Political Cartoon #4

This political cartoon was drawn by Jimmy Margulies. It was posted to The Record of Hackensack, NJ on December 17, 2009. It brings up the issue of health care reform.
The cartoon's message is that democrats are getting ready to pass the health care bill, but in order to get the 60 votes, they had to appease certain moderate politicians who recieve a lot of campaign funds from insurance companies. As a result, they eliminted certain provisions from the bill, such as a public option, that the insurance companies did not like. So basically, what the cartoon is saying is that the democrats are being led around by the insurance companies.
I agree with this message, in that the bill is not as good as it should be, because insurance company lobbyists kept out the public option. The public option might have brought down costs, by forcing the insurance companies to compete with reasonably priced insurance.

My Favorite Holiday

My favorite holiday is Independence Day. I like the patriotic atmosphere that surrounds the holiday and I also like that it falls on July 4th, during the summer, which is my favorite season. It is also a day where all Americans can come together and celebrate. On other holidays, such as Christmas, people are always stressed about buying gifts, cooking, and catering to visiting family members. On Independence Day however, people are much more laid back and it's always a relaxing day. Every year, my family always has a barbecue and we have a huge water gun fight. Then, much like many other Americans, we finish the day by watching the fireworks displays.

Political Cartoon #3

This cartoon was drawn by Bill Schoor for Cagle Cartoons. It was posted on December 12, 2009.

This cartoon bring up the issue of global climate change and how it is affecting our planet.

I believe that climate change is a serious concern and we need to come up with a plan to decrease our carbon footprint and reduce global warming. I recently watched a program on TV that said the Maldives, a group of islands situated in the Indian Ocean, could become submerssed completely in water because of melting polar icecaps and showed how much the glaciers in Greenland are melting. This is not an issue to be taken lightly, in my opinion, and I think the governments of countries around the world need to work together to stop this problem.

Religious Symbols on Public Property

I am very much opposed to having relgious symbols allowed to be placed on public property, because not everybody has the same religious beliefs and some people are not relgious at all. People can display whatever they want on their own private property, but public property belongs to everyone, whether they are christian, jewish, athiest, etc, so in order to show respect for everybody's beliefs, relgious symbols should not be displayed.

The current state of health care reform

What's going on now is, the health care bill, which was passed in the House, is now before the Senate for reconciliation with an earlier senate bill.
On Saturday, the senate considered various amendments proposed by Republicans and democrats. The republicans proposed amendments that would prevent the cuts in Medicare for the aged, including cuts in home health care payments proposed in the bill. The amendments were defeated and the Democrats argued that the cuts would reduce inefficiency and were supported by AARP and the Home Health Care Association. The democrats then proposed an amendment that said benefits would not be reduced for any individuals, which passed.
On Sunday President Obama came to the senate to talk to the democrats. There appears to be a sixty vote agreement (the number needed to prevent a filibuster) on basic issues including: coverage for 30 million currently uninsured individuals through a requirement that everyone purchase insurance backed by subsidies for those who cannot afford it, an exchange where people can shop for insurance and compare different plans, an expansion of Medicaid for the poor, and a ban on insurance practices of denying people coverage for previously existing conditions. There is still disagreement on whether there should be a public option (a government run health plan).

Political Cartoon #2

This cartoon was drawn by Mike Keefe and was published in the Denver Post. It was posted on December 4th, 2009. The cartoon portrays the fact that many soldiers are growing increasingly irritated and fatigued at having been deployed mulitple times over the last several years. It is also saying that Obama, despite only having been in office for about a year, is already increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan to the most it has ever been since the war started. Although, the cartoon seems to be portraying a negative image towards Obama's decision, I disagree because at least he has actually set a date in which the U.S. forces will leave Afghanistan, and he seems to be intent on keeping that promise. I think that it is also good that he is drawing out soldiers from Iraq and trying to wrap things up to finally end the war.