Anthony's Current event

My current event was about the problem with spending on schools and education. Each year we spend more and more on education, more than many other countries. But the issue is that we do not have the grades to show for it. Places like Canada, China, and North Korea are all doing academically better than the United States but are spending much less compared to us. With the economic crisis that we are in today, un-needed spending can not be over looked. Obama argues that with every one dollar we spend on education, we are getting 10 dollars back in future jobs and economic income. With the price of college increasing, people are worrying about if they will be able to get the job that they need afterwards. College isnt a guaranteed ticket into a blue collar lifestyle.
So the question I have is: Are we spending too much on education and is the spending worth it? And if not, are we getting back the knowledge and information we need to get a job from the schools?

Tim's Blog post; Student loan interest rate double or stay the same

         Many of us will be going in to college after we graduate next Spring.  It involves us getting student loans in the thousands of dollars.  There is a bill going through Congress that will double the student loan interest rate. Right now, there are not enough jobs to support many of the students who are graduating from college and it will be even worse if the interest rates double if the bill gets past. 

         Eager to energize young voters, President Barack Obama is depicting Republicans as obstacles to an affordable college education as he previews an argument he will make on university campuses next week in states crucial to his re-election.

        “This is a question of values,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday. “We cannot let America become a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of people struggle to get by.”

        Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday that more than 7 million students would be financially squeezed if rates were to rise, to the cost of an additional $1,000 on average.

        Obama wants Congress to extend a law that cut interest rates on a popular federal loan program for low- and middle-income undergraduates. If the law expires, the rates will double on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

         Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney also agrees with Obama on the Student Loan Bill which is very unusual.

        “ I fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans,” Romney said at the end of a seven-minute joint news conference with Rubio.

         There was some concern that that would expire halfway through the year, and I support extending the temporary relief on interest rates for students as a result of student loans, obviously, in part because of the extraordinarily poor conditions in the job market.”

          The National Defense Education Act (NDEA), signed into law on September 2, 1958, provided funding to United States education institutions at all levels.^[1] The act authorized funding for four years, increasing funding per year: for example, funding increased on eight program titles from 183 million dollars in 1959 to 222 million in 1960.^[2] While motivated by the increase in the number of students attending college and a growing national sense that U.S. scientists were falling behind scientists in the Soviet Union, it was arguably catalyzed by early Soviet success in the Space Race, notably the launch of the first-ever satellite, Sputnik, the year before.

Helps give money to kids going to college because of the fear of the Russians surpassing us in the education field, especially in the sciences.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-casts-gop-as-barrier-to-low-cost-education-republicans-hit-his-energy-policies/2012/04/21/gIQAngbGXT_story.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2012/0423/Student-loans-Obama-s-bid-to-rekindle-Yes-We-Can-among-youths

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/romney-backs-extension-of-low-student-loan-interest-rate/2012/04/23/gIQA7hIQcT_blog.html

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Ready-Reference/Legislative-Summary-Main-Page/Legislative-Summary/Education.aspx

question: It is very unusual for Obama and and Romney to be on the same page, do you agree with them in whether interest rates should not be doubled, or do you think they should? Explain.

Josh's Current Event (Economic Mistakes Obama Has Made)

CURRENT EVENT: Economic Mistakes Made by President Obama

In an article from US News in their opinion section, David Barker, a former Federal Reserve economist and author of Welcome to Free America, writes about how President Obama has made economic mistakes. He talks about how Obama “needs to be smarter about tax cuts, stimulus spending, and his rhetoric towards business.” Barker described how Obama was just inaugurated into office after the “worst financial panic since the Great Depression and the Stock Market Crash.” Despite how the economy is running today, smoothly and getting better, Barker finds that there are just a few mistakes that the Obama Administration is making.

Barker believes that the Administration is making “unnecessary tax cuts.” Barker states how the federal government needs an income source. He states how cutting government spending would be a better alternative than raising taxes. Barker also states how President Obama was supporting the tax reduction of employee payroll from 7.65 percent to 5.65 in one year. The reasoning for the tax cut was to “stimulate spending” so then the workers would get more money. The Administration planned on raising the taxes again the following year. Barker also stated how, although the tax cut would make it so workers got a bigger income, it then cost the government a rough estimate of $93 billion.

Another “mistake” that the Obama Administration has made, according to Barker, was inefficient stimulus spending. Barker stated how the Administration had created stimulus spending cost to about $170,000 and $400,000. The main goal of the stimulus spending was to increase jobs, but according to Barker, “a great deal of money appears to be wasted.” He states how only 7 percent of the spending was budgeted for infrastructure.

With relation to the Great Depression Era and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Barker talks about Robert Lucas who wrote about how FDR had an “anti-business rhetoric” where the government wouldn’t worry about “future taxes and regulations, and to cut back on investment plans.” Lucas then spoke of how Obama had the same “rhetoric” bust better than FDR. Obama gave businesses reason to worry about the economy. With the BP oil spill just recently and other drastic events that had happened that the government had to fund to help fix, the money had to go toward fixing these problems and Lucas stated how businesses shouldn’t be worrying about receiving their bonuses and making profits.

