...ENERGY POLICY The energy policy of the United States is determined by federal, state and local entities in the United States, which address issues of energy production, distribution, and consumption, such as building codes and gas mileage standards. Energy policy may include legislation, international treaties, subsidies and incentives to investment, guidelines for energy conservation, taxation and other public policy techniques. Several mandates have been proposed over the years, such as gasoline will never exceed $1.00/gallon (Nixon), and the United States will never again import as much oil as it did in 1977 (Carter), but no comprehensive long-term energy policy has been proposed, although there has been concern over this failure. Three Energy Policy Acts have been passed, in 1992, 2005, and 2007, which include many provisions for conservation, such as the Energy Star program, and energy development, with grants and tax incentives for both renewable energy and non-renewable energy. There is also criticism that federal energy policies since the 1973 oil crisis have been dominated by crisis-mentality thinking, promoting expensive quick fixes and single-shot solutions that ignore market and technology realities. Instead of providing stable rules that support basic research while leaving plenty of scope for American entrepreneurship and innovation, congresses and presidential administrations have repeatedly backed policies which promise solutions that are politically expedient...
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...Unemployment Policies in the United States Amanda Bowman Russel Riggs American National Government February 8, 2015 In the United States, unemployment is a common occurrence. At this point you’d think that we would have pretty much everything figured out as far as being able to keep our people afloat financially. But slowly the middle class is disappearing, and there are a lot more Americans trying to survive on an unemployment income. The federal government has a lot of pull in whether people are eligible to receive unemployment benefits, and the amount that they’re entitled. The policies that go into making these benefits available to the unemployed have good points and bad points. The economy in the United States definitely isn’t where it should be in the past few years. A lot of people have been laid off because of either their company is downsizing or they aren’t making enough money to stay open and pay their employees. “More than four years into an economic recovery, the unemployment rate remains abnormally high and long-term joblessness a major problem. The employment crisis has exacerbated longer term U.S. labor market trends of rising inequality, tepid real wage growth for most workers, and a decline in middle-wage jobs” (Katz 2014). And in this sediment, there are thousands of Americans that are jobless and there doesn’t seem to be any relief any time soon. The specific policy that allows an individual to receive unemployment benefits actually gave...
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...United States Immigration Policies The concept of immigration has been in the realm of the United States for as long as it has existed. Legal immigration has been welcomed in the United States. Immigration is not a new issue, for it has been a topic to debate on for quite a while now, the only difference is, the arguments have become more intense. Whether it was a warm or cold welcoming, the idea of immigration has continued to occur. Although the essence of immigration started centuries ago with Mass Migration, the excessive overflow of immigration peaked at Ellis Island in 1907, with about 1 million immigrants being processed. Today, the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau accounted 12 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the country. By 1925, Ellis Island became known as the primary detention and deportation-processing center. According to the Congressional Budget Office there are a number of reason whys immigration has continued for so long. For example, immigration is known to reunite families by admitting immigrants with families that are currently in the United States. Further more, our country admits specific skilled workers for their own benefits and protects refugees that are already in danger in their own country. The most important reason why immigration is currently progressing in the U.S. is because the idea of diversity is important. Now, there are three different types of admissions, Permanent, Temporary, and Illegal Immigration. Permanent admissions contain...
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...The US foreign isolation policy consists on focusing the interest in the internal affairs of the country in search of prosperity, and to ensure safety. It was against of making alliance with other nations, or the participation in international conflicts outside the United States (United States History, n.d.). The US Isolation policy started during the presidency of G. Washington, who placed it in his Farewell Address. Later on, in 1823, Monroe established the Monroe Doctrine, which shared the same ideology as Washington (United States History, n.d.). However, when the Democratic party took the presidency of US failed in her aim of making the nation a protector of the world’s peace and democracy, which gave the power to the Republican party of reestablish the distrusted Isolation policy. When Woodrow Wilson entered to power, who was from the Democratic party, and this policy changed. He distrusted the Neutral policy, and took US into the First World War in order to “make the world safe for democracy”. He thought that it was a responsibility of the US to aimed it (The White House, n.d.). Nonetheless, because the great number of american soldiers dead casualties during the war, economic depression in an international level, and the need for increase attention to internal/domestic problems led the Republicans to argue against Wilson’s desire of enter into the the Covenant of the League of Nations (US Department of State: Office of the Historian, n.d.). Moreover, after the WWI...
