Issue #2: Ensuring Quality Care for Medicare Patients

   Medicare is a health care benefit for disabled persons 65 and older. Medicaid was created for the 38 million Americans who have a low income.They were created in the hope that all Americans can have adequate health care. In that effort, the government is planning on reducing the Medicare costs by $70 billion. For starters, the doctors who treat Medicare will lose a 5 to 10 percent cut on their government reimbursments. Doctors get paid baised on quantity rather than quality of work. This means that if they see many patients in one day, regardless of the quality of the diagnosis they recieve, they still get paid well. The government created legislation that will help ensure people in America get proper attention and diagnosis from said doctors. The doctors follow a pay-for-performance system. Over time, superior doctors and hospitals that follow the system well will recieve bonuses. People who oppose this bill think that the government undermines the doctors and hospitals judgement. They say that doctors are expected to provide quality care at all times, and shouldn't be given bonuses to do so.

   
I think that doctors shouldn't be given bonuses for the quality of work they provide. Sure it would be nice to help the doctors who do that all the time, but isn't that what a doctor is supposed to do? They are supposed to help every person as best as humanly possible, and they should't be given a prize as to who can do it best. Certain doctors may take advantage of this law, and then it will all have been a waste. Every doctor at anytime should be putting their best effort into every one of their patients and putting a prize above their heads will cloud their judgements.Sylvia Brandt, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, believes that doctors do not need any additional monetary incentive to do the best they can, and monetary incentives could have perverse consequences.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/hearing/2009/07/against_physician_pay-for-perf.html

Issue #1:Comprehensive vs. Incremental Health Care Reform

Issue #3:Safe to Eat?

Stowaway survives flight over Siberia hiding in landing gear

A young child living in a crowded, and under staffed foster home literally flew from his former home by stowing away on a flight from Moscow to Siberia, Russia in the planes landing gear. The seventeen year old no longer felt that he had to live in his foster home, so he decided to hitch a ride to Siberia, and survived with only a light coat on him. Many other people have tried to escape their lives by doing the same thing, but they have died trying. One other stow away succeeded in his journey, but was hospitalized for hypothermia.

I think its sad that the boy wanted to get away from his foster home so badly that was willing to risk falling out of a planes landing gear and staying there for almost an hour. Many people have tried the same things that the boy has and they have died. They fell out of the plane, and some of them died from hypothermia because of the landing gear has no protection from the outside elements. This poor kid lived in such terrible conditions and he wanted to escape. He couldn't live the way he was anymore so he left. I feel like he shouldn't have done something so drastic to try and escape but the point he made was loud and clear. The foster home that he was in should have taken better care of him or treated him better so he wouldn't have tried to escape in such a deadly way.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39963172/ns/world_news-europe/39967970

Boehner rips health care plan as 'monstrosity,' vows to roll it back.

House Republican Leader John Boehner considers the midterm election's results proof that the American people do not want President Obama's health care plan to pass. He wants the government not to create universal health care, but lower the costs, which would help out the economy and not takeover health care. He believes that most of America doesn't approve of the plan, but a national poll proved that the nation was split on the issue. Republicans gained seats in the Senate, and they now have more power in the House of Representatives, but Democrats still have the most seats in Senate.

I agree that the government shouldn't take complete control over the health care bill issue. They should listen to what the American people have to say. Yes, some people in America really need the health care bill passed, and i feel for them, but i don't want to have to spend my hard earned money to give us both mediocre health care. I know that people who are unemployed have a hard time getting even decent health care, but hard working citizens who have their own children to take care of shouldn't have to struggle with mediocre health care if they can afford better. On another note, I am glad that the Republicans have a standing leg to fight on in government. Sure I'm a Democrat, but just because I am doesn't mean i agree with everything they do.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39987154/ns/politics-decision_2010/

Economy at a Crossroads

The Midterm elections are supposed to help create equality in the White House, spreading Republicans and Democrats equally. But that is not the case this Midterm election. The standoff between Obama's Democratic Administration and encouraged Republicans will not help the economy. Political gridlock is supposed to be helpful to the economy, but with the Democrats and Republicans at each others throats, the government can't agree on anything and the economy will suffer. They expect little cooperation among political leaders.

