Essay about Politics and Money

From the very first elections held in the United States, there has always been a strong link between money and politics. During the first elections in the late 1700’s you had to be a white male landowner over the age of 21 in order to vote, meaning that you had to have money in order to have your vote counted. It seems today that we cannot go a day with out seeing campaign finance in the media, whether or not it is through advertisements for politicians in the media or asked to donate money to help let your favorite candidate win. Because campaign finance has always been on the back burner of political issues, there has hardly been any change to the large influence money has over the election process and politicians. While money has it’s

extra spending mostly comes from the high-end taxes that if they weren't being spend would be saved and used to produce

In the book Money and Class in America written by Lewis Lapham, the way Americans look at money is exposed. It compares other nations view on monetary value against that of the Americans. It is a fact that we place more value on money than anything else. This book illustrates the corruptness of the “American Dream” as it focuses money as the “currency of the soul” and through the dream, men remain free to rise or fall. Their life is the product of the effort and the decisions put forth by them.

Then comes the issue of campaign finance the two parties have different thoughts on this issue. The Democrats think that something should be done to eliminate the influence of lobbyists and special interests in our political parties (“Democrats Unveil”). The Republicans want to fight this by adding a new constitutional amendment while republicans support this saying that it is supported by our right to free speech (“Democrats Unveil”). They are trying to change this policy because they both want to help cleanse the political system of corruption. But even though the two parties both disagree on both things they each have their own ways they want it done.

Government spending in the United States needs to change and it needs to change soon. As mentioned earlier, in 2012 nearly a third of governments budget

Does money control today's society? