No more increase in debt ceiling.

I agree with my colleague Chelsea’s view on her commentary about the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” bill. By raising the debt ceiling, government may solve the current economic problems. However, it is not the permanent solution to cure the economy. Instead, it is just pushing the problem to the next legislature with even increased burden for them to solve. It is only borrowing more money in debt to aid economic problems of present. Then, who is responsible for that amount of increased debt and even more increased interest for it? Currently, U.S. debt is already huge enough that people are expecting the government default in five days. Raising the debt ceiling is just a temporary and superficial solution that does not cure anything at all in reality. Controlled government spending and balanced budget is the only possible way to cure the long-term sufferings of economy. Now is the time to reduce the debt and balance the budget, not to increase the debt ceiling again. Government and the legislature should seek for the ultimate solution to recover the economy. I believe the first step to do so is by balancing the budget while focusing on reducing the amount of debt eventually.

Is Texas way of reducing government spending a true way to recover the economy?

Economists insist that recession is officially over and it is now the time of recovery. However, most of the large states such as New York, California and Texas are still suffering under the short state budget, while deficits are increasing fiercely higher than ever. Different states use different methods to overcome these hard days and Texas is well known for their unique method of reducing government spending in dealing with the economy. However, I believe that there has to be an alternative to that method.

            Texas is a typical and almost the only state where government reduces their spending first instead of raising taxes to manage budget challenges. Keeping their tax increase rate at the lowest and reducing the government spending, Texas was able to handle the worst recession in 2001 and could remain better off than most of the other states. Texas was one of the largest contributor states for job creation during the recovery period following the 2001 recession. However, through another recession of recent years, Texas and their traditional method of reducing government spending is now being questioned for their efficiency and practicality.

            After 2003 and continuing through 2005, 2007 and 2009, there had always been economical recession period, and each time, Texas controlled the government spending. But in those years, Texas had to increase their government spending to meet with the needs of society. However, those decisions were only temporary solutions that could only push the problems not the eternal cures. Finally in 2011, Texas budget is suffering from its shortfall with the pushed problems from previous years. Now the government has decided to reduce their spending by cutting budgets not only for education and police departments but also the government jobs, which can cost more than 180,000 jobs lost with in the next two years. Reducing government spending is not curing the economy, but it is only increasing the economic burden on citizens.

            Even though controlled government spending along with remaining the taxes low and supporting for economic freedom may foster economic growth, but if current problems remain unsolved, that economic growth will be postponed and more problems will arise. Therefore, I believe there has to be more immediate response to the current problems faced by citizens in Texas. More and more budgets are going to be needed to supply for Medicaid also, and controlling budgets each time will only cause another problem in economy. Texas government should not lay the economic burden on citizens but instead, it should find another way to fix its economy.

The Blind Response by Mean Rachel

       In this commentary from Mean Rachel, Rachel criticizes the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, for his attempting to fool God as well as those who live in poverty. Governor Perry has announced a national day of prayer. And he himself performed starving for a day, as if he cares much for poor people. However, critics of Perry attack these actions as he was pretending and trying to fool people by superficial and fake intensions hidden inside of him. Rachel continues to argue that Perry hosted the national day of prayer just to convince the Christian votes. Accordingly, his starving for a day was only to show off his interest for people living in poverty to vote for him. In real, he only favors for his white upper-middle class. I agree to her point of view that Perry does not realize how to be a true Christian or how to take care of the poor.

       Rachel continues to criticize Perry’s relying on prayers. She mocks that praying is easy for Perry because he doesn’t have to do anything in real. She even describes praying as easy as closing one’s eyes that does not even require fixing one’s hair to do so. As a governor, Perry should have proposed more realistic and practical ways to raise the economy of Texas once more. He should have worked, not prayed to seek votes and rebuilt the economy. Nonetheless, Perry relied on prayers that do not even require any sort of difficulties involved in working.

       Rachel finishes her commentary by saying that work is not closing your eyes and praying for those you don’t want to see. It is opening your eyes and helping those you can. I cannot agree more to her last words that Perry should really focus on working instead of seeking for short cuts and easy pathways.

Put a pause on pay raises by Viviana Aldous (The Daily Texan)

             After the 82^nd legislative session announced $92-million reduction in funding for UT, in this article from The Daily Texan, Viviana Aldous argues that the importance of pay raises for faculty and staff should not exceed that of the services and supports for students. According to her opinion, pay raises may help universities maintain their quality by retaining talented faculty and staff. It is definitely true that good faculty and staff members are essential for keeping the level of higher education. She continues that it is just not the right time to give them a pay raise. Maintaining the top faculty is only one of the many aspects needed to maintain the value of universities. In this difficult time with long recession, budget cuts are inevitable in almost everywhere not in just Texas. Everyone is suffering and all the states are cutting their budgets. Support and services for students are all decreasing. She strongly argues that it is not right to leave all the burdens to students while benefiting only the faculty and staff.

            

            Throughout her article, she is very persuasive and logical. She doesn’t lean forward one view and mentions every aspect of possibilities. I agree with her point of view that benefiting faculty and staff while ignoring sufferings of students does not sound right at all. Government has had to cut funding for several years and students are already suffering enough from it. Even the president William Powers Jr. announced that students would confront reduced student services, course offerings and financial aid. These areas stand more in need of help. With limited budget, everyone has to deal with it equally and share the burden. Therefore, Government and university should consider more balanced use of budgets.  

Redistricting voting maps and APD budget cuts

This article, provided by NEWS 8 AUSTIN discusses two main ideas. One is redistricting the voting map in Austin. Austin has two state senators currently. However, with the new voting map proposed by Texas Senate, Austin will have two additional senate districts. This is problematic because it favors Republicans who wants to continually hold majority in the Senate. Consequently, Democrats argue that this is unconstitutional and violating the federal Voting Act. Resistance voice has risen and now the city of Austin under Democrat Major Lee Leffingwell, decided to protest even further. This issue may seem like another typical political dispute between the two parties to gain power over another. However, it is important to know about this because people have to know about the changes in voting system and how it is going to affect their votes. To vote right and fulfill their rights and duties as American citizens, people must know exactly about the current voting policies.

            Another important issue covered by this article is the budget cuts of APD. For the city of Austin being tight in money, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo decided to cut the budgets proposed earlier while promising to minimize the impact to the public. This article may sound as if there is nothing going to be wrong about the public security. However, it doesn’t reveal the actual facts about how they are going to cut their own budgets while keeping their public service. Readers should know how threatening it could get with policemen lacking interests and motivation for their job.