[ 145 ] Civics and Government GED ® TEST SOCIAL STUDIES FLASH REVIEW • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • _____________ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • What is the economic system in the United States? Read the passage and answer the question that follows. In 1832, Congress passed a bill to re-charter the national bank. President Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill. Henry Clay, a U.S. Senator from Kentucky, said the following about the president’s veto: “A bill to re-charter the bank, has recently passed Congress, after much deliberation, . . . the president has rejected the bill. . . . “The veto is an extraordinary power, which, though tolerated by the Constitution, was not expected, by the convention, to be used in ordinary cases. It was designed for instances of precipitate legislation, in unguarded moments. Thus restricted, and it has been thus restricted by all former presidents, it might not be mischievous. . . . “The veto is hardly reconcilable with the genius of representative government. It is totally irreconcilable with it, if it is to be frequently employed in respect to the expediency of measures, as well as their constitutionality. It is a feature of our government, borrowed from a prerogative of the British king. And it is remarkable, that in England it has grown obsolete, not having been used for upward of a century. . . . It can not be imagined that the Convention contemplated the application of the veto, to a question which has been so long, so often, and so thoroughly scrutinized, as that of the bank of the United States.” —Henry Clay Henry Clay expresses concerns with all of the following except a. checks and balances. b. federalism. c. the power of the president. d. the role of Congress.