Commentary on colleague’s Blog #8

     On May 1, 2015, Pedro Ragoytia wrote a blog titled “The Wild Wild West.” In this blog he talks about responsibilities that come along with fire arms (pistols, rifles). Ragoytia starts off with a strong defense towards fire arms in his first paragraph; “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Which I would have to agree, the gun itself is not capable to go off and harming someone, it is but the human behind the gun who is doing all the work.

     He then refers to a CNN article titled “Capitol cops left guns in bathroom stalls.” Instantly, I was shocked to hear that police officers are just leaving fire arms unattended. This leads me to question the level of oversight our civil force has, as these people are responsible for the prevention and detection of crime. In this CNN article it then talks about young children who have found loaded pistols on government property. Are we not responsible for teaching young children about the potential dangers of fire arms? Children in our society are learning fast, but we are responsible for setting a good example, and carelessness when it comes to firearms is unacceptable.

     I do agree with Ragoytia when he later states, “People should be registered to hold any concealed gun.” Times like these I would suggest looking at gun laws in the state of Texas for example. Gun laws in Texas go about specific rules/procedures to ensure as much safety as possible. Texas gun laws allow; carrying license, open carry for long guns etc. It also contains safety laws such as, designated range areas to practice safe weapons handling and the “Peaceable Journey law,” which states that a person may carry a loaded handgun without a permit while heading directly to a motor which they own/control. The state of Texas also has something called a Concealed Handgun License (CHL). CHL requires people to go through many different procedures before issuing a license to the potential holder. One must go through various gun safety courses to learn all about the “Do’s and Don’ts” about fire arms, learn and understand the legal laws that include fire arms, training requirements that include an instructor, and of course go through a criminal history background check. If states go through these procedures it can possibly increase responsibility and knowledge for a firearm owner. This is most definitely a serious topic and must be taught wisely and carefully to ensure safety for everyone.

What privacy?

        In this day and age, many Americans are not aware that the government monitors majority of our technological activities on a day to day basis. You might be wondering “Who is in charge of interfering with our privacy?” The NSA (National Security Agency) is an intelligence organization of the U.S.  Government; they are responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign intelligence. The National Security Agency is in charge with the protection of the U.S. government communications and information systems against penetration and networking warfare.

Changed the way they used technology
Pew Research Center 2014-2015

     
       According to USA TODAY investigations, this secret program was enacted way before the 9/11 terrorist attack happened. The government monitored not just millions, but instead billions of Americans’ phone calls. The scary thing about this is that this program was being used when George H.W. Bush was still in office way before President Bush signed the Patriot Act on September 14, 2001. The Patriot Act states that the President has authority to use all necessary and appropriate force against terrorism. On the other hand, a majority of Americans say that it is okay, since the government is doing their job to try to protect our country. The remaining said it is not okay; they are digging into our privacy without any sort of consent.
       
        Ever since Americans started to become aware of the NSA and their sneaky activities, many citizens changed their behaviour due to fear of being reported or put under suspicion. According to the Pew Research Center in a survey conducted between 2014 and 2015, citizens changed their own behaviours on several different devices such as; e-mails, search engines, social media, cellular devices, mobile applications, text messaging and even landlines almost immediately. The fact that this spy program went on for decades has caused a lot of citizens to stop trusting our government and alter our own behaviour.

From my point of view, I feel that it is wrong of the NSA to go against the Fourth Amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights which states; “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” The enacting of the Patriot Act can be seen as a weakening of the Bill of Rights. If the Fourth Amendment can be bypassed by an Act, then what could this cause for our other Constitutional rights? Let’s face it, our government spies on us. Without suspicion. Without warrants. Without probable cause. Without restraint. This would qualify as "unreasonable" in our old constitutional world (1789), wouldn't you agree? The government should stick to spying on American citizens through proper means, via a warrant, only if there is concrete evidence that a U.S. citizen could likely be under suspicion of appropriate crimes.

