In one sense, domestic policy can be thought of as the best-kept secret of the United States government. While foreign policy often seems to garner more media attention—with pictures of soldiers and battleships—domestic policy actually has a far greater impact on the American people than almost any foreign policy initiative. While blockbuster movies are made about spies, armies, and foreign threats, U.S. domestic policy quietly affects all kinds of change in the daily lives of American citizens.

Domestic policy can be defined as those laws, executive orders, agency regulations, and court decisions that have an impact on the lives of Americans within the boundaries of the United States. Domestic policy includes many goals, such as social security, public safety, and economic growth, and hundreds of programs and departments, such as Medicare, the FBI, and the CDC.

Generally, U.S. domestic policy initiatives can take one of several forms: laws passed by Congress, executive orders issued by the president, and regulations and mandates of several kinds of agencies, most of which belong to the executive branch. In addition, the federal courts, including, of course, the Supreme Court, indirectly, but sometimes profoundly, affect domestic policy by ruling on the constitutionality of state and federal laws.

While domestic policies affect nearly every area of the lives of Americans, they are financed primarily by a single source: tax revenue. Money pours into federal coffers from federal income taxes and other taxes and tariffs. Sometimes the federal government runs budget deficits, a situation in which the government must borrow money to cover its spending commitments. The United States has carried a deficit for many years and now has a debt of over 19 trillion dollars. Every year, the government must pay interest on the money that it owes in debt, and this payment accounts for about 10% of total government expenditures.

One major area of domestic policy in the U.S. is the stabilization of the economy. Economic policy in times of recession—such as the one that occurred in 2008—can often include government spending to stimulate the economy and try to put people back to work. Unfortunately, such spending, unless its accompanied by higher taxes, can often cause further budget deficits, increasing the nation's overall debt.

Most areas of domestic policy aren't exactly glamorous or exciting; they pay for retirement, help people obtain healthcare, build roads, promote research, set standards in education, and generally increase the well-being of most Americans. The perpetual question in a society like ours is what policies are actually worth the cost they incur. Your own answer to that question—and the way you choose to express it—is one of your rights and your responsibility as a U.S. citizen.