Unit 4 Post

President Obama Vetos Massive Defense Bill

In October of 2015, President Obama completed the fifth veto of his presidency in rejecting the $612 billion National Defense Authorization Act. Although the bill was expected to be vetoed by the president, it was very much a bipartisan effort in both the House and Senate. Sources suggest that the use of this expressed power reveals that Obama has little issue with provoking the Republicans in Congress, especially during the final stretch of his presidency. 

The background of Obama's opposition to this budget goes in to a larger picture of a battle with Republicans in Congress over federal spending. While the Republicans would prefer to only raise the amount poured in to defense spending, Obama is looking to raise spending in other federal agencies besides just the Pentagon alone. Obama told reporters that the bill falls "woefully short" in key areas, yet he praised the legislation for other components, such as the proposed reform of the 401(k) system. 

This veto has not come without backfire, as many Republicans in Congress were furious after their proposal was denied. Former Speaker of the House John Boehner claimed that the rejection of the bill "left troops in the middle," and Senator John McCain claimed that troops expect, "more from their commander-in-chief." The Republicans in Congress were hopeful of an override vote, however, the majority for the override was not met. 

While I agree that defense spending should be a priority, I do not think that the veto of this bill affects the troops as much as the Republicans in Congress are insinuating. I agree with the decision of the POTUS in the aspect that if more funds are poured in to the military, other federal agencies should receive more money too. If defense spending was raised alone, either taxes would increase or funding for other federal agencies would have to be cut. This would cause controversy and complication, and also bring about the assumption that Obama cares more about defense spending than anything else, contradicting his trend of typical policy agenda. I think that the veto, in the bigger picture, did the Republicans in Congress a favor.

Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/barack-obama-vetoes-defense-bill-215074

Unit 4 Post

Representative Jim McDermott- Washington’s 7th District

Democrat Jim McDermott represents the suburban area outside of Seattle, Washington. McDermott is 79 years old and was elected to Congress in 1989, serving 14 terms in Congress. Earlier this year he announced that he would not be running for re-election. Representative McDermott went to medical school and attained a medical degree. Later, he served time during the Vietnam War as US Navy Medical Corps as a psychiatrist. In 1974, he ran for state Senate and was re-elected three times. McDermott currently serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and is a member of the Progressive Caucus. His biggest political contributor is the United Food & Commercial Workers Union. The 7th districts includes much of Seattle and its surrounding area, containing part of the city and the suburbs around it, and qualifies as an area fueled by technology because within the district is a modern city.

Bill 1 - ENCRYPT Act: The goal of the ENCRYPT Act is to make it impossible for the government to request companies and service providers to alter security functions in order to surveillance users. This bill has clearly come as a result from the San Bernardino shootings, where suspects of the shootings apparently stored information regarding the terrorist attack on their Apple devices. The FBI asked Apple to essentially crack their own encryption code in order to get this information. Apple did not follow through with this request. This bill is still in committee, therefore Congress has not voted on it yet, but if it does reach the floor, I am speculating that Representative McDermott will vote in favor of the bill. Because his district contains the heart of Seattle, a technological city, I believe that he will vote to protect the privacy of his constituents.

Bill 2 - Aviation Act: This bill would privatize air traffic control and move air traffic control to a private non-profit organization. This bill has already made it out of committee, however it has not been voted on the floor yet. Representatives in support of this bill point out the fact that the current reform plan of the Federal Aviation Administration has taken much longer to execute than originally planned, making the cost of the project $120 billion instead of the projected $40 billion. Because Representative McDermott is on the House Ways and Means Committee that deals with revenue, the cost of the old system and the cost of the new system would definitely be something that his congressional committee would be looking in to. However, Democrats on the Transportation Committee have been claiming that they will be making a competing bill to the Aviation Act that will better match the Democrat's spending priorities. If this bill is created, McDermott will most likely side with his fellow Democratic congressmen.

Bill 3 - Sentencing Act: The goal of this bill is to reform sentencing primarily for people convicted of crimes involving drug possession. The bill would reduce the number of years those convicted of drug possession would be required to serve as well as create a minimum number of years a person convicted with a domestic violence crime would be required to serve. The Sentencing Reform Act was sent out of committee in November of 2015, but has not been passed by the House or Senate yet. Because sources suggest that this bill has a high chance on being passed and was a bipartisan effort, I would guess that Representative McDermott would vote to pass this legislation.

Unit 3 Post

Donald Trump Under Fire for Hesitating to Disavow Support from KKK Members

The current Republican front runner, Donald Trump, has been under fire early this week after an interview with CNN where he refused to disavow the support from former Klan leader David Duke. In an interview with CNN correspondent Jake Trapper, Trump claimed that he had no idea who David Duke was or what white supremacy was about. Trump refused to say that he would not accept the support of white supremacists four times, each time offering the question "what is white supremacy?" In response to Trapper's question about whether Trump would like to publicly disavow Duke's endorsement, Trump replied, "I don't know what group you're talking about. You wouldn't want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about. ... If you would send me a list of the groups, I will do research on them and certainly I would disavow them if I thought there was something wrong."

Later in the week, Trump took to twitter to publicly disavow David Duke's support. At a press conference on the same day Trump was endorsed by ex-candidate Chris Christie, he retweeted a video of him being asked about David Duke and disavowing his support.

While Trump made a huge mistake in refusing to deny the endorsement of David Duke during the interview, this story is a prime example of horse-race journalism. Instead of asking Trump about his plans for policies, the CNN correspondent was more interested in shining a light on what kind of people have been showing support for Trump recently, perhaps in an attempt to make him look bad to the public. This story also reveals the impact of mass media and broadcast media on society. Television acts as a public medium for politics, especially in an election year, and when a candidate leading an election makes a mistake, it can be expected that the mistake will be talked about on all major news networks. Social media also plays a large role in this story because in the past, candidates would have to publicly make a formal statement to disavow support, but now candidates are free to make this announcement through a social media platform such as Twitter. However, Trump's hesitation and act of confusion about white supremacy and David Duke may cause him to lose support in the polls. After Super Tuesday, we shall see if Trump's twitter announcement was enough to appease his supporters.

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/28/468455028/trump-wont-condemn-kkk-says-he-knows-nothing-about-white-supremacists