I think that the government should just get their act together and start playing nice with each other. Let one side speak their opinion and don't immediately shoot it down. When the government fight, the American people suffer the most. The Republicans are leaning towards tax breaks for everyone, which is good. But because they are not for the universal healthcare plan, the Democrats barely listen to what they have to say. I hope that the election makes the government an equal place. The Obama Administration is all Democrat, so we need an equal amount of Republicans to help the voice of the American Republicans to be heard.  The ecconomy isn't growing fast enough to help the unemployed in America. The government needs to help pay off the $6.1 trillion dollar deficit to help the economy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39956799/ns/business-economy_at_a_crossroads/

BP lifts cost for spill, denting quarterly profit

The oil company BP, that was responsible for the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, has increased the cost for the oil spill by almost 18%. The $40 billion dollar charge that they have taken may be far great or far too small of a number for the total amount of damage costs done by the oil spill. BP along with its partners will share the cost of the oil spill but if neglegence is found on BP's part, they will face the entire bill alone.

BP should have to take the entire responsibility for the oil spill. They shouldn't have to rely on their partner's help to pay off the bill. They were the people who decided to drill a hole in the middle of the ocean and cause one of the greatest disasters in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Katrina. They were the one's who killed off some of the worlds greatest everglades and it's wildlife. They continue to say how sorry they are on television, but that is all that I'm seeing. They moan and groan on TELEVISION. Stop telling me how sorry you are and do something! I want to see results, not a guy dressed in fancy clothes telling me how much he's PLANNING to help out victims of the oil spill. They should help give money to the victims because they have lost a lot of their financial stability when the oil spill affected their jobs.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39964613/ns/business-world_business/

Ark. school official to resign after posting anti-gay screed

 In a facebook posting, a member of an Arkansas school board stated that he thinks all gay youths should kill themselves. He read a facebook campaign asking people to wear purple in honor of the gay and lesbian youths that had commited suicide, and wrote that he would only wear purple if all of "them" killed themselves. Several school officials called attention to his post and agree that his posting does not represent the school when he posts on his facebook page. He has agreed to resign after public disapproval of him.

This man makes me very angry. How he can be a public school teacher, and have such radical, homophobic thoughts is beyond comprehension. He creates a bad example of himself. Students should look up to their teachers, not be embarrassed by what they have to say. Instead of ranting about how much he hates gays, he should have just kept his mouth shut. I'm glad that he will no longer have a job on the school board, but i think the faculty should have fired him. He shouldn't have been able to say all that he said, and then just been able to quit. He should have been reprimanded, or punished in some way. He could have had an effect on the students that he taught, and one of them may have killed themselves. Everyone has an impact, no matter what they think, or where they write it. Facebook has become a highway for cyberbulling, and even teachers can't escape it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39888918/ns/us_news-life/

Disabled N.C. girl vanishes; stepmom questioned

     A young girl with hearing loss in both of her ears and a prosthetic leg from a battle with cancer dissapeared last Saturday from Hickory, North Carolina. Her stepmother was later arrested in the same day on unrelated charges, and those close to her believe she could somehow be responsible for Zhara's disappearance. Her old neighbors say that the stepmom had a quick temper, and would often punish the child for no reason. The child's own father believes that the stepmother could have somthing to do with his daughter's disappearance.
   
      I think that the police should really come down hard on this woman. She may be a stepmother, but she has no right to abuse or hit a child. The neighbors of the girl say that they stepmother acted odd that saturday and if she had something to do with Zhara's disappearance, I'm sure she did act odd. Police say they found a tree burning in their backyard with what could be clothing hanging from tree limbs. That is certainly suspicious enough for me to seriously consider that the stepmother could inadvertanly be responsible for this little girl's disappearance. Her stepmother never seemed to care until she was close to tears when Zhara was fitted with her hearing aids. Zhara had lost hearing in both of her ears and her left leg from chemotherapy because of bone cancer. It had a deep impact on her father. Why should her father have to suffer the loss of his little girl this way, when he was so close to losing her in cancer's death grip?

