The TSA airport scanner

Thank to Fatima!

“The TSA airport scanner” article by Fatima is about the “touchy issue” of the new TSA system. By Wikipedia, I have known that “the TSA scanner, which is a full-body scanner, is a device that creates an image of a person's nude body through their clothing to look for hidden objects without physically removing their clothes or making physical contact”. According to Fatima’s articles, the TSA new security system is not a good idea because nobody wants their private parts touched by other people. Fatima said that the new TSA machine is against her religion because she is a Muslim women and she wants nobody touch her private parts. Moreover, Fatima said the TSA is blaming terrorists for the new scanners but that is wrong. She believed that: “Americans are the ones who should be blamed for this because we are the one who wanted more security. The purpose of terrorists is to terrorize, and they are winning”.

 I do understand that nobody wants someone (who they do not even know) to touch their private parts, or see their full body scan. I think it violates our rights. However, I honestly think that it is fine since it keeps me safe. Safety of the nation is an extremely important priority. So Americans, let us   think about the TSA system clearly and answer my question: “Will you choose to take out the TSA airport security system and risk a bomb?”  I believe nobody wants to be exploding in the middle of his or her flight. However, if you do not want to go through the scanner or get a pat down at airport security, you can just take a train or take a boat.   

Public policy !!

Public policy means the plan of action taken by a government in order to guide the plan of action in a field.  The main aims of public policy are to ensure economic and political stability in a country and to ensure well being of the citizens of a country (Friedrich, 2007).  Although public policy is mainly formulated by the central government, other players like religious institutions and private sector can be involved in the process but the execution will remain the responsibility of the central government.  Public policy can either be formulated in times of crises to avert them or it can also be formulated to guide action.  The main steps of formulation of public policy are identifying a problem or the issue that needs to be addressed, designing the best measure to solve the problem, putting the policy into use which is the implementation and then evaluation of the policy to assess its effectiveness in dealing with the problem.

            The US political system is a two-part system with only two major parties which are the Republic party and the Democratic party.  Both parties have their ideologies and values in which their public policies are based (Macy, 2009).  The problems they try to solve and the objectives of the public policy may be the same but the formulation, approach and goals may differ.  The similarities and differences are compared in the different issues they seek to address. I want to talk about the different and the similar in healthcare issues and economic issues between Democracy and Republican Party.

Healthcare

The two parties acknowledge that access to good healthcare is a right for all citizens and not a privilege due the important role it plays in the well being of the nation.  They also have vision to make health care affordable for all and ensure that the citizens have access and can afford health care facilities.  Both also have the intention of providing for special needs of the citizens.  They acknowledge the importance of technology in provision of health care and promise to accelerate technological development in health care provision. 

            One difference is that the Democratic Party promises to fight insurance companies which exploit their patients through the implementation of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act while the Republican Party promises to encourage health insurance without regulation (Macy, 1982).  The Republicans agree that access to health care provision is important and it aims at making such information available and accessible while there is no such intention in the Democratic Party platform.  The Democratic Party promises to control various diseases in the society which is not the same case with the Republic party platform.

            Today, the US is the country in the world with the highest cost of healthcare relative to its GDP. About 10% of its population totaling to about 50.2 million people doesn’t have insurance covers (David, pg 40). The situation doesn’t get any better with another 77 million baby boomers believed to be reaching their retirement age. The main concern therefore is how the spiraling healthcare costs can be brought under control. In terms of the quality of healthcare, republicans have criticized democrats move to liberalize the healthcare market arguing that it would bring about lower quality of healthcare. The main problem with the American healthcare program is the costs. In this regards, the proposal by the democrats that even among the private healthcare providers, standardized pricing be adopted is a welcome move that would seek to ensure cost-effectiveness. Healthcare providers should be under some form of regulation so that they operate under the same guidelines with prices that are relatively the same. Democrats have provided a more comprehensive approach to the healthcare reforms which would lower costs and at the same time ensure efficiency and quality (David, pg 56). For instance, the Obama administration has held that the electronic record system would be efficient I reducing costs. In terms of insurance cover, the position by the democrats to regulate the activities of the insurance companies in terms of healthcare is more effective because if left unchecked, most insurance companies would continue to discriminate against persons who already have some pre-existing conditions at the time they are seeking to be covered. Such discriminatory actions would result in a relatively higher number of persons without insurance cover and the end product would be a healthcare burden on the government in terms of taking care of such persons when they have already deteriorated in condition. Liberalization of the insurance industry would prevent concentration of power by the large insurers, something which has been at the center of healthcare debate for sometime. In addition to the tax reforms in terms of the percentage of employees’ healthcare are paid for by their employers, democrats I believe provide a more solid case in terms of healthcare.

Work Cited :

Friedrich, C., (2007).  Public Policy.  London: Read Books

Macy, J., (2009).  Political Parties in the United States, 1846-1861.New Jersey: BiblioBazaar, LLC.

David G. The cure: How capitalism can save American Health Care? 2010. Chicago; Encounter    books. Pgs 34-78

Economic costs of Obesity

          Thank to Jonathan Ninh !!

I have learned that the US economy is the largest economy in the world, with one of the highest Gross Cosmetic Product per Capital. But, despite its position as the most powerful economy, it now faces many serious economic problems. I also have known that the obesity is definitely an epidemic of mammoth proportion in the United States. However, I had not known that the obesity problems have significant economic impact on America since I read “The fight for Obesity” by Jonathan Ninh.  He mentioned how the US Government is trying to fix the obesity’s problem by taking some “Big Steps”. He said that those “Big Steps” which are the “Golden Standard” in school’s cafeterias, the nutrition menu in the restaurant, and the “Supersize Me” video, have made a huge help. However, Jonathan said those big steps maybe slowing down the rate of the obesity, not eliminate the fat’s problem.

I agreed with Jonathan that those steps never can stop the obesity’s problem while there are so many fast food restaurants and most of them are open 24hours. The Obesity is more than just a personal health problem and the costs of obesity go far beyond individual costs. According to the “nutristrategy”, “Overweight and obesity costs total $147 billion in the United States. Direct costs include the cost of physicians and other professionals, hospital and nursing home services, the cost of medications, home health care and other medical durables. Indirect costs include lost productivity that results from illness and death”.

 I think that the US Government never can force their peoples to stop eating fast foods and try to keep healthy eating habits. From my point of view, the US Government can  start teaching prevention today and start guiding our populations into healthy lifestyles that avoid obesity, or the US  stand to suffer a global financial crisis as result of out-of-control health care costs. Moreover, I believe that each person should know and control what they are eating by themselves.

The U.S National Debt !!

I think most people who live in America know that the biggest problem with American society today is economic issues.  Although I am an international student and just have lived here a couple years, I have heard many times about America’s economic issues. And I think people everywhere in the world are paying much attention to America’s economic problems.

I was surprised by the huge debt number when I came to search for the U.S national debt. I could not think that it would be this much. Even though, the debt amount is already big, it is still growing by second. According to the national debt clock, the public debt today is $13,640,057,838,912. So, with the growing of the US population of 310,567,744, each citizen’s share of this debt is $43,920. The total national debt is including debts of federal, state, and local governments, international, and private debt, which includes: households, business and financial sector debts, and federal debt to trust funds. Thus, every U.S citizen has contributed to this debt; no matter if you are rich or poor.

The U.S spends too much money. One of the reasons of the growing debt is that people spend more money than they have. Today, individuals want more money than before. They are taking out loans more often when they need it. Then, they have trouble paying off those loans. Additional, companies are spending more money but not making as much. Therefore, they are also going into debt, and when companies and individuals go into debt, they have to ask the banks for help. However, if the banks are having trouble to help them out, they all create a new amount of debt. The second reason of the growing debt is that the Government has spent too much money on the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war, and they are not over yet. First, the Government needs to spend money to train their new soldiers ,and spend money to create or buy their new weapons. Moreover, we have lost so many soldiers in this war, and when a soldier is injured or killed, that is another increase in cost, from hospital costs, to costs to send out a new soldier in their place. According to the national priorities project, U.S total cost is $1,089,409,937.652 on the war since 2001. I do not think the US Government should spend that much money on wars.

Most people are now concentrating on this issue ,and the US. Economy and the Governments are trying to fix the problem. Since the U.S. debt is much bigger than other countries, it is not easy to fix this problem. From my point of view, I think that the U.S. government should increase the tax rate for well-off people. Nowadays, rich people are still rich (and even getting richer) ,and poor people are still poor.  Thus, the income distance between the rich and the poor are larger.  The US Government should try to boost the well-off people to contribute their money (the extra money that they do not really need) to the national economy.  Moreover, in order to reduce national debt, the U. S should try to stop the war and withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible. All Americans need to pay more attention to the national debt ,or it will be too late for the United States to get out of it. Americans should know that their debt would become a very dangerous thing.  Thus, they should limit their spending and choose to buy only what is necessary for them. Moreover, the U.S Government should pay more attention to the social welfare program, and unemployed, and should spend more money to help the poverty. 

The Shame of the Food Stamp Program ?!?

