Be Careful United States....

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/opinion/united-against-china.html?ref=opinion

For centuries China and Japan have been at constant war with each other. The latest dispute was over territorial issues over the Senkaku Islands, an uninhabited island in the East China Sea. The Japanese private owners ended up buying most the islands, which resulted in a huge protest in China. This dispute over territory escalated and is considered to be the most serious Chinese-Japanese dispute since the post-war. India, also, has some territorial disputes with China which resulted in a border war in 1962. In the article, United against China, by the Editorial Board, highlights an interesting question, Is the United States against China? The reason this question came to be is because India and Japan have been getting very friendly with each other. The Editorial board consists of nineteen journalists with different expertise. They write The Time’s editorials, which represent the voice of the board. Japan offered India two billion dollars to help with India’s infrastructure, train system, and children’s hospitals. The two countries are in the process to discuss further about Japanese aid and loans for nuclear power reactor projects and to create a high speed railing system. Although India has refused to take sides over the territorial issues between Japan and China, they are still stuck in the mix because of their close relations to Japan. India even invited Japan to join India-United States naval exercise. India and Japan are happy with their relationship but Japan shouldn’t expect India to side with them over their dispute with China. They suggest that Japan should discuss their foreign policy with Washington. The intended audience is indirectly towards the United States government. If the US is not careful about whom they get friendly with, there could be a growing hostility between the United State and China. They believe that Japan is trying to sway India, by showering them with money to get them to side with them. It is inevitable that they would have to team up against China. Even though India insists that they are not going to side with Japan, their friendliness could potentially lead to an alley in the future. United States should stay neutral in the matter. The United States is in no position to upset the Chinese at this time. The national debt is at an impressive $17 trillion right now. China is responsible for 7% of the total debt, making them the largest foreign lender to the United States. China has slowly been reducing their amount they are lending to United States, from 10% to 7%. If the United States continues to keep borrowing money from China, they will own most our debt and we’ll have to work for China. Therefore, United States needs to be careful about their relationship with some countries, like Japan. If China gets upset with the United States, they could demand all the money back at once and put the United States’ economy in a deeper recession.  

How the Government Spends $1.1 trillion

As one of the dutiful American citizens that pay taxes, I have always wondered how the Government spends our money. In an article called, How Congress divides $1.1 trillion in spending, by Associated Press; it breaks down how much money is spent on each government agency operations. The House has just approved the division of the $1.1 trillion for federal agencies for the year. It is now waiting for the Senate approval and expected for President Obama to sign later on this week.

According to Associated Press, the $1.1 is $30 billion less than what Congress had provided last year but $20 billion more than was provided after automatic spending cuts after taking legal possession of assets until the debt has been paid off or the other claims have been met for 2013. The government spends a whopping $92 billon on war for US military operations overseas, mostly in Afghanistan. Only $7 billion is used for disasters. This is $1 billion less for war and $44 less for disasters than last year. A majority of the $1.1 trillion goes towards defense by using $474 billion a year. It also includes a 1% pay raise for President Obama. Cuts and maintenance for research and development programs is $160 billion. They used $157 million for Sexual Assault and Prevention office. Some of the spending is helping Military retirees. The money is also going towards Obama’s health care law. $3.7 billion is going towards the Center for Medicare and Medicaid. The National Institutes of Health gets $29.9 billion for health care research. Other miscellaneous things include: abortion, transportation, domestic security, IRS, financial agencies, protection of the environment, education, flood insurance, food, agricultural, law enforcement, veterans, diplomacy and foreign aid, and the Congress operations.

$1.1 trillion is a massive amount of money that people can only dream up. It’s interesting how the government decides to spend it. One interesting thing that stood out to me about this article is how much the government uses our money to fund the wars overseas. They are willing to spend so much money on foreign affairs yet are not willing to put more money in the natural disaster fund here in United States. In my opinion, they should focus more on the internal problems in their own country before they focus on other people’s problems.  

Because I pay for taxes like every other citizen in the United States, the way the government spends the money is relevant to me. It’s amazing to see how much they spend on certain things. The break-down of the how the money is spent reflects the governments focus for the United States. It seems as though they are so focused on staying as one of the top players of the world that they pay little attention to their own citizens’ wants and needs.

I decided to blog on this because I feel as though everyone should know what the government spends our money on. We blindly pay taxes every paycheck, yet we don’t have a full understanding of where our money goes. With this chart, we are able to see what the government spends our money on. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-congress-divides-up-11-trillion-in-spending/2014/01/16/8b4fc4d8-7e83-11e3-97d3-b9925ce2c57b_story.html 

My Political Biography

Public socialization is the process by which we teach and learn our political knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, values, and habits of behavior.
Family is the most important agent of socialization. Parents transfer their political ideologies unconsciously so that their children develop their fundamental attitudes toward politics. Because of this reason, political conservative orientation is difficult to alter once it has been embedded.
The influence of church and schools play a significant role in a child's political upbringing. This influence is usually conservative. Students are not as exposed to political demographics and are taught mainly to just vote as their democratic participation with a free enterprise system.
Media in Texas is mainly conservative due to the large contributions in advertising from businesses. But since technology has advance and exposure to internet has broadened the liberal/conservative spectrum. Some of the main factors that might influence an individual to be a conservative or liberal in Texas, I would have to say, would be ones ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic status. These would determine how ones family thinks, what schools and churches they go to, and if they can afford to have access to media (i.e. internet, Television). If they were Anglo-Americans, African American, Asian-American would play a significant role in politics given their history with America's government.
Basic agents of political socialization that have influence my own political views would have to be my family and media. My parents, being successful business owners, lean more towards conservatism. Of which was the only ideology I knew growing up. But with so much exposure through peers and internet, my political ideology has skewed from that and has become more liberal than conservative. Growing up in an Asian American Catholic family, I've always been taught that my political ideology is conservative. My parents always urged me to vote for "Republicans" because we are Catholic and business owners. But as I grow older and understand all the political issues and form my own thoughts on them, I realized that I disagree with some things that the conservatives believe in and agree with some liberal beliefs.  My political ideology is in between conservative and liberal at the moment. I have not found a political ideology that I can completely relate to yet and I'm hoping this class will help me define my political ideology as an adult and to expose me to all the different things that are happening in the government right now.