Shaping the 21st Century Government Revolution

Bill Clinton says that the government must shape a 21st century revolution. He carried on in his last state of the union address making all kinds of proposals ranging from healthcare, fighting crime and education to name a few. He says they must focus on the middle class, proposing a 350 billion dollar tax cut. But exactly how does he propose this shaping take place, and how will it effect our economy?

I would like to focus on what he proposed for education. He says the government spends $15 billion a year in our schools. He proposes schools that show progress get rewarded for it. The way to do that is to bring in the best trained teachers, and by having more after school programs to help kids in problem areas. Also he says they need to make schools more up to date, by connecting all classrooms to the Internet. In 1994 only 3% of the classrooms had access now 90% of schools have at least one internet connection.

Clinton wants to make the American dream affordable for everyone. By making pell grants larger, having more affordable student loans, hope scholarships, and education IRA’s. It would make it more possible for people to go to college and get the education needed to get a good job and further themselves.

Clinton says high school graduates that go on to college is up 10% from 1993. He proposed a $30 billion college opportunity tax cut. which means a tax deduction for up to $10,000 in college tuition costs. That would mean more people would be able to afford to go on to collegeNow all these things sound great right? But will it all be possible, and how will all these things affect our economy as we know it? Will it have a huge impact, and if so will it be good or bad?

I do not think following though on these proposals will have a bad effect on the economy. If anything I think it will just strengthen the economy. If more people got a better education and were able to afford to go to college to make themselves even better. They would be more likely to find a better job or start a business of their own.

If all those things took place then communities would grow stronger and cities would have more businesses which would make more and more jobs. And that would help to bring the poverty level down. There would be less people on welfare and it would probably cut the crime rate also.

Now another issue that clinton brought up was health care. He had all kinds of ideas on how to spend money on healthcare but is it really worth it? In 1997 the children’s health insurance program was passed. So far there are approximately 2 million children enrolled the goal there is 5 million. Also there are over 40 million Americans that don’t have any insurance at all. A large portion of those are people between the ages of 55 and 65. Clinton says Medicare needs to be strengthened and modernized. In his budget he dedicates $400 billion to Medicare that will keep it solvent past 2025.

Is all this government spending necessary? I don’t think it is. They should make it a requirement for companies to have medical insurance for their employees. Then that would save them a lot of money that can go on other things.

One more thing I would like to touch on is a proposal Clinton made on childcare. He says parents spend a quarter of their earnings on childcare. He says that the childcare tax credit should be up to $2,400 for people that make under $30,000 a year. He says that last year alone the government provided childcare for 2 million children.

Now I am glad he says all these things about childcare but the simple fact is this, there are so many people that can’t work because they can’t afford childcare. And the only way they can get help to pay for it is if they are on welfare. Now to me that doesn’t sound like the government is trying to help the average American move up or better themselves in that aspect that they try to help the people that really need it.

Now taking that and putting it all together, it would make our country all together stronger if the government put money where it really needs to go instead of putting it in their own pockets. Which in all reality in the stretch of things we all know that’s where it will end up.