ABSTRACT
Debate on American social and domestic policy provision has always contained the strands of two arguments in addition to the content of the policy. One of these strands has been the ever-present tension over state versus federal authority in the provision of domestic policies. The other is the continuing debate over the proper reliance that should be made on public as opposed to private spending in these policy areas. The administrations aim continued to be the redeployment of welfare recipients out of welfare provision and into work. The prospect of increased deficit spending did not appear to check the Bush administrations enthusiasm for tax cuts, and the public resistance to tax increases severely limited the Obama administrations ability to manoeuvre. The recession that started in the later stages of the Bush administration, together with the banking crisis in the final months of that presidency, presented the Obama administration with a changed political context, immense inherited challenges and some opportunities.
