Government and Economy Views

The United States government is arguably the best government in the world because of its ability to change and fix the problems within and democratic power within the people. Since the start of America it has been this way, with the creation of three branches for checks and balances and splitting the legislative branch into two parts, the Senate and the House of Representatives, to equally represent states.

As of recently, however, this self fix approach has seemed to run out, perhaps because of the president himself. Since 2001, we have been in a war in Iraq with an undefined enemy and still have no plan of returning troops to home. At first, the supposed objective was to find the weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that the terrorists in Iraq were building and disable their operations. Now, there have been no WMDs found, nor have we planned an escape route. We can’t just leave Iraq as quickly as we went in because the Iraq government would collapse. Instead, we should be slowly returning our troops to home as we train the Iraqi troops how to deal with their internal conflicts. If another objective is necessary before departure, it should be clearly stated what it is and how it is going to be accomplished, then executed as quickly as possible.

When President Bush entered office, he was left with the highest surplus in U.S. history from President Clinton. Now, the economy is failing and seems to be spiraling downward uncontrollably as big businesses are beginning to bankrupt and the U.S. has the largest deficit in their history, even more than the Great Depression. Now, insurance giant AIG and mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are on the brink of bankruptcy. The government’s solution to the problem is to bail them out by lending them money to keep them out of bankruptcy and taking over while they are dismantled. A potential fix for the economy would be to increase taxes on people and businesses making loads of money. There should be tax breaks, however, for companies based on percentage of American workers because this will lead to more money circulating in the American economy. Once the economy is stable again, there should be laws created restricting pollution and enforcing efficiencies. Businesses should be rewarded for going green and get tax breaks as an incentive.

On the positive side, there are many good things to having a Democratic government, especially voting. With political parties, however, people focus too much on the party itself as opposed to the individual candidate and his or her views. Controversial issues like abortion and the death penalty can be discussed and laws changed based on votes. (Personally, I’m pro-choice and pro death penalty, but it really bugs me when people are against the death penalty, yet pro-choice. How can you allow a fetus to be killed, but allow a murderer to live?) Also, the government is able to provide mechanisms to correct societal wrongs through means of litigation, media and enough freedom of speech for people to be able to convey important ideas.

The government and economy need to adjust in order to sustain themselves as times change and the U.S. is good at this. With a new president coming into office in January, there should be plenty of changes on the drawing board.