Responce to Mora's Post

After reading “Streamlining Federal Programs” by Mora Guerra I learned something I knew very little about, The Government Accountability office. Mora shares my distaste of waste, especially in our National Government. I am glad such an agency exist, though while studying bureaucracy in chapter 13 I can imagine the process of cutting spending in overlapping agencies can be difficult and unwanted by the people who feel their job is necessary and should stick around. At first I disagreed with Mora’s opinion that programs to improve teacher quality should be consolidated in order to combine knowledge and resources. I was worried the system of big agencies would not have the proper check and balances that many smaller programs could offer each other (much like how many fear “Big Government”). This was just at first glance though, after finishing the opinion piece and researching the agency on my own I found it easier to believe that one program for a specific area can really help out the country by saving money and time. The trick is going through all programs and tests each of their effectiveness. If GAO can continue to keep our country streamlined and cut the fat when needed I feel we all can benefit with robust programs that can give us the support and help we need. Mora did a thorough job providing good examples and also gave a clear and organized thought process. P.s Go GAO!

I love Gooooooooooold

Breaking news, gold and silver are once again legal forms of tender! Not really, although it may be coming closer to reality and I for one am all for it. The Beehive State, or Utah as it is more commonly known, became the first state last month since 1933 to recognize those precious metals as legal tender. To be clear one cannot just waltz into a Starbucks and expect to exchange a gold coin for a cup of coffee, instead the Federal Reserve will be required by law to make all of their notes redeemable for gold, and additionally the printing of U.S dollars would be weighed against the value of gold. Growing up I assumed bank notes were used because we the weight of carrying actual silver or gold was too burdensome, and that a bank note had some sort of relation to our federal reserves of gold. It was not until recently that I understood this system of using a gold standard was not possible in this economy we have today, the total amount of gold that has ever been minted is less than the value of circulating money in the U.S. alone, and returning to a gold standard would shoot the current value of gold so high it’s use would be terribly limited. This has me worried because I feel the future of the dollar is not looking good, inflation is rising and there needs to be options for our economy, Professor of Economic Lawrence H. White from George Mason University states “…it's a statement by the state legislators that they are concerned by the state of the dollar, people need to have an alternative if the dollar melts down.” I understand this is not an end all system to prevent future crisis, but if we can stop the Federal Reserve’s habit of endless printing of money which weakens our dollar and weakens our way of life then let’s do it!

response from article:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tea-party-momentum-utah-bill-brings-gold-standard/story?id=13377409&page=1

In Responce to "National budget cuts!!"

Point taken, let us all learn from history not repeat it (unless its an awesome idea). Victoria Gonzalez’s' post "National Budget Cuts!!" lead me to a few questions for you. Clearly you do not approve of the budget cuts that the House Appropriations Committee announced because they are insufficient and thoughtless, but what tax codes do you suggest we return to if we are indeed reducing domestic spending to levels reminiscent to the Eisenhower era? I was also confused to as what programs were being threatened, I was hard pressed to understand what was at stake and how it is going to affect people like my family and myself. I too hope funding for programs and institutions (such as your school) continue to receive finding but why did your school not receive state help in building an additional section? This must have happened before these budget cuts were announced correct? I always though it was up to state to fund schools and other services such as homeless shelters but am not completely certain. Is the House Appropriations Committee going to cut federally funded programs such as welfare, armed forces, members of congress salaries, etc. If the budget cuts affect municipally funded services like waste and water then that is going to be pretty bad. What is great is we pay our state taxes (unless you live in the seven states that do not collect individual taxes for state) that fund our roads and hopefully schools, so as long as everything continues as is and only federal cuts are on the horizon I feel safe. Good opinion piece, you raised questions that fueled many Google searches!