Incentive Systems in the United States Government Politics have rules and systems just like in a game, and as a game designer I can't help but think about how broken is our political system is. By broken, I don't just mean it's busted. I mean it's broken in a game design sense. The underlying rules and incentives that govern our politics are just wrong. In my career as a game designer, I have spent a lot of time setting up systems meant to craft behavior or motivate people to achieve a goal. If you take the goal of politics to be the betterment of the people living in our country, the systems we have are very poorly set up. This either means that our system has gotten so far out of hand as to not even remotely reflect what it was originally …show more content…
The government should give every senator and Congressman whatever health care plan it gives to citizens of their age. If that means no plan at all, make them do what all of us used to do: pay for one or go without a health insurance. It is painful to see politicians get up on the floor of the house and disagree with government subsidized health care when they are happily taking a deluxe congressional health care package paid for with our tax dollars that they voted to give …show more content…
While millions of government workers around the country were being denied wages, and we were all seeing a lack of services, Congress continued to have their checks roll in, even though, they were the ones who shut the whole government down. When this came to light many congress people graciously donated their checks to charity which is great, but it doesn't make the underlying system any less broken. They could drive the government over a cliff and not feel any direct repercussions for it. They couldn't feel any of the pain they were causing the people for whose benefit they were supposed to be
Throughout the lifespan of the American government, there have been changes to the different branches. One cannot simply claim that they are exactly as the Founding Fathers had designed them and pictured them; they have become so much more. Among these changes are the adoption of the 17th Amendment, the general surrender of control of power to the executive branch, and the centralization of power to a couple of congressional leaders in recent years. These are some of the most important changes that have altered the Congress and the American government in general.
The United States government system is very interesting and complexly designed. The state and federal government is a mirror of each other when it comes to the generics of the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch, however, internally the state government has major differences on how the branches are conducted. Throughout this paper we will discuss the greatest difference between state and federal, which is the state cannot change or remove laws passed by the federal government but they could change how they execute the federal laws to their liking as long as it is constitutional.
The structure of our American Government was founded in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to be the “supreme law of the land,” and produces a democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Government, n.d). The purpose of our government, is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Our American Government, n.d.). For our country to accomplish this purpose our Founding Fathers created three principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). The government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems, there is strengths and weakness, let’s examine those strengths and weakness. Let’s first look at the strength and weakness of the U.S. Constitution.
Although division is seen between the political parties of the Republicans and Democrats, points exist to where lawmakers agree on the reform of healthcare. Lawmakers do, however, have three major points they agree. These points are the banning of underwriting by private insurance companies, providing federal funding to assistance low income families with securing insurance, and by accessing Medicare’s funding to its full advantage to reduce patients billing (Times Topics, 2009). While lawmakers have managed to agree on some points, by drafting a complete healthcare reform that is ethical. This will call for Congress to agree on a bill that fits President Obama’s views, requiring substantial research and planning.
In the society in which we live in today, there is a political system filled with much chaos and
Like nature, the United States government has evolved to meet the demands of an ever growing population, the increasing terrorist threat, and a new state of mind in terms of what government should look like. Each branch of the federal system plays a key role in controlling the populace. The Executive branch handles day-to-day maintenance of the federal government, makes sure laws are enforced and carried out, as well as represents the U.S. to foreign interests. The Legislative branch passes laws and allocates funds for use in running the federal government and providing assistance to the states. The Judicial branch hears cases that involve disputes between interpretations of the laws or those that challenge them. A delicate balance
The structure of our American Government, was founded in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution was written to be the “supreme law of the land”, and creates a federal democratic republic, where citizens govern themselves (Our American Governement, n.d). The purpose of our government, is to “establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (Our American Government, n.d.). For our country to achieve this purpose our Founding Fathers created three main principles, “inherent rights, self-government, and separation of powers” (Our American Government, n.d.). Government was developed to ensure order in society and protect its citizens, but with all systems there are strengths and weakness, let’s examine those strengths and weakness. Let’s first look at the strength and weakness of the U.S. Constitution.
