In California illegal aliens can practice law. Better or Worse? Lawyers are officers of the court. Felons can’t practice law. Lawyers who have violated a Federal law can practice law?
In Colorado pot is legal. New York state will get there soon. Better or worse. The state will reap tax benefits. Growers will make a profit. It will reduce pot coming in from Mexico. It will make it easier for those who didn’t want to break the law to try pot to try pot. There will be more Coloradans addicted to pot.
ObamaCare is the law of the land. The majority of Americans don’t want ObamaCare. We have always said majority rules in this country. This decision was made by one Supreme Court Justice. Better or Worse?
The NSA is spying on us. One Federal judge says they can’t do that. Another says it’s perfectly OK. Obama says nothing. Democrats say it’s keeping us safe. The Constitution says they can’t do that. Better or worse?
Hundreds of brave Americans fought and died or were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama didn’t like the Iraqi war that was won. He pulled all the troops. Now the bad guys have taken over the country and are doing the same things Saddam Hussein was doing. The same will happen in Afghanistan. We have learned to respect those who fought those wars, unlike Viet Nam, but one man, the President, decided to forego the gains those troops made for their sacrifices. Better or worse.
Windmills have gone up all across America to produce power. They kills hundreds of birds. Evidently members of the Audubon Society and PETA all belong to the Sierra Club, and must overlook dead birds including endangered species. Better or worse?
Ugly solar panels are going up all over the desert here in Arizona to produce power. They produce steam which then produces power. Lake Mead is supposed to be at historic low levels and water shortages are just down the road, like climate change. Is it a good trade-off to produce very expensive electricity using scare water? Better or worse?
For my entire lifetime politicians have said they would simplify the tax code. For my entire lifetime, they have made it more complex adding pages of regulations every year. Yet, we put them back in office every year overlooking their broken promises. Better or worse. Over half the population pays no taxes. They could care less about the tax code. The very rich like complexity and have lobbied for most of the complexity. The remaining 40% pay billions to get their taxes filed. Better or worse?
The federal government is always deciding what every American is entitled to as part of their lucky geographical good fortune. For a while Clinton, and Barney Frank decided it was home ownership. That didn’t work out so well with the housing bubble. But they got Bush blamed for it so it worked well politically. Now it’s health insurance. ObamaCare may turn out to be worse than the housing bubble from a cost stand-point. Lurking back there is student loans. Obama said in his first inaugural speech that every American is entitled to a college education. We, the people, have over a trillion in student loans that are growing. Many are bad loans. Better or worse?
The big debate this week is about unemployment insurance. For my lifetime it was 26 weeks. In recent times that wasn’t good enough. Some of it may be due to the answers to those questions posed above. But, we have been told we are in economic recovery and have been for four years. But, we can’t leave those who have used up their unemployoment without financial help. Better or worse?
Our student test scores keep going down versus the rest of the world. But, we love our teachers. We can’t hold them accountable for this. It’s a money thing even though we spend more per student than the rest of the world. The unions won’t let us get rid of marginal teachers. When we try to hold teachers accountable they dummy-up the test scores. (Atlanta, GA.). Is it time to get real on education? Better or worse?
I’ve barely scratched the surface here. Comparisons are much greater than this list. But, it’s an exercise that makes one think. Maybe it all comes down to a simple solution, like more people voting or term limits. But, it seem there is work to be done.