The main problem that David Barker talked about was how Obama has “no long term plan” for economics and to “reduce government debt.” Obama’s 2013 fiscal budget proposal predicted that federal dept would end up rising to close to 200 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or “The total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year (Google Dictionary). According to the Department of Treasury, the debt didn’t include the costs the government put into Social Security and Medicare, which debts grew larger. According to Barker, not only does the Obama Administration not have a long term plan, the senate hasn’t passed an annual budget since 2009.

Like after the crash of the Stock Market in 1929, businesses are becoming unwilling to invest because of tax increases and other possibilities to come in the future. However, if businesses knew what was to come in the near future, like tax cuts and government stimulus spending, they’d be more enthused to invest more.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2012/04/09/five-economic-mistakes-obama-is-making
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/04/08/low-approval-and-fragile-economy-spell-obama-reelection-trouble.html


QUESTION FOR THE BLOG: (Choose a scenario) If you were an affected business and had to coexist with the problems of Obama’s “plan,” how would you go about keeping the business alive? Would you have to cut employees or cut wages? If you ran a large business / chain, would you have to shut down businesses? How would you prepare for a crisis like this? OR, if you were Obama, what would your plan be? How would you handle tax cuts or increases, or stimulus spending to help the economy? With there being no “physical plan or budget” since 2009, how would you fix that? Is that why the economy is bad? How do you feel or what is your position on this issue? OR you could answer both.

Citizen Bank Scandal

All over the country Citizen Banks have been accused for manipulating peoples ATM transactions and debit cards in order to produce excess overdraft fees. The people that have been cheated rallied together in a class-action lawsuit, which is a whole group opposed to one person suing Citizen Bank.The lawsuit targeted over thirty different Citizen Banks over the country, putting Citizen Bank under pressure from the masses. US District Judge James Lawrence King of Miami, and numerous other lawyers took the case to the State District level. Citizen Bank was accused for using software programs to give out false fees to people who owed nothing to the bank. The bank tried to cheat some of its customers in order to make more money for themselves. The bank was changing the order of the debit card and ATM transactions in order to generate the higher fees. Citizen Bank settled with the charges and paid 137.5 million dollars for this scandal, a rather substantial loss. The action was not settled by the judge clearly to save the reputation of Citizen Bank. Jim Hughes, spokesman of Citizens Bank said that he was glad that this issue is behind us. The trust in banks has always been an issue since the Great Depression. When the stock market crashed in at the end of the 20s, people were left with no money, and were cheated out of any money they may have had. Banks in today’s economy clearly reflect that very same dishonesty that people faced in those days.

 Probing Question: What would you have done if you were being cheated by Citizen Bank? Do you think that the 137.5 million dollars was a harsh enough sentence for what the bank has done? Do you think other major banks across the country are also doing this?

 

Conflict in Syria - NOT DUE UNTIL FRIDAY!!

First of all, please note that this is not due until Friday, May 4!!

Now, considering our conversation on foreign policy and your independent review of the just war theory, propose an American foreign policy solution to the conflict in Syria.  This will require you to read the article, "What is Happening in Syria?", attached here (under the Foreign Policy folder).  Also, listen to the NPR story to gain further perspective.  Finally, settle on one of the four foreign policy options shared in class (isolationist, etc.).  Explain why we should adopt your approach using all you know about just war theory and the tools/players discussed.

Foreign Policy Wordle - DUE FRIDAY

You assignment is to create a Wordle and print it out on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  We will post them on our bulletin board tomorrow.  Here is how you do it:

Review the Foreign Policy Quotations handout found here (under the FOREIGN POLICY folder).  Underline all of the words you think are related/connected to your understanding of foreign policy (ex. power, leader, war, ambition, security).

Then, take that list of words and bring them to http://www.wordle.net/.  Click "Create your own".  Enter your words into the field provided.  The words you think are the most important should be entered multiple times as this will make them appear larger than others.  Then, click "go" (make sure you have entered everything correctly as it will not allow you to go back).  You can use the different tools to make your wordle unique.  Then hit print!

If you don't have a printer, click print and then drop down the printers to Adobe PDF.  This will allow you to save it to your hard drive.  Then email the file to copy.center@hudson.k12.ma.us so that you will be ready for class tomorrow.  OR do a screen capture and then send that to the copy center.  Good luck!

Affordable health care answer

I could not get a computer to do this, so I typed it in my iPhone. But the. It it deleted. But here is a snapshot of it!

