Affordable Care Act

It seems that the growing concern now in national government, is a question of whether the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare" to others,  is something that Americans really need. Problems with the website Healthcare.gov has many people and republicans in particular, concerned with how the effective this new law is going to be. This issue is going to be in the spotlight for many years to come or at least until after the Presidency of Barrack Obama. Many questions arise like...Do we really need to insure everyone in the United States? Where is the nation going to find the funds to back this law? Will American Citizens really be able to afford these new "affordable" insurance rates?

In a news article from NBCnews.com on their politics page, President Obama said he is determined to keep the Affordable Care Act alive as long as he is still President. Republicans are doing all they can to defunct the law and keeping the process of it to become fully matured. This ongoing battle between The Executive Branch and the Legislature is leading the nation in a standstill. Neither side, as it seems, is giving an inch to compromise unless it is total obliteration of the opposite's ideals.

My own personal opinion on the subject matter is undetermined, as I believe that I do not file under the group of people who needs this form of insurance, because my occupation with the City of Austin covers me. I understand the sides of the issue only vaguely and with that small understanding I can only try to come to a conclusion of my own, on whether this law is necessary. If I may speak freely, through this post, I say for me personally, The Affordable Care Act is something that I would not support because currently I am not in a position that I'm in dire need of health insurance. If I were a different situation in life where I needed medical attention and did not have health insurance, I would probably singing a different tune. Its all rather subjective to one's lifestyle on whether the Affordable Care Act is a necessary law needed by American citizens. There are too many variables and factors that can swing one's ideology to give a clear and concise conclusion. I will say that as long as the law doesn't affect my personal life too greatly then there is no objections with me. Though it may sound rather selfish of me to say these things, I truly believe the saying "to each their own" in regards with the issue of the Affordable Care Act.

Some interesting facts can be found on Huffingtonpost.com in an article titled "The Biggest Myths About Obamacare." The article is an interesting read and somewhat correlates with my opinion on that the law really does not affect me. Its is up to the individual on whether they feel that "Obamacare" is right or wrong and on that note... I bid you goodnight.

-Philip Corpus

Criticism on "Illegal Immigration"

   Mr. Garcia gives his opinion about the issue of illegal immigration that occurs in the United States of America and how illegal immigration actually helps the U.S. economy and that it brings other benefits such as culture and diversity. Illegal immigration is a topic that I can relate to in that many people from my culture, Filipinos, are struggling with immigrating to the United States. Many of these Filipinos end up taking work visas and/or student visas to come to the U.S., but after their visas are up, some of them end up staying in the country illegally. Though I can sympathize with the argument that immigrants bring a cultural and diversity aspect to America, I do believe that one should become a citizen of the United States the legal way, instead of dodging the federal government process and exploiting loop holes in the system.

Mr. Garcia backs his argument that people complain that illegal immigrants do not have to pay taxes and that if the United States Government would give these illegals green cards that it "would have contributed an average amount of  $34-$47 billion in the next decade." There is this view that illegal immigrants do not hurt the economy but facts point that illegal immigrants who take jobs actually undercut and under wage the job market in America. According to The New York Times, in their article titled "Do Illegal Immigrants Actually hurt the U.S. Economy?", labor economists have concluded that undocumented workers have lowered the wages of U.S. adults without a high-school diploma — 25 million of them — by anywhere between 0.4 to 7.4 percent.  

Being a citizen of the United States has many benefits and freedoms. It is only right that people from other countries wanting to live in the U.S. should become a citizen. By becoming a part of the system, I personally believe that people are able to have a greater voice in American society, but not saying that those outside the system don't have a voice...Theirs is just a lot smaller because of certain barriers they face. Illegal immigration is one of those issues in America that has been in the spotlight for many years, but if we continue to allow it to happen, what will become of the citizens of the country? Will we have our rights taken away so that those outside the system may prosper? It is a hard stance, but by following the process set by our government officials, we as a nation are able to set fair and balance laws and policies...Otherwise, what is the point of being a citizen of the United States? 
  
 

The Debate of Gun Control

      
In recent days, weeks, months and years, the United States has always come to the great question of Gun Control. Just this past week, the LAX Airport in California was a place of gun violence that rages the country every year and not even a month earlier the news and media was reporting about the Washington Navy Yard being under attack by someone wielding a 12 gauge shot gun. Many news and media sources have opinions about what we as a people should do about gun violence.

