1. Political Culture and Public Policy Issues
Interest Groups and Lobbying, Economy, Foreign Policy, and the Media

2. Warm Up
Lobbyist: Sounds positive or negative? What do you know already?

3. Lobbyists
People employed by interest groups who persuade officials to vote on their interest group’s behalf
Meeting in the “lobbies” of the chambers

4. What do these have in common?
AARP
National Organization for Women (NOW)
PETA
NRA
American Medical Association
American Federation of Teachers
MADD
ACLU

5. Special Interest Groups
Organizations established to carry out specific goals
Types:
Economic/business (Chamber of Commerce)
Professional (American Medical Association)
Labor (American Federation of Labor)
Public Interest (PIRG)/Government watchdog
Ideological/Single issue (social, religious)
AARP, NRA, PETA, NOW, NAACP

6. How they influence public policy
“Think tanks”: Researching issues and developing public policy proposals
Electioneering: Giving political support to elected officials
Grassroots lobbying: Coordinating public meetings/public support at the local level
Direct lobbying: Lobbying politicians to vote a certain way on bills

7. Choosing an Interest Group
What type of interest group (category) interests you most?
What issue interests you most?

8. Warm Up
Based on the article you read last night, what is one pro and one con of lobbying/interest groups?

9. Before we start the game…
Choose your main goal today:
Will you…
1. Use direct lobbying to try to advance your cause? OR
2. Use grassroots lobbying to increase awareness of your issue?

10. Present 1. Brief overview of your interest group 2. Lobbying Purpose
Main issues of concern
An interesting fact
2. Lobbying
Your goal
How much $ spent
Why you chose the tools you did

11. Direct Lobbying Points
1. DC trip: 20
Testify: 12
Grassroots: 8
TV ad: 7
Letter writing: 6
/phone: 5
Website: 4
Print Ad: 3

12. Grassroots Lobbying Points
TV ad: 12
Letter writing: 8 7
Website: 6
Print ad: 5
Testifying: 4
DC trip: 3

13. Wrap Up
Did you use more direct lobbying of legislators or more grassroots mobilization? Why? How did you decide which tools to use?
For your goal, which tool do you think would be most effective in real life? Least?

14. Rules for lobbyists
Registration
Must disclose expenses
Gift ban

15. Discussion 1. Brief overview of your interest group
Purpose
Main issues of concern
An interesting fact
2. What will be your main goal today as a lobbyist? Will you use direct lobbying or grassroots lobbying and why?

16. Pros and Cons of Lobbies
Influence of money
Narrow interests
Provide specialized information
Keep Americans informed
Kept in balance by competing interests (democratic pluralism)

17. “The revolving door”
Former politicians who become lobbyists after leaving office
Why might this be a problem?

18. Warm Up Write down: 1. Answer Wrap Up questions in lobbying packet
2. In your opinion, is the lobbying of interest groups more of a positive or negative influence on our government? Why?

19. Vox Pop Results With a partner, share your Vox Pop results:
Questions you asked
Most interesting/surprising comments
Main “takeaway” from the experience

21. Where does your tax dollar go?
You have ten sticky notes. Each note corresponds to ten cents of $1.00 you just paid in taxes.
Think about what budget category you would want your $1.00 do go to (divide it up any way you like).
Be able to justify your choices.

23. How you do you get your money?
How does the government get its money?
What do you spend money on?
What does the government spend money on?

24. Terms Revenue: Money coming in Expenditures: Money going out
Balanced budget: Revenue = expenditures
Surplus: Revenue exceeds expenditures
Deficit: Expenditures exceeds revenue
Deficits + interest = debt

27. How does the government get its money?
Taxes:
Income: Based on salary
Sales: Based on sales (6.35%)
Property: Based on home ownership
Social security: For retirement
Corporate: For businesses
Excise tax/sin tax: On “bad” items (cigarettes, alcohol, etc.)
Estate tax: On deceased person’s property
Gift tax: On gifts of more than $14,000
Import tax (tariff): On foreign products

28. Tax Brackets
Progressive: The more money you have, the higher percentage (“tax rate”) you pay in taxes
Income taxes
Flat: Everyone pays the same percentage
Regressive: The less money you have, the higher percentage you pay in taxes
Sales tax

30. How else does the government get its money?
1. Social Security Trust Fund: Holds total of $2.67 trillion debt which is 19% of the total debt.
2. The Federal Reserve: Holds total of $1.63 trillion, 11.3% of the total debt.
3. China: Holds $1.6 trillion, 8% of total debt.
4. US Households: Holds $959.4 billion of Treasury bonds, which is 6.6% of the total US debt.
5. Japan: Holds 6.4% of total US debt.

31. Debt holders

32. Wrap Up
1. Based on what you learned today, is the government spending money on the right things? Why or why not?
2. Is the government spending enough money addressing your issue? Why or why not?

33. Media Brainstorming What is the media? What forms of media do you use?
How does the media influence the government? What should be the role/job of the media in a democracy?
What are positive aspects of the media today? Negative characteristics?

34. Quick Poll on the Media (based on Pew Research study)
1. Agree/disagree? “The media…”
A. Gets facts straight
B. Deals fairly with all sides
C. Is too critical of America
D. Is careful to avoid bias
2. Write “F” for favorable, “U” for unfavorable, or “DK” (don’t know) for each news source
CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, New York Times, NPR
Where do you get most of your news? Pick one:
TV, internet, radio, or newspapers

40. Colbert: “truthiness”
What does Colbert mean by “truthiness”? What does this say about our media?

41. Bias in the media
What is media bias? What is slant? What is the difference between bias and perspective?
Brainstorm as many biased news strategies as you can.

42. Trends in Media Coverage
TV: 24 hr. coverage (CNN), increasingly ideological
Talk radio: Mostly conservative
Internet
Intense competition
Dirty laundry
Sensationalism
Media conglomerates: Disney/ABC/ESPN; TimeWarner/Turner Broadcasting, Viacom (CBS, MTV, VHI)

43. Media Bias
Fox News vs. MSNBC
Examples?

44. Discussion Questions
Do you believe that Fox News and MSNBC are protected by the First Amendment’s freedom of the press to say what they do? Do you believe they should be protected? Explain.
 What can be done to help improve the level of accuracy in news stories and the amount of fair and unbiased reporting?