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.

Whitman Letson
February 28, 2017

Trumps Immigration Compromise

Trump may add a new immigration bill that would grant legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants. Trump told the media, "That the time is right to pass an immigration bill as long as there is compromise on both sides." This bill would not give citizenship to the immigrants, but would let them live in the U.S., pay taxes without the fear of being deported. The immigrants eligible for this would have to not have a violent history with little crime record. The president believes this is a way to bring the country together.

I think this is one the more reasonable things President Trump has done, but this is far from what he promised in his campaign saying "We will deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants" and also calling them "dangerous people." He once again can't carry out another campaign promise which got him elected. Now I'm not opposed to what Trump is trying to do we need these illegal immigrants to become legal so they can pay their fair share of taxes. I think this is a good idea but if we are going to give them legal status in the U.S. why not just give them a U.S. citizenship if they want to be part of America.

This relates to our AP Gov class in which this article is covered by the media and how Donald Trump is falling away from his campaign promises. Donald Trump ran his campaign a lot differently than most candidates int he past and turned out to pay off, but now that he is in office he has realized that he can't execute all of his Campaign promises. The media covered this story and this article and could very much effect the outcome of this bill if the people like it or don't like his idea on this issue.


http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/politics/trump-immigration-bill/index.html