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.

• The Environment

  • In a speech on September 29, 2000 in Saginaw, Michigan, Bush pledged to commit two billion dollars to the funding of clean coal technology research.
  • In the same speech, he also promised to work with Congress, environmental groups, and the energy industry to require a reduction of the emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury, and carbon dioxide into the environment within a "reasonable period of time."
  • The goal of the initiative was to reduce the sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury emissions of power plants over the course of 15 years, while saving consumers millions of dollars.
  • Evidence suggests that the administration's decision to delay the report's release was because of its potential to affect Congress's upcoming final vote on an energy bill six years in the making, which turned a blind eye to fuel economy regulations.

• 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.

• 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.

• Union Finances

  • The Morrill Tariff and the Homestead Act were among the far-reaching changes enacted by Congress in this period to fulfill the Republican vision of an industrial nation.
  • The United States required more than three billion dollars to pay for the immense armies and fleets raised to fight the Civil War and more than $400 million in 1862 alone.

• Gridlock in Government

  • The deficit had reached a high of $220 billion in 1990.
  • He began an effort to persuade the Democratic controlled Congress to act on the budget.
  • Angered Republican congressmen defeated Bush's proposal which would enact spending cuts and tax increases that would reduce the deficit by $500 billion over five years.
  • This chart illustrates the composition of the United States Senate during the 101st Congress.
  • Congress

• The Wilson Administration

  • Many of Wilson’s first-term efforts involved persuading a Democratic Congress to pass progressive economic reforms.
  • In late 1913, Wilson secured passage of the Federal Reserve Act, an Act of Congress that created the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the U.S., and granted it the legal authority to issue currency.
  • In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war.
  • On the home front in 1917, he began the first U.S. draft since the American Civil War, borrowed billions of dollars in funding through the newly established Federal Reserve Bank and Liberty Bonds, set up the War Industries Board, promoted labor union cooperation, supervised agriculture and food production through the Lever Act, took control of the railroads, and suppressed anti-war movements.