So I normally don’t like to write publicly about my political views, but I feel like now would be a good time to get some things out there. This post was primarily inspired by my very Liberal friend Michelle who has long stood that I am a dirty Republican or Libertarian – when she gets angry she’ll even call me both within the span of 30 seconds! Election Day was yesterday, which means we are 364 days away from the big presidential election in 2008. I can’t wait for that day – whether it means Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Thompson, Romney, Guliani… all would be better than the man we currently have in the White House (though Guliani would barely be an improvement). Of course, I am no different from the rest of the population in that I have my own opinions on how good each one of these candidates would actually be in the White House.
I was born and raised in a New Jersey suburb by first-generation immigrant parents. I would consider my family to be in the middle class. Naturally, being middle class and from New Jersey, my parents always voted for the Democrats. They would always preach “never vote Republican – they’re only for rich, greedy people”. So really since I’ve started to understand politics at it’s most basic level (which might be around the 1992 Bush-Clinton election, but more likely the 1996 Clinton-Dole election), I’ve always blindly supported the Democratic candidate on all levels – President, Senator, Governor, Congressman, Mayor, etc. I supported Gore in 2000 against George W. Bush, mainly because I thought Gore seemed much more intelligent and well-spoken. Simply put, Bush was a retard… maybe even worse. In 2004, I was really quite apathetic about the whole presidential race and supported Kerry with very little enthusiasm. I just didn’t want to see Bush with another 4 years in office. Unfortunately, both of those races turned out unfavorably and George Bush has been in office for the past 7 years making terrible, stupid decisions and screwing this nation to hell.
When I take a step back and think about the Presidential race in 2008, it really will be the first time in my life that I will be capable of watching the Presidential debates and actually making sense of them for myself. It will be the first time that I really cared about who we put into the Oval Office. It will be the first time that I can evaluate each candidate for his or her character and policies and make my own educated decision on who to support.
I believe in a very weak national government. In that sense, you could consider me an anti-Federalist of sorts. Why do I believe in a weak federal government? When I think of the federal government, I think about the following things: taxes, social programs, healthcare, education, and national security. There are many more things that the legislative and executive branches of the government do of course, but I am pointing out these issues as the ones that come to mind first and matter most to me as an American and prospective voter. I’m going to try and address each one of these issues below with my view on them and why the federal government sucks.
Social Programs
So what exactly are social programs? In my opinion, social programs are anything set up by the government to help those in need. We could be talking about the guy who just got fired because the economy is in recession and needs unemployment to help him through a tough time. We could be talking about the single mother of four who is struggling to bring food to the table and needs food stamps and welfare. We could be talking about the veteran coming back from Iraq who needs medical attention at a VA hospital. Or we could be talking about the recently retired couple who needs Social Security to live life without a job. I have no problem with the government trying to help out with social programs – in fact, I think it’s a great thing and probably their responsibility to do so. At the same time, however, how successful are these programs at actually helping out their targeted groups?
I understand that all of these social programs are inherently well-intentioned. At the same time, though, I think there are also a lot of bureaucratic flaws to almost all of them. Perhaps the worst of these flaws is the massive amount of red tape that people need to go through to even start receiving benefits. I don’t know how many stories I’ve read in the New York Times about veterans coming back from Iraq clearly injured and needing medical help and not receiving it based on an extremely outdated system of evaluating injuries. When claiming unemployment, some people who are actually unemployed and need the benefits are denied while some people continue to cheat the system through a set of loopholes.
And then there is Social Security, perhaps the epitome of why I dislike federally established social programs so much. Social Security is currently in state of disarray – maybe that word is even too generous for its condition. When Social Security was first established by FDR back in the 1930′s in the Second New Deal, the vision of the program was to tax working Americans to eventually help ease the financial burden of retired Americans. It was great in theory, and pretty good in practice… until World War II rolled around and the Baby Boomers were born. That great influx into the American population has put Social Security into the tenuous position it is in today. Back in the 1970′s, there were something like 30 working Americans to support every retired American. Today, that number has gone all the way down to 3. Soon, it will probably become 2. I am by no means claiming that I have a solution to Social Security. If I did, I’d probably be one of George Bush’s best friends right now. I think on one hand very wealthy people don’t need Social Security benefits (what’s a $1000 check going to do to their multi-million dollar retirement fund), but on the other hand how are you going to justify having the upper class pay a SS tax if they aren’t recipients of its benefits. I think it’s a really tricky situation – one that does illustrate, however, how social programs meant for the good can actually go wrong.
Education
One of the cornerstones to George Bush’s educational policy is the “No Child Left Behind” Act. While this act certainly has been a lofty goal and steps have been taken towards improving public education, we are still far from being at a satisfactory level. I have had many discussions with friends about the current state of education in America and I think we all pretty much agree that the main problem in most public schools is the quality of teaching being provided.