At the moment, President Obama, Republican and Democratic members of Congress, the American Medical Association and America’s Health Insurance plans all agree that a change is needed to the current system. There is little debate that the health care is necessary but a lot of debate on how the change should be done.
Universal Healthcare in the United States has been a long time journey that dates back decades and we, as a country, are far behind other developed countries who have had universal healthcare for a long time. Today, Healthcare is obtained through employers or by people paying for it by themselves, which is incredibly expensive due to high premiums. Five years have passed since the controversial Obama care, or Affordable Care Act, was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The Affordable Care Act aimed at fixing the many problems that the United States has with healthcare by making it available to everyone, but also more efficient and this required drastic changes that made some people happy while others unhappy since some are benefiting while others are not. These people include politicians, but foremost presidential candidates. Candidate’s stance on the issue of healthcare is truly important due to the fact that if they’re the next president of the United States, it could hurt or improve the health care reform. Noteworthy candidates are: Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Bernie Sanders. Republicans and Democrats have long debated whether or not the Affordable Care Act should be repealed or replaced. Republicans believe that it is a problem while Democrats support it. The Affordable Care Act should not be replaced but instead improved because it provides quality and affordable health care to Americans. Everyone gets sick and people shouldn’t be afraid of receiving help
According to NBC News’ article, “Sorry, we’re closed: Government shutdown ripples across the country,” published on October 1, 2013, written by Matthew DeLuca, it describes how many of the general population were affected when Congress members failed to reach a consensus regarding the government’s finances and budgets. The Senate rejected laws proposed by the Republican portion of the House, which led to delays in the cancellation of the Affordable Care Act. This shutdown lasted sixteen days, which angered many people. People were upset over the fact while they were going to work, the government workers were not showing up for work. During the shutdown, many Senators’ offices were closed, meaning they weren’t able to respond to requests from
This is yet another situation that the rich get richer, and the poor pay for being poor. These changes to the cost of our health care coverage, and the personal mandate are two areas that can significantly affect the quality of life of lower income individuals. Without extremely low income, there is no help for the average American that falls in the range between 20K and 50K gross annual income, and very few exemptions to the personal mandate. The US Government should offer more options for health care coverage, or exemptions from that coverage for lower income individuals since there is a fine imposed under the new laws for those who choose not to pay for health insurance.
U.S. health care reform is currently one of the most heavily discussed topics in health discourse and politics. After former President Clinton’s failed attempt at health care reform in the mid-1990s, the Bush administration showed no serious efforts at achieving universal health coverage for the millions of uninsured Americans. With Barack Obama as the current U.S. President, health care reform is once again a top priority. President Obama has made a promise to “provide affordable, comprehensive, and portable health coverage for all Americans…” by the end of his first term (Barackobama.com). The heated debate between the two major political parties over health care reform revolves around how to pay for it and more importantly, whether it
The American Political System The American political system is a federal system, which consists of
Most of us want honest politicians who tell us clearly what they will do in office, then stick to that once elected. The actual reality is that politicians don’t behave that way, yet they get elected by our vote and we sustain this reward system.
The American system of government is democratic. Democracy is a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting. In America, elections are held at the local, state, and federal levels. In elections, voters choose from one of several candidates from various political parties for open office positions. The United States has two major political parties: Democrat and Republican. There are more political parties, but with the way the electoral process works, most third parties will not succeed, since they will not get sufficient popular vote. However, for the office of President and Vice President, the popular vote does not determine the President and Vice President the Electoral College does. Many eligible voters have decided to “protest vote,” meaning not voting at all or voting third party, because these voters value voting for a candidate who most aligns with their beliefs rather than voting for a candidate that is likely to be elected. Protest voting is a controversial action, with positive and negative aspects, but it does affect the outcome of the election. This is because major parties care about what third-party voters think and may change their platforms accordingly. Protest voting is a significant liberty that Americans can use to express their democratic right.