For example, Sanjay Sanghoee, The Huffington Post, believes that "gun control, for sure, is going nowhere fast — if at all." From his statement, I get the sense of pacifism that the issues of gun control will never be resolved, but he does continue stating that we as people need to come to understanding of how guns actually create violence rather than just being the convenient instruments of it. Another writer by the name of Rebecca Leber, Think Progress believes that "the NRA will likely argue that this shooting (LAX shooting) is more proof gun restrictions should be weakened, not strengthened in public areas, since a bystander could intervene in a shooting. All the best research points to this being even more dangerous." Leber's statement seems to be going the route of saying that we need stricter gun laws. The usual topic is that we should either make stricter gun control policies or that we should lessen the restrictions on gun control. Government officials are given the pros and cons of each side of the argument and it is from the evidence produced that they are able to come up with rational gun control policies, but the question is...Are these Government Officials really making the proper and necessary laws to keep gun violence to a minimum?

In my personal opinion, I do not believe that the U.S. Government does enough to keep guns off the hands of bad people and that the simple state and federal background checks need to be re-worked and revised to keep guns from falling into the criminally minded people. It is too easy to go into a firearms dealer and purchase a gun in the United States. From my own personal experience, it took less than ten to fifteen minutes for the whole process in acquiring a firearm. There is something to be said about that process in that there are not enough safeguards in place within the system to keep loopholes or rather exploitations from occurring. It is too easy to pass those backgrounds checks and as long as people have the money, there is no stopping them from purchasing a firearm.

Statistics show that 65% of Americans and 59% of gun owners in America support the limiting of handgun sales to one per person per month. Another statistic shows that 79% of Americans, 69% of police chiefs, 61% of gun owners, 59% of NRA members have support for registration of handguns. Through these figures and studies, it definitely shows that the people of the U.S. do agree in having stricter gun laws. Some other statistics show that  “No background check” sales account for an estimated 40% of gun sales in the U.S. and that in one year, at least 30,000 guns are “lost” out of gun dealers inventories. These statistics scare me into thinking we need stricter gun laws. Its hard to believe that these things really happen in our country and what its says about our country is that we are too relaxed. I'm all about having the "right to bear arms", but if that right would eventual lead to early death...than to hell with it, we need stricter gun laws to keep events like LAX shootings or the Washington Navy Yard from hitting us to close to home.

Republican's Folly

On Monday, October 21, 2013, The Huffington Post, published an article titled "Republicans Shoot America in the Foot" written by Leo W. Gerard, one of The Huffington Post's signature contributors. Gerard writes his opinion about how the Republicans have done something rather self-deprecating to America. Throughout his blog, Gerard mentions how the Republicans kept referring to the whole government shutdown like it was some sort of battle that they just lost. Gerard believes that the Republicans had not only hurt themselves, but also aided in hurting the entire nation as a whole by holding "hostage" the government, which in turn "depressed growth and killed jobs."

Gerard begins backing up his argument with some evidence from a Washington Post-ABC poll that found that nearly three-quarters of Americans disapproved of Republicans and that the poll also found that 47% of Republicans disapprove of Congressional Republicans. Gerard gives an example of Senator John McCain stating that the government shutdown was a "hard blow to the Republican Party," which further proves his argument that even a well-known Republican acknowledges that the GOP had really screwed up in this situation. He continues in his post by giving us facts about the government shutdown like for example, how the 16-day shutdown "took $24 billion out of the economy and suppressed growth."

Gerard then explains all the ripple effect consequences that came out of the government shutdown and it was all because of the GOP's war on the government that is to blame. He gives his predictions on how the after-effects of the government shutdown may affect the market and raise borrowing costs for not only the government but for also homebuyers and businesses. Gerard ends his post with how the Republicans will possibly close the government again come Jan. 15, when financing expires under the deal that was approved upon last week.

