1. GEORGE BUSH 2001-08OBAMA 2009 - PRESENTFEDERALISM

2. Expansion of federal govt As a Republican President it wasassumed that Bush would continue themove towards shrinking the size of thefederal govt and of decentralisation Bush presided over the largest overallincrease in inflation adjusted federalgovt spending since Lyndon JohnsonsGreat Society programme of the mid1960s 3. Reasons for expansion Impact of 9/11 - push to significantlyincrease homeland security Expansions of Medicare & educationprogrammes. December 2003 Bushsigned Medicare expansion bill tobenefit senior citizens at an estimatedcost of $400 billion The No Child Behind Act 2002 majorexpansion of federal govts role ineducation new law mandated that the 4. Other factors 2005 Hurricane Katrina use of theNational Guard and Secretary ofHomeland Security coordinated federalgovt response ($10.5 billion reliefpackage) Banking crisis Bush authorisedSecretary of State Henry Paulson totake control of 2 privately ownedcompanies Fannie Mae and FreddieMac had suffered huge losses incollapse of housing market 5. Future Obama more federal support? Agreed toaccept Californias tough car emissions Recognise the important role played by statesas policy laboratories eg Vermont and Maineoffering model attempts at providing universalhealth insurance In the present economic climate federal-statecooperation needed to solve problems, notfederal-state rivalry. However Obamasstimulus package received a hostile reactionfrom many southern state governors -irresponsible