Expert: Dennis Date: 4/23/2008 Subject: political capital
Question QUESTION: What is political capital and how does it work? I understand it vaguely, but are they actual points or is there X% of capital the President has? How does he use it and how do we know how much capital he has left?
ANSWER: Political Capital is the goodwill or good feeling that a nation has for a President. If it looks like the President is popular, even if he doesn't control the Congress, he can influence the Congress by saying he wants this thing or that thing, and the goodwill of the people give weight to his requests. The Congress would be afraid to not give the President what he wanted because the people would be angry.
So, the Congress gives him what he wants because of his Political Capital. When the people get tired of supporting the President and his plans, it is said that he "spent" his Political Capital. That point may be reached through the reading of popularity polls, or some other way the majority may express their opinions.
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QUESTION: Thanks! This is the clearest answer I've gotten so far. But why does congress care about upsetting the people? If they don't think whatever Bush is presenting is a good idea why would his popular support make it more likely congress will give him what he wants?
Answer Because they want to be re-elected. Reagan was President when Congress was controlled by the Democrats. He got a huge tax cut passed because he was able to convince the people that it would help the economy and them personally.
The Democrats had to vote in favor of the tax cuts even though they didn't like it because they knew the people wanted his idea, and they did not want to anger the people - especially the people in their district that might vote against them.
As long as the people supported him, Reagan could tell Congress what to do. If the people didn't support him, then he was limited to his veto powers, and dragging his feet administratively if he didn't like a particular bill.
