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I chose to write about the controversy surrounding the Affordable Care Act. Right now there is a split between support, on one side there is overwhelming support from the American people that need life saving treatments available through Obamacare. On the other side there is the overwhelming support from congress to repeal it and replace it with Trumpcare. The main dispute here is that instituting affordable health care for everyone is ideal to the American people but not for our US debt and deficit. But at what cost is this acceptable? Having a right to health care means that people everywhere can get life saving treatments. This is especially true for people that have pre existing conditions who otherwise would be denied health insurance prior to the Obama administration. Shouldn’t everyone be able to afford to save a life need be. Why should this only be for the wealthy and previously healthy. The United States is the global super power so why is it that other countries have health care for their citizens and our congress just took that right from us. The focus here should be on basic human rights for the American people. In 2007 62% of all US bankruptcies were related to medical expenses. How is it possible that it is 2017 and we are going the wrong direction. People shouldn’t have to ask themselves if its worth it to receive medical treatment or if they should refuse it because they’ll end up broke and on the streets. Although the house has signed a bill to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, the bill still has to go through senate. There is still time to fix this atrocity that is happening. It is vital that Americans take back what belongs to them, which is the simple right to health and a quality life.

Blog Stage 3

For my article I choose to do a commentary on the piece, “WhiteHouse says Flynn deserved “due process” before curtailing his access – that’snuts.” This piece was written by John Aravosis, who is the executive editor of AMERICAblog. He is reputable in the sense that he worked in the US Senate, Children’s Defense Fund, and United Nation Development Program amongst other credible sources. However reputable he is, this piece is still an opinion as it is blatantly stated in the title. 

Aravosis seems to be targeting the American people, not necessarily any political group. He makes a compelling argument when mentioning the severity of waiting 18 days to make a move. Comparing his breach in security to an assassin in the oval office. Although this seems like an exaggeration it makes sense. How is it that the federal attorney general made two separate warnings saying security had been breached, and it took 18 days for moves to be made. Had it been known that an assassin was plotting to kill the president, 18 days would have been unacceptable. So why is it that the entire country’s security is jeopardized by a foreign adversary and the president doesn’t bat an eye? Aravosis implies that it is possibly due to Trumps arrogance and pride in his choice of Flynn that lead to this reckless behavior. While I think that his opinion is valid I think that it is distracting from the piece as there is no way to prove these assumptions because they are completely subjective. As stated in the handout, good arguments cannot be based on gut feelings but rather need to be based on hard verified evidence. The article could have done without this, but this is an opinionated article 

Finally, the main focus of this piece is about the suggestion Sean Spicer made calling for a due process before cutting him off. The ideal way to handle this would have been to remove his top security clearances, and put him on administrative leave pending investigation. The gray area is in why this took 18 days and they simply fired the man rather than have given him his Constitutional rights of a due process. This raises a lot of flags as it should, and for the most part Aravosis gives a compelling argument that even with his strong opinion he is successful at convincing me.

Blog stage 8

I really appreciated the article my classmate wrote over mineworkers and their health benefits that are in jeopardy. I was not aware that this was happening, and after reading the CNN article I was shocked that this is even an issue. What I am and have been aware of were the countless of promises that Trump made to these mineworkers. This was one of the pivotal points in his campaign were he promised to give power back to mineworkers through more work and benefits. However, he is doing nothing for the rights of these people and much rather standing back and watching this unfold. I believe that my classmate did a good job at summarizing this article and stating her opinion, but it was very pathos heavy. I would have liked to see numbers in the commentary. In the CNN article it mentions that there are over 22,600 retired mineworkers and their families being affected by this. Putting that in numbers shows just how many people are being impacted. Another point that puts things in perspective is that these people signed up for this job with these promises in hand. How is it that through a “bankruptcy loophole” thousands of people will not get the promises that were made to them before they signed a contract that put their life and health on the line. This just seems unethical. These people put their life on the line during WW2 to provide coal and steel to fuel the war that now enables us to live on the land of the free. How enraging must it be to be in the shoes of these people. Much like the already controversial crisis over health care in our country, there are people who’s life depend on the availability and affordability of healthcare. This is just a small piece of a much larger problem. Awareness is the first step to fixing a problem and this was a very enlightening article from my classmate.