"What does the fiscal cliff mean to my family and what should Congress do to avoid the Fiscal Cliff?"

"What does the fiscal cliff mean to my family and what should Congress do to avoid the Fiscal Cliff?"

The Fiscal Cliff will become a large part of my family’s financial struggles next year. It is said that when we go over this so called “cliff”, which is actually more of a slope, the unemployment of the United states will reach about 9% and our taxes will go up. The taxes that are going up will be the payroll tax, not the income tax. I also read there will be $2000 added on to everyones payment to the government. But when we think about how this cliff will put the U.S into another recession, that higher payroll tax is going to take a large dip out of everyone’s income especially when people are losing their jobs. It will be even harder for families that make their livings as farmers, like mine, because a recession and the onset of a two year drought will weaken our economy even more.

I do believe that Congress will come up with a plan; whether it is good or not is a different story. The reason we are having so much trouble is the fact that the Republicans and Democrats are disputing, and some believe we need a long term plan rather than just a short lived, unuseful plan. A long term plan would be nice, but do we have time for that at this point in time? So in my opinion we should get rid of the bush era tax cuts and raise each class’s taxes.  Now my opinion is just an opinion and I am not saying it is right. But when we look at where our economy is right now we need to pay down our debt and cut spending to start making our way back on top.

I am sort of in-between the Republican and Democrat stand points because i don’t completely agree with either; but if I had to say I would say that I am leaning more towards the Republican side. What we really need is some leadership from our representatives in Congress to step up and do the right thing.

This 2012 election

                In my version of this game I have Mitt Romney winning the election with 281 electoral votes to Barack Obama’s 257. My choices for the swing states are as follows: Nevada as Romney, Colorado as Romney, Minnesota as Obama, Iowa as Obama, Ohio as Romney, Pennsylvania as Obama, North Carolina and Virginia as Romney, Florida as Romney, and Wisconsin and New Hampshire as Obama. I based all of my choices on the information that the site provided me. So if a swing state has voted in the majority of the Democrat I kept them as Democrat or vice versa. I truthfully don’t think that the readings affected my decisions but they were kept in mind. The three states that I will talk about are Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Iowa’s history shows that four out of the last five elections they voted Democrat but the majority isn't really that far from the minority. In those five elections the percentages were split with one party in the 50’s and the second in the 40’s. Iowa seems like it is supporting Obama because of his tax credits on wind energy. Wisconsin and Minnesota are actually very close to being the same as Iowa but the votes have fallen in favor of the Democrats in the last five elections. Wisconsin seems to like Obama for his plan to help the middle class and economy. Minnesota will stick with Obama because there is no third party candidate to ruin his chances like in Carter and the first Bush’s time.

                My research has found that Obama leads in Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. But Romney is leading in all of the other swing states. In the game if this were so Romney would win 276 to 262 electoral votes. So in my opinion there might be some states that are not swing states affecting the election. But with states such as Texas that have been Republican for the last five elections, there is not much chance of them switching to Democrat. The three solid states that I chose are Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. These three states are in the same boat as the three swing states that I spoke about before. These states are equally split and could swing either way and may play a large role in this election. They are all red states because they always swing to the Republican side. Missouri has only been wrong twice and history and last year was one time; in the past four years that was the only time they voted blue so it looks as if Romney will win here. In Arkansas they seem to like Romney for his road tax plan. In Louisiana they are more worried about the economy and will vote for Romney.

                So when I think about this election and am asked to give my opinion on the winner I really don’t know. Every state seems like it could swing either way in my eyes.

The 2012 Election

                In this day and age the young Americans are said to not be as involved or don’t care about our nation’s government, I do not agree with this. I am part of this young generation that everyone constantly says is no good and frankly it upsets me. Before everyone starts to stereotype they need to step back and look at the situation from every angle. I think as this next generation, when we are called upon we will stand up and take care of our responsibilities. We realize that it us up to us to vote and get the right candidate into office because every election affects our futures directly.

                The United States is a democracy and in order to uphold that democracy the people as a whole need to step up to serve and teach others the importance of their role. Everyone needs to vote to situate the best candidate in the oval office. President in a very important role but we also need to elect the right personnel in the state and local positions as well. In order to run a strong government we need strong state and local governments.

                To help in this election my group and I worked together to help a Democratic candidate running for the Iowa Senate, Brian Schoenjahn. We really didn’t get to help him directly in his campaign but we publicized his candidacy in our school for our “Meet the Candidates Night”. Even though I am not a Democrat this project helped me see the importance of volunteer help in elections.

Blog 5

10/1 - Of the 8 principles of the Constitution; which do you believe to be most influential in shaping society? What role have these ideas had on domestic and foreign policies? 

                I believe that popular sovereignty is the most influential principle in shaping society.  Popular sovereignty is a doctrine in political theory that government is created by and subject to the will of the people. So the government is created and changed by the people of the United States. So if we change our own government that shapes our society, correct? We control how we want everything to be done, so most of the things we change are in our best interest. We very rarely do things out of our best interest.

Popular sovereignty then plays a major role in United States’ domestic policy because domestic policy is directly related to the people. If one candidate has a stronger domestic policy than the other then we will most like vote in favor of the one with the stronger domestic policy. A very large example of a domestic policy is healthcare. The stand of a candidate on healthcare will sway the way people vote for them. In today’s situation Democrats are in favor of Obama’s plan but the Republicans do not. The Republicans greatly disagree with Obama’s plan and are using is low points to throw Romney into a win. In the end, one domestic policy may be the deciding factor in this election. I truthfully agree with the Republicans because Obama’s healthcare does not seem to be the answer to our desperate situation.

