Still Here and Working Hard: An Open Letter to the Readers

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to reassure you that I am still here and I am still working hard in the field of political science. I have taken quite a considerable amount of time off and I have re-energized over that period. I am more interested now than ever in the United States government and its decision making on key issues that impact both you and me. Over the next few days I will be keeping up with the debt ceiling crisis. I will be formulating and posting a response in regards to the slow action of Congress as well as its inability to lead in a bipartisan manner. However, while I am gone, I would ask that you all always remember that Congress' inaction is a call for your action! Call your Representatives and Senators and let them know how you feel.

Sincerely,
Alex

I'm Back!

This is going to be a very brief post, but I just wanted to inform all of you of my new plans. After a long hiatus, I am returning to politics. I can't help it, it just seems to course through my veins. So I will be updating the readers over the next few months about my views and about new poll information as I finish working on it. Expect quite a few posts coming up as the political arena is heating up yet again. So fasten your seat belts and get ready. You can find everything you need to know right here from the Political Guru.... and of course from all of the links that I provide.

A Video of Last Night's Health Care Reform Town Hall Meeting in Tampa, FL

This is a video of the the town hall meeting I attended and helped with last night. These people were pathetic. Extremism will only divide this country even more.

Meghan McCain and a Republican Strategy for Future Success

By: Hamilton Ryan

As I was sitting in front of my laptop today, bored out of my mind, I decided to do something that I have not done for a few days. I opened up Internet Explorer and proceeded to go to www.cnn.com/POLITICS/. I knew what I expected to find. I was sure that there would be an article about Timothy Geithner in front of Congress discussing the AIG bonuses. I also figured that there would be an article or two about President Obama, and what he had planned for the day, but what I found instead came as a big surprise.

As I moved the arrow on my screen over to the story that grabbed my attention I already had begun to form some preconceived notions. The article was about Meghan McCain and her interview with Larry King. Before I even opened the page to read the interview I had a feeling that I was going to find a hard-nosed conservative woman who felt strongly about typical Republican ideals and that probably was going to be criticizing President Obama and his policies. What I found, however, was something all together different.

While she did say that the President may be exposing himself a little bit too much, she also argued that he was revealing himself to a generation that loves its celebrities and wants to see them on every show possible stating their beliefs. When asked if she harbored any negative feelings toward President Obama she had this to say, “He's our president and when the election was over and when President Obama won, all negative feelings were gone. I support the president.” She also proceeded to critique Rush Limbaugh who has been a poster child for the party these past few weeks. She said that she would never want to see the President fail in office.

When asked about her beliefs on the issues that affect Americans, she gave a straight answer. This was the part of the interview that I expected to hear the strong conservative beliefs, but I did not find them. Instead she stated that she considered herself “a progressive Republican.” Upon reading this I about fell out of my seat in shock because I expected something different. I had to read more and find out exactly what issues she was more liberal than her father on. She stated that she believed in the right for homosexuals to get married, and that while she may be a pro-life Republican she was “not going to judge someone that's pro-choice. It is not my place to judge other people and what they do with their body.”

This is not the first time that Meghan McCain has stated her views. She has a website that she continually writes articles for, and has even attacked Ann Coulter in one of them. In the article she shows the reader how she feels about Coulter being one of the faces of the Republican Party, and personally feels that it is a danger to have someone like that speaking for the party. She states in the interview with Larry King that she wants “to show that you don't have to think one way and fit into this one box in order to be a member of the Republican Party.” I was absolutely baffled to be reading all of this, but at the same time I knew that she was coming from a younger generation, which happens to be my own generation.

In my opinion, if the Republicans are looking for success in the future they need to get rid of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter as their figureheads, and look to Meghan McCain. She represents one of the biggest aspects of what will benefit American politics, and ultimately America. She understands what true bipartisanship is and how detrimental it will be for the future of America. This is something that I have personally addressed on this site many times over the past few months.

