Blog Stage 8

I could not agree with you more Jesse! Very nice blog! Those stats from the pie chart are almost sickening. When and how did America ever come to what it is now? The old system seemed to be working just fine. At least compared to what it is now! Another thought to bring to the table is.. if you have five dollars that is actually worth five dollars and then lets say you decide to print four more dollars but they are based on the five “real” dollars you had in the first place, now you may have more actual dollar bills but they are still combined only worth the five dollars in the first place. So as you can see, it is clear that just by printing more money you may have more dollar bills but they still only have the value of what they are based on. Paper money has to have some kind of “value” it is based on otherwise its just paper. This just does not make any sense to me. Does it to you? Your right, this is not fair, but honestly we are so far buried in debt and in a major recession, I often doubt the hope we have to rebuild our economy and pay back our debt. What is in our power to do?

http://thisblogmaycontaintreason.blogspot.com/2009/05/time-is-money-borrowed-time.html#comments

Does the government have unlimited funds?

According to Andrew Taylor, an Associated Press writer, “The government will have to borrow nearly 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year, exploding the record federal deficit past $1.8 trillion under new White House estimates.” These numbers are so big, that the average American cannot even comprehend how much money this really is, wow!

According to this article, part of this increase in national debt is to pay for bail outs and additional government aide due to the current recession. I thought one of the reasons that we were in this recession in the first place was because Americans were borrowing money they could not and did not pay back. If it does not work for the people, will this work for the government? Even if only for a short time, this “plan” for spending twice as much as you make would surely not work and did not work as the borrower would soon be borrowing and paying back at the same time. This would add up to serious trouble over time.

Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, stated, “The president…understands the critical importance of fiscal discipline.” I would have to disagree! My definition of fiscal discipline is being frugal with your money, limited in the first place and not spending more money than you have if you know that it will be a challenge to pay borrowed money back. Does this seem fair to the tax-paying Americans who are truly cutting back to live through this recession – by choosing food over a night at the movie, gas over a day at the amusement park. No, this does not seem fair! I understand that we cannot let people go hungry in this country, but are taxpayers ultimately responsible for people, like our government, who simply spend too much money for the income they receive?

Taxpayers, of course, will be responsible for eventually paying these high government debts back. I am sure that many people are not happy about, in addition to having to cut back now, having to cut back again when the bill becomes due for these loans in the form of new and/or increased taxes. I know I am not.

Blog Stage 6

I would have to agree with Rachel that Obama’s healthcare plan would not necessarily be beneficial to the American public. Why would America want health coverage that would not work for them and fulfill their needs? I t would make much more sense to me to give the public the money that the government was going to use for this program and let citizens decide what healthcare plan would be best for them and their family.

One problem I see is that a government funded health program would not allow you to select your own doctor/ hospital. A doctor/patient relationship is very personal. You would want to choose a doctor that you felt comfortable around, treated you with respect and took good care of your medical needs. I personally want to be able to choose a healthcare plan based on my doctor being part of that plan and not having to select a doctor based on my healthcare plan.

Competition among healthcare providers and doctors is very vital in keeping good customer service. Just like most government agencies, once competition is gone, so is the desire to “help” the customer. I do not want to be another patient in the doctor’s office taking a number, signing a million papers, and waiting for hours for my care, just like when I go get my driver’s license renewed. Does this sound like good health care to you?

So, Obama’s health care plan would not be good to America and the money would be better spent as a credit to be used to purchase your own private health insurance.

Positive Thinking?

This week, President Obama offers a “glimmer of hope” to the nation about the economy. Even though he is completely aware that there is still much work to be done and the economy is still under great amounts of stress, there has been some improvement. He also claims that we are seeing progress and “if we stick with it…we will get the economy back on track.”

Is this statement true? Statistics show that the number of American’s collecting unemployment went up this week from 5.75 million to 5.84 million. That seems to me to contradict what Obama recently said about the economy. Right?

Obama when asked about the current economy over the last several months would often respond that it will get much worse before it is going to get any better. He now seems to be trying to be more optimistic. Is he just trying to convince the nation by highlighting the positive instead of the negative?

I wonder how the 8.5 percent of Americans that do not have jobs at this point feel about his statement? I am sure they do not agree with the concept that there is a “glimmer of hope” for our economy. For the people that might be merely surviving on one income or the small amount of money drawn from unemployment, the Presidents statement does not convince them that there is, in fact, hope in the weeks ahead.

