Issue On Drug Policy

The federal government authority to regulate illicit drug supercedes state legislation which  legalizes the use of Marijuana for medicinal  purposes was held by the U.S supreme court in June, 2005. Our present drug laws were first enacted at the beginning of the century. At that time use of narcotics wasn't a major social issue. The first criminal laws were enacted which were addressed opium products and cocain. There was no criminal legislation for the use of marijuana until 1937. The use of alchol was a major social issue in the U.S in the early 20th century. Heroin was also big because of its high price and uncertain purity, it was associated with crime and frequent overdoses. The war on drugs was launched by President Reagan in 1982. Under the direction of the President a national office was created to coordinate efforts to address the illegal drug problem. The trend applies greater fiscal resources toward stricter drug enforcement aimed at stopping importation and sale of drugs. The commonly used recreational drugs (heroin, amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana) are for the most part banned worldwide and have been throughout the past century. Historically, the widespread recreational use of drugs such as marijuana has been limited to only a few countries, including the United States. But Europe, Asia and Africa have been quickly catching up.  Marijuana use has stabilized in the U.S. and Europe but is on the increase in the third world. There are many proposals for changing the Drug Policy. Some proposals are legalization of all drugs, the arguments for this proposal is that if these drugs were legalized and regulated there would be a problem of drug abuse and adressed as a medical problem. The 2008 Democratic platform makes only passing reference to the drug problem by urging expanded use of drug courts and rehabilitation programs. The 2008 Republican Party Platform continues to advocate an aggressive anti-drug campaign which includes improved treatment programs and other innovative approaches.



http://www.newsbatch.com/

The Issues With Immigration

Democrats and Republicans both have different views on immigration. Democrats vote to encourage immigration. Democrats take a protectionist position on immigration issue. Republicans are for greater enforcemnet at the border areas. Many business interest supported by republicans rely on immigrant labor. In the last decade certain votes demonstrate this uneven pattern. Almost a million people legally immigrated into the U.S. in 2004 under qualifying categories such as employment based preferences, family preference, immediate relatives of U.S citizens, diversity, and refugees/asylees. There is a difference between legal immigrants and citizens. Legal immigrants are basically the same but they just cant vote or hold political office. Just about 40% of the immigrants became citizens through a process called neutralization in order for the immigrant to become neutralized they have to have resided in the U.S for five years. Refugee immigration peaked inthe late 70s and 80s. Two amnesty programs provided legal status to about 3 million undocumented immigrants. A large number of immigrants started to enter the U.S. The total illegal immigrant number has increased drastically over 15 years. Legal immigrants usually come from Latin America and Asia, illegal immigrants come from Mexico and Central America. Legal immigrants tend to choose a state of large population such as California, New York, Florida, and Texas. There are many advantages to immigration. Some advantages are greater supply of unskilled workers, a younger workforce, skilled workers in needed sectors. There are also Disadvantages as well. Some disadvantages are greater poverty, more educational cost, lower unskilled wage levels, increased danger of a terrorist attack. Although U.S. immigration is substantial, other countries have adopted policies which encourage even greater immigration. Canada has long encouraged immigration as a vehicle for economic growth and its policies place greater emphasis on economic needs as a basis for recruitment of new immigrants.

http://www.newsbatch.com/

Democrats favor on new stimulus & Republicans healthcare repeal (reflections)

After being given a choice of four priorties for Congress, Democrats want a new economic stimulus bill to pass and the Republicans favor a new healthcare law/cutting federal spending. To me i think political opinion is being used between the two. They both argue about what the government needs to try and understand from the issues being produced. They use political socialization by involving certain group influences and the two parties by using charts on what all the people think. None of the four priorities is chosen by a majority of Americans as their top priority, again illustrating difficult challenges facing Congress in the post election period. Republicans and conservatives are generally negative about the role of the federal government in American life and want to see its influence diminished rather than expanded. Democrats are more positive about the government's role and view it as an appropriate way in which society's problems can be addressed which is basically with the Liberals. This is not more visible than in the finding that Republicans number 1 priority for (gov't) after the elections is to dismantle the massive healthcare reform bill passed last March. While the Democrats number 1 priority is to increase (gov't) efforts to help the economy by passing a new economic stimulus bill. This particular question included only four alternative priorities for respondents to choose among; it is possible that some respondents would volunteer still different priorities for Congress after the elections. But Americans' responses to this particular set of alternatives make it clear that Congress faces the challenge of coming to a consensus on exactly what the federal government should be expected to do and how extensive its involvement in American society should be. The political ideology clashes under the choices of new stimulus bill and a new healthcare reform/cutting federal spending. The moderates go with them both because sometimes they believe in a new stimulus bill and the believe in the new healthcare reform/cutting federal spending. They put up polls for different ethnin groups and groups in all to choose what they will like to have the most and how government will benefit from it. In this case the political elites would be the Democrats because they look at the government for there agent in there opinion to help.

The Issues of Healthcare

About 47 million U.S residents; 8.7 million of them children have no healthcare insurance today. Employers are increasingly moving in the direction of having Wal-Mart style health coverage. America's workers are have trouble affording higher premiums, deductibles, and co-payments. Working families are experiencing double-digit increases in the costs of health insurance. According to the Center of Studying Health Systems health insurance rose 10 percent in 2002. We can fix our health care problem if we require employers to pay their fair share. The U.S. system of providing health care coverage is employer-based. Unfortunately, this system leaves too many working families uninsured or under-insured. Fifty-six percent of uninsured workers worked full-time in 2002.To expand health coverage to the 8.7 million children in America who today lack health insurance, Congress in 1997 passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to work with the Medicaid program to cover low- and moderate-income families.
I think that mostly everybody should have an equal amount of health insurance unless you have a career that pays alot of money or is a risk factor to your health. People who get paid alot should have a good amount of health care because anybody could be trying to take thier life because of what they have. If they were to pass away thier family would have a hard time paying off expensive things that were under his/her name. People that have careers with risk factors such as a sport as in football, basketball, hockey, etc; should have really good health insurance because anything could happen while they are in play or out on the streets. People should let others know about there healthcare issues so things can be changed, but they also will need to be fair about it as well.




http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/whatswrong/