I can honestly say that after reading some of her articles, and her interview with Larry King, I finally have hope for the future of American politics. I have hope for a future where both sides will listen to each other and put aside petty differences to benefit the American society. I have hope that the future will possess politicians that will not only listen to the other side, but to the American people who are the ones that need to be listened to the most because they are the ones who are hurting the most. All I can say is thank you Meghan McCain for not only speaking for a better future for American politics, but also for a generation that is seeking to be heard.

Ladies and gentlemen there is a new generation on the rise. A new horizon that is about to make itself known. This horizon is my generation, and we WILL bring the American people back to their government. It will be a government that cares, listens, and understands what all of you are going through. It will be a government that understands that we can no longer shut out the other side and their views. This is a horizon that I feel will truly shake the very foundations of the earth and make itself known.

Websites Used and Websites to Visit:

Larry King Interview: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/24/lkl.meghan.mccain/index.html

Meghan McCain’s Site:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/author/meghan-mccain/

From Washington to Lincoln

By: Hamilton Ryan

Today we, as a nation, celebrate a holiday that both praises and criticizes past American Presidents. For me it was not a surprise at all to find that the top two presidents in American history were Lincoln followed by Washington. It is my opinion that these two men possessed the true qualities of a leader. George Washington knew when a conflict was right. He knew which fights to stand up for, and which ones to not be a part of in this world. However, Washington also possessed a respect for his common man. That respect carried over into the general society of America during the colonial/revolutionary era, which was an era that was looking for guidance from a real leader.

In a crisis Washington many times showed both his status and his mercy. I know of three stories that illustrate this perspective. The first takes place during the conflict between the Native Americans and the French. Washington had been traveling with a fellow companion by the name of Christopher Gist. George Washington and Gist happened to be riding near an Indian village named Murdering Town. As they approached, their horses gave out from underneath them, and they stopped to let them rest. After having stopped both of the men came upon a lone Native American who attempted to befriend them both. It was not long after this, however, that the Indian spun around and fired a shot at Gist. Washington immediately checked to see if he was okay, and after Gist responded that he had not been hit he began to charge after the Native American warrior. Washington immediately stopped Gist and let the Indian live to fight another day (Ellis).

Another story tells of how George Washington, as a high ranking officer, rode before his men on horseback while they walked through the snow. Many of his men began to feel tired and could not press on much further. Washington immediately stopped, got off his horse, and walked the rest of the way with his men. This is a leader. This is a Commander-in-Chief who knows his rank, but before he knows his rank he realizes the common man. The burdens, the trials, the conflicts within their souls; all of these Washington made an attempt to understand and care for both before and during his assumption of his rank.

The last story, out of the three that show both Washington’s status and mercy, depicts a scene of treachery and abandonment. During the Revolutionary War it was not uncommon to hear of men deserting at certain times. The penalty of deserting the American militia during the revolution was death; typically by a firing squad. One day Washington caught some of his men deserting the militia. The rest of the men watched as these deserters were lined up and prepared to be shot. As the last blindfold was tied and the rifles were raised to fire, General Washington ordered that the men be cut loose and given a second chance. This is the quality of a true president. He assumes his status by following through with what the typical punishment would have been, but in the end he realizes that men make mistakes and he gives them a second chance. This is perhaps why Washington’s men loved him. They saw his compassion and love for his fellow man, and they knew that at the end of the day he felt that rank truly did not define who you were.

Perhaps, however, Abraham Lincoln understood this even more. In his second inaugural address to war torn and weary nation, Lincoln stated, “With malice toward none, with charity for all….” Historians have said that during his second term, Lincoln was a different man. He acted even more compassionate then he had his first term as President of the United States. He visited the sick and wounded from battle, and he continued to stand behind his message that all men are created equal. We, as a nation, see Lincoln’s care for his common man in his Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. In it he makes his famous statement that, “…that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

I illustrate these two men because I feel that, even though we idolize them, we have forgotten what they stood for in this nation’s history. We have forgotten about our common man. In a nation where many have turned to greed, and power has corrupted their reason, we find that the people of America have been muzzled and silenced from their government. It is not the blame of one man, but of many. Many citizens have both lost faith in their government, and many do not care to speak up about the real issues affecting their families. The father, or mother, who has lost their job, and cannot afford to put food on the table, or pay for medical costs for a child that may die within the week, has become an all too realistic image in American society.

This is not what the founders had in mind. I have always felt that there was one single aspect that led to this sort of downward spiral, and that is our partisan politics. For too long we have hated our brother and our father for their ideology, and while we may not be at war with them we are still destroying them through our policies, or lack of due to petty fighting over a very petty symbol. Politics in America has become a team sport. A sport of factions that continuously seek to gain the upper hand in popularity and rank. Let me say with the sternest possible tone that politics is NOT a team sport. We are not here to form policy based upon ourselves or some symbol that supposedly defines us (i.e. a donkey or an elephant). No! We should form policy based upon another symbol that defines who we are, and that is the American people.

How many countless lives are in pain everyday because we want to bicker in our nation’s capitol building about which side is right? How many more citizens have to lose their jobs and their family members because we cannot come to some form of consensus? When did we forget about the common man, and when did the citizens of our country learn to get along and come together before the leaders of our country? I say, and ask, all of this in honor of President’s Day because I feel as though it needs to be said.

In his farewell address, President Washington stated this, “They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community, and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans, digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.” He is talking about political parties, or “factions” as he so elegantly displays them. It is somewhat ironic that a nation that had listened to its first Commander-in-Chief on every issue happened to turn a deaf ear to the most important advice that he could give. WAKE UP! Partisan politics MUST end and we must seek to both listen to our fellow man and work to make a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” united once again in an effort to help each other so that WE may NOT perish from the earth!


Websites/Sources Used:

Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency George Washington. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.

Washington’s Farewell Address:
http://www.liberty1.org/farewell.htm

The Gettysburg Address:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/inaug2.htm

Big Business/CEO Bailout, Automotive Bailout, but Where is the American Citizen's Bailout?

By Hamilton Ryan

“…that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.”

-“Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863-

As I searched for the epigraph that I used above, I thought about the bailouts that have happened over the past few months. First this nation had a $750 billion dollar bailout, to which some CEOs almost decided to spend the money on bonuses and vacations until they were called out on the matter. After that bailout Congress decided that we should bailout the automotive companies, which was a decision that I was, and still am to this day, fully supporting. However, it became increasingly clear that these owners/CEOs/Presidents lacked a certain care for the American economy, and people, when they decided to ask for a bailout after showing up in their own private jets.

I began to think a little bit about these so called “bailouts.” This nation needs to bailout someone, but that someone is not an automotive company, or a big hot shot company such as AIG. This nation needs to bailout the people! Yes, it is true that if you bailout some of these big companies the economy may get a little better, but while that is going on we will see an increase in the amount of thefts and robberies taking place around the country just so the middle class working family can put food on the table. You see, the problem is not that the companies are being choked out, but rather that the typical American citizen’s livelihood and voice is. We must learn to bailout Main Street, as well as Wall Street.

Even as I say this, many will tell me that I am simply preaching socialism in a country that was built off of democracy, but I tell you that this country was built off of the common man as well, and when we begin to leave that common man out in the rain, then we drift even further from who we are, and can be as a nation. John F. Kennedy once stated, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” Maybe it is time that the American people began to ask the country what it can do for them. For me, and I know for many others, we are tired of seeing the bad guy get bailed out by the good guy who struggles daily just to put food on the table. You may be asking yourself, “Why would Congress think to bailout major companies before bailing out the average American citizen who needs the money?”

Well obviously, we will hear about how it needed to be done to save the economy, but I have seen no saving grace out of the $750 billion dollar plan. Many of these congressmen, I believe, are helped out by these big companies within the political spectrum, and therefore naturally help them first. It may also be that these companies lied to the Congressmen on actually being in need of the money. In truth, it is probably a little bit of both, but what I can tell you is that these Congressmen have a higher obligation to the American people, and they will never be lied to by the common man/woman in this country who truly need that money.