Commentary on colleague’s Blog #5

       On Wednesday April 1st, 2015 Guangqing Zhang wrote a blog titled “The Government should make a better Healthcare System.” In this blog her overall argument was that the government should reform the health-care system in order to become more efficient and improve quality for all US citizens. Guangqing then suggests different ways to make the healthcare system better. She first states that the government should offer more walk-in places for low income people because patients are usually told to wait multiple days with or without insurance until the doctors can start their procedures and examinations.

      Guangqing also brings up a good point, even with health insurance the amount of time it takes to pay off a medical bill can possibly take years to pay off. Have you ever gone to the emergency room? The bill is not cheap. This leads to another question “Why can’t the government reduce the cost even after insurance?” This makes a lot of sense; we are paying high premiums every month for health insurance. Why can’t those fees be discounted for insured citizens?  She believes that citizens should be able to have a say whether or not they want to be insured or not because there are plenty of people in America that live healthy lives and don’t necessary want insurance.

     Towards the end of her blog she then refers to The Washington post article titled “How to build a better healthcare system,” which basically says that healthcare practitioners can work though payment incentives. Practitioners can be rewarded by providing the best quality care possible for their patients, rather than cash in on the number of excessive tests and procedures they can set up. This can lead to a healthcare vision that can provide exceptional care for patients, reward practitioners for exceptional work, but also cost less with fewer unnecessary procedures.

      Overall, I agree with her reasoning for a more efficient and better quality healthcare system. Citizens have to pay a lot in general in order to live the American dream. We have to pay taxes, social security, transportation, living cost and so much more. It would be nice to have health insurance discounted, because we should not have to pay more for our OWN health.

Obamacare a step in the right direction

     We live in a country in which the majority of its population does not have any type of health insurance. As for those citizens who still don’t have coverage, they are highly recommended to go ahead and apply for Obamacare. Why not give it a shot? It’s better to be safe than sorry, and healthcare coverage always pays off in the long run.

     Obamacare lets its applicants keep a specific doctor of their choice. If you happen to like the current plan you are under, no one will take it away or change it. However, Obamacare lets you keep your insurance coverage. Obamacare is not a government takeover of health care. The reform legislation builds on our existing private health insurance system to fulfill citizens who had no access to affordable healthcare before the legislation.  This program is the largest health care tax cut in history for middle class families, again to help make insurance much more affordable and obtainable for millions of families living in the United States.

     Quality of care improvements under Obamacare has its benefits. Patient care under Medicare will improve as pilot programs work to help fix deficiencies. Doctors and hospitals are encouraged to work through payment incentives and are rewarded with bonus through quality, not quantity. This is also fixing the physician shortage from help by the PPACA. They include numerous policies to train more primary care physicians, increase medical supplies, and improve medical equipment.

     Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to tax citizens and spend money on welfare. This specific tax, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (PPACA) promotes the general welfare because it makes healthcare more available and affordable. In regards to where these savings are coming from, the reduction of out of pocket costs and lower taxes for Medicare and Medicaid will add up and reduce costs. Obamacare has its ways of preventing medical bankruptcy by limiting how much any family buying insurance in the exchange can be expected to pay out of pocket. This is done by not allowing you to exceed a certain percentage of your annual income in health insurance premiums. Providers will be willing to give time to help pay off bills, and even give discounts.

     Overall, I believe that we should definitely consider Obamacare a step in the right direction. The US is trying to fix what is broken and build on what works, slowly but surely. Citizens need to start thinking about what benefits them in the future.

White House: 11.4 million Americans enrolled in Obamacare this year

On Wednesday, February 18, 2015, Author Jon Green posted a blog on the Americablog website, titled “White House: 11.4 million Americans enrolled in Obamacare this year.” Jon portrays an opinion style blog. Jon Green graduated from Kenyon College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, and also earned a high honors in Political Cognition. Also, he worked as a field director for President Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012. His intended audience for this blog is for the American citizens.

 In this blog he talks about the outstanding results for this year’s enrollment of 11.4 million people for the American Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. February 15^th 2015 was the deadline to enroll for coverage under Obamacare and the results were much better than expected. Jon mentions that the Department of Health and Human Services’ original estimate for this year was a bit over 9 million signups; you can imagine that the employees at the Department of Health and Human Services were surprised. Compared to last year’s total of 6.7 million enrollees, this year’s total shows that changes were actually set in place for Americans to get our hands on affordable healthcare and also faith in Obamacare is on the rise.