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...The Environmental Policy of the United States The environmental policy of the United States is federal governmental action to regulate activities that have an environmental impact in the United States. The goal of environmental policy is to protect the environment for future generations while interfering as little as possible with the efficiency of commerce or the liberty of the people and to limit inequity in who is burdened with environmental costs. This policy grew mainly out of the environmental movement in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s during which several environmental laws were passed, regulating air and water pollution and forming the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Partially due to the high costs associated with these regulations, there has been a backlash from business and politically conservative interests, limiting increases to environmental regulatory budgets and slowing efforts to protect the environment. Since the 1970s, despite frequent legislative gridlock, there have been significant achievements in environmental regulation, including increases in air and water quality and, to a lesser degree, control of hazardous waste. Due to increasing scientific consensus on global warming and political pressure from environmental groups, modifications to the United States energy policy and limits on greenhouse gas emission have been proposed, but such efforts have made limited progress. Power delegation and policy jurisdiction[edit] Executive branch[edit] ...
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...Failure of Education Policy in the United States The United States has always struggled to find a way to provide an education system that provides a solid educational foundation for America’s youth. The government’s use of education policies to help better America’s education system many say has failed along with politicians attempts to solve this problem. In this paper we will be searching for an answer to a question that plagues many concerned parents and many politicians as well: Has the education policy failed in the United States? In order to answer this question we must look back on the historical background of the issue, we must review the past and present policies in place and we must identify the proposed solutions. It is our intention, with this research, to understand why or why not our education policies have failed America’s youth. There is a major problem in America and it is not one that is hard to spot if you are a concerned parent looking at your child’s test scores, a student enrolled in America’s public schools, a politician seeking to pass a new policy or even a concerned citizen, because when it comes to building a strong, intellectual country Americans’ know we need an education system that adequately prepares our youth. With so many statistics showing the decline of test scores it is not hard to identify the educational problem in America. However, there are many different beliefs as to why the education policy is failing in the United States; however, there...
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...Realism Theory focused Chinese – United States Foreign Policy There is no disputing that the United States (US) has been known around the world as the superior, single most dominating state for decades (Drew & Snow, 2006). There should be no surprise we are now seeing the rest of the world questioning how to deal with taming the American power (Walt, 2005). China along with other nations are facing this daunting question of how to balance the power, even the playing field by striving to become a great power (Forsyth, 2008). This essay will address the realism theory focusing on the three of the instruments of power (IOP) as it applies to the Chinese foreign policy towards the US. To begin with, this essay will touch on Chinas fluctuating military stance. China continues to display the traditional realist view of balancing power plus states gain their power through war and military intimidation (Forsyth, 2010). Chinas strategic culture and historical record shows they are willing to use force to maintain security and power against the US. They are positioning their assets and “threatening potential US conflict over Taiwan” (Gompert & Phillip, 2011, 42). They’ve increased their military budget, showed capabilities by shooting down a satellite, and “acquired military capabilities-including anti-ship cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and electronic countermeasure technologies—that could hinder US forces if they tried to operate in China’s neighborhood” (Walt...
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...The role of United States Supreme Court in the policy making process Policies can be described as specific guidelines that ultimately lead to the creation of laws after passing through all the legal channels. The United States Supreme Court has no explicit power to make any laws. However, its power in the overturning of laws that are deemed to be unconstitutional is well established. The Supreme Court consummated itself as a system of checks in relation to the overturning of unconstitutional laws in the 1803 Marbury v. Madison case (Ribble, 2010). As such, the Supreme Court hears cases in relation to the review of a law that is infringing on individuals rights protected by the constitution. This is the main essence of the introduction of judicial reviews. In doing so the United States Supreme Court plays a vital role in the aligning of established laws with the stipulations of the United States constitution....
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...Protectionist policy has been deep rooted in the history of the United States of America since 1789 when Alexander Hamilton leveled an “average taxation level of about 8.5 percent on imported goods.” (Merry 2016) The theory and practice of protecting domestic products, industries, and labor from foreign competition by taxing imports is not novel. However, as a capitalistic society there is great controversy about the effectiveness and externalities associated with this theory. With the political realm igniting a new flame behind implication of protectionist policy the hot button debate is now center stage again. On the first day of the presidency of Donald J. Trump, he removed the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). From...
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...Do economic or security interests play a greater role in shaping the foreign policy of the United States? Has this changed since the end of the Cold War? Attempting to separate economic and security interests in terms of American foreign policy is no easy feat as both play, and have always played, a major role in the decisions made by the government at different times over recent years. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, security interests appear to be of the utmost importance, but prior to that, since the end of the Cold War, economic interests seemed to be the priority. Over the past seventy five years or so, the interests of the United States has fluctuated between security and economy, but all of this has relied upon the world situation at the time. For example, during the Cold War, the U.S. had the worry that they would be the target of missile attacks, making security the number one priority; as is to be expected. However, prior to this, during the depression, the economy was clearly the number one concern. In an attempt to distinguish between the two, the following essay will cover a number of separate occasions where the interests of the United States have swayed between their economy and national security, and how foreign policy was affected by this; those cases being the Great Depression, the Cold War, America’s support for Israel, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the very recent Global Financial Crisis, or GFC. With this evidence a conclusion will be made which...
