Class Blog Review: Teachers Today Challenge Tomorrow

In Deserah Alvarez’s post “Teachers Today Challenge Tomorrow” she explains how cutting teachers salaries because of budget cuts will likely effect the current and future generations.  The issue of how budget cuts effect teacher’s pay and benefits is an issue that needs to be resolved, but it seems as if no one can come up with a good alternative and so teacher’s pay continues to be cut whenever states need to make large budget cuts.  Are the salaries of the administrative workers in education also being cut, or are the salary cuts only regarding teachers?  There are many administration jobs in education that pay high salaries that could also be reduced.  If teacher’s salaries need to be cut, there should be an attempt to cut salaries in other areas of education besides just the teachers.  Program cuts should be divided equally instead of cutting out single specific programs. 

Budget cuts have to come from somewhere, but I agree that education is very important for our country’s youth, and teachers are a large part of the success of future generations.  Children will suffer in this situation, with the loss of teachers and educational programs, they will not get the equivalent education that they should be getting.  I think that teachers should at least retain the rights to negotiate their benefits.  I agree that if many teachers are fired because of budget cuts, it is going to lead to more issues.  For one thing, there will be fewer teachers in the future because many people who want to teach will get tired of this situation and will not want to work as teachers anymore.  Also, students may be discouraged from studying to become a teacher because of all the teachers being fired and the low salary that they are being paid. 

National Retail Sales Tax Reform

There has been a debate going on for years about a way to get rid of the Federal Income Tax and the IRS and still have the money available that normally comes from federal tax returns that individuals do every year.  A proposal has been made for a National Retail Sales Tax, also called a Fair Tax, to replace the Federal Income Tax paid every year.  With a National Retail Sales Tax, each time you purchased a product or service you would pay your federal taxes as a federal sales tax, this would be on top of any state tax that might already be in place. The Fair Tax means that the federal government would no longer withhold federal taxes from individual’s paychecks and no one would need to file federal income tax returns because the federal income tax system would be eliminated and the IRS would likely become non-existent. Dissatisfaction with the current income tax continues to generate interest in this alternate Tax method.

This was one the proposals made during President Bush’s second term as a federal tax reform.  This, in my opinion means it’s purpose is not likely to help the poor by having them pay less taxes, but instead it makes the tax burden equal even for low-income individuals.  Those who are in the highest income and lowest income groups will all pay the same National Retail Sales Tax on things that they buy and it will not matter how much money they make.  With the current tax system, the level a person is taxed depends on how much money they make each year.  While the poor cannot avoid the tax, I believe it is fairer to everyone than the supposed Fair Tax. 

Also, there is the question of exactly how much this new sales tax would be, and it is likely that to keep the government programs that are currently funded by income tax running as they should, that the rate for the National Retail Sales Tax would be very high, and then I believe that less people will be likely to support it.  While it is unlikely to gain more approval under President Obama, it continues to be an issue that many people support simply to get rid of the federal income tax system currently in place.  It will only end up benefiting the wealthy and definitely hurting the lower and middle classes.  I don’t believe that any change to the current tax system will be progressive at all.  In fact, the results suggest that exchanging our current system for a national retail sales tax would actually be a regressive shift when it is measured against annual income.

Class Blog Review: Funding Cut Crisis?

Recently our country’s budget crisis has become an increasing concern for many people.  The question of where to cut funding from is an important issue that needs to be solved.  In Sarah Clifton’s post, "Funding Cut Crisis?” she explains how many conservatives are trying to cut funding from Planned Parenthood in support of anti-abortion.  Clifton explains that cutting funding for Planned Parenthood will not only affect abortions, but also essential programs for women, children and even men.  This would include services such as women’s and men’s wellness exams, STD testing, birth control, and family planning.  I believe Clifton makes a good point in saying that cutting services to Planned Parenthood would affect abortion rates, but could also end up hurting people who cannot afford family planning heath care on their own and may turn to illegal methods to obtain services.

I agree that funding should not be cut from essential health services like Planned Parenthood especially not just because of anti-abortion conservatives and I don’t agree with the conservatives that they should get a say in how their tax money is spent.  Individual citizens don’t get a say on who gets federal funding or how their tax money is spent either.  I believe that funding for Planned Parenthood is very important and the services that they provide are essential.  Clifton’s blog post makes the main point of how important all the services are to our citizens’ health and safety and the arguments are clear and reasoned.  I also agree that although budget cuts will obviously be necessary, cutting this type of health care funding should not be an option.