reflection

During these weeks of research I have learned alot of interesting things about my topic, Government Agencies. I have also improved on my writing and researching skills.  Through this project I have been learning about government agencies and what they are about.  I have also learned more about the size of government. I think that this process is not only educational but a good skill to have in the future. It has also shown me what is necessary for a good argument with a formidable opponent. This project could also be improved by letting the students write about what they want to write about and let the students grade each others work with the educational knowledge that they learned from the other students.

I think that this blog project has taught me many things about my topic and government and about electronic means of communication in regards to blogging and how it can teach you new skills that can be used outside of the classroom and how to apply them to real life scenarios.

big question

The over employment in today's government is over crowding the many agencies with unnessecary people and jobs.
According to Chris Edwards of the Catto Institute the government has been mismanaged and over budgeted.  "The 2.3 trillion Federal government has simply become too big for congress to over see".  This is saying that we need to reduce the size and spending of the federal government.  "But the need for spending cuts is even more acute today because of the large fiscal imbalances that loom from projected growth in entitlement cost. Spending cuts would not just balance the budget; they would also increase individual freedom and expand the economy".  He is also saying that government needs to cut employees and reduce the spending and borrowing that big government is doing now.
One of the best ways to reduce spending is to cut pay, jobs, and employee benefits like covering the cost of health insurance which would reduce wasteful spending.
An article in the Washington Post published in October 2008 stated that big government gets bigger "it has begun with a decision to use 700 Billon of tax payers money to buy up financial assets and take an ownership stake in the nations largest banks and could be followed by a stimulus program of up to 300  Billon driven by congressional Democrats."  What this means to me is they are buying stuff that they don't need, spending our tax dollars to bail out banks instead of using the money to help everyday Americans in the form of a tax refund.  In addition, "a total of more then 5 trillion dollars on wars abroad and anti-terrorism efforts at homes since 2002.  Of that hundreds of billions was misspent in large part due to a broken contracting system according to congressional oversite reports"
With all this, it shows me how government has been overspending and needs to reduces its spending to help us recover from past damage.

size of goverement

According to Chris Edwards, Director of Fiscal Policy at The Cato Institute and author of "Downsizing The Federal Government", "The federal government is headed toward a financial crises", and "most Federal programs are unconstitutional, unnecessary, actively damaging,or properly the responsibility of state government or the private sector".  He also says "the budget is littered with wasteful and unnecessary programs".  What he is saying is the without reduction of government programs Americans become  lazy and expect every thing to be handed to them.  Not to mention the fact that many Americans pay  for these programs through taxes and fees which means we have less income to freely spend which can damage the economy.  In addition, because the programs are expensive to run and inefficient, they will cost more which would mean Americans would have to pay even more taxes or fees to cover the programs. The programs are not sustainable at the levels they are at.  His thought is to terminate business subsidies and commercial activity should be privatized. He concludes that "Given the governments record of mismanaged and damaging programs reviewed in this report, policy makers should be far more skeptical about the governments ability to solve problems with higher spending", meaning the government way of fixing things is with big programs that cost alot of money.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul says that President Obama wants to expand the size of government and states in an article written for PrisonPlanet.com by Steve Watson that the proof is in Obama's inauguration speech where he stated "the question is not weather our government is to big or to small but whether it works". Ron Paul goes on to explain that Obama "will make the government grow faster" and believes the only way to pay for this is "by printing more money" perhaps because Americans are taxes to death already!

servay resultes

For my survey I asked "What government concept created many agencies that are still around today?"  The four choices to answer were: Proposition 215, Amendment 64, The New Deal and Question 1 D.  Eleven people responded to my survey with 2 responding Proposition 215,  8 said The New Deal and 1 respondent said Question 1D.  I expected most people to know the right answer, which was The New Deal.  After seeing these results I know that I am giving good information in my blog and for the three that didn't get it right maybe they should read my blog more in depth.