Whitman Letson
May 24, 2017

23 million fewer Americans insured under House GOP bill

              The House Republican Health care bill would leave 23 million fewer Americans with health insurance by 2026 than under Obamacare. This bill would reduce deficits by $119 billion. The bill aims to help the middle class and young people by reducing premiums. Although it help young and middle class it will hurt older people probably 55 and up, but it will also hurt low income families because of the higher premiums compared to their income. This legislation would end the enhanced funding, and eliminate mandates, and require nearly all Americans to have coverage and companies with more than 50 workers to provide coverage.

              Now the headline on this bill is worse than the bill itself. This bill does drop a lot people and which could prove to be the fatal flaw. For insurance to work everyone must pay in for everyone to receive benefits. Now this bill doesn’t require people to use this health care plan which is going to cause some problem. One of the main reasons out of the billion reasons why Obama care failed miserably was there wasn’t enough people paying premiums to cover all the costs so I don’t know how President Trump expects for this plan to work. Now this bill seems correct when you read it because it says that since young people aren’t getting sick they shouldn’t have to pay a lot in premiums and vice versa with old people having to pay more because they are more likely to get sick. I think this bill will be passed easily in the house, but the end result of this legislation will end up being a dumpster fire sitting right next to Obamacare.

              This current event deals with the budget committee and separation of powers in passing a bill. In this story this legislation will have to be voted on and decided whether the bill becomes law for this to happen there must be a simple majority of 51 votes if a tie Vice president will break it. The budget committee has to figure out before this becomes bill can the U.S. support this bill and how much will this cost them. In this case this bill should save them 119 billion.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/24/news/economy/obamacare-repeal-cbo/index.html

Whitman letson
May 17, 2017

Memo of Trump asking to end Flynn investigation

                             When FBI officials were looking at Comeys memos after his firing they discovered one memo that read “I hope you can let this go” talking about the Michael Flynn investigation. Democrats were quick to jump the gun and say that Trump is performing obstruction of justice. The republicans reacted a lot differently denying he said that but if he did say that Comeys actually obstructing justice for not telling higher officials. Later today White House Officials said "The President has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the President and Mr. Comey."

Well is certainly isn’t good news for president Trump, but will probably be lost in week or so because of a new story that will arise. There clearly isn’t enough information to take any action yet, and this allegation just turned into a he said he said situation. Now I have a feeling trump did say this because why would Comey write this down in the text he wrote it in. Also it was like he went after the fact that he was fired he wrote it because he was upset. He sent the memo to some people but not action was taken. Now Republicans are saying that Comey should be tried if this is true for not reporting the issue. Democrats are screaming for this impeachment and there isn’t even close to enough information to do that, and this will just be thrown in a pile of stuff the president has aid but can’t be proven.

This report deals with Obstruction of justice which deals with court of law, and if the case were to go to court it would be held in the Supreme Court. If this case were taken up to the Supreme Court (which it won’t) it would be last impeachment of a president since Clinton. Also it would be the first obstruction of justice case since Nixon V U.S. when Nixon resigned. This is a very interesting time of politics and people are comparing it to Nixon and although there are a lot of similarities I don’t think it has gotten that bad yet.

Whitman Letson
May 10, 2017

James Comey

              President Trump fires FBI Director, James Comey. The White House Office insists that they fired James Comey because of this mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email server hack. Also his mishandling of many other cases, and not doing the job as well as the Trump Presidency would like. This was a shock many, because the FBI director doesn’t get fired very often and how Trump praised Comey for being such a good FBI director during his campaign. After he was fired the democrats claimed he was fired for investigating Trump and Russia and some would say that he was getting to close to the truth.  Whatever is going on this firing of Mr. Comey has brought a landside of attention towards Trump.

              This is not a good situation for President Trump to be in right now he hasn’t even given a real reason why he was fired. Unless there is really something between Trump and Russia, although this seems like a stretch it’s really not, Trump is in dangerous situation right now. Some people have pointed out seems a little Watergate Nixon like when Nixon started getting rid of people who knew too much. Watergate started when Nixon’s own party turned against him and signs of this have started to show in the Trump administration with some republicans getting worried on what Trump is doing. Now for this happen Trump would have to cause a lot more friction to be impeached so it is highly unlikely he will be impeached.

This directly deals with the court case we learned in class about Nixon V United States when the people and Nixon’s own party turned against him. Now I’m not saying this is happening to Trump but there is chance is this could happen given the information he have now. For this to occur it would take the Republican Party to impeach Trump just like Nixon, although it is highly unlikely.  This is a dangerous time for trump that reminds a lot of people of Nixon Watergate.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/10/politics/james-comey-donald-trump-firing-tick-tock/index.html

Whitman Letson
April 26, 2017

North Korea's Live Fire-Drill

              North Korea has just carried out their largest ever live-fire drill, and it’s hard to know if war is actually imminent or these are growing pains of Donald Trump’s new admiration.  Analysts fear that this situation could be set off by just a small spark, so this situation needs to be handled delicately. The U.S. currently has one aircraft carrier in the area and analysts believe if war was imminent they would move another aircraft carrier to the area. This drill did mark the 85^th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army founding, but it was the largest movement of big artillery out of shelters which can be concerning. Analyst say that if war was coming a lot more artillery would be moved.

              I feel that this article headlines exaggerates the story making it sound like war could be coming when really it’s not. Mr. Trump needs to not blow over this major issue when dealing with North Korea, considering that it deals with many other moving parts like trade with other countries. Even if war never happens there can be major consequences if China sides with North Korea and blocks trade. The best thing for America to do right now is to lay low, not make North Korea angry and protect South Korea. Making North Korea angry could cause them to fight back and a war in this day and age with technology could be devastating, but even if war ends and everything isn’t destroyed it could ruin all U.S. relations with other countries.