College seniors at universities across the nation are always confronted with a great deal of options. Some choose to go into the private sector and work for companies, go to graduate or medical school, work for the government, etc. What’s not usually up on that list of options (unless you are majoring in Education or have a passion for teaching), however, is “go to urban school district and teach little kids”. In very basic economic terms, the costs outweigh the benefits. Quite simply, funding for school districts located in either urban or poorer locations is insufficient to attract good teachers. If someone is choosing between taking a job with a company for $80k a year or teaching for $40k a year, most people will chose the company job even if they really enjoy teaching. It’s a plain fact of reality, and it’s something that is currently weighing down our educational system.
I think the current concept behind Teach for America is a great one. While the program itself may have a few flaws – participants are only required to teach a 2 year term and a recent study came out showing that children in classrooms taught by Teach for America teachers did not necessarily do better on standardized tests – its definitely a step in the right direction. The main point, however, is how a program like Teach for America would be funded. Not through the federal government, but rather private donations from philanthropic foundations. If you take a look at its website, its largest donors come from various organizations. An ideal system, in my mind, would be one that takes in both private donations and government subsidies to help train teachers. I don’t know how feasible this is, but I think an ideal system would be to have participants locked up for anywhere from 4-6 years because I honestly believe 2 years is a bit too short for a person to learn from his/her mistakes and improve.
In general, I don’t think the federal government is a body well-equipped to deal with the current problem. I certainly think they can provide funding, but their current system is clearly not working. Until you can provide individuals with incentives to not take a job at a company or private school, the public school system will continue to suffer.
National Security
This is the one area of the government which I think is actually necessary to the well-being of the American people. It’s also a job that probably only the federal government can do relatively efficiently. I use the word “relatively” because I still think the government is wasting tons of money on stupid shit regarding national security, but in general, I don’t have many complaints on this front.
Healthcare
The government offers Medicare and Medicaid (I still don’t know the difference between the two) as a government health insurance policy. Because people are not required to purchase this insurance (and the government has no system to monitor it), health insurance coverage in this nation is still a problem for many Americans. The way I see it, there are three major groups at risk right now: old people, poor people, and young adults (from 22 – 30). Old people are at risk since many of them need pills that are not covered by lots of prescription plans. These pills, which in some cases are necessary for them to live, are hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on the open market. Poor people are at risk since hospitals and private practices charge a shitload for all the services they provide. For people with insurance, the insurance companies just say “fuck you” to the hospitals and practices and give them a price they’re willing to pay. For people without insurance… a routine surgery could be tens of thousands of dollars. Many poor people do not understand the importance of health insurance and are unwillingly to pay for a plan. Inevitably, many of these people get screwed. Young people, surprisingly, are at risk simply because many are too ignorant or overconfident. A healthy person out of college is most likely thinking “I’m young and in good health, why would I need to pay for health insurance?”. And then something freaky happens that requires he/she to be sent to the Emergency Room and then they get a bill for $10,000. Oops.
The current system is simply unacceptable when it leaves these three important groups extremely vulnerable. While, admittedly, the third group in this case is probably vulnerable because of their excessive pride and stupidity, it still leaves a better system to be wanted. I think the system that Mitt Romney (who I am a fan of…) has put into place in MA is definitely a great starting point and it appears that many of the Democratic candidates for ’08 (Clinton, Edwards, Obama) are all seeing it that way as well. I think that the government should mandate its citizens to buy healthcare if they are able to afford it. If not, then subsidies should be provided to help them pay for the insurance. Of all the welfare the government provides, healthcare subsidies would probably have the greatest impact on the greatest number of people. In it’s current state, however, the government deserves a very low mark for its efforts on this front.
Taxes
Perhaps the issues I feel most passionately about. I am going to write about my view on taxes truthfully and honestly – you can construe it to be that I am a terrible, mean, evil person, but I think you would be wrong in that assessment. In a few years, I will (hopefully) be earning a decent salary at whatever job I end up doing. This salary will go on to be heavily taxed by the federal and state governments for all the programs and initiatives I have written about above. I believe in helping people who are not as fortunate as myself when I can. I remember donating to the Red Cross after Hurricane Katrina and sending a contribution to Idol Gives Back earlier this year. I just don’t want the government touching my money when they go off and waste it away in so many inefficient, incompetent ways.
If you look at each sector of the government that I have laid out (which mind you is a gross generalization since there are far more functions of the government than those I have listed), the only part that I see necessary for taxation is National Defense and maybe social programs (if the government would spend the money more wisely and if there wasn’t so much bureaucratic red tape). Education as I have outlined could be supported by some government subsidies but also by major philanthropic organizations.
At the end of the day, I don’t want the money that I have painstakingly earned to go to taxes that may or may not help people. I’d feel much more comfortable making a few large donations to charities and foundations of my choice every year. In fact, if the government mandated that I give X% of my salary to such organizations, I honestly wouldn’t have too much of a problem with that because I could pick what causes and places I’d be giving to (and be able to do my due diligence on how well the money is used in each of these organizations). Just don’t tax my money to fund your search for “Weapons of Mass Destruction” in Iraq. Don’t tax my money to build pet projects that congressmen and senators routinely order to be built in their home districts or states. And if you do tax me, please use the money wisely!
-K
Posted by kevinhuang 