I’m not sure that merely stating that the economy is getting better will actually make it get better or convince American. To those who are not hurting from the recession, the economy already seems hopeful because they are not suffering from its effects. Maybe after three months of being president, he is just simply tired of only having bad things to report to Americans.

What great statistics!

When looking for a commentary, I came across this one which is about how children are being affected by our economy crisis. In this commentary there are quite a few statistics that just blow my mind. One statistic, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, states that almost thirty percent of the freshman class will drop out this year. If that is not crazy enough the number actually jumps to forty percent when in urban areas. Wow! This statistic alone made me want to see how I could help.

The next statistic is that twenty percent of the violence in America is done by young people during the hours of three and four which is right at the end of a school day. Violent juvenile crimes go up, according to the statistics by Duke University’s Center for Child and Family Policy. The author seems to be proving the young people need something to do and a place to go after school.

I think the author did a great job by adding these statistics to his commentary because of the fact that they help make it convincing to go help out this organization. I would have to assume that these statistics are true since he gathered this information from credible organizations. This information gives readers another reason to consider joining the efforts because of the difference someone can make in quite a few of these children’s lives.

This commentary was written by a man named Denzal Washington. It seems to me that he is well qualified for this job and very credible. One reason I think he is credible is because he is not out there just preaching it, he has actually been a part of The Boys and Girls Club in New York and was a part of this club till he turned eighteen. So he knows and understands how important this club can be for young boys and girls because he states how much in had an impact on his life. Another reason he is credible is because people would recognize him from his acting career and assume he knows what he is talking about. He is also credible because he writes commentaries for CNN and I assume there are certain rules and standards he has to follow.


At the end of this commentary he asks that we all join him in this effort with a list of ways that we can help and make a difference. This means that his intended audience would be anyone affected by these statistics and interested in joining him in his efforts.

I think the most convincing part about this article is that he states he would not be the man he is today without the influence and help of this organization. To me this was neat because he is proof that the Boys and Girls Club is helping kids and changing the direction of their lives and proves worth joining the effort to help out these children in need.

The government has to help, right?

I came across this article on the Austin American-Statesman’s website about Obama’s plan to “clean up” the housing problem. The article is written by the Editorial Board for the Austin American Statesman. I tried as hard as I could to figure out who was on the Editorial Board of this local newspaper, but I was not successful. I am assuming that since this is a Board and is a collection of people who I would think had to meet some type of requirements, that they are, in fact, credible.

This article was written for people who subscribe and/or read this paper. This commentary would be read by people who have a political interest or at least an interest in one way the stimulus package will be used. Also, this commentary would be of particular interest to those about to loose their homes.

The board that wrote this article pointed out that most Americans are not happy with Obama’s plan to bailout the folks that took out too big of a loan. The bored that these homeowners knew from the beginning they would not be able to pay back this loan. I agree with this. It doesn’t seem fair for those who were wise enough to know they had to live within their means and purchase a home they could afford will now have to “pay” for other’s mistakes and greed. Does it seem fair that some live in an ordinary home while others live in homes that would be considered anything but ordinary? No, I think not.

The article also states that at least part of the money will go to those who the authors claims are not “deadbeats” helping them reduce their mortgage rate as well. This only seems fair since we should reward those who weren’t so greedy.

The board also goes on to say, however, that because of the high number of people that would loose their homes due to theses circumstances, something does have to be done. Of course, I agree with the authors that if it is in our power to help out those that have lost their jobs and simply cannot pay because of a loss of income, that we have to help them. We can’t have this many families without homes.

Her 8 Kiddos.. Our Taxes!

Today I read this story and watched a video or two from this website http://topics.cnn.com/topics/nadya_suleman. This story is about a young, single mother named Nadya Suleman who has just recently had 8 children and has had 6 over the last couple of years which now makes 14. Why she thought she needed 8 more kids that she cannot care for without the funding from our taxes, I have no idea! Ok guys, but get this, she has a website where she is asking for online donations. Crazy! The thing I wonder too is where did she get the money she needed to "become pregnate" in the first place? Why didn't she use that money to start paying off the 50,000 dollars she owes in student loans? The list goes on and on of better ways she could have used this money. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love kids and know they are such an incredible gift from God. One thing that bothers me though about this story is that before making the decision to get pregnate, she should have been completly sure that she was going to be able to care and provide these 8 deserving children with the essentials of life. Which obviously is not the case!