              This story relates to our AP Gov class by dealing with foreign affairs, and powers of the president and the defense department.  The defense department has to make critical decisions, along with the president, to move aircraft carriers and what type of military action to take if needed. Dealing with Foreign Affairs is tricky and can be considered more important than dealing with war, being able to be in good relations with other countries is huge in sustaining a good economy.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/26/asia/north-korea-chance-of-war/index.html

Whitman Letson
April 19, 2017

U.S. Talks Tougher on Iran

The Trump administration released a statement Wednesday saying that the deal made with Iran to restrain their nuclear program had failed, and Iran continues to the world’s leading sponsor in terrorism. The statement also said that the nuclear deal Obama made with Iran completely ignored all the other serious threats that Iran poses. Iran is currently following the deal President Obama made, but the Trump administration feels that they need to tighten the deal. They said that with the country overwhelming provocations of terror and violence they need to have stricter regulation or this country could turn into a North Korea type situation. The Trump administration is currently sticking with the old deal, but will change it in the future.

              The actions the Trump administration is taking seem to be very reasonable steps to insure the safely of our country and all the other countries affected by Iran. Making sure nuclear weapons don’t get into the wrong hands in extremely important to the safety of the world and should be made sure nothing like that happens. Although there are regulations in place currently the Trump the administration feels the need to tighten regulations they are probably right, but they need to peruse new regulations very careful and cautiously. If the U.S. manages to make Iran upset this could cause them to not cooperate with the U.S. anymore and this becomes a very dangerous situation. Iran may also feel the U.S. is controlling them too much since we are already telling them what they can and can’t do and they are following the current deal so maybe the answer is not change the deal and just keep a close eye on them.

              This relates to our AP Gov by talking about the President and his duty to be in touch with the Department of the State create foreign policy. Since the president is the person being judged on all his decisions he has to learn how communicate with his party and his departments so that they are on the same page. The President is the leader and chief diplomat he has to communicate well with other countries and create a very good relationship with them so they will work well with our country.

Whitman Letson
March 21 2017

Neil Gorsuch

Neil Gorsuch, appointed by President Trump, is going through his Senate hearings currently to become a Supreme Court Justice. In a hearing on Tuesday he may have said some things that wouldn't have pleased president Trump. In the hearing Gorsuch said "When anyone criticizes the honesty, integrity, the motives of a federal judge, I find that disheartening, I find that demoralizing, because I know the truth," He also said that the travel ban was disheartening and demoralizing. When he was asked the question if Trump had asked him to overturn roe v wade he said Trump didn’t but if he had Gorsuch said “he would have walked out the door.”

President Trump and Neil Gorsuch may not be on the same page after some of the senate hearings on Thursday. This makes me wonder why President Trump appointed a Judge that doesn’t share some of the same views like abortion. Trump was very prolife in his campaign and for him to appoint a judge that doesn’t support it seems to me like a bad move considering if he tried to get Roe V Wade over turned. I’m not opposed to who he was appointed showing that Gorsuch is very qualified and shows that Trump isn’t being egocentric and showing that he tried to make the best conservative choice possible for the Republican Party.

This issue relates to our class by directly talking about Roe V Wade and the Judiciary system. Roe V Wade was a massive court case dealing with abortion and was talked about in the Senate hearings. Trump was against the ruling and believes in prolife unlike Neil Gorsuch who when asked Tuesday said he wouldn’t try to overturn the ruling. This also deals with the process of electing a new Judge which we are currently learning about in class. These Senate Hearing are very active and informative to what we are learning in class.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/21/politics/neil-gorsuch-trump-criticism-disheartening/index.html

Whitman Letson
March 15, 2017


   

Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, is in the news this week for Trumps new Healthcare bill. On Wednesday he was on a video call with Jake Tapper and was asked the question “If the new healthcare bill vote was tonight do you think it would be passed?” Paul Ryan’s response was a long detailed why the bill is good but he didn’t answer the question. Ryan said that he works with the Whitehouse every day and the only reason this new bill exists is because of the work the white house and House of Representatives have done together. Paul Ryan said that “The new bill would not force people buy healthcare unlike, and would be a lot a better than Obamacare.” This new bill would also cause 24 million to loose coverage.

              Why would Paul Ryan not back up his own plan that he has helped create? Does he not believe the bill will be successful or is he just being realistic and not overly confident on his viewpoints in a very sensitive area of the politics, regarding healthcare.  What I don’t understand is the House and Congress are controlled by republicans and so is the white house, so shouldn’t this bill be easy to pass through Congress. The bill also has many flaws pointed about by major news networks. Seems to me they need some more time to create a better version, because this version defies the rules of insurance, for insurance to work everyone has to pay in to receive converge or else there won’t be enough money to go around to help cover people. This plan doesn’t seem to be on track to be a successful bill.

              This relates to our AP Gov class by dealing with Campaign Promises, and the involvement of the media. Media can blow up in people’s faces as seen here by speaker Paul Ryan being all over cnn for not saying the bill would pass if the vote was tonight. Trump is following up on his campaign promise by creating a new healthcare plan, and as he said in the election “His bill will be a lot better than Obama care.” Trump hasn’t followed up with exactly what he said in his campaigns, but I’m glad to see he is making an effort this time to keep his campaign promise. Keeping campaign promises restores a little confidence in the public which is good for the Country.