Information and source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39617740/ns/us_news-life/

100,000 kids in pakistan face starvation

 A young baby is laying on the dirt floor of a small un airconditioned hut with her stomach bulging out from malnutrition. Her mother cannot get food to feed her because her husband forbaid her to leave the hut until he returns from work. That means that she has to wait up to 6 hours a day with 2 4 day old babies with no food and no means to keep the babies cool and comfortable. These children are hardly anything different than normal in Pakistan since the floods came and wiped nearly every home from the face of the earth.

 It is so terrible how children only 7,000 miles away from me are dying from starvation and all i see is a tiny little news article in a news website. These children go through perils that never cross my mind in the worst nightmares. How can you look at a child whose skin is sagging and stomach bulging from malnutrition and not want to do something that can help make them better? People in UNICEF need to make families that have starving infants a first priority, because they are the most in need. These little innocent babies have done nothing other than being born at the wrong time because of a flood. Houses should be built to help protect these little guys, and people blessed with the little things in life that they take for granted should contribute and help out these families in need.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39257268/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

Issue #2: Spending what we can afford

 In 2007, Congress passed the pay-as-you-go budgeting measure. Another name used for it is "paygo", which means that when the government makes any tax cuts, they have to be offset with any spending reductions somewhere else. This law was passed to help cut down the national debt, which is currently more than $8.8 trillion. The government gets all of the money from the U.S. population, foreign countries, and nost notably the Social Security trust fund. The government's debts form a yearly deficit, which increases the national debt by nearly $2.9 trillion a year. The paygo rule tries to show that the members of Congress care about fixing the nations' debt. Paygo tries to hold the Government to the same standard as the american people and business', that they can only spend what they can afford. Supporters argue that paygo will eliminate wasteful spending, and can be suspended in times of crisis, such as an recession. Oponents argue that paygo will hike up taxes to pay for new programs, and will hurt the American people and the economy. They say the debt should be paid off with industrial growth rather than budget cuts and tax increases. It will not help the government stop the growing reach of the Alternative Minimum Tax, and  it can restrict Congress' ability to respond to national emergencies.

 I think that the paygo rule can be both beneficial and harmful to the American economy. I don't see how oponents can say that its a bad thing when the only counteract they can come up with is "industrial growth will help stimulate the economy and help the debt." Sure it would be nice to have industrial growth but how do we do that exactly? You have to actually make a plan instead of just saying something as vague as "industrial growth". Make a legit plan people! Supporters show some good points of how the paygo plan can be helpful. I like that it holds the Congress to the same standard as the people of the U.S. President Obama praises the return of the paygo budget legislation that he thinks will get the government out of a destructive pattern of overspending.

Issue #1: War Dollars

Issue #3: Social Insecurity

Americans' suspicions frustrate U.S. Muslims

The American government and people still treat the muslim people in our home country as though they associate themselves with terrorists even after 9 years of speaking otherwise. Muslims who have lived here for all of their lives, or have immigrated here are confused, hurt, and angry at being associated with terrorists. Muslim groups and leaders in the United States say that their organizations share the blame for the little known about the Islam faith.

I think that people in the United States shouldn't be so ignorant to think that all Muslim people are some form of terrorist. It is something that no one wants to deal with in their everyday lives. The people that live here came to get away from the terrorist and they wanted to live their lives free. When we keep our minds closed, we can never let ourselves move forward, let alone them. We limit them before we even get to know them. We group them when they should be considered individuals, and not focus on their religion. We can never tell what kind of religion White people have just by looking at them, and we never(usually) discriminate openly based on faith anymore. So why can some White people openly hate and discriminate against Muslims just by the faith or how they look. If they look like a "terrorist" are you really not going to hire them for a job? It saddens me that people still think this way today in a land that is considered "all men are created equal."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39136087/ns/us_news-life/