Ludwig 1

Mildred Ludwig
Political Science 1
Professor Lawton
April 23, 2014
Domestic & Foreign Policies
The section I picked from chapter seventeen was the social insurance, the two major insurance
here in the United States are the Social Security and the Medicare. The social security was
created in the time of the Great Depression, the purpose of the social security is to provide with
financial support to the elderly persons, persons with disabilities, and survivors of deceased
workers. People who work all contribute to the social security, they are taken money away from
their paychecks however on the future when they retired at the age of sixty-five they get benefits
and pensions from all the time they worked. The people who have retired in these resent years
depend on the social security as their main their own because social security is just a small help
that is not going to pay all of the individuals living cost. Since there are many people who
depend on social security there is people who think that it might just run out of funds and there is
not going to be money once they are retired, to solve the problem people have thought of
solutions for example to raise the retirement age, to tax the wealthier people higher, and to raise
the payroll tax rate, all of this solutions would be hard to pass because there would be many
people who would oppose to them. Also if the age for retirement was raised higher it would hurt
some workers more than others as it says in the article by Aimee Picchi, people who do not have
a college degree are more likely to want to file for their retirement benefits early because since
they do not make a lot of money they need that money to have a stable life. People who work at a
high physical demanding jobs such as construction are more likely to file for early retirement
benefits also because since their jobs are though and even risky they fear of getting injured or
becoming ill. Medicare is a federal health program that serves people age of sixty-five, some
people with disabilities, and people with End-Stage Renal Disease. There are four parts to
Medicare, part A is the only that helps to pay a part of a bill that is not too expensive for example
it only pays for short stays at the hospital. People need to buy more Medicare insurance parts (B,
C, D) if they want more help, this is actually beneficial to the economy because over the time of
paying for Medicare it becomes a lot of money which means that the country can help others
who for example are in poverty and it raises jobs.
Weapons of mass destruction is something that shouldnt exist in our planet because it harms
others. The priority of American foreign policymakers is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to
other countries. There is the existence of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which states that
the countries that sign it will not have nuclear weapons and it will stop the spread of the
weapons, the countries that have agreed to the treaty are the United States, Russia, Great Britain,
France, and China. There are countries who own nuclear weapons however they agree to not use
them. The three countries that create and own nuclear weapons are North Korea, Iran, and Iraq
this countries are capable of using them against other countries. On an article in the LA Times, I
read that North Koreas foreign minister Ri Su Yong spoke to the Western news organization he

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spoke about an option to stop North Korea from testing its nuclear weapons that is if the United
States end its military drills in South Korea. Yong said that the United States is the reason why
they started building nuclear weapons because of the pressure the U.S gave them so the weapons
are for self-defense. Yong also said that it is better for the U.S to end their military drills because
it can cause major damage to all the world, meaning they are willing to use their nuclear
weapons if they feel more pressure. There are countries and territories who own nuclear
weapons, the United States is trying to stop them from creating more and from giving used to
them however this is a hard task. Another important political issue to the United States is trade,
the U.S. is at the top of the chart with exports and imports ever since the end of World War II .
Today it is way easier for countries to trade because in 1994 members of the trading system
decided to change from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade to the World Trade
Organization, people think that the free trade agreements between the U.S. and other countries is
the cause of the loss of manufacturing jobs here in the United States however other believe that
the cause of the manufacturing jobs is because of the advance in technology.

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Associated Press. "North Korea Says It Will Stop Nuclear Tests If U.S. Ends Military Drills in
South Korea." Los Angeles Times. April 23, 2016. Accessed April 23, 2016.
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-north-korea-nuke-tests-20160423-story.html.

Picchi, Aimee, and The Fiscal Times. "Raising the Retirement Age for Social Security Hurts
These Workers the Most." The Fiscal Times. October 16, 2015. Accessed April 23, 2016.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/10/16/Raising-Retirement-Age-Social-Security-HurtsThese-Workers-Most.