The FINAL Week! (Gov) What to Spend Our Money On?

Most experts will tell you that Congress' primary responsibility is to determine what the U.S. government should spend our money on..... or in this case, what to stop spending our money on. While a portion on "our money" comes from tax revenue, it is not the only source. Nonetheless, Americans have opinions, and of course- not everyone agrees.

Right now there is a battle brewing between fiscal conservative Tea Party Republicans and Progressive Liberals. These two groups could not be more opposite in their beliefs on spending.

Part of our debt ceiling increase bill from last week was that a 12-member Congressional "super committee" will convene to determine what to CUT out of our annual federal budgets to decrease overall government spending.

Each political party is pledging to appoint committee members that are going to "stand firm" on not cutting their individual strongholds. Some key strongholds are defense, social security, medicare, etc.

Please read these to articles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/us/politics/08panel.html?ref=politics

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/07/big-mandate-low-expectations-greet-super-committee-on-debt-reduction/

Now, I realize you are new to evaluating decisions Congress makes and having opinions on what they "should do". But Economic Policy Development is a major part of the AP Gov exam and helps with AP MicroEcon topics too. So.......

How do you think this committee is going to go? Will they compromise? Why or why not? What are your expectations and what do you think the possible consequences or successes might be....?

Week Nine (Gov)-

This week we are going to do something a little different. Many of you are now actually going to start your "project" on the different forms and types of governance. This is political theory.

To help get your mind in that direction, we are going to partake in one of the most popular courses ever taught at Harvard University. Michael Sandel was so popular they decided to film his courses. And luckily for us- they are now online.

You need to watch this link : http://www.justiceharvard.org/2011/02/episode-three/#watch

And if you don't like this link feed- you can always YouTube Michael Sandel Episode Three.

This episode is on Utilitarianism v. Libertarianism (somewhat different than libertarian/Tea Party of 2011). And, ironically, he uses taxation as the discussion.

While watching the clip he will ask several questions to his 'class'. Please write down notes on how you would respond. Then, when you are done watching- summarize your reaction to the dialogue and come to some conclusions about what is "right".......

Have fun with this one.
I will miss you guys!
Ms D