Who should receive Welfare?

I totally agree with the post “Some Help Just Hurts” because it’s completely and undeniably true. I recently went to a convenience store in the East Austin and offered my debit card for few items. But the cashier told me they don’t accept credit or debit cards anymore because the majority of the costumers in the area use either cash or Food Stamps. I was a little disturbed too. At first, I thought about the situation and felt pity for the people who use the food stamps. But after thinking about it a bit longer I realize something. I guessed there has to be close to hundred people on food stamps in that area and most of them must be healthy and able enough to work for their own needs. But they choose not to and rely on government spending on these sorts of programs. We see people on TV who are truly in needs and then we see people on food stamps. I would like to help the people on TV first. It’s hard to digest that our tax money goes to people with no self-respect. Now I have nothing against people who are truly in need and must have food stamps to survive. Furthermore, I have seen people trade food bought from food stamps for alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, etc. I do agree that if we must give background checks and drug tests for employment opportunities, the people with food stamps should at least have something similar to check their eligibility.     

Accomplishments of Our Government

      Most Americans along with many conservatives and libertarians often blame government for inability to solve any problems, and they also call it incompetent and consider that the government has achieved nothing. One of the critics, Charles Murray puts it as: “The reality of daily life is that, by and large, the things the government does tend to be ugly, rude, slovenly – and not to work.” However, these are all merely myths and stereotypes, nothing more.
   

      This article talks about some of the achievements made by the government programs. Some of the programs consist of government influence in the Business sector, Public Health Programs, Social Security and Medicare, workplace safety, Military, etc.

• Government influence in the Business Sector

      Until recently, we have forgotten how much we depend on our government for our economic stability. We have seen many great fiscal and monetary policies which have enabled us protection from any major depression, e.g. The Great Depression. Before these policies, depressions were a routine occurrence in our nation. However, government has relatively solved that problem which helps eliminate human despair and pain. People can find jobs and live their lives more comfortably. Overall, our standard of living has improved and that is a big achievement for the federal government.

• Public Health Programs 

      Many programs, such as, National Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and local Public Health departments have insured good health for American. The vaccination programs have reduce up to 95% risks of potentially debilitating diseases like hepatitis B, measles, mumps, tetanus, and rubella. Federal government provides funds for these sorts of activities which help the country and its people.

• Social Security and Medicare

      Social Security allows our elderly to live in peace in their retirement years without living in poverty and illness. This program has cut down half the percentage of people who were in poverty. In 1966, there were 29% elderly living in poverty, but thanks to Social Security there are only 10% elderly in poverty today. Medicare also allows elderly people to have affordable insurance and almost all of them are insured. These two programs have done more than anything to relieve pain and despair of elderly people.

      American government has indeed accomplished a lot. People like to talk against good people. It’s the same with government. People call it incompetent, but if provided with proper evidence they might change their mind. In the end, our government has done a lot for us and we should be thankful for it.

Illegal Immigration

    I completely agree with James blog post on immigration. I have always been against the government preventing illegal immigration both from Canada and Mexico. I understand that it’s wrong to enter someone else’s country without permission. I also know it’s not fair for the U.S. citizens. But let’s think about it. How long has the government tried to prevent illegal immigration and how much money they already spent on it and how successful are they in this matter? According to some common statistics “Border Patrol deployments have already tripled over the past 15 years, not counting 1,000 more officers being recruited and trained in the current year.” U.S. government has already spent billions of dollars to secure our borders. But nothing came out of it. Illegal immigration is still rolling.

    Secondly, people raise an issue of jobs and opportunities that are reducing each day because of “these Mexicans.” Well, they are doing the jobs that Americans don’t even want to look at. So why do they keep blaming them? As we have seen over past decade or so, these immigrants have helped us greatly and they are still doing the same thing.

    I don’t see this as an issue and I believe America shouldn’t either.
http://jamestran141.blogspot.com/2011/10/immigration.html 

Reviving the U.S. Economy

    Our country has developed a lot in the past few decades, so has the deficit from the imports and exports. Americans seem to be addicted to the foreign goods. People can’t get enough of the Chinese goods. Unemployment rates are all time high due to overseas job transfers. The housing industry is declining due to higher interest rates. And the government is busy playing its political games, instead of helping to change the ineffective policies.
    I find it really disturbing that the government responds almost instantly to the higher gas prices and drills the gas domestically, but it fails to keep in check our foreign goods dependency. If we can drill for oil both on and off shores, why can’t we bring back job to our lands? People can’t spend money if they can’t make it. Therefore, returning these jobs from overseas would result in our economic growth.
    Economic disparity has been building for a long time in this country. Wall Street’s behavior was one reason, and the other reason is the big corporations that are expanding their businesses overseas. In doing so, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This results in expensive vacations for the corporate employees and almost no vacation for the middle-class people due to unemployment.
    Higher interest rates and the mortgage rates of housing industries are also an issue. The banks receive their cuts before the buyer has a chance to reduce his principle. Let’s say the buyer makes a payment of $40,000, only $10,000 goes towards the actual principle. Therefore, people lose their homes easily because of these unjust rates. 