Now whether popular sovereignty plays a role in foreign policy I am sort of on the fence about. We pick and choose our own government, which controls foreign policy; but we don’t actually control foreign policy ourselves. So I guess you could say that popular sovereignty does play a role in foreign policy but in a roundabout way. Seeing as we are part of a war at the moment that would be a great example of foreign policy. In my opinion, whether Romney wins this election may rest on the fact that he wants to further the war. The United States has had plenty of war and we all think we should be rid of any such thing. Obama’s foreign policy on the war states that he was all troops out by 2014, at least he has a plan. So foreign policy will change by who we vote for but it will also change by the way the elected candidate chooses to handle the situation.

Blog 4

Is Ryan’s Body-Fat Claim Exaggerated?

I did obtain this article from Newsweek. First off I would like to know why his body percent possibly matters. Due to the “obesity epidemic” that the United States is having, everyone’s health gets more attention and is often blow out of proportion. So the fact that a political site would even care about such an issue is absurd. It is coming to the point this late in the running that writers can’t find any incriminating information on the candidates and they have to stoop to these levels. Ryan’s claim is that he has only 6 to 8 percent body percent fat and that he is a health addict. What he wants to do in his free time is his personal business; why this came out in the first place is baffling. Does anyone even know for sure what his body fat percentage is? If the answer to that question is no then why is everyone making accusations saying that he doesn’t, maybe he does. I have to say that this is hard to believe because, as stated in the article, Olympic swimmers have close to 9.5 % but we have no information to tell us otherwise. Even though it is a little unbelievable I would still vote for Ryan because he seems like a boss.

What it means to be a U.S citizen to me, Ethan Parker

Being a U.S citizen is the most amazing opportunity that any person can ever obtain. This is the most amazing country, in my eyes, for one reason-freedom. Even though there are many more reasons to be glad about being a U.S citizen, our freedom seems to be the largest. Our founding fathers set out on a goal and they were not going to fail. They set out to obtain our freedom by making a constitution.

The freedom of the United States allows us to do most anything we want. We can run our own businesses; we are not tied to the government because we are a free enterprise. We are blessed to have the democracy that we have, for the freedoms and protection it provides. Our military is the strongest for one reason-loyalty. There is great loyalty in our country because it is so great. The loyalty brings determination and hard work into play. We see focus and the hands on the chests of the people listening to the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem. That is the respect for our country because we do not want to take our freedom for granted.

My love for this country is profound. The things our founding fathers did for this country are not to be looked over and aren’t. 

blog 2

Friday, September 14, 2012

Do you agree with President Obama’s plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan? Why or why not? What would you do?

As of June 2011, Obama’s plan to withdraw troops was to get the remaining 33,000 troops out of Afghanistan within 15 months. President Obama stated that 10,000 troops would come home in 2011 and 23,000 in 2012. As a democrat I would think that one would want to end the war as fast as possible because isn’t that what they dislike the most? He may blame the war is putting us farther in debt, which it is, but he hasn’t ended it. The fact that in the past year I have actually had a family member be deployed to Afghanistan proves that instead of taking troops out he is sending more in. President Obama has taken troops out of Afghanistan but not the numbers he promised in his election speech four years ago. 

                So if I were to say that I agree with Obama’s plan to withdraw troops, it would be a lie. Granted he was not left with an easy task when Bush left office, but I think there would be better ways of handling the situation. The government makes a big deal about helping the countries get back on their feet, would anyone truthfully help the United States get back on its feet after that kind of situation? Over the history of the United States we have “helped” too many countries which also led us farther into debt, that is the democratic way. His plan that has had our troops stay over there has not bettered the situation and has cost us a little over $1.3 trillion since 2001.

                What would I do is a hard question to answer because I am only 17 and I know little about how the stereotypical war should be handled. To answer the question as best as I can, I would say that when I entered office I would have sent all of the troops and equipment that I could over immediately. We would have then taken over the situation completely and then left the control to the governments. After they established some sort of order we would have packed up and left everyone. Then our hands would have been whipped clean and our spending would be over.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

blog 2

This political cartoon is obviously about President Obama. It is stating that Obama is telling the country that our confidence is growing, that our finances are in order, and that the U.S is in tip top shape. Later he is basically saying that he has subjects such as energy, Iran, Afghanistan, growth, and jobs to take care of rather than his re-election. The impact this cartoon provides on our society is great. In Obama’s first term he promised us everything from getting all of our soldiers out of the Middle East to dropping the national debt. As of now some of our troops, not all, have been taken out but he has also sent more over, and he has raised the national debt by four trillion dollars. The debt that he has added has been said to be the most rapid increase in debt by any U.S president. So technically he is lying to our face when he says everything is fine and dandy because it is not. He skates around the fact that he needs to deal with our energy crisis, getting our troops out of the Middle East, the growth of the U.S and jobs. Granted he has done a few things such as Obama Care, but is that really helping the problem? Once again the leader of our country has dumped a large burden on the middle class. He has made it so everyone has healthcare, that they need, but at the expense of the middle class. I do believe he has touched of each topic that he has promised he would fix but I do not believe he has fully completed them.

I fully agree with this cartoon because he has repeatedly lied to the people of the United States. So don’t get me wrong when I state that fact because it is an OPINION not fact. If you would like to state your views with me some time I would be happy to oblige. As for right now I will state firmly that my love for Obama or any other candidate, for that matter, is not too great.