We the people of the United States of America need to stand up and be heard again. We the people of the United States of America need to write our Congressmen and women. We the people of the United States of America need to be a part of our government again so that we may never say that we built a government to become one based off of greed and self-interest. We need to be the change that we seek. We took the first step by electing a good and honest man to be the 44^th President of the United States. Now we must stand by him, and work with him to make our voices heard around Washington D.C., and may there never be an excuse for middle class families to have to scrounge around for food and shelter while top level CEOs fly their jets to ask for a bailout check so that they can go on vacation and give bonuses. We are our brother’s keeper as well as our nation’s keeper.

President Abraham Lincoln once stated, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” We must in this time of struggle “strive on” to come together as one people in order to both “bind up the nation’s wounds” and “form a more perfect union.” Let us never forget the common man, and may we also never lose sight of that simple phrase that is the fiber of this nation and is both branded in our hearts, and pumping through our veins, “E Pluribus Unum,” “Out of Many, One!”

Updated Electoral Map!!!

By: Hamilton Ryan

Hey everyone, and welcome back to my site. I just wanted to update my picks for how the states will vote in the election. Below you will see an updated version of the map, and I will start updating it every week to let you see how the polls are changing the layout. I might even update it twice a week. Below the map you will find my reasons for choosing certain states. Please feel free to read and comment.

As you can see, I have a lot of swing states going into Senator Obama's favor, and I have him winning by a very large margin (333 Obama to 205 John McCain). Let me explain why I picked certain states to go in the direction that they are going in.

Florida: I have watched the waves of change sweep across Florida. From adults who are looking for a way out of the devastating effects of the plunging economy, to the students who are just looking to make college a little more affordable. I have watched as those same students have taken ownership of this campaign, and decided that this nation needs the real change that Barack Obama provides. CNN's Poll today reported that Florida is now in Obama's favor by 4 percent, which is up from 2 percent just a few days ago. It is well known that if a candidate wins Hillsborough County, which is the Tampa area, than that candidate will win the state of Florida. Last I heard, Obama was up by 6 percent in Hillsborough County. All of these numbers taken into consideration, along with the increase in student involvement as well as excitement should deliver this state into Obama's hands come November 4th.

Virginia: This is a state that has not voted Democratic since 1964, but you can look for it to go blue, in my opinion, this election season. Early on this year McCain enjoyed a pretty good lead, but I watched as that lead slowly eroded to a tie, and now Obama has a 9 point lead in the polls in Virginia. He has held that spot now for about a month. The only time his lead has changed is when it went up to 9 points today. I would certainly look for this state to stay the same over the next 34 days.

Ohio: Early on in the Primary Season, the people of this state made it very clear that their main concern was the economy. This is one issue that has truly grown in importance over the past few weeks. I believe you can see this state turn blue after watching the stock market drop -777.69 points the other day, which by the way is the largest drop in American History! As the economy continues to need help, the people nationwide continue to vote on who they feel is best to take care of the situation. Obama still has a national lead over McCain on this issue.

Bailout Plan Works as Bailout Plan for McCain

By: Hamilton Ryan

As tensions began to flair two weeks ago over the economy plunging President Bush was working on a bailout plan of major proportions. He asked for $700 billion to bailout Wall Street. Immediately this plan came under fierce scrutiny by congressmen from both parties. Senator Jim Bunning, R-KY stated, “This massive bailout is not a solution. It is financial socialism and it’s un-American.” These same words were nearly echoed by another senator from across party lines. Senator Chris Dodd, D-CT told Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, “After reading this proposal, I can only conclude that it is not just our economy that is at risk, Mr. Secretary, but our Constitution as well.”

While both the Democrats and Republicans began to come together in Congress to fight against this bailout plan, another bailout plan was in the works. John McCain came out yesterday in a statement stating that he was going to suspend his campaign and that Senator Barack Obama should do the same and delay the debate. What most people do not realize is that the Obama campaign had discussed this, prior to McCain’s announcement, with the McCain campaign. After they had discussed this issue, McCain happened to be the first to make it on the news. Senator Obama came out and said that a President ought to be able to do more than one thing at a time, and that this economic crisis proves even more so that we need a debate.

