Social Security

URL: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/10/budget_deal_closed_social_security_loophole_known_as_file_and_suspend.html

As a result of changes to Social Security in 1983, benefits are now expected to be payable in full on a timely basis until 2037, when the trust fund reserves are projected to become empty. At the point where the reserves are used up, continuing taxes are expected to be enough to pay 76 percent of scheduled benefits. So, Congress will need to make changes to the scheduled benefits and revenue for programs in the future. The Social Security Board of Trustees project that changes is equal to an immediate reduction in benefits of about 13 percent, or an immediate increase in the combined payroll tax rate from 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent, would be enough to allow full payment of the benefits for the next 75 years.

There is no one clear solution to the problem of bigger cost for retirees because of fewer workers available to support the retirees, which in turn is caused by lower birth rates. This problem is not specific to Social Security but also affects Medicare as well as many other private and public retirement income. The lowering in birth rates has been far more dramatic in Japan and many European countries that are struggling with the effects of aging populations because of declines in birth rates even more severe than in the United States.A variety of possible changes to the provisions of the Social Security Act have been considered by policymakers and have been scored.

This has to deal with what we are learning in government right now because we just learned about Social Security and Medicare, and the big cost for both. 

State of the Union Opposing Response

Presidential Powers

URL: http://sites.middlebury.edu/presidentialpower/

With the 2016 presidential campaign already getting underway I think it's time to start thinking about how to use the next year and a half smart as a way to gain important information about candidates for the presidency. One important issue is national security power. For people concerned about checks and balances, candidate Obama gave all the right answers. He rejected the Bush administration’s view of war power, correctly observing that “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” There is no reason to believe that asking the current presidential candidates about their positions on national security, checks and balances, and the limits of presidential power.

I am reminded that it is important to be particular of promises candidates make. Holding Presidents and other elected officials accountable to the promises they make, is up to the public. Journalists can help by asking candidates questions that will reveal their views about the rules and limits of presidential power. If voters aren’t happy about the answers, or aren’t happy about the actions Presidents take once in office, it will be up to us as a community to act on their concerns.

This article has to deal with what were learning in class because we learned about the War Powers Resolution, and also the un-wrtitten and written powers of the president. 

Judicial Review

URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harlow-giles-unger/silence-in-the-court-why-_b_6078220.html


It is arguably the most important question concerning judicial review today. Should judges require the government to offer an honest, reasoned explanation every time it restricts individual liberty, or just some of the time? In a provocative two-part critical review of Damon Root's book, overruled, Professor Kurt Lash argues for the latter view, making an original case for broad judicial difference to assertions of government power that do not implicate textually enumerated constitutional rights. Drawing upon his own extensive study of the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause, Lash argues that that the clause only secures secures rights enumerated elsewhere in the Constitution. He thus praises the New Deal Court for "deferring on matters involving unenumerated rights" while "remaining actively engaged when it came to those rights explicitly enumerated in the Constitution."

This raises valid questions about the difficulty of evaluating the legit actions of the government that difficulty is important to interpreting and applying a written Constitution informed by a broad understanding of individual liberty. Neither the Framers of the original Constitution or the Reconstruction Amendments thought that liberty could be reduced to a handful of protected activities. Consistent judicial engagement in every case involving abuses of government power is required.We do not have a principled jurisdiction, one that protects only enumerated rights and denies the existence of any others, or one that protects all peaceful exercises of individual freedom, in keeping with the comprehensive understanding of liberty held by the Framers. 

This is important because we are learning about the judicial branch and Judicial Review.

Executive Branch

URL: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/executive.html

The Senate's 6,700 page, $40M report on the CIA's participation in torture has apparently never been read by a single member of the Executive Branch of the US Government, because the Department of Justice has ordered them all to stay away from it. Why does the Department of Justice want to keep the Executive from finding out about the CIA's use of torture? Because Senate documents are not subject to the freedom of information requests, but Executive documents are, and the Department of Justice is so deathly afraid of the public discovering official wrongdoing that they have banned anyone from touching the document, so therefore it becomes a subject to clear rules.

I believe that appropriate Department of Justice and FBI officials must read the full 6,700-page Senate Intelligence Committee Study of the CIA's Detention and interrogation program in order to understand what happens and to hopefully draw appropriate lessons. This is exactly what Director Comey promised when he said he would choose FBI officials to read the full, final version of the Committee's Study and consider the lessons that can be learned from it. Director Comey also acknowledged that former FBI Director order FBI agents not to participate in the CIA program. Unfortunately as the executive summary of the study makes clear, the Department of Justice was among those parts of the Executive Branch that were misled about the program, and DOJ officials' understanding of this history is very important to its institutional role going forward.

This is important to what we are learning in class because it teaches me what the executive branches role and how important they are to us. 

Planned Parenthood/Affordable Care Act

URL: http://www.npr.org/2015/12/02/458127720/senators-move-to-tighten-visa-waiver-program-concede-issues-still-exist


Senate Republicans are expected to achieve two goals on Thursday that have long eluded them — they'll pass a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood and repeals the Affordable Care Act. The House has managed to vote more than 50 times to repeal all or part of the health care law, but it's always been tougher in the Senate, where Republicans don't have the  votes needed to pass bills Democrats oppose. This year, they'll have a special procedure at their disposal to get around that. Let's make it very clear — nothing that happens on the Senate floor this week will ever actually become law, because any bill that repeals the Affordable Care Act and defunds Planned Parenthood is going to get vetoed by the president. So, some might ask, what is the value of this exercise? "The value is to let him know and others that there's a big division in this country, and a lot of us don't like it, and the American people don't like it," said Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.

"Some Republicans say that maybe by holding these symbolic votes THIS week, they'll satisfy their constituents, and that could ease passage of a government spending bill next week."That's the thing about conservative voters: you don't have to actually do anything for them to fall in line. All you have to do is keep them focused on a woman who wants an abortion or the gay guys kissing and they will support you even as you shake the change from their pockets. I have always liked the "it's both sides that are to blame" position. However, at this point in our history, a segment on the right has "gone off the rails". If you follow the problems facing our current legislators

This is valuable information to what we are learning in class right now because we are learning about the House and the Senate. More importantly how they get bills to the floor and how this process goes.

Florida Senate/ State Lines

URL: https://shar.es/1c0FxJ


The Florida Senate rejected a map to create new districts for itself and adjourned Thursday, leaving the Legislature with its second failed session this year. The chamber of congress voted 23-16 against the map that the House had approved, Tuesday. Senators said the maps were flawed and would divide communities. They also criticized a constitutional amendment that they said forces them to put the shape of a district. The vote means lawmakers will leave the state capital with absolutely no agreement and that the courts will make the final decision on how the Senate's 40 districts will be drawn. Voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2010 requiring smaller districts that aren't drawn to benefit parties or incumbents. This is the third time that legislators have been forced to redraw state Senate districts in the past three years.

I feel that states should have the right to create their own city lines due to voting and districting. If the maps were drawn incorrectly then there would have been a reason for the maps to be rejected. I'm not as optimistic that those people will be significantly more important than these people.The amendments to our constitution pulled the soul out of map drawing, pulled the soul out of districts. Now we fall into the hands of a court. Nobody wins under that scenario. By blaming the amendments, rather than themselves, they are simply preserving the extinction of their opposition to the gain of the people and engaging in the very conduct that Florida voters clearly wanted to eliminate from our state.

This has to do with what we are learning in class because we learned about gerrymandering and drawing state lines.