Jeremy Stacey

Domestic Policy Summary

Social Insurance can be broken down into two main categories. There is Social
Security, which was created in 1935 in the midst of the Great Depression1 and
there is Medicare, which was created in 1965. Since the 1970s spending has consonantly
increased and as of 2012, thirty one percent of federal government outlays have been
spent on Social Security and Medicare.2 Such enormous spending has usually made this a
very important and relevant topic in politics. Personally I believe that these programs are
good for the United States. Just as citizens benefit from government support for roads,
public transit, federal student aid, federal housing and more, I believe that the
government should help with retirement & disabled programs like social security and
Medicare.
Even though I am for social security I believe that it needs to be modified for
todays standards. The problem is that one-third of Americans depend on Social
Security for more than ninety percent of their retirement income3 This is a problem
because Social Security was only meant to partially account for retirement income. As the
population will continue to increase, we would have to raise taxes even more to cover
even more people, as they are getting older. There needs to be another way to modify this
so that people are not relying solely on Social Security. New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie also wants to incite changes in the current Social Security system. He notes that
Without significant changes, Social Security and Medicare will be bankrupt and
insolvent by the time you retire4 I agree with him that there needs change, however
he wants to cut a lot of funding, and I dont know if that is the right answer.
Slightly Different than Social Security, Medicare is an insurance plan that
changed healthcare significantly, allowing a large number of the population to have
health coverage. The downside is that since it is so successful its predicted that by the
year 2030 it will have surpassed Social Security in funds that it requires. A bill, recently
passed to reward high-performing doctors in an effort to stop a twenty one percent cut
in Medicare feels to physicians.5 These are the kinds of changes that I like more and I can
get behind. I feel like creative thinking such as this will help keep this system in place
without budget cuts.

1
2
3
4

Greenberg, Edward S., and Benjamin I. Page. The Struggle for Democracy. Boston: Pearson, 2014. 577
Ibid, 576
Ibid, 577
Lauter, David. "Christie Calls for Cuts in Social Security, Medicare." Los Angeles Times. April 14,
2015. Accessed April 24, 2015. http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-christie-socialsecurity-20150414-story.html.
5 Levey, Noam N. "Senate Overhauls Doctors' Medicare Payments in Groundbreaking Vote." Los Angeles
Times. April 14, 2015. Accessed April 24, 2015. http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-medicarereimbursement-senate-vote-20150414-story.html.

Foreign Policy Summary

Ever since September 11th, 2001, terrorism has been a big issue in our foreign
policy. So much so that even in 2012, eleven years after September 11th, the United
States spent $17.25 billion on counter-terrorism.1 The United States spends a lot of
money on covert operations to stop terrorism, though not all countries agree this is the
best method. Additionally an entire war with Iraq was started on the basis that they had
weapons of mass destruction, however we now know that to be untrue.
Public education has always been cut, and being that I am a product of public
education and that I work with public schools, I have always wanted decreased military
spending in favor of increased education spending from the federal budget. The good
news is that education spending has been growing, however defense spending has
been growing just as fast if not faster2 The United States spends the most money on
military in the whole world, making up thirty four percent of all military funding.3 I
strongly believe that we do not need to spend that much especially considering the state
of our economy. The United States just went through the Great Recession a couple of
years ago and we are still recovering.
Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only countries that we are focusing our foreign
policy on. Currently, the United States is in final talks to secure a deal with Iran that
would pose sanctions on their use of nuclear weapons. Moreover the United States has
also tried to stop North Korea, Russia, and China from having nuclear powers, but with
little success. Although I believe that its good to try and keep the world safer from
nuclear harm and other countries rising up with nuclear power, I feel that the cost to the
United States is too great.

1 DeSilver, Drew. "U.S. Spends over $16 Billion Annually on Counter-terrorism." Pew Research Center
RSS. September 10, 2013. Accessed April 24, 2015. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/11/u-sspends-over-16-billion-annually-on-counter-terrorism/.
2 Kain, Erik. "Do Americans Care More About War than Education?" Forbes. April 14, 2011. Accessed
April 24, 2015. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/04/17/do-americans-care-more-about-war-thaneducation/.
3 Kelly, Noel. "The 15 Countries with the Highest Military Expenditure in 2014." Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute13. April 13, 2015. Accessed April 24, 2015.
http://www.sipri.org/googlemaps/milex_top_15_2014_exp_map.html.