Why do Medicare and Social Security have such a broad base of support?

In your American government class, you are discussing shifts in public opinion

You are asked to imagine that a recent Pew Research Center poll reported a sudden drop of 40 percentage points in the trust level that Americans have for their government. What explanation would you offer to decipher this sudden drop? a. The poll must be an indication that the public is unhappy because economic conditions are bad. b. The poll must be a reflection of people's fuzzy thinking, which occasionally turns particularly negative. c. The poll, obviously, must be exhibiting sampling error. d. The poll must be an illustration of the paradox often referred to as the miracle of aggregation. e. The poll must be a reaction to recent events that have so disturbed the public that the opinions of many were pushed in the same direction all at once.

Federalism under the second president Bush was poorly articulated, but actions of his administration and Congressional Republicans a. pre­empted state authority over school testing systems and driver's license procedures, obstructed state lawsthat would permit the medical use of marijuana, imposed burdensome new homeland security requirements,and also imposed expensive Medicaid spending

responsibilities on the states. b. continued to support the practice of state sovereignty in the same manner as President Reagan. c. rested less on theory and more on mandating programs without providing sufficient funding. d. were less important because increases in revenues made funding less of an issue.