GED Social Studies: In the News
Hey, GED studiers! The GED test is just a test… but the stuff on it is important in real life, believe it or not! Especially now with the elections and stuff in the news, it seems like there’s GED social studies all over the place. You can do a lot of GED studying just by watching the news, or reading about it online.
I know we talked a little about the “separation of powers.” That’s an important idea. It means that the government is divided up into different parts, so that each part has different kinds of power. The Congress has some power… the President has some power… the Supreme Court has some power. No single person or group has all the power. And part of the idea is what’s called “checks and balances.” That means that each part of the government has some power over the other parts. They can try to control each other. So, if someone tries to take too much power… someone else is there to stop them. That’s the idea!
So how’s this GED social studies idea in the news? I read this article, called “Bush lifts oil drilling ban, wants Congress to act.” Right in the headline, you can see it’s about two of the branches of government: Bush is the President, so he’s in charge of the “executive” branch. Congress is in charge of the “legislative” branch…the branch to make laws. If you read the article, Bush changed the orders for the executive branch. He says it’s okay to drill for oil off the coast of the U.S.
But, the President doesn’t make laws! He just carries out laws. So, it’s still against the law to drill for oil on the U.S. coast. The Congress makes the laws… and Bush wants Congress to change the law, but he can’t MAKE them change it. That’s checks and balances working. The Congress is stopping Bush from getting what he wants. BUT, Bush still has power. He can use his political power to try to get Congress to do what he wants. That’s what he’s doing by lifting the “executive ban” on drilling oil. He says, “Hey, I’m not the guy stopping us from using coastal oil! It’s the Congress! They’re causing the high oil prices.” Whether that’s true or not, it’s a kind of force Bush is trying to use on the Congress. Wow, separation of powers and checks and balances cause a lot of politicking!
So here’s a practice GED question to try out. In the article, it says:
Yet a proposal by Democrats to release oil from an emergency reserve has been rejected by the White House as a gimmick that won’t reduce prices.
If Congress passed a law that said oil from the emergency reserve had to be released right away, Bush could veto the law, and reject it. Vetoing the law would be:
1) Bush using an executive ban
2) Bush using checks and balances on the Congress
3) The separation of powers between houses of Congress
4) Congress using their power over the President
5) Bush trying to expand the power of the President to make laws
What do you think? I’ll have the answer next time. Good GED studying for now! And be sure to read the news for examples of how GED social studies is happening all the time!