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...Canadian Healthy Policy vs. United States Health Policy AHS 330 Health Care Systems: 7Q April 2, 2014 Healthcare in the United States is extremely different from the rest of the world. Over the years government and political analysts have compared and contrasted the health care systems of the United States to that of Canada’s. Despite being located on the same continent both countries have different ways of delivering health care to its citizens. Canada has a single-payer system that is publicly funded, while the United States has a multi-payer system that relies heavily on privately owned healthcare. This could be due to the differences in how many patients are cared for compared to those in America or it could be just a matter of who developed the better healthcare. However, due to the close proximity of the countries it is possible that the United States can adopt the Canadian healthcare system. According to Health Canada, Canada's publicly funded health care system is best described as an interlocking set of ten provincial and three territorial health insurance plans. Known to Canadians as "Medicare", the system provides access to universal, coverage for hospital and physician services. With this being said it is safe to assume that health care services are provided on the basis of need, rather than the ability to pay. “The Canadian Health Act contains a single national plan that is composed of thirteen provincial and territorial health insurance plans that all share...
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...Gun control should be improved by taking away guns because every bullet counts and every bullet represent an innocent life which is taken away every day. If there was a stricter gun control policy in the United States, the United States would not have the highest gun related death rate than any other country and many innocent lives would be saved every year. It is more important to be safe than to allow the second amendment. Research shows there have already been 36,996 incidents related to gun violence, 9,275 total numbers of deaths and 845 incidents in self-defense use in just this year of 2015. Beginning way back to the assassination of Presidents John F. Kennedy in the year of 1963 and continuing to this present day. Gun-related...
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...Castro and his 26th of July Movement took over Cuba’s streets in January 1959. Though Castro’s charismatic and vibrant personality quickly won him astonishing support, he knew that he had to consolidate his political power by ensuring the trust of the population. The consolidation of Fidel Castro’s power between 1959 and1961 was more of a result of domestic issues rather than United States economic policies. In order, to consolidate power, it was known that the reminder of the revolutionary groups that were involved in the fight against Batista had to be quickly eliminated, so as not to challenge his political ambitions. The revolutionaries brought many of Batista’s prominent military and civilian leaders before trial which were extremely quick and defied any sense of justice and resulted in the summary execution of hundreds of persons. The regime ended the trials only in response to international criticism. Hence through this action, along with Raul using the military and large civilian militia to rid the country of the batistianos and the confiscation of their properties, Castro ensured that there was no opposition to his position and actions. In fact Louis Perez Jr. recalls, “Property owned by batistianos was confiscated, their safe deposit boxes seized, and their bank accounts frozen”. Castro appeared a saviour as he was exacting justice for the violated rights of the Cuban people. Another factor that consolidated Castro’s power was that of propaganda. In January 1959...
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...On September 11, 2001, 2977 people lost their lives during the plane hijackings and the attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia. This single incident led to major changes in the United States in both domestic and foreign policy. These changes have led to an ever-changing role for the US in the global arena. Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States has been in the position of being the primary military and economic ‘superpower’. Foreign policy was focused on the possible threats of long-range missile attacks by North Korea directly or upon our European allies by Iran. Domestic policy was more economic in nature focusing on developing markets and free trade agreements, such as NAFTA, with emerging foreign markets in developing countries such as Mexico, China, and India. Unfortunately, this has led to a loss of 20% global market share for the US as outsourcing jobs and sometimes entire companies to these countries has become a more prevalent practice. Since the 9/11 attacks, the focus has been on fighting a war against terrorism beginning with the bombings in Afghanistan 26 days after 9/11 in 2001 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 (nymag.com, 2014). In a speech to the joint houses of Congress on September 20, 2001, President Bush stated, “We will direct every resource at our command ... to the destruction and to the defeat of the global terror network. ... We will pursue nations that...
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...‘70’s was the decade in which people put emphasis on the skin, on the surface, rather than on the roof of things… It was the decade in which image became preeminent because nothing deeper was going on (Schulman, 145).” It described the new American self-awareness and the collective retreat from history, community and human reciprocity. Compared to the 1960’s, Americans in the 1970’s were self-absorbed and passive; it was a stylistic change in American preoccupations (Schulman, 145). Cheap gas prices allowed Americans to drive in gas guzzling vehicles, which eventually changed the automobile industry due to the Oil Crisis. Studying the oil crisis of the 1970’s dramatically illustrates American dependence on fossil fuels. At the time, the United States was consuming a huge percentage of the world’s...
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