Leo W. Gerard's intended audience can be seen to be aimed at the general public and the Democratic Party because he tries to convince his readers of the wrongdoings of the GOP and that these mistakes may cost the Republicans dearly, in coming elections. I do believe in Gerard's credibility because of his experience in various policy committees and groups. His title of International President of the United Steelworkers Union (USW) also gives him credit since it is the largest manufacturing union in North America, representing 1.2 million active and retired industrial and service sector workers in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. I would have to agree with Mr. Gerard's argument of the GOP not only shooting themselves in the foot but also shooting America in the foot. His examples of the Republicans threat of default showed that it was a waste of money and did nothing for the economy but made it even more difficult for it to recover from the recent "Great Recession." I find it sad that the GOP took the measures that they took just to prove a point. Why risk a complete meltdown of the nation? It seems rather a folly move on their part. I guess issues like these will never have a truly perfect solution, but rather it is up to the people of this nation to learn from these events and to build upon those experiences to create the near perfect solution. I do wonder what will become of us come January 15, 2014...only time will tell.

The Nation's Debt Ceiling

On Monday, October 7, 2013, The New York Times published an article titled "Why the Debt Ceiling Matters" written by Joe Nocera, one of The New York Times' Op-Ed Columnist. Nocera writes why the U.S. Government's debt ceiling should matter to everyone (or at least to Americans) and explains how it will affect the World's financial stage if the U.S. falls into default. He brings up the word "catastrophic" and how, in years past, this particular word had scared Congressmen to spur into action to keep the nation from defaulting. The Tea Party Republicans, according to Nocera, wants the U.S. Government to go into default in order to bring about "the smaller government they so yearn for."

From there he builds his argument stating the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution will come in as a possible solution that President Obama may use to ignore the debt ceiling. Nocera argues a second point of how the U.S. Government Debt is important to the world financial market as being a model that is used to measure the world's financial system. If the U.S. were to go into default, Nocera believes that it would cause several consequences to our economy and the world's economy. He continues in the article about how Social Security recipients would possibly not be paid because the U.S. would prioritize paying other creditors like bondholders in China if the U.S. defaults. Joe Nocera then asks the question of why the nation would risk one of its greatest asset, "the backing of its debt" when it gives the United States so many advantages.

Joe Nocera's intended audience seems to be aimed towards the general public and possibly to the Tea Party Republicans. I do believe that he has credibility in his writing because he also works with NPR as a business commentator and has over 10 years in experience with several business related magazines and papers. From what I'm getting from Joe Nocera's article is that he believes we should raise the debt ceiling in order to create stability for the our economy and the world's economy. Nocera's argument of how the U.S. would have less credibility with its investors, if we defaulted, made a strong point. I agree with the argument that if raising the debt ceiling is what it takes to divert a world scale financial problem, then so be it. I think its better to stay afloat in misery than to sink into despair. I will say though, that a small part of me does disagree with raising the debt ceiling because it makes me wonder if the U.S. will ever have a reasonable amount debt that we can handle. If we continue to allow ourselves  to raise the debt ceiling, it means that America's future generations will continue to be drag into this never ending process. It seems that every year or so the U.S. Government goes through this crazy process and can never really find a true end all solution. Some drastic measures would probably be needed to fix this problem. What those measures could be is hard to say, but it's truly something the nation as a whole really needs to think about.

 

Government Shutdown?

On Monday, September 23, 2013, CNN published an article titled "10 ways a government shutdown would affect your daily life." The article gives a brief description about what might possibly happen, if the U.S. Government, were to shutdown come October 1 due to Congress' inability to come to an agreement of how the U.S. should pay its bills. The article continues in listing the different services that would affect the general public and the cost of previous U.S. Government shutdowns.

I feel this article is worth reading because the issue of the nation's debt problem is quite interesting and the article gives a fun perspective of  how we, the general public, maybe affected by the decisions of our government leaders. CNN's list gives us a forewarning that might be quite helpful to us in making certain decisions. For example, CNN states how if we were to go on vacation, during the government shutdown, you better have had your passport setup because the facilities who process the passport applications, will most likely be closed and further delay the process.

For me personally, if the government would shutdown, I think that it would not affect my personal life all so much, but more my relatives in the military or those needing a passport made. I think that if you plan your life smartly, you will not be affected by a government  shutdown if it arises or at least will not be too affected by it. So the question is...How will a government shutdown affect YOU?