I happen to agree strongly with Senator Barack Obama on this issue. I have come under some scrutiny for agreeing with this decision, but let me make my case. First of all, let us not forget that John McCain was the one who was pushing for more debates early on in the election. Also, remember that he publicly stated that he knew nothing about the economy. So if this debate turned into a debate on the economy Senator McCain and his campaign know that they would be crushed. So what do you do in that situation? You find a way to postpone it!

Let me continue by saying that in the 110^th Congress Senator McCain did not once introduce a single banking bill, but Senator Obama, on the other hand, has introduced five of them. Now those of you who say that Senator McCain is making the right decision, I can understand where you are coming from and why you think that. It looks as though he is being this great guy who really cares about the financial crisis, and it also looks like he is going to do something about it, and be this hero of a senator. Let me make this clear, there are 98 other senators who can vote on this legislation, not to mention 435 representatives from the House of Representatives. We have less than 40 days left to find out who we need as President, and the only way we can do that is to have a debate about these issues that need debating.

For others of you, there is a feeling that at this moment we are in too big of a crisis to have a debate, or any type of campaigning at that. While, again, I can understand how you would feel that way let me point out that when the Great Depression happened in 1929 Herbert Hoover was President of the United States, but the Depression continued on through to the next election, and they went through with campaigning. By the United States going through with campaigning we, the people, elected Franklin D. Roosevelt who got us out of the Great Depression. So don’t tell me that because we are in a state of Economic Panic that we shouldn’t go through with a typical campaign. We have had many panics before and elections went on as planned. This is not any different. Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist, put it this way, “‘It's preposterous that we can't have a presidential debate in the middle of this economic crisis. We had a presidential campaign in 1864, when Sherman was marching on Atlanta. We had a presidential election in 1944, when D-Day was going on in Normandy,’ he said. ‘We can have a debate on Friday.’”

My Sources/ Websites Used:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/24/suspend.timeline/index.html

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761584403/great_depression_in_the_united_states.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/25/political.risk/index.html

Clinton: Woman of Unity

By: Hamilton Ryan

As the crowd cheered and the tears ran down the faces of the American people, a woman stepped forth out of great humility and strength to unify a party that has been broken since the primary season ended. That woman is Senator Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday, August 27, 2008 Senator Clinton stepped forth after months of agonizing pain and arguments to declare that she supports Senator Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. She asked for a vote by acclamation for Sen. Obama to be the nominee for President for the Democratic Party. Humility is not a simple quality to obtain, and today Senator Clinton showed the importance of that quality.

Notice that above I said “obtain” and not “have.” That is because I believe that humility is developed through the exercise of it. Just like a great swimmer, like Michael Phelps, we as human beings have to work at perfecting our abilities. Today, as I said above, Senator Clinton showed the importance of those abilities. I watched as an entire party united behind an effort to change the status quo of Washington D.C. We are working to end the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration. We are working to make this country what it has always been referred to, and that is “the last best hope.” Divided we cannot win, and the McCain campaign knows that. They will be attacking Senator Obama on a number of issues.

They will be going after the angered Clinton supporters, but as Hillary said last night in her speech, “I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?” Hillary made history today. She, in her own light, became just as much a hero as any other candidate. She united the Democratic Party again! Now, even as an Obama supporter, I must say that Hillary touched my heart today, and last night.

I ask the Clinton supporters to unite with us, the Obama supporters, to make this country what it should be! We are the change! We gathered during the primary season behind the candidates that we liked, but we MUST NOT FORGET that we are AMERICANS first. “We the People” is our creed, the message that flows through the blood of every American citizen and unites us as One Nation. It is not We the Hillary Supporters, and not We the Obama Supporters. We need change, but change needs unity. Unity was found today, and we must stay united in our effort to not only make America a better place, but to make this world a better place. We cannot stand four more years of these disastrous policies, and McCain will continue them. He has voted identical to Bush 95 percent of the time. He will continue to use negative advertisements, and negative politics, which he promised not to use, to get across his point. We MUST stop this!

