April 28, 2014

On MLK day, helping the unemployed is a moral issue

            This article January this year talks about the impact of public policy on citizens not being able to find jobs. The author, Raphael Wornock, states that African-Americans are being impacted disproportionately by unemployment. Economic policy is always one of the most important things on the president’s political agenda, and Obama has worked hard to improve the job outlooks of many. Unemployment trends show that it is on its way down, however long term unemployment is still very high. This is extremely bad because when unemployment checks run out, the people have no source of income whatsoever. Wornock goes on to state that African-American unemployment will increase if unemployment insurance is cut now. I believe that Wornock is correct in this assertion. I do not believe that unemployment insurance gives people a reason not to work. They will still be motivated to find a job, regardless of this benefit or not. I do not see why unemployment insurance is cut after a certain amount of time for reasons other than this, and I do not believe this is a very good reason.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/19/opinion/warnock-mlk-unemployment-moral/

April 13, 2014

Hillary Clinton Knocks Supreme Court’s Campaign Finance Decisions

This article from February 2014 discusses Hillary Clinton’s criticism of the Supreme Court’s decision to allow more campaign financing via the Citizens United case. The Supreme Court ruling allows people to donate to as many candidates as they would like. This essentially gives wealthier Americans more of an influence in campaigns. The article goes on to talk about Clinton’s trip across the west coast and her public statements on Vladimir Putin and Russia.

                I think that the Supreme Court’s choice on the Citizens United case was the wrong ruling. It will obviously give wealthier Americans much more power, while also minimizing the already little say on people who are not as wealthy. Despite this, I think that Hillary Clinton is somewhat hypocritical in her comments, and she is benefitting from this decision as well. Although she may not benefit as much as some of the possible Republican candidates, she will still have an improvement because of this decision. It is possible that the reason she is criticizing this decision is to fall into line with her party, as most democrats disagree with the ruling on this case.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/09/hillary-clinton-knocks-supreme-courts-campaign-finance-decisions/

April 6, 2014

Ex-CIA Chief: What Edward Snowden Did

            This article from July 2013 reports what Edward Snowden did when he released information about the NSA. It then goes into the effects of what he did and what it could cause. Snowden releasing this information can alert other countries of the tactics that the United States uses to spy on them. It also causes some citizens to lose confidence in our government. As the article points out, it seems as though the U.S. government can’t do anything secretly. Not only are people upset that they are being spied on, they are upset that everybody knows about the NSA spying on us.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/opinion/hayden-snowden-impact/