Obama Raises Cell Phone Bill to Pay for Faster Internet

“We are here to do big things — and we can do this without Congress.”  This is a statement made by President Obama, as noted in the Washington Post, regarding one of the recent programs he is going to be implementing in the near future. Although it seems that this is not the first time he has had this view when following out his visions, I will be purely focusing on one he has recently proposed called ConnectED.

To briefly describe the program, ConnectED is an initiative that is going to help place high-speed broadband internet in 99% of America’s schools. This will aid in access to online textbooks and lessons for children as well as lesson planning and organization for teachers. I, having experience in teaching, cannot dispute the fact that the internet opens many doors in the realm of education.  There are more resources that can be utilized nowadays that were never dreamt of in the past. However I do not think that technology is the only way for our children of today to succeed. Yes, in today’s culture we are extremely dependent on technology for things, but I truly believe that the majority of students can learn without the internet as the sole medium of their learning.  

My initial reaction to this presidential decision was, “Who is going to fund this program”? Ah, and what do you know, I will be funding this. And so will you. The estimate for this program is that it is going to cost between 4 and 6 billion dollars. The administration is planning to raise everyone’s phone bills for the next three years to provide this funding. After doing further research, I found out that at the moment, it is claims that each individual will only be paying around 12 dollars over the course of 3 years.

Referencing Obama in the quote opening this post, the reason this is even happening is because he has found a way around sending this through Congress.  In fact, Congress cannot have any meaningful say in regards to this at all. It is all up to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC ). The FCC has the right to boost fees to fund certain kinds of programs via the universal service fund (USF). The USF is what was used to fund the “Obamaphone”.

In my opinion, why not have the communities decide if they want their schools to take a part in ConnectED? I have no doubts that the program would be beneficial for certain schools and this way the people who actually want to partake in it will be the ones funding it. Then the overall required funding would not be in the billions and all the ways that the administration is talking about decreasing unnecessary funding could actually be performed.  

Paying a little extra per year on my phone bill no longer infuriates me. What infuriates me is the fact that Obama has made it such a point to avoid congress with certain issues. Congress was created to represent the people and Obama is now setting a precedent that he does not find the peoples’ opinions to be important. Congress has made it clear that they would not approve this ConnectED initiative.

Obama appears to be very passionate about integrating technology into our schools. According to some sources, Obama has long expressed frustration that countries such as South Korea have embraced technology in the classroom much better than the United States has. I argue that there are also numerous ways that South Korea runs their education system that we have never tried implementing and probably never will. That particular subject however will have to be addressed in another post rather than this one.

What saddens me is a comment made by the president, included in an article in the Washington post, which basically states that America is too busy focusing on the noise rather than what is meaningful. By noise, Obama is referencing the NSA privacy issue that has many American’s questioning the motives of our government and the fact that the people’s rights seem to have been thrown out the door.  The way I see it, if the president has to “sneak around” (for lack of a better way to phrase it) to start a program and avoids having the voice of the people/Congress reflected in the decision and is requiring everyone to contribute whether or not they want to participate seems quite devious to me. If he is as passionate about this as he says he is, he should find a way to promote this in a way that also promotes what America stands for. I would say that Education is important to the people of America. So why go behind their backs (and force them) to better their education when you could have their support?

This article was written by guest writer Kylie, my wife.

American Empire: The Fall of Rome

         
               The fall of Rome is a highly debated event in the academic arena. The first debate that ensues is: When did the Roman Empire actually fall? Was it when Rome was sacked by the barbarians in the 5^th century? Or when the Byzantine Empire fell? Was the Byzantine Empire really part of the Roman Empire? Lucky for you and for me, we will not be discussing all of this on a technical level. We will be looking at some common sense reasons the Roman Empire fell. Rome started off a republic and became an Empire. The United States of America started off as a Constitutional Republic. I fear that our approach to government has been shifting in the last century to become more like an Empire. If we can pin point where the shifts of the Republic started to become an Empire then maybe we can save our country.

                George Santayana wrote, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. When looking back through Roman history we see that they had a senate much like ours today, minus the dresses. The people were able to vote and had people to represent them. Rome began to grow. It had a healthy economy based on free market and sound money. By sound money, I mean that it was based on gold, silver, and bronze coins. These coins had a fixed worth based on the market and the government only regulated the quality of the metal. Ludwig von Mises, Austrian School economist, concludes that one of the causes of the deterioration of the Roman Empire was the introduction to fiat money. In the 2^nd century the Roman Empire started to make impure coins, thus lowering the value of the coins. We do this in America by using a system called the Federal Reserve (FED). The FED prints more money and redistributes it to where the government or foreign governments would like it to go. This devalues the people’s money and their investments, thus crippling the economy. (For more on the Federal Reserve and how it works click here)

                As the economy was struggling Rome continued its expansion. Through military conquest Rome conquered most of Europe, a lot of the Middle East and all of northern Africa. In doing this they created enemies, as does any military during warfare. As they would go through their tours of conquering lands and bringing these people under their rule they would have these people join their military and the people started to fight in and among the Roman military. They fought against the Romans on all sides. In the world today there are 195 countries, the United States has troops in 150 of those countries. That is a whopping 76% of the world in which we have our military. Not all of these countries’ citizens love the idea of having a foreign military on their soil. This year alone there has been massive protest in Japan, Bishkek, Italy, and right now in the Philippines. This is not something known to the average American, because we are told by our politicians and media that our military is welcomed everywhere because we bring good tidings of the great joy of democracy. This is not the case. Our military presence is creating more enemies where ever they are present. The CIA calls this blowback. The term blowback “refers to the unintended consequences of policies that were kept secret from the American people. What the daily press reports as the malign acts of "terrorists" or "drug lords" or "rogue states" or "illegal arms merchants" often turns out to be blowback from earlier American operations.” (Chalmers Johnson in Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire)

                The third and final comparison is a combination of the two first points, an Emperor. An Emperor is created when you live in a state of constant war. Even the Constitution makes exceptions for times of war. “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger…”. War produces the need for a strong leader who can make quick decisions. During war you cannot have people debating where to attack and if a place is safe. These decisions have to be made by a person and they have to make quickly. It is no wonder that in Rome the emperors were their top military leaders. To contain this power, the founding fathers put into law that congress was the one to declare war. War is supposed to be thought out and the cost has to be counted. It should be a topic that is debated. Thus, the congressmen that represent the people should make that decision. Now in America we have the War Powers Resolution of 1973 which states that the president can now “declare war” on a country. Congress has 60 days to decide if they agree and then after the 60 days the president has 30 days to pull the troops. So if congress was to declare the war unjust, the troops would have been fighting an unconstitutional, unlawful, war for 3 months. In modern warfare, 3 months can make a whole lot of difference. Thus, congress is obligated to continue the war in justifying the money and lives that have been spent.

                I write these as a warning to America. If we continue on this path, as did the Romans, then we will end up like them. The Romans had a great Republic, but they allowed their government to ruin their economy in an effort to obtain more money. With this new money they created a military that conquered the known world of their time. During their conquest they gave an exceeding amount of power to one man and one man cannot represent the people. The people need to have various people to represent them or their voices will not be heard. In an Empire the people cannot be heard over the roar of an Emperor. When this happens the people will violently lash out against their Emperor. To stop this from happening in our country, we need to focus on creating a healthy economy of sound money, reduce the presence of military in the world, and consequently reign in the powers of the executive branch.