Jon states that “Basic economics would suggest that if you mandate that people buy a cheaper product than what was previously available on the open market, more people will buy.” This is something that the Conservative Heritage Foundation predicted. A quick rundown about The Heritage plan, number one “All citizens should be guaranteed universal access to affordable health care,” number two “Mandate all households to obtain adequate insurance.” He also mentions that we citizens need to keep in mind two specific things about the Affordable Care Act, it has beaten expectations and it has done so despite having to drag the red states (Republican states) along with issues that would follow. These successes also come in spite of pending decision on the Supreme Court case of King v. Burwell, which conservatives are trying to challenge subsidies on the federally run state exchanges. Jon then says that this is why Republicans are hoping that Burwell loses the court case. Can you imagine the estimated 9,800 people who would die because of the dropped coverage if King succeeds? Everyone would blame the Republicans. Regardless, we need to thank the people that have worked to insure millions of citizens. We have to remember that there is lots of work that needs to be done and nothing changes without us Americans knowing.

From the looks of it Obamacare is coming together slowly but surely. Overall, I agree with Jon Green because compared to last year’s results of 6.7 million sign ups, 11.4 million does makes an enormous difference. It also makes me feel a bit more comfortable to insure myself, if all those American citizens trust the Affordable Care Act at its current state. As a college student I have some financial limitations and with the Affordable Care Act, I may qualify for lower monthly premiums and other savings, which is extremely beneficial in my book. I also get the benefit of buying a catastrophic health insurance plan in order to protect myself from worst case scenarios such as horrible accidents or illnesses. Honestly, I would rather be safe than sorry.

Government by CRomnibus- blind, deaf and dumb: Column

  On Tuesday, December 16, 2014, Author James Bovard published an article on USA Today, titled "Government by CRomnibus- blind, deaf and dumb: Column." In this article James portrays a permissive style argument. For starters, James Bovard is an author who has written for New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. His intended audience for this article is for the American public. He talks about the CRomnibus bill which is a massive spending bill of $1 trillion dollars that would keep the government funded through the fall of 2015 with continuing resolution. Approved by the House of Representatives with hours to spare before the deadline it only lead James to believe that members of the Congress created 1,603 pages for this bill with no time to look over it. Political parties are outraged because of the unnoticed provisions added into the bill, without any warning or public hearing. A few provisions he listed was marijuana in Washington D.C, bread in school cafeterias, sleepy truckers, and portrait paintings in the federal offices etc. Congressmen lacked reading over it. He explains a survey that was done in 1977, that revealed the average congress member spends only 11 minutes a day reading at work and because of how low the results was, there has been no follow up surveys to prove otherwise throughout the years. James also believes that politicians think that they are superior to the "common folk" and that we are better off even if they have little clue what they are doing to the American public. Time only tells how the CRomnibus bill will affect and ruin our American liberty, and how it will gradually waste American tax dollars. Overall, I would have to agree with James Bovard because this is nowhere near fair for the American public. If it involves our hard earned tax dollars, and effects our everyday lives, it would be preferred if they would go over the provisions with other political parties and the public in order to avoid confrontation such as this.

USA Today Cutting IRS budget hurts taxpayers

                         

            On Sunday, December 28,2014, USA Today published an article titled "Cutting IRS budget hurts taxpayers: Your say." This article it explains, in order to punish the potential crimes of employees for the IRS the US government are wanting to cut their budgets. When cutting the IRS budget and not providing the necessary funding to update computer systems to help prevent fraud for us citizens to file online taxes safely, this may cause millions of honest tax payers to be punished as well. I feel that this article is worth reading because it makes you wonder is this really a feasible idea. Crimes will always occur no matter how much the government tries to "punish" them. Another good reason is that the IRS is extremely important to every single citizen in America since they are one of the government branches that are responsible for tax collection and tax law enforcement, in order to make sure people in this world don't try to cheat the system. So why not take the time to read this article it may give you a different perspective on what is going on.