Tax

I think the tax debate is a huge part of government. The government needs this money to run so they need an effective way to get it. The tax system we have now favors rich people. They can only have a certain amount of money that is taxed meaning that whatever amount of money over this set limit is pure profit for them and it goes untaxed. I feel that is unfair. They make enough money to pay taxes on it. If someone that only makes $35,000 a year gets taxed for all of their income why should someone else who makes $300,000 not be taxed on all of it?

I think that the best way to tax would be a flat tax. Everyone gets taxed the same percentage. This does in fact target rich people more than poor people but I feel it is better for the country. The rich people can afford to pay a little bit extra. The nation has a high poverty level so if the poor people paid less then it could help bring the nation out of poverty.

The flat tax I feel would also make the country more money. With everyone paying the same percentage the rich people would have to pay more in taxes giving the government more money. Some might argue that rich people earned their money and shouldn’t have that much taken but the same goes for poor people.  And on that I would bet that poor people work harder for their money than rich people. Let’s take LeBron James in to this. His last contract was for $21.57million, I would bet all of his salary that a farmer in South Dakota works 10 times harder than LeBron to make $50,000 a year if they even make that much. If we had a flat tax of 17%  LeBron would have to pay  $3.67 million and that farmer would pay $8500. Many would say that’s not fair but I think it is. My reasoning for this is that, that farmer works long hard hours and works to feed people in this country and he works for the people in a way to help them to survive. Why should he be taxed for that? LeBron James works for the people too but only for entertainment. He doesn’t have to work nearly as hard as that farmer and LeBron doesn’t benefit the economy like that farmer does. So I think that a flat tax is fair in this country and I think it could benefit the country.

 

Japanese vs Germans

World War II was a terrible time in World History. When people think of World War II they most likely think of the Holocaust and the German death camps that many Jews and other people were killed in. They also know of Doctor Josef Mengele or the “Doctor of Death” and his horrible experiments on children. But many people do not know that the Japanese were just as ruthless as the Germans.

The Japanese were just as bad if not worse than the Germans. Many people have never heard of the Japanese version of the holocaust. The “Raping of Nanking” was a horrible event where hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were tortured and killed.

The German holocaust was horrible. Millions of Jews and Gypsies forced into trains and then forced to walk miles upon miles to work and death camps. Many of these people marched all the way to these camps just to be put in a chamber and killed. Others were exposed to the horrible experiments of Doctor Josef Mengele (Doctor of Death.) The name explains it all; the doctor would put these people through horrible experiments eventually killing them all. Some of his experiments included taking twins and cutting them in half and sewing them together. Others dealt with injecting them with horrible drugs and chemicals to try to change physical appearance such as eye color. Some even included trying to perform sex changes on these people. Total number of deaths during the German Holocaust reaches nearly 11 million people.

Many people would say that there is no way that the Japanese could have been worst but I beg to differ. The Germans killed more people but the Japanese were all about pain and torture. During the “Raping of Nanking” Chinese people were forced and exposed to horrible things. Many of the females no matter what the age were raped and beaten by the Japanese. Pregnant women had their bellies cut open and have their babies ripped from their womb. Others were set on fire or taken and made to dig their own grave and then killed. Families endured the pain of being forced to rape each other. Sons raping their mothers and sisters and well as fathers being forced to rape their daughters. All of this was all for entertainment for the Japanese. Many of the witnesses that survived remember watching the Japanese soldiers smile while this occurred. People who were captured were sent to have experiments done by Doctor Shiro Ishii. He was worse than the German Doctor of Death. He experimented with the effects of biological weapons on patients or “Logs” (to make them sound less human.) They were also put in pressure chambers until their eyes would pop out of their head. When people found his work area they found human limbs and even an entire body cut in half in jars of formaldehyde. Japanese total number of deaths during “Raping of Nanking” is 300,000.

People would say that because the Germans killed more they were worse but I disagree. The Germans killed more but the Japanese made these people do horrible horrible things. Another question people might ask is how the Japanese people got away with it and the Germans didn’t. The answer, the United States Government.

Since the Japanese were doing experiments that involved biological warfare the United States wanted the results. They made a deal with the Japanese that they would cover it up in exchange for their results. This makes me incredibly mad because the Japanese should not have gotten away with this when what they were doing was in my opinion worse than Germans.

 

Nixon

On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon became the only United States President to resign from office. Due to the Watergate Scandal and the continued harassment because of it he believed that this was the best for himself and the country. Whenever someone mentions Nixon, people always accuse him of Watergate. People never remember the good that he did for the country.

As a person, Richard Nixon was very intelligent. He actually graduated third in his class from Duke University. He was very successful in areas of law and logistics. He was a very hard worker and was a very good debater. The skills would come in handy later on when working with foreign relations.

One of Richard Nixon’s greatest achievements was his foreign policy. Nixon and his closest colleague Henry Kissinger worked hard and long to create strong foreign relations. Their policy of Détente (which means: the easing of hostility or strained relations) helped to restore relations with both Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and the Soviet Union (USSR).

Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger worked hard to build relations in China. In February of 1972 Nixon became the first United States President to visit China since 1949. Another huge achievement with China is the Ping Pong Diplomacy. This was when the Chinese invited the United Stated National Ping Pong team to China to play some ping pong. This was huge because these were the first American citizens in China since 1949.

Another one of Richard Nixon’s foreign accomplishments was with the Soviet Union. Because of Nixon’s treaty with China, The Soviet Union felt pressured to fix things with the United States. This plan actually worked because the United States and the Soviet Union came to an agreement and everything was better. With treaties between China, the Soviet Union, and the United States, The Triangular Diplomacy was created.

During Nixon’s time in office one of the hardest things he had to deal with was the Vietnam War. Nixon and Kissinger called their plan or policy Vietnamization. Their plan was to pull out all the troops from Vietnam and to ring them home.

He also dealt with conflict in the middle-east. The conflict was caused when Nixon was backing Israel and made many middle-eastern countries mad at him. When Nixon refused to abandon Israel, many of these countries attacked us by cutting trade with the United States. This impacted the country greatly because the United States depended greatly on these countries for oil. This actually caused an oil crisis in the United States. I don’t think Nixon did anything wrong with this though because he was just backing Israel and what they believe in.

Those are many of the things that Nixon did right in office so now for the bad. With Nixon and his foreign policy, he failed greatly in Chili. Nixon fought hard to get the man he wanted in office in Chili. This guy that he got in ended up being a dictator. This is considered one of Nixon’s greatest failures in foreign policy.

The greatest of all Nixon’s failures though is by far Watergate. Everyone knows about Watergate and how Nixon tried to bug the democrat’s office and then how he tried to cover it up. Nixon spend a lot of money that should have been used for reelection purposes but instead used to pay people for the scandal and to cover it up.
            When we watched “Frost Nixon,” Nixon felt remorseful and he was truly sorry for what he did and how he let the country down. I think Nixon was truly a nice guy and cared for the country. He made one mistake and got caught doing it and it ended up ruining his career.

I think that Nixon made some mistakes in office but who doesn’t. Being president is not an easy job. I also think he made up for those mistakes because he made many right choices and helped the country in many ways. So I don’t think he should be remembered by his mistakes.  

 

Bill Tracking

House Bill 1006 originally stated the following: “41-12-8. No person may use carp, goldfish, and game fish (except cleanings thereof), except bullhead and cleanings of game fish, in hook and line fishing. A violation of this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor.” 

The bill was first read in the House on January 13 and was referred to the House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee. Our Representative Ron Feickert was on this committee and voted to pass this bill.  The House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee passed the bill with a vote of 13-0. The bills next stop was the House of Representatives floor. Here the bill once again passed with a vote of 67-0 with 3 excused votes. The bill was then sent to the senate. Both Feickert and McCleerey voted to pass this bill on the House Floor.

House Bill 1006 was first read in the senate on January 23 and was referred to the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. It was scheduled for hearing on February 10 and passed with a vote of 9-0. Representative Jason Frerichs was on this committee and voted to pass the bill. The bill was sent to the Senate Floor. The bill was debated on the Senate floor and was passed with a vote of 34-0 and one excused vote. Representative Jason Frerichs vote to pass this bill as well. The bill was sent to the Governor to be signed.

House bill 1006 was signed by the Speaker of the House on February 12 and was sent to be signed by the President of the Senate. The president of the senate signed the on February 17 and the bill was delivered the governor on February 18.  

On February 28, 2015 Governor Denise Daugaard signed HB1006. The bill to allow bull heads to be used as bait will go into effect on July 1, 2015.

Measles Outbreak

1. 13 cases in South Dakota
2. 79 in California/ 382 in Ohio
3. 122,061 in 2014 / 495 in 2015         48 states have religious exemptions
4. Tammy’s story goes to show you the effects of measles. It is a very sad story, the effects that this disease had on this family. They could never live a normal life because of it. This disease doesn’t just affect the person infected it also plays an emotional effect on the family of the victim.
5. Medical reasons and religious beliefs
6. Yes
7. It’s okay to delay vaccinations and let your kids immune system mature/ immigrants are bringing the measles into the US/ more people die from the vaccine than the measles/  Existence of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program proves vaccines are harmful/ People who have been vaccinated can spread measles/ Vaccination is a political debate/ Vaccines cause autism
8. I don’t agree with the law that parents are forced to immunize their children against their beliefs. We live in a “free” country so why are we being forced to give our children something that we don’t believe in. The doctor in the article even said that if your child got the vaccine then they are safe so why do those parents care whether or not mine is vaccinated. Their child has the vaccine so they are safe. I think that it is against the personal freedom to force us to vaccinate our children. I think that these health care companies are telling us to get these vaccines so that we will get more sick forcing us to spend more money on healthcare. They don’t want us to be healthy because if everyone is healthy they won’t make money. I personally will never vaccinate my own children. I think that if people want to vaccinate they can but I do not want to be forced to do something I don’t believe in.
    

Bill

In the Senate
SB52

2-13-15

Senators: Mitchell, Mary, James , and  Toby introduced the following bill that was referred to the committee of Health and Human services on February 13, 2015.