Kirsten's Current Event

The main idea of this article is that Stephen Colbert, who is a comedian on Comedy Central, runs a super PAC has taken in over $1 million as of Tuesday according to a disclosure given to the F.E.C (Federal Election Commission.) His super PAC is called ‘Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.’ Colbert said in a statement to the FEC, "Yeah! How you like me now, F.E.C? I'm rolling seven digits deep! I got 99 problems but a non-connected independent-expenditure only committee ain't one!" He has raised almost $200,000 in January alone. Expenditure means the act of spending funds. The term "independent expenditure" means “an expenditure by a person expressly advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate”. The non connected part means that they can accept money from anybody and they are usually formed by Groups with an ideological mission, single-issue groups, and members of Congress.

Super PACs are independent political committees in the United States that campaigns for or against political candidates, ballot initiatives or legislation. Super PACs can't contribute directly to a candidate, but they can run favorable ads about a candidate—or negative ones about their favored candidate's opponent.

• 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt called for campaign finance reform.

· 1971, Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). This Act further defined how a PAC could operate.

· Congress in 1974 set limits on contributions to PACs and established the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

· 2010 case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled PACs may accept unlimited contributions from individuals, unions, and corporations (both for profit and not-for-profit) for the purpose of making independent expenditures.

· They helped publicize and demote candidates, depending on their popularity and amount of money.

As a super PAC the organization can raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as wealthy individuals. Speaking in character, Colbert said the money will be raised not only for political ads, but also "normal administrative expenses, including but not limited to, luxury hotel stays, private jet travel, and PAC mementos.” Colbert's super PAC is doing what other super PACs do: spending unlimited sums to overtly advocate for or against political candidates, .Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow ran ads in advance to publicize Rick Parry And while Colbert hit the campaign trail in South Carolina, the super PAC ran ads that referred to Mitt Romney as "Mitt the ripper." He uses Parry rather than Perry so Rick Perry gets less votes. To wrap it all up, he is basically using the money from his PAC to make fun of other PACs that are supporting specific candidates.

Question:

Do you agree with Super PACS, in a sense that they should or shouldn't be allowed to fund a specific candidate? Do you agree with people like Colbert, who are using money to put down or make fun of the candidates, rather than promoting one, or do you think it is a waste of money?

Affordable Care Act

• Governor Mitt Romney signed a health plan act in 2006 so legislation provides health insurance for every citizen.
• Romney signed this act into a law.
• It requires everyone to buy health insurance if their work does not provide it.
• People who recieve under three times the federal poverty level ($29,000) a year, can buy a state-subsidized health plan with no deductables and rich benefits, including dental care.
• Currently, Obama wants to change it to the Affordable Care Act.
• This law aims to improve the current health care system by increasin access to health coverage for Americans.
• This law also introduces new protections for people with health insurance.
• Health insurance plans will now cover out-of-pocket costs for many services, such as a mammogram.
• This law also will help small businesses pay for their employees health insurance.
• Not all jobs offer health insurance, or people could have been denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition, such as cancer.
• This law now offers plans for people with these pre-existing conditions, and insurance companies cannot deny coverage to these people.
• This law aims to reduce premium costs for working families and small businesses by providing tax relief.
• This law also pivots the constitutionality of its requirement that all Americans need health insurance.

**Should health insurance be a requirement in the United States or do you think it should be up to the citizen to choose?

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2012/03/30/if_national_health_law_falls_massachusettss_law_could_face_challenges/?page=2

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/04/18/mitt-romney-on-romneycare.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5330854

http://www.healthcare.gov/law/full/index.html

http://www.healthcareandyou.org/what-is/

US Postal Service Crisis

Last Thursday the US Postal Service announce new plans to close 223 mail plants. The move is expected to save over 2.1 billion dollars, but would put over 35,000 jobs at risk. The Postal service is making this a part of their effort to save $20 billion in the next three years, a move that will hopefully keep them afloat and competing with private companies. According to the postal service in the past year they had a net loss of 5.1 billion, which would have been roughly 10.6 billion if not for a legislative act which postponed 5.5 billion in retiree health benefits.

The postal service is in debt due to a decline in the use of their services because of competing private companies such as UPS. The United States Postal Service is required to have across the board prices, which reduces its ability to compete with private companies that can change their prices at will. It also is in debt due to a congressional mandate that they must prefund retirement health care benefits. "Passage of legislation is urgently needed that provides the postal service with the speed and flexibility needed to cut costs that are not under our controll, including employee health care costs," said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe.

The plant closings are the latest in a series of moves being considered by the Post office. The Postal Service is also considering cancelling Saturday services and hiking the price of stamps to 50 cents. Under the plan nearly every state would lose at least one mail processing plant with California losing 14, New York losing 12 and Illinois faces the loss of 9 plants. A single plant in Tulsa Oklahoma employs 600 people, and is slated to be closed. According to the Postal Service if nothing is done by the government to bail the Post Office out of debt then they will face 18 Billion in losses by 2015.

Question: How do you think the United States government can save the Postal Service? Or do you think they should allow it to dissolve by itself due to competing private companies?

Sorry, I pressed save instead of publish originally...that's why this is so late.