Deck 12: Would President Barack Obama Reverse the Cycle of History

Question 1

A federal government bi-partisan effort established the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 and the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The intent of this legislations was to restore stability to the financial system by allowing the Treasury Department

A) to sell assets from banks.
B) to buy or insure troubled assets from banks to decrease loans and credit to consumers and businesses.
C) None of the answers are correct.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 includes

A) expansion of funds for primary care clinics in medically underserved areas.
B) prevention of abuses by private insurance companies.
C) utilization of evidence-based medicine.
D) All of these are correct.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The recession was also caused and worsened by bankers' greed. Some banks began "bundling" mortgages into new financial products called mortgage backed securities or derivatives.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The Great Recession disproportionally harmed

A) poor people.
B) younger workers.
C) the recently unemployed.
D) white men.

Question 5

After winning many governorships in 2010, Republicans launched "the most systematic and pervasive effort to discourage voting in almost a century" in 19 states.

Question 6

Obama believed that the United States had developed an unsustainable foreign policy due to its

A) many open-ended commitments around the globe.
B) many isolationist policies.
C) many pacifist policies.
D) position on torture.

Question 7

The economic downturn went through a period of several years as demonstrated by

A) the recovery from the stock-market crash of 2001 into 2007 was a relatively shallow one.
B) onset of a recession in December 2007 and declared by spring 2009 to be the worst one since the Great Depression.
C) Both of the answers are correct.
D) None of the answers are correct.

Question 8

President Obama did not receive substantial credit for the Stimulus Plan when the midterm elections of 2010 approached for which of the following reasons?

A) Obama followed Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan and provided too much information so voters did not understand it.
B) unemployment rates stayed high and gave the impression that it was not effective.
C) too many public service programs had cuts.
D) the deficit decreased.

Question 9

A filibuster refers to

A) a vote of two-thirds of the members in either the House or Senate.
B) blocking votes by legislators if they do not agree with a certain proposed policy.
C) a vote of three-fifths of the members in either the House or Senate.
D) None of these are correct.

Question 10

President Obama supported the Kyoto Protocol by

A) established binding international restrictions on carbon emission.
B) by allocation resources toward climate control.
C) privatization of environmental measures.
D) donating his Nobel peace prize to environment protection.

Question 11

Sarah Palin was liked by blue-collar conservative voters for her pro-life, pro-Iraq War, pro-military spending, and anti-social spending platform.

Question 12

American Recovery and Investment Act (ARRA), which came to be known as the Stimulus Plan when Obama signed the legislation in February, 2009, refers to a program whose purposes included which of the following?

A) The creation and preservation of jobs
B) Assistance to those most impacted by the recession
C) Providing instruments needed to increase economic efficiency
D) All of these are correct

Question 13

Bernanke kept the prime interest rate at nearly zero to help banks obtain funds from the Federal Reserve to finance their operations and make loans to businesses.

Question 14

Among Obama's major achievements in regard to Social Welfare policies are

A) expansion the nation's safety net programs such as funding for Medicaid.
B) extended unemployment benefits.
C) increased AmeriCorps.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 15

John McCain, the Republican Presidential candidate, veered to the right of his previous political positions to secure the Republican nomination from opponents who wooed the Party's conservative base. Many Republicans wanted a conservative candidate because they believed President Bush had

A) wrongly embraced relatively liberal immigration reforms.
B) chosen the wrong running mate.
C) promoted too many budget cuts and policies.
D) was too soft on anti-terror policies.

Question 16

Worry changed to panic when Lehman Brothers merged with Merrill Lynch in 2008.

Question 17

In 2008 Presidential Candidate Obama faced a multitude of challenges such as

A) a costly health care system with roughly 45 million uninsured Americans.
B) a poorly regulated banking system whose ill-considered policies had brought the economic downturn.
C) an outmoded educational system, global warming, and inadequate immigration policies.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 18

The term "subprime mortgage crisis" refers to

A) mortgage companies issued mortgages to blue-collar and other consumers who would not have qualified for them a decade ago.
B) consumers was made to believe they would need merely to sell their homes and pocket the profits if they could not afford their mortgages.
C) consumers own houses that were worth far less than the mortgages that had financed them.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 19

Obama persona is characterized by a complicated mixture of

A) idealism and realism.
B) recklessness and deception.
C) lack of imagination and candor.
D) optimism and idealism.

Question 20

Marginal status has been shown to

A) induce adverse physiological responses.
B) increase the rates of college attendance.
C) increase the skilled labor force.
D) decrease the percentage of people renting homes.

Question 21

Obama was tested from the outset of his presidency by the most polarized politics since Newt Gingrich led Republicans to their landslide Congressional victory of 1994.

Question 22

Relatively few people realized, as well, that the Stimulus Plan funded $250 million in middle-class tax cuts.

Question 23

The TARP program committed more than $12.5 trillion to protect the economy in the larges expenditures in American history in a brief span of time.

Question 24

If members of both parties had voted for work relief programs in the Great Depression, virtually all Republicans voted against the Stimulus Plan except moderate Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

Question 25

Like many Republican presidents who had preceded him, Obama disparage the nation's safety net programs, such as Food Stamps, the EITC, CHIP, subsidized child care, unemployment benefits, and Section 8 housing.