America's Government Today

Who's taking care of welfare?

2009-12-10T11:24:00.000-08:00

Have you ever called a customer service 1-800 number and gotten someone who kept putting you on hold, had to often call his/her supervisor to fix something, and didn’t seem capable of handling your dilemma? Well Rahil Momin writes a well detailed, informative blog regarding the food stamp situation in Texas today, and I have to say it’s seems parallel to the incapable customer service representative issue I stated earlier. The Texas Government hired around 250-500 people to help get the 42,000 families still waiting for assistance with food stamps. These new employees barely went through a 2-week training period (a lot less than normal required for this position) and seem clueless on the job site. This doesn’t help productivity a bit, and these families waiting on assistance continue waiting, some might start feeling irritated and impatient; however there isn’t much that can be done to help. Inexperienced workers can’t handle these families’ issues by themselves, so hiring a bunch of new employees does not solve this case. Mr. Momin does a great job explaining this matter and his opinion on this topic. He believes in quality over quantity, it’s not the amount of the workers that will help these families; it’s the experienced and more capable workers that are able to do this. I definitely agree with Corey Maclagan (Statesman writer who wrote the article that Rahil’s commentary was on) and Rahil’s views. I understand the government is looking for bigger and better ways to solve this countries problems, but they should finish the project in their own backyard before beginning new ones elsewhere.

The Almighty Unstable Government

2009-12-10T09:36:00.000-08:00

Reflecting upon discussions in my government class and articles I've been reading; I think that it's fair to say the United States Government has a bit TOO much power. I'm not a liberal or the stereotypical "hippie" when i discuss this issue, but there's a limit. Government was established to govern to protect and maintain order in society; however years after its formation corruption and poor decision making had begun in our leaders. A couple issues that concern me, irritate would be a better word for it, are; the issue of the death penalty and public surveillance. In an earlier blog I wrote, I stated the case of Cameron Todd Willingham: a man tried for arson in his own home and, “abandoned his children” who were in that house. There was no hard evidence to prove him guilty and he was set to execution. The governor at the time, Rick Perry, almost completely ignored the situation and even denied him a 30-day stay of execution based on absolutely nothing. The other issue I wanted to highlight was how public surveillance has become a problem. European cities such as London have a million plus surveillance cameras set up monitoring nearly everything. London was able to stop a terrorist attack and solve petty crimes with this technology according to this blog in The Times; however the US Government might’ve seen this as an example to show why there should be cameras monitoring us. The President has the right under certain circumstances to tap our phone lines, check our emails, and monitor us. Sometimes I wonder what happened to “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” did the government declare that the national anthem to create a false sense of reality in citizens?

Health Care Reform

2009-10-13T05:59:00.000-07:00

In this editorial from the New York Times, the writer discusses how the Baucus Bill will help our economy in the long run, as well as how it might hurt it. This bill requires all citizens and legal residents to have some form of health care coverage and penalizes those that don't. However, this bill will leave about 17 million people covered under it without insurance in 2019. I feel like this writer put some very important issues regarding this bill and its "side effects" in perspective. I personally do not mind this bill, people might disagree with it because no one wants to be obliged to pay for something constantly. But if you think about this rationally, this is regarding health care, and whether or not you might want it, health care is something that is needed by everyone. The writer said it best, this bill "would provide more security for all Americans." This bill is projected to cost significantly less than what President Obama had originally suggested. Therefore, instead of costing $900 billion, it will cost around $829 billion. The Senate Finance bill will also establish a new commission, to help control and utilize the budget in the most effective manner, “improve quality and reduce costs in Medicare.” Once passed, this bill prevents health insurance companies from raising the premium for those whom may be more sick than other, for example; an asthma patients coverage would cost just as much as someone that is completely healthy. This article provides many examples of the pros and cons of this bill and helps really explain what is happening with health care reform.

Taxes are good for your health!

2009-10-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

I read this commentary on the Austin American Statesman regarding "sin-taxes" that made me wonder. This article was directed toward all informed United States tax payers that actually care about how money is being taken from them, without regards to the financial weight it holds. The author, Katherine Mangu-Ward, used several resources including a Men's Health interview, past news, and help from a New York University nutritionist to write this article. She talks about how state and federal governments disguise the taxes placed on its citizens. First of all let me explain what a "sin tax" is; a tax on substances or activities considered sinful or harmful. For example, the increase of tax on cigarettes was considered a sin tax. The product though, that Katherine Mangu-Ward uses throughout her commentary is soda. She used the Governor of New York, David Paterson, as an example from when he proposed an 18 percent tax on soda to fill some gaps in his budget that he blamed childhood obesity. She argues about how politicians try to fit garbage in our minds about how "sin taxes are for our own good." These taxes aren't set to decrease the consumption of the product at all, but "to raise revenue." Plans for a soda tax just raising the cost of soda by three cents won't quite start riots at stores, but the government would receive $24 billion in revenue over the course of four years. To be honest, I would probably just have not cared about this tax, but this article helped me realize the true intentions of it. Although this might be overlooked right now with the health care situation, this isn't really something to be slept on. I agree with this author and would recommend this article to all.

Guilty or Innocent?

2009-09-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

Did Governor Rick Perry let an innocent man die? According to an article in the Austin American Statesman, experts believe that Cameron Todd Willingham was wrongfully put to death on February 17, 2004. On December 23, 1991, Willingham's house burned down, although he managed to escape, he abandoned his three children who were still in the house. His actions led the court to assume that this was arson, and he was convicted of murder. At the time, no one questioned this conviction, including his own attorney. However, discoveries had shown that this fire was accidental, not arson. Governor Perry's office received a report hours before the killing by Dr. Gerald Hurst that the conclusions made at the time of the trial were invalid. In a recent interview, Hurst was heard saying that "there was no item of evidence that indicated arson." This article wasn't completely direct about Perry's response to the fax, but prior to the report, he had denied Willingham a 30-day stay of execution. Up until this day, no one knows about what his reasons for denying the request were based upon. In his defense his spokesperson Katherine Cesinger said, "Signing off on an execution is probably one of the most serious considerations a governor could make. (Perry) carefully reviews these matters." What exactly happened throughout all of this is still not completely clear, but reading this article explains a whole lot about how scary the power of the government really is, or how righteous it is?