Instructor Notes - Policymaking and Domestic Policy

Instructor Notes for Week 15 –Chapter 19- Policymaking and Domestic Policy The USA domestic policy is again being debated by the political parties and members of Congress. The country is at another critical point in the future of our vital domestic programs. If you have time to listen to this hour long debate, you will learn a lot about the issues involved. Here is a sample of what you will hear: “ . . . Now comes Wall Street's "third way" of hijacking the nation's wealth: it's trying to persuade Democratic supporters to support the dismantling of the social contract that has held our society together for 75 years. And it's using many of the same tactics -- and many of the same faces -- it used in its first two forays. If you liked Wall Street deregulation, an inequitable bank bailout, and a get-out-of-jail-free card for bank executives, you're going to love this. The Anti-Social Contract Movement The goal is to cut the popular and successful programs they describe as "entitlements."  Cutting Social Security benefits will reduce political pressure on the undertaxed wealthy, while creating new investment markets for Wall Street retirement funds. Directly or indirectly slashing Medicare and Medicaid benefits also reduces that pressure. It would be more effective, more humane, and more rational to reduce Medicare's costs by reducing the effects runaway greed at every level of our health economy - but that would be bad for their investments. . . .” HuffPost Hill: FIGHT! - Social Security Works' Alex Lawson and Third Way's Jim Kessler battle for close to an hour on Social Security and the social contract. (Lawson's for it.) It's that rare thing in Washington, an actual debate, played out here on Ari Rabin-Havt's Sirius show The Agenda.   (Links to an external site.) The Agenda with Ari Rabin-Havt: Alex Lawson and Jim Kessler debate (Links to an external site.) Read more about it here - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/wall-street-finds-a-third_b_2158836.html (Links to an external site.) ‎11/14/2012 Jim Kessler of the Third Way and Alex Lawson of Social Security Works debate on SiriusXM Left's The Agenda with Ari Rabin-Havt. ................................................................................................................................................................................. Minimum wage is another issue being debated at this time.