Comment on a classmate's article

The article "Tittle X and Why It Matters" is a good article.  The writer explains what Tittle X is and how will it impact people's life. He/she also mentions facts and statistics.

I agree with my classmate that Tittle X is very important, and stop funding for Tittle X can lead to some serious consequences. Looking at the record of how it has been helping women around the country: 

"For one thing, the affordable birth control that Title X provides helps prevent 1 million unintended pregnancies each year. That aligns with what we know about publicly funded birth control services in general — these services helped women avoid 1.9 million unintended pregnancies in 2014.

By giving women more control over if and when they have children, Title X allows women to have more control over their lives — including their health, careers, and economic security. 

Title X has undoubtedly saved women’s lives with early detection of cancer through its affordable Pap tests and breast exams. 

Title X helps people catch STIs and avert a host of other health issues." (www.plannedparenthoodaction.org)

Apparently, the population which will be affected the most are women who live below 150% the federal poverty level. Congress is made up of most white wealthy men. In the result, they underestimate the importance of Tittle X, and will always try to defund this program. Even there are women senators in the Congress, their voices are too little to win this argument. After many years of history, women's lives in the United States are again ignored and be decided by the men. 

"@VP is on his way to break a tie on #TitleX funding. Just in case we didn't already have enough men making decisions on women's health" - Senator Mazie Hirono 

Trump Tax Reform: Good or Bad?

After the failure of his Healthcare plan, President Trump moves on the next thing that he promised during the election: Tax Reform. According to The New York Post, The Trump administration on Wednesday released a plan that was only one page long and did not include much detail of how taxpayers will be affected. They claim this plan will help boost the economy and give taxpayers the biggest tax cut in the history.

The new reform plan is said to cut taxes and simplify the tax code by reducing seven tax brackets to only three brackets: a 10 percent bracket, a 25 percent bracket, and a 35 percent bracket. However, the plan did not show where the brackets begin and end. How much money does a person need to make to fall into the 35 percent bracket?The new reform plan has things that clearly will help wealthy people. First, the repeal of alternative minimum tax (AMT), which cost Mr. Trump an additional 31 million dollars in federal income tax in 2005. Second, under the Trump plan, the administration wants to repeal the inheritance tax. This provision clearly would help wealthy people because they could pass on their property to their children without the “death tax”. The new plan will lower the capital gains tax. This means people who sell property or stock held more than a year will get a lower tax rate on the money they make from the sale. Most of the time, only wealthy people will have a lot of property or stock to hold on and sell. All of the above provisions are more likely to benefit wealthy people.

Moreover, the plan would also eliminate the federal income tax deduction allowed for state and local taxes. This provision would hurt the people who live in high-income tax states such as New York. In addition, the standard deduction is going to be doubled, so that a married couple won’t pay any taxes on the first $24,000 of income they earn.

The US corporate tax rate is among the highest in the world at 35 percent; it would shrink to a competitive 15 percent, meaning businesses could repatriate their corporate headquarters, and of course, jobs from countries like Mexico or Ireland or China would come back to the US. The opponents of the plan state that this massive cut could add more money to the $20 trillion debt the country already has. John Crudele states in one of his articles that “President Trump’s proposed tax reform could be great in the short term for the stock market, useless in helping the US economy and a disaster for future generations of Americans”.

The fact that President Trump has not released his tax return has made people hesitate to support his reform plan. They are wondering whether the plan really benefits the people like the new plan proposed. “I think a reasonable first step is for the president to do what every other president since Ford has done and disclose his tax forms for review by the American people so we can determine what conflicts of interest may potentially exist, how his proposed plan may benefit him as opposed to benefiting the people of the United States of America,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries told CNN.

Free College !!!