I found an article about food stamps that I am interested on The Smirking Chimp. We all know Food Stamps, which are known as the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are a Government assistance program to help low income people to pay for foods. The amount of SNAP per household get depends on their income, size, house expense, and child support expense. Also, the average benefit for each person is three dollars a day or 21 dollars a week.  The writer mentioned that eating on three dollars a day might be hard to do while the price of everything has gone up. Thus, it is impossible for food stamps household to eat healthy diet.  According to the article, the writer said that with 21 dollars a week, low-income American usually consumes foods with low nutrition and not much meats or fresh fruits and vegetables.

Additional, the writer talked about several members of House of Hunger Caucus want to participate the Food Stamps Challenge to see how difficult it is to avoid hunger, afford nutritious foods, and stay healthy. The author thought that it is not right when there always seems to be money available for war, but not for social welfare program.  

From my point of view, I agree with all the points that the writer mentioned. I know what it is like to have hanger pang, but I really do not worry how I afford food to the last minute. I think that health problems are a likely result of the food stamp diet because the cheapest foods are crabs; hence it is easy to understand why type 2 diabetes is an epidemic in America. The diabetic and overweight people can make wise foods choices, but for the poor, wise choices are not as available. It is just not fair that wealthy people wasting their money on their luxuries and do not have to worry about their next meal while low- income people always worry about how to budget their food expenses on every single meal. Moreover, low-income American may find it hard on economic as they lose their freedom to choose what and when to eat. Or low-income people might also lose their social impact when they usually turn down their social invitation because it may be difficult to reciprocate. I think Government should pay more attention to the social welfare program and spend more money to help the poverty instead of wasting money and killing people on war. I do agree with the author and believe that: “A truly nation just ensures that no one goes hungry”.

A yes vote to "Dream Act"

I was looking for the U.S Government’s commentary on Los Angeles Times website and I found an article about “The Dream Act”. This is so embarrassing to say that I haven’t known about this act while it was introduced in the United States on August, 2001 and became one of hot topics about immigration. Thus, I went to search more information about the act. According to "The Dream Act 2009", the Dream Act is known as the "Development of Relief and Education for Alien Minors”. This act will provide a permanent president for most of immigration children who graduate from US High schools, or two years in the military or two years at a four year institution of higher learning. Also they must have a good moral character and have been in the United States at least five years.

According to the articles, the author said that most of the children, who were brought to the United States by their parents when they were little and, thought they are American citizen. Or many of them thought that there is no other home beside America.  But then, they find out the truth about their status when they apply for college, driver’s license or other paperwork.  Also, the author mention that “The Dream Act” is not an amnesty for people who broke an immigration law, but it is known as a promise of all children not to blame for the misdeeds of their parents.

The author said that U.S Government should welcome all immigration children into the community of citizenship because they have since grown up, educated and lived in the U.S like their only home. Moreover, they can make a stronger workforce, help U.S economic and future

  From my point of view, I agree with the author that U.S Government should pass “the Dream Act” in order to grant a permanent residence to most of immigrant student. I think everybody should know that it is not like those children asked to be here, they were brought here by their parent when some of them could not talk yet. Then they grow up and educate here like any American. However, most of these students who wish to go onto college will find this door shut due to current rule regarding undocumented student. I wonder why they must turn their backs when those young children want to study, work and live here like their only home. I think that undocumented children deserve the same chance to go to college and fully participate in U.S society as others. Moreover, from the “ Dream Act fact sheet", I know that the “ Dream Act” would help the United States meet our future labor needs and revenue to state , federal and local governments. Thus, together we can create a stronger workforce; help U.S economic and society better. I believe that everyone should deserve a second chance if they really work hard on it. 

Well-off people get food stamps easier than a middle class ?!?

I went to read about 5 articles but I had not found any of them that I like until I read the “Smirking Chimp's” article. And I think it is so true that everybody should know.  This article talks about food stamps for middle class and especial for upper class. It is right for people to get Government's helps when they have no money for food. And the article does talk about how hard it is to go through all the way down to get the service improves with or without second or third appointment. Thus, I think it must be terrible for people that really need help and have to go through all those steps to get a food stamp card.  I was not really surprised when the article says that upper class people apply for food stamps too, because I heard about it before. The big surprise thing is that they do not have to do anything but just give their lobbyist a call to get immediate service without waiting in line. I mean it is so unfair. I really do not know how they can get it improves while they are already in upper class. It really makes me feel like they can do whatever they want with their money and their super power.

It is sad when I remember a few months ago; I shared a room with a family of four that I think their situation may make it possible to get the food stamp if they apply. However, they did not do it and they told me that they wanted to save it for people that are poorer than them. I wonder if well-off people ever think about that food stamps which they get so easier, which can even save others lives. Further, they should know that if they have enough money in the bank to buy their own food, they should not run to the government for assistance .I hope the Government will check it and will not let it happen again. I believe whoever has a little (or more than that) should help those who have nothing. Everyone should be treated equal.