    The ways we can fix these problems is by government involvement. By forcing the corporate America to produce goods domestically, we can promote both the jobs and independencies.

Failed Economic Policies

    In his article, Saving the Rich, Losing the Economy, posted in CounterPunch, Paul Craig Roberts makes some excellent points regarding our economic downturn. 
    Roberts tries to reach out to the general public by providing three main reasons for this occurrence. First, he blames the policymakers by stating that their support of offshore jobs are decreasing the middle class jobs within our nation. Second, policymakers allowed financial deregulation that unleashed negative effects on debt and unemployment. Third, policymakers are cutting back spending and running the printing press in order to keep the banks from failing. 
    Roberts clearly explains how transferring jobs abroad is hurting middle class citizens in our country and how the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. By transferring jobs, Corporations benefit from low wages that are offered in countries like China and India. The profit they receive helps those corporations grow even more. Whereas, the middle class workers lose their jobs to foreign workers. Statistician John Williams estimates the unemployment rate when long-term discouraged workers are included. This rate is over 22 percent. The author effectively conveys his view on this matter.  
    U.S. allows in each year one million legal immigrants, an unknown number of illegal immigrants, and a large number of foreign workers on H-1B and L-1 work visas. In other words, policymakers are encouraging economic disparity. Whereas, Republicans simply call people lazy and are cutting back unemployment benefits and expect these lazy people to go back to work. The author disagrees with this statement and believes these sort of policy are highly ineffective and cause further harm to the country.
    The temporary relieves and other policies effect our economy greatly. Lowering interest rates doesn't do any good, since no one wants to buy housing. Cutting back spending also cause issue within the country. Printing more money cause inflation, also effecting the unemployment rate. The author gave a lot of information to back up his claim.  
    I completely agree with Roberts' logic. We need to look at these issue before we sunk our nation. We need to make smarter decisions and get this country up and running ahead of others. Overall, he does a great job at explaining his points.
    P.S. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. His latest book is How the Economy Was Lost (CounterPunch / AK Press).


       
      
       

The GOP’s Immigration Nonsense

    In the editorial, The GOP’s Immigration Nonsense, published in the Washington Post, the author makes two good excellent arguments regarding the illegal immigration to the general public.
    The first argument contains the author’s disagreement with the GOP’s remarks on illegal immigrants. The GOP believes we should have more security on our border to insure no illegal immigration. However, the author respectfully disagrees with GOP. He justifies his standing by stating “Border Patrol deployments have already tripled over the past 15 years, not counting 1,000 more officers being recruited and trained in the current year.” The author further explains his view by stating “Illegal crossings are at their lowest level in 40 years.” The author clearly portrays his argument.
    The second important argument the author makes is that the illegal immigrants don’t really hurt us or our economy. In other words, he means we don’t really have to see this subject as an issue. According to Governor Rick Perry, the illegal immigration is a big problem, but yet he believes that these immigrants “meet the labor market’s demands.” It’s true. Most immigrants from the south consume “low-wage jobs that the vast majority of Americans [don’t want].” They help the growth of U.S. economy, but yet they’re still seen as parasites.
    I totally agree with this editorial because the way GOP raised an issue on illegal immigrants, I think it is completely senseless. We should appreciate what these immigrants have done for us and we should not spend tax money on dumb projects like fencing the border.
    P.S. The Argument was presented by the Editorial Board, which uses many well-known references; therefore, the author appears to be credible.

Imagine the future for the U.S. Constitution!

    There is an article in the USA Today, Survey: Americans don't know Constitution, civics, which I found very interesting because it has appeared several times in the past and it continues to appear in the news even today. I really think one must take a look at this article for its insight about this topic.
    The article talks about how well we know and understand our Constitution. According to recent surveys, “[only] 15% correctly say John Roberts is chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but almost twice as many respondents (27%) correctly named Randy Jackson as a judge on TV's American Idol.” This article further portrays some of the concerns our experts have. "These failings [to know and understand The U.S. Constitution] threaten the future of our democracy," wrote retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in a column for The Philadelphia Inquirer. She further wrote, "If we don't know what makes this country special and worth saving, how will we know how to safeguard its promise of freedom and opportunity."
    These sorts of surveys often scare us because they represent the American Weaknesses in our own subjects. As the Tea Party Patriots released a coloring book to teach children about the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which includes puzzles, games and song, we should all make an effort to teach our younger generations the basic principles of our nation.