As the population is getting bigger and bigger, the job market is becoming more competitive. Some people try to get a job, and some try to stay in a job. Getting a higher education can always help ones get ahead in this competition. However, the education system today seems to favor the riches. Higher education can cost ones from $3000 to $50 000 depending on which school they enroll. The U.S government tries to help students with low income by giving grants, student loans, and scholarships. However, scholarships are very rare, and only a few students can get it. Moreover,  Nahely Garcia mentions in her blog:"America NEEDS To Offer Free College!" that ones "have not even graduated, when you realize that those years that you spent getting an education for a good future will be doubled in the years that it will take you to pay off your student loans and any money you will make,..." A lot of students are discouraged because of the skyrocketing tuition costs.

Furthermore, Ms. Garcia mentions about the Student Loan Forgiveness Program. Recently, the Education Department announced a shocking news that the program is not applied for everyone, and their approved letters can be rescinded. College students now have to go to school with stress that, The New York Times states, the government could "leave them stuck with thousands of dollars in debt that they thought would be eliminated." Ms. Garcia states a very good point that "although the forgiveness program offers great benefits for its borrowers, ....,we would not be in debt or even stress about this program to see if you even qualify and if you do to later get a letter that states otherwise, if America just offered free college."

In conclusion, the United States government should be considered a good way to help its citizens to pursue higher education. They could offer free college and get a portion of tax money to pay for it. In addition, they could have a bill which makes colleges more affordable by regulating tuitions. Whichever way, the government need to do something. After all, the future of the country will lie on its people. 

Stop blaming, start governing.

President Trump blamed the Democrats for the failure of the Republican party’s health care repeal plan. Trump stated, “We have no Democratic support. We have no votes from them. They weren’t going to give us a single vote.” However, he did not mention that the problem is the division of the Republicans among themselves. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., along with President Trump tried to persuade the Republican members of the House to support the bill. However, Paul Ryan canceled the vote on the bill upon realizing he was about 20 votes shy of the minimum 216 votes needed. The Republicans could have gotten the bill passed if they had worked together.

People have started to wonder whether or not the Republicans will be able to govern the country, and whether Donald Trump can actually do what he promised during his election. The failure of the health care repeal plan is a wake-up call for President Trump. He needs to realize that just because his party is controlling the Congress that the bills he supports will not be passed easily. Donald Trump once said in the election campaign that, he is not a politician, but he is a businessman. He emphasized that he is good at negotiating with people. Ironically, he does not know how to negotiate with the politicians.

After all, instead of blaming each other, the Republicans need to figure out the way to unite their party. They need to try to work together for not only a good healthcare plan but also other issues facing the country. In addition, President Donald Trump needs to carefully go over the bills, and try to work with both parties. If members of the Republican party can not agree with each other on any issues, none of the bills will be passed without the help of the Democrats. The country would not move forward, and the US citizens will be the ones that suffer the consequence.  

Besty DeVos needs to educate herself

Let’s talk again about the new Secretary of Education, Ms. Besty DeVos. Catherine E. Lhamon from Washington Monthly states that “Betsy DeVos May Need a Civil Rights Reality Check”. The article’s author was an Assistant Secretary of Education in charge of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education and she is a civil rights attorney for a long time. Thus, her knowledge on civil rights’ matters is very credible.

The article’s intended audience is Besty DeVos. Recently, Ms.Devos stated she could not give her opinion on whether or not federal involvements in school is necessary today. According to the article, it is important for a person like Ms. Devos who “holds the purse strings for billions of federal dollars and leads federal involvement in schools” knows that “the federal government must actively ensure that our nation’s schools keep core civil rights promises.”

The author lists out examples of federal involvements which help students get better treatment, and education in school. One of them is eliminating the effects of segregation in Lee County Schools which ensured every student, despite their skin color, “had access to an education that would prepare them to fulfill their dreams.” The federal involvements helped solve many problems and mistreatments in schools around the country.

Here is one of the examples:

“In West Contra Costa Unified School District in California, where there were highly publicized rapes of middle school and high school students, administrators told the civil rights office staff that they were aware students were sexually harassing each other at school, but they hadn’t taken action because such behavior was expected of Latino students in an “urban culture.” After federal intervention, students in the district can now attend school without being subjected to a hostile environment of harassment and discrimination.”

There are more examples of the good works of the federal involvements. The new Secretary of Education needs to acknowledge them and continue to create a safe education environment for all children of every race. I completely agree with the article.

What's going to happen with Health Care Plan ?

Among all the recent debates, people are starting to question: “what is going to happen with Obamacare?”. During the campaign, President Trump mentioned that he would repeal it very soon after he takes office. However, he is in office now, and his answer is that it is going to take a year from now for the new health care law to be proposed. The Editorial Board of USA Today expresses their opinion on this matter in the article “Repair and retain Obamacare: Our view". USA Today has a policy not to show bias toward any candidate for the United States Presidency or any other state or federal political office. Therefore, the Editorial Board’s opinion on this topic is credible. The article is worth reading because it talked about the problem with Obamacare, and what the government needs to do with health care insurance in general.

They state that “Republicans know they would pay a huge political price if they kill Obamacare and leave millions of people without health coverage, including for addiction treatment in the midst of an opioid epidemic. To avoid that, the Republicans should adopt a new mantra. Rather than ‘repeal and replace,’ they should preach ‘retain and repair’”. It is not a good idea to remove Obamacare completely because there are millions of people in the U.S. who rely on it. The Editorial Board suggests that the government should find a way to repair Obamacare, and to fix things which work against it rather than repeal it. For instance, the government should be concerned that not everyone sign up for healthcare. In some areas, there are too many unhealthy people versus  too few young people signing up. This causes the insurance companies to raise the premium otherwise they will lose money.  The Trump administration suggests that they would raise the the cost a little for people who near retirement, and lowering the cost for young people. This way young people would be more willing to sign up.  In addition, the government would cut back some grace periods “that insurance companies say are being gamed by savvy customers”. The Editorial Board concluded that “Obamacare — or whatever it is to be called going forward — has many things going for it. If Republicans want to show they can govern, their best course is to fix the things that are working against it”.

I agree with the article. People are concerned about how they are going to take care of their medical bills. It is important that the new Trump administration have a good, affordable healthcare plan for the people. It is essential that Obamacare either be fixed or if repealed, there must be another health care plan in place

Besty DeVos confirmed as secretary of education.

Besty DeVos was confirmed to be the nation’s education secretary on Tuesday with the help of Vice President Mike Pence in breaking the tie between votes supporting her and votes opposing her. According to the New York Times, “it was the first time a vice president has been summoned to the Capitol to break a tie on a cabinet nomination”. The result upsets a lot of people. They believe that Besty DeVos is not suitable for the position which controls the national education system.

“Senators and education advocates from both sides of the aisle also expressed concern after Ms. DeVos, during her Jan. 17 confirmation hearing, confused core responsibilities of the department.”- The New York Times

Besty DeVos comes from a wealthy background. Neither she nor her children attended public schools. She is unfamiliar with the public school system, and she does not have enough knowledge to know what will be effective for public schools and what will not. Ms. DeVos’ main focus is expanding funds for charter schools and vouchers, which allow students to use taxpayer dollars to pay tuition at private, religious and for-profit schools. However, expanding the funds will require the reallocation of federal education money. Many people fear that she could take away the money needed for public schools in need of federal funding. Moreover, the poor performance of Detroit’s charter schools which Besty DeVos championed has created distrust in her abilities to do the job. The teacher association, which strongly opposed to her, have said they “would continue to fight her as she serves”.

This article is important to a lot of students because the issue has a direct affect on anyone who is in school, particularly in the rural areas that do not have private schools or charter schools available. Most private schools and charter schools are in the urban areas. Therefore,  students in rural areas must attend public schools. If funding for public schools is cut, then the schools will continue to get worse. It is worth reading because the article provides details about Besty DeVos’ background, her prior interests, and her lack of experience in dealing with public education, all of which affect her ability to be the secretary of education.