Blame it on Obama

            I think that just because the healthcare.gov website isn’t working properly doesn’t mean it’s directly Obama’s fault. He is the President which means he will try to do the best to fix the problems with the website but Tuesday he held an event in the White House to address the issues and saying the benefit of the health care program outweigh the current technical problems that the site is undergoing. My thoughts are that if people know the site is having problems then maybe they should wait a few weeks and try again and not blame Obama. If things went like he wanted them go in the start maybe the technical issues wouldn’t be a lot and the systems that each state would have had would have been able to process people more quickly since they only focus on the population of that state. If the problems still continue into early 2014 then maybe President Obama could extend the deadline for everyone to be insured since it wouldn’t be fair if people tried to sign up but couldn’t due to issues and the deadline passes so they will have to pay a fee for not being insured.

          I also think that the Republican are to blame since they just wait for the Democrats to make a mistake then try to make it a bigger deal than it is. For example with the health care website not working the Republicans attack saying that Obama had time to make signing up for health care more assessable yet the only thing he has to show is a broken website. With negative comments like that then the public will just blame the President even more, and the Republicans should also be helping in fixing the website instead of criticizing it. If the US government would address problems more uniformly instead of sticking with their parties most of the time then maybe most of our government problems would have been solved or we simply wouldn’t have them. At the end of the day I just think everyone needs to give Obama time to prove that his health care act is working and that the problems the website faces are fixed. If it doesn’t work at that point then we can say he failed but until then we just got to wait and see how this plays out.

U.S Economy Getting Better

             I agree with Dylan Reeves in that the U.S. economy is getting better but the only way we can really notice change is after a while. Change does not occur overnight and only when time has passed can we see how much we have advanced. Some people want the economy to become healthier than it ever was and for money to rain down from the sky but when we are talking about a nation, things happen at a slower pace also there is a process that any action either to benefit the economy or change a law must pass through and rarely do they make it out alive. There isn’t much that we citizens can do except sit back and see how this turns out, but I also believe that since Johnathan Tepperman is Canadian then he see America in a different light and can see the changes in the economy better than an American.

A Divided Government

            I think that the government isn't doing their jobs the best they can since most of the time Democrats and Republicans are opposing one another. Even if the proposal has a positive effect on then nation the parties would oppose one another simply because they have different views on the topic. For example the government shutdown that occurred because Republicans weren't happy with the affordable care act being passed, while the Democrats tried to end the shutdown as soon as possible the Republicans decided to try to win something out of it. But at the end it was all for nothing since the Republicans got nothing out of the ordeal. The most recent action that the Republican Party has taken to oppose Obama is that they blocked two presidential nominees for spots in the Senate. This never-ending struggle for power in the government will always cause the two parties to vote against each other just to contradict their actions unless there is gain for both parties in which they are content.

            The only way I can see both parties working with each other is during a crisis were the future of the nation is endangered or if a third-party comes to power in the government and the two parties must come together to protest the actions of the third party. A divided government takes time to make decisions and sometimes we don’t have the necessary time to sit around and argue about what we should do. I think for our government to be more efficient and aid our nation to become prosperous that the representatives and parties become less selfish and think how they can contribute with minimal of their ideals being attached to their decision or bill they are presenting. 

Shutdown Aftermath

            In the editorial published in the CNN website on October 21 2013, I think aimed towards democrats and others who don’t like the Republicans. The article talks about the aftermath of the government shutdown and that the majority of the public is blaming the Republicans. They also foretold that they think those Republicans won’t be reelected to office and see them as too extreme. Most people pointed out that Obama was the big winner of the government shutdown. The majority of Americans believe that another shutdown is imminent in the near future since they think that the Democrats and Republican parties won’t be able to compromise.

            I think that the author Paul Steinhauser did a great job directing the attention of the democratic audience he intended this article towards. Since the Republicans were the cause of the government shutdown that lasted 16 days they are taking most of the fallout but the democratic party and president are walking away unscathed. Steinhauser takes in what the public says from polls and how they feel they need better Republicans to represent them because the chances of the current ones getting reelected are slim, thus trying to stop another Republican tantrum generated government crisis. I agree that the Republican Party is to blame for the government shutdown and the events that followed almost causing the US to default and the public take notice that the Democrats were trying to stop the shutdown as soon as possible yet the Republicans were adamant about their standing and decided to play chicken. If another shutdown does occur I think that the government will take longer to decide and the economic casualties will be too high for any good to come out of it. 

Shutdown Affects International Affairs

In the editorial published on October 8th in The New York Times by The Editorial Board, shows how the government shutdown not only affects the US but also other countries wait to see how it turns out and how they are affected by the outcome. Just like person wouldn't like people giving them advice on how to manage their life the US probably feels the same way with the other nations like China and South Africa finance leaders giving advice on how to deal with the shutdown. The article seems to lean more towards the Democratic side since it doesn't speak ill about the Democratic Party.  The point the author is trying to make is that the shutdown affects both the US and the other nations that have invested in her and if the shutdown continues then the US will lose legitimacy. I agree with the point since if the government can’t solve financial problems then the other nations will see us as weak and will try to take over as a superpower. Also the flaws in our government come to light and how differences in ideas can cripple our government. The credibility of the article and the author are high since it comes from The New York Times, also the editorial board wrote it so a lot of thought was put into the article and facts from reliable sources. The sooner we resolve this shutdown the sooner we can focus on international affairs and pay the employees who are furlough then try to fix our economy.

Government Shutdown

The story I choose comes from BBC, published on September 2 and it talks about the decision that both the Republican and Democrats have to stop arguing about and answer or else the government will have to shutdown. Both parties have to come to terms and figure out how the US should pay its bills, but also a shutdown doesn't come without a prize. The two previous government shutdown were costly, around $1.4 million. Also they would affect national parks and zoos since they will have to close down, it would take longer to get your passport, and taxes will rise along with other various changes in government programs. We should urge them to make a decision or else all of us would be affected by thus government shutdown and nobody will be happy until it ends. I found the article informative about how the shutdown would affect certain services and how that can affect normal citizens.