Illegal Immigration

There are more than ten million illegal immigrants in the United States today and this divides America. There are pros and cons to illegal immigration. The pros of illegal immigration some people would say are that all these illegal immigrants help the economy by adding tax revenue, they expand the low cost labor pool, and it increases the money circulation. Other reasons that illegal immigration is not bad is that some people say they bring good values, they are just trying to have the American dream, they do jobs that no one else wants to do, and opposition is just because of racism. The people who are against illegal immigration say that breaking the law by crossing the border illegally or staying longer than your visa permits should be deported and not rewarded with citizenship and access to social services. They say that these people are criminals and social/economic burdens to the average tax paying American citizen. There have been many ways the government has tried to solve the problem of illegal immigration. In 2010 during the lame duck session, a vote came up on the Dream Act. The Dream Act would allow citizenship for illegal immigrants who were between a set age range and enrolled in American Universities or the military for at least two years but it was not passed. This relates to class because of when the Dream Act came up. It came up during a lame duck session. We learned what a lame duck was in class. It is when someone who is in office who knows that they will not be getting re-elected. I think that the government needs to do more to stop all the illegal immigrants from coming into the United States because they take our jobs and they sometimes bring there gangs or violence with them to the US.

sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lame_duck_%28politics%29
 http://www.buchtelite.com/opinion/an-unpleasant-dream-illegal-immigration-students-and-the-dream-act-1.2132567
http://immigration.procon.org/

Gridlock

Gridlock is the inability to accomplish goals. Gridlock is a direct consequence of divided government. A divided government is when one party controls the white house and the other party controls one or both of the houses of congress. Some say divided government is good because it makes opposition to those in power and it limits spending and expansion of undesirable laws. In our government right now there is a divided government. The democrats control the white house and the republicans control the house of representatives. This causes gridlock because if the president who is a democrat wants to pass let's say his new health care bill, he has to put it through congress and without their approval he can not get something done that would probably be very beneficial to the American people. Some say that gridlock does not exist. They say this because they make the point that it is just part of our type of government and that we will have indecision with anything we do. The cons of gridlock are that it shuts down government operations. The pros of gridlock are that it slows down the decision making process which is an example of checks and balances. I think that gridlock does exist and is not a good part of our government. I think this because why should we have two sides in our government when we could all be on the same team and we could make the United States a better place to live instead of just arguing  with each other.





Sources:
Youtube.com
Wikipedia.com
Notes