Kirk Bailey

The Tea Party movement mobilizes frustrated Americans fed up with big government to oppose increases in government spending and the growing national debt. This largely conservative group also thinks the government’s growing involvement in business and individual freedom strays from conservative values. If you’re not familiar with the Tea Party, here are the basics of who supports the movement and what they believe.

“Palestine” was a common name used until 1948 to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. In its history, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, among others, have controlled Palestine at one time or another. The Ottoman Empire ruled the region from the 1500s through 1917.

Every year, Americans pay their tax bills, but are often puzzled about how government spends the taxes it collects. Many Americans overestimate how much of tax money goes toward government programs, and taxpayers may underestimate the amount of taxes spent on other crucial elements of the federal government’s budget.

Congress and the president of the United States work together to complete the budget of the United States government that determines federal spending for each fiscal year. The budget allocates more than $3.45 trillion (fiscal year 2010) in federal government spending. See “How Are Your Tax Dollars Used by the Federal Government” for more information on federal spending.

The debt ceiling, legally known as the debt limit, is the total amount of money that the U.S. government is authorized to borrow to pay existing obligations, such as Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and disbursements for other programs.The debt limit applies to federal debt held by the public, namely, securities held by investors outside the federal government, and to federal debt held by the government’s own accounts.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent agency created in 1975 by the U.S. Congress to regulate election campaign finance in the United States. The mission of the FEC is to administer and enforce the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) that governs the financing of federal elections. The FEC has jurisdiction over campaigns for the U.

In August 2011, the United States’ credit rating was downgraded by the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) from AAA to AA+, or down one level. Because this is the first time in American history that the U.S. credit rating has been downgraded, the long-term economic impact remains uncertain. Here is a brief explanation of the S&P downgrade decision, some background on credit ratings, and possible implications of the downgrade.

Redistricting is the process of drawing boundaries for electoral and political districts in the U.S. and is usually done every ten years after the census. The U.S. Constitution requires each Representative in Congress represent an equal number of citizens and mandates a census to determine the number of citizens and apportion seats to each state.

Since 1948, Israel has controlled most of Palestine. Throughout a decades-long conflict, several critical issues have prevented Israel and the Palestinians from concluding a lasting peace. Here are the basic positions of the two parties. Neither side holds a single position. Moderates and extremists exist on both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides.