Single-party control in Washington is common at the beginning of a new presidency, but tends not to last long
Unified government at the beginning of a president’s first term has been the norm, especially for Democratic presidents.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Unified government at the beginning of a president’s first term has been the norm, especially for Democratic presidents.
Most Americans like labor unions, at least in the abstract. A majority (55%) holds a favorable view of unions, versus 33% who hold an unfavorable view, according to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year. Despite those fairly benign views, unionization rates in the United States have dwindled in recent decades. As of 2017, just 10.7% of all wage and salary workers were union members, matching the record low set in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The vast majority of proposed amendments die quiet, little-mourned deaths in committees and subcommittees.
Congress passed 113 laws, 87 of them substantive, in 2015, making it the most productive first session since 2009.
Legislative productivity may be on an upswing, as lawmakers enacted more bills before their August break than either of the two preceding Congresses.
The American public’s generally favorable view of labor unions hasn’t stopped, or even slowed, union membership’s long decline.
President Obama’s recent interviews with Buzzfeed and Vox, and his embrace of online news and social media more generally, stands in a long tradition of presidents employing novel communications technologies to speak to Americans directly.
Some political observers predict that Obama will be using his veto pen a lot more in his last two years in office than he did in the first six. Recent history indicates that presidents do veto more bills when both houses of Congress are controlled by the opposing party.
Scotland’s independence referendum stands out from most other such votes in two ways: its peaceful nature and doubt as to its outcome.
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