The Constitution specifically requires the “advice and consent” (that’s the actual language, hence the quotation marks) of the Senate when ratification of a treaty is at hand. In other words, in order for our country to successfully reach a treaty with another country, the Senate must give their “advice and consent.” In slightly more concrete terms, the Senate must approve (or ‘ratify’) the treaty by a supermajority ( vote). This, as you can imagine, is a rather difficult task. It has caused the embarrassment of one President in particular: Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson failed to gain Senate approval of the Treaty of Versailles, and his brainchild, the League of Nations. This was rather embarrassing to President Wilson, as he had essentially stumped around Europe campaigning for the League of Nations only to have his own country fail to back him. 

This is an interesting, and somewhat convoluted question. As the prompt says, the President’s ability to wage war is technically checked by Congress’ ability to declare war (i.e. ONLY Congress can declare war). That said, there have been a total of 0 declared wars since WWII. Yes, you read that correctly, zero. What about Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, etc etc?

The answer lies in the President’s ability to direct troop movement (as the Commander-in-chief). Very long story short, the president can technically skirt the issue of a declared war by directing troops to go somewhere and intervene—this is often called an “armed conflict.”

Congress attempted to reign in the President’s unfettered ability to create/aid in armed conflicts by passing the War Powers Act of 1973, which imposed various procedural hurdles on a President attempting to move troops for that purpose. 

A line-item veto is when the President simply vetoes a portion of a piece of proposed legislation, and then sends it back to Congress for approval. This way the whole piece does not have to be redrafted, and legislators simply have to agree on whether the portion vetoed is necessary or not.

The system of checks and balances is the way that the U.S. government balances power between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. It is known as such because of the way that each branch is able to check the others and balance them out if one gains too much power over another.

This should have been a relatively simple question. When both the president and the majority of both chambers of congress belong to the same political party, we refer to this as “unified government.” The name, of course, makes sense, because—as they’re both of the same party—government is unified. Whenever government is unified, there’s a greater chance of increased legislation and reform (do you see why?).

This should have been a relatively simple question. Divided government is the exact opposite of unified government—not too shocking, given the name. Because both the president and either one or both chambers of Congress are of two different political parties, it becomes much more difficult to create and pass legislation, leading to gridlock.

All of the answers are correct. Congress maintains significant indirect control over the bureaucracy through all of these ways. Congress, in this fashion, generally responds reactively to the bureaucracy. In other words, if something bad happens, Congress can respond in any number of ways—eliminating the offending bureaucracy, denying funding, etc.

William Howard Taft bears the distinction of being the only man in American history to have served as both President and a Supreme Court justice. A protégé and one-time political ally of Theodore Roosevelt, the Republican Taft was elected to the White House in 1909 but left after a single term following a crushing loss to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. (This loss was helped along by Roosevelt, who ran as a third party candidate against Taft after the two men had a terrible argument and broke off their political partnership and personal friendship.) Curiously enough, however, Taft had never really desired the Presidency –a naturally quiet and even shy individual, he had instead always dreamed of serving on the Supreme Court. The former President achieved his personal goal in 1921, when he was appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court justice by then-President Harding – a rise beyond Taft’s wildest imaginings. As Chief Justice, Taft served with distinction until his death in 1930.

When the national government provides a state with a categorical grant, it attaches many rules as to how the money can be spent: it comes with "strings attached." Block grants, however, can be provided with very few rules; the state decides how it will use the money. None of the other answers are true.

According to Article Two, Section Two, Clause One of the Constitution, the President is "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States." However, Article One, Section Eight, Clause Eleven, specifically empowers Congress to declare war. While this has always been legally upheld, the line between "war" and a "conflict" has often been blurred, with Presidents of both parties launching military operations with no or little congressional approval.