Section 1

Legalization of assisted suicide In the case of terminal illness or a patient that is on life support. Patients must be given a diagnosis of 6 months or less to live.

Section 2

Potassium Chloride will be provided by a physician, the patient must self-administer the drug to his or herself.In the case of life support it will be left to the patient’s next of kin, documentation must be provided proving that the patient does not wish to be on life support.a patient has a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) a doctor will be allowed to perform a mercy killing if at least one other physician agrees that the patient is suffering.

Section 3

Department of Health and Human Services will be in charge or regulating and enforcing this act

Section 4

If doctors are found guilty of performing the killing themselves even with permission from the patient or next of kin the doctor will lose his or her license and will not be allowed to practice medicine If doctors are found guilty of performing this task without permission from the patient or next of kin he will be tried for manslaughter and his license will be immediately revoked.   

Government Trip

I really liked the trip yesterday. I had never been to Pierre before so it was really neat to have been to a new place. I didn’t like the fact that we had to get up so early and that we had to take the mini-bus but it ended being okay. The capital building surprised me a little bit. I had no idea that it was that nice inside. The architecture and the art was really awesome to see. I think it is cool how the architects and designers of the capital got to put their signature in it with the blue tiles and the pillar that was upside down.  The State Affairs committee was interesting to watch because I knew the topic and I could actually follow it. I also liked talking to the representatives. It was really neat to see their viewpoints on the topics brought up. I also like how when an issue was brought up they asked us what we thought about it and almost had a little debate. The House session was neat to watch because it is completely different than the smaller committees. The roll call was really cool I thought too. The geese and the ducks were really cool to see because they are so use to people that they just sit there. I also thought the monuments outside by the lake were really cool.

Capitalism and Socialism

                The definition of Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. The best example of capitalism is the early United States. Many might argue that the United States is still has a capitalistic economy, but I disagree. The United States is moving more toward a socialistic economy and away from the capitalistic economy. Socialism is social and economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy, as well as a political theory and movement that aims at the establishment of such a system. Many people would argue this to. When founded, the United States was set up to be a capitalistic economy, but over the years especially starting in the 1900’s monopolies grew and began to take over the economy buying out small businesses.

                If you look at our economy today we see large businesses controlling the majority of the markets and even politics. Almost everything is controlled by either health care systems or oil companies. Oil companies control the gas prices, high gas prices makes shipping more expensive, expensive shipping makes products go up in price. Health care companies also control a large part of the economy. They charge so much for healthcare that many people cannot afford to pay for simple medicines needed. Heath care also makes it hard for some people to get insurance to pay for healthcare. Heath care is so expensive that insurance companies will not cover people because they would lose too much money doing it.

                Wal-Mart is another large company that controls a big part of the economy. Living in South Dakota or any other smaller areas of the country we see how a company as large as Wal-Mart can control an area. I have seen many times how Wal-Mart has come into small towns and put small privately owned businesses out of business. 

                With all of this I don’t think that capitalism is such a bad thing but I do think that the United States has begun to move away from capitalism and more toward a socialist economy. Socialism I think has many up sides to it but it also has many down sides too. The upside the government takes are of its people. The problem is that the government takes care of its people. When the government is in control of people’s businesses they get to control the decisions of the company. The people don’t get to make the decisions that they think is the best for their company.

Democracy

“Democracy ... while it lasts, is bloodier than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

             -John Adams

 

I believe that John Adams fully knew and understood the true concept of democracy. I also believe that his definition or description of democracy is spot on. When John Adams says, “democracy is bloodier than either aristocracy or monarchy”, he is right. Democracy is not cheap, and I don’t mean cheap as in money, I mean that you have to fight for democracy and the freedom that comes with it. Look at how much it took to gain our freedom from the beginning. We fought the British in the revolution to first gain our freedom. The revolution which cost us over 25,000 lives and took us 8 years of fighting to win was one of the bloodiest wars up to this date. Then again in 1812, when the British tried to regain the land that they lost 30 years ago, we lost another 20,000 Americans. That is why democracy isn’t cheap. But like John Adams said, democracy does not last long as will eventually commit a type of suicide. We see this almost happening today. As Americans we have seen many wars over the years that were fought for our freedom. But when we do this, we almost bite off more than we can chew. We have military based all around the world and control a lot of land, almost too much. What we have makes other countries jealous. Our people are free to do as they please and that makes other countries hate us. So they all want to destroy what we have. As you can see today, America is getting so big that it can’t support itself. We rely on other countries for things that we need to survive. We are going to get so big that we will collapse. It bound to happen in the future, John Adams knew this. Why? It has happened in the past. And every time, it was good when it was good but after a while it began to fade and eventually collapsed. I had never heard this quote before today but I can honestly say that it is one of the most true quote I have ever heard.

Bicameral

The constitution immediately established the bicameral governments because that is what the people were use too. When the original 13 colonies first originated, they originated from Great Britain. Great Britain has a bicameral government and always has so the people used that as an outline for our government today. I think that bicameral government is very effective. It favors both small and large populated states so all states have a fair share in policies that affect their state.