The executive branch is better known as the White House. The executive branch is responsible for enforcing and implementing the laws that are written by congress (the legislative branch). The executive branch is also responsible for the daily administration of this country.
Leaders of the Executive Branch The President: The President has many roles ranging from Commander in Chief to the head of the US government. The Vice President: The Vice President has to be ready at all times to lead the United States of America in case something would happen to the President. The Vice president also serves as the President of the senate and may cast a vote on issues in the instance of a tie. For more clarity on the Vice President’s legislative powers please click on the legislative branch tab at the top of this website. Executive Office of the President; the executive office of the President is always occupied by people that the President feels very close to. The executive office of the President was put in place to help the president run the country. The people that work in the executive office of the President are known as his advisors. The may help with tasks like communicating the President’s message to the public or they may handle serious matters like advisement to the president on matters of national security. The Cabinet: The cabinet is an advisory board similar to the executive office of the President. the main difference between the cabinet and the advisory board is that is that the cabinet is made up of fifteen members who serve as department heads. These department heads are responsible for overseeing the department in which they are in charge of. Some examples of cabinet members would be Ray LaHood who is the secretary of transportation or Leon Panetta who is secretary of defense. |  |
Roles of the President
The president of the United States has many roles and responsibilities. The official titles for the president of the United States are Chief of state, Chief executive, Commander and chief, Chief diplomat, Legislative leader and leader of his political party. The responsibility in each of these roles is different. For example as Chief of state, the president participates in many traditional or ceremonial events such as throwing out the first pitch at baseball games or pardoning a turkey.
As Chief executive the president is in charge of enforcing and seeing that laws are implemented. It is also under this role that the president issues executive orders and pardons federal crimes. The president has the cabinet to help him fulfill these responsibilities.
Commander and chief is a vital responsibility of the president in this role he is the head of the entire United States military. He is the one that is ultimately responsible to seeing that the troops are properly trained and equipped.
Chief diplomat to the United States is basically like being the head ambassador. The president consults with leaders of foreign nations. The president also portrays an image of the American people whenever he travels to other countries. In this position he may also create and sign treaties with other countries and a point an ambassador to represent the United States in the United Nations.
While President legislative leader is a crucial role. It is the legislative leader’s responsibility to advice and guide congress while it is policy creating one of the ways that the president does this is with the state of the union address.
Constitutional Requirements for the Presidency
The President of the United Sates must be a natural born United States citizen. A president must also have lived in the United States for the past 14 years prior to their presidency and must be at least 35 years of age. Un written requirements also exist. These are generalizations to who may qualify as president. For example one unwritten rule is that the president must be a male. We have never had a female president. Other unwritten quailifctions are that the president be of protestant faith and of white race. In the history of the country we have only had one catholic president (John F Kennedy) and one non-white president (Barack Obama).
Presidential Succession
Often a concern people have during an election cycle is whether or not the presidential candidate is in good health. This is a legitimate question to have. People want to know if their leaders will be around and in good enough shape to keep up with the physical demands of the job. If people are worried about a candidate’s health record, this is often a large deterrent at the polls. Sometimes perfectly healthy presidents are suddenly unable to physically preform duties though out the course of the term. In the case that the president will only be unfit for work for only a short period of time the Vice President may become acting president of the country. If the president is killed, resigns or is otherwise unable to fulfill the duties of the job the vice president will become a full time president. Before the 25th amendment we had the question of who runs the country if the president and vice president are unable to perform job duties. Thankfully because of the 25th amendment in the United States there is an order of presidential succession. Should the president not be able to fulfill his duties for any reason the vice president becomes president, if the vice president can't perform the duties the responsibility of the presidency falls to the Speaker of the House of Representaives. From there on the power keeps getting passed down the line, president pro tempore, secretary of state, secretary of treasury and reaches all the way down the cabinet until it reaches the last member secretary of homeland security. In order to protect the presidential line of succession these individuals are never supposed to be in the same place at time as one another. There is always one person kept separated so that they could serve as president of the United States in the event that something should happen to all the others.
Electoral College
Contraty to what people think the president of the united states is not eleced in the popular vote. The electoral college is the real elector. The electoral college consists of 538 electors. The number of elcetoral votes a state has depends on the number of rtrepresntaivtes it has plus the two electorsw from the senate. For this reason Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes, eight from the house of representatives and two from the senate, and california has 55 elcetoral votes (fifty three from the house and two from the senate).
Terms, Salary and Benefits
The Presdient of the United States is limited to two four year terms. The Presdient of the United States earns a yearly salary of $400,000. In addtion to the salary the President has a $50,000 expense account, a $100,000 travel account and a $19,000 entertainment account.
