress in the 1946 elections, President Truman was compelled to reduce taxes and curb government interference in the economy.
  • Short-term credit went up from $8.4 billion in 1946 to $45.6 billion in 1958.
  • As a result of the postwar economic boom, 60% of the American population had attained a "middle-class" standard of living by the mid-50s (defined as incomes of $3,000 to $10,000 in constant dollars), compared with only 31% in the last year of prosperity before the onset of the Great Depression.
  • In 1947, 60% of black families lived below the poverty level (defined in one study as below $3000 in 1968 dollars), compared with 23% of white families.
  • GDP annual pattern and long-term trend, 1920–40, in billions of constant dollars.

• Immigration Reform

  • Proponents of greater immigration enforcement argue that illegal immigrants cost taxpayers an estimated $338.3 billion dollars.
  • Citing Congress' failure to enforce U.S. immigration laws, the state of Arizona confronted reform.
  • In 2009, services provided to illegal immigrants, including incarceration, cost the state of Arizona an estimated $2.7 billion.
  • Congress has left this issue untouched as many feared such a vote could threaten their chances at reelection.