Website Used:

Transcript of Hillary Clinton’s Speech: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/politics/ny-usclin0827-speech,0,5104092.story?page=2

Answering an Anonymous Viewer's Concerns About Health Care

By: Hamilton Ryan

I recently received a comment on my latest blog filled with a lot of concerns about health care from an anonymous viewer. So let us jump straight into each concern and address each one. The first concern that the viewer had was long waits in the waiting rooms of hospitals. First of all let me start off by saying that, for the uninsured, there already is a long waiting list that could inevitably lead to death for that person. Also to state that there are not already long waiting lists is being completely unrealistic. For some Americans it takes months just to be able to see a specialist, or primary care physician. Waiting lists in other industrialized countries are virtually non-existent except for elective surgeries and procedures. “No country has a waiting list for emergency procedures, and virtually no country has waiting lists for primary care visits.”

The next concern that was stated in the response deals with the decreased amount of physicians due to a decrease quality of care. It is important for Americans to realize that quality of care depends on a number of different issues. These issues include systems design, provider competency and supply, funding, etc. Quality of care is in terrible condition with the current system that America has because of a lack of heath care access. “If patients can’t afford their medications, if patients wait until they are very sick until they go to the ER-quality decreases.” When one looks at it from this perspective the quality of care will actually increase under a universal health care system instead of decrease. “Any rational designer of a UHC (Universal Health Care) system would insure appropriate funding of the system and would also strive to strike the right balance between overutilization and underutilization of health care services so that waiting lists would be minimized.”

Thirdly, the anonymous viewer was worried about people not wanting to go to college long enough due to apathy toward the system. Actually, the truth is that countries that possess universal health care have had most of the major medical breakthroughs in research. It is also important to realize that many doctors may actually see their “autonomy” increased under a particular form of universal health care. Physician’s salaries would also stay the same. There is nothing in the universal health care agreement that says that a doctor’s salary will decrease. Doctor’s also do not benefit from the current system. Many Americans cannot afford current prescriptions as it is, and of course we all know that 47 million American citizens are uninsured. People are dying daily because we, the taxpayers, are supporting a war that should have never been authorized rather than universal health care.

As my “Understanding Politics” college textbook states, “Third, during the course of this war, the Bush administration switched enemies and changed the rationale for fighting. The real enemy was a secretive organization known as al Qaeda, rather than another state. To the extent that this enemy had a face, it was the face of Osama bin Laden. For all its military might, the United States was unable to defeat al Qaeda by invading Afghanistan and even failed to apprehend bin Laden himself, who remains at large some 4 years later as these words are written. Instead, the Bush administration shifted the focus of attention from Afghanistan and bin Laden to Iraq and Saddam-in other words, from an elusive enemy that could not be defeated militarily to one that could, or so the architects of the Iraq war believed. That belief has proven false, as was the evidence that Saddam harbored WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), which had been the reason given for launching the war in the first place. As the fighting dragged on and the death toll mounted, the Bush administration changed the rationale for the war once again. Clearly the original rationale- to locate and destroy Saddam’s WMD labs and stockpiles-disappeared when no such weapons were discovered. The reason for ousting Saddam then became nation-building, to promote freedom and democracy in the world. Later, as the civil war raged, the reason was simply to stabilize the region because a hasty withdrawal would, it was argued, leave a dangerous power vacuum. What no one in Washington was saying, however, was what nearly everyone outside Washington was thinking all along: that the real reason for invading and occupying Iraq was oil, which is still the world’s most important strategic resource.”

These are the issues that one of my viewers brought up. I would like to thank the viewer for their concerns, and I feel that I have answered those quite adequately. I will give the site and book references that I used, as always, just below the article. I used the American Medical Student Association’s website for my pro-universal health care arguments. They are very pro-universal health care. I would encourage you to go to both sites that I list below to learn more, and answer any questions that you may have. I also, as stated in the paragraph above, used my Government and World Affairs college course textbook “Understanding Politics” for my “War on Terror” information.

Websites:

The Arguments for Universal Health Care by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA):

http://amsa.org/uhc/uhc_counterarguments.pdf

American Medical Student Association for Universal Health Care Site:

http://amsa.org/uhc/uhcres.cfm

Books:

“Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues” Eighth Edition

By: Thomas M. Magstadt

(I used pg. 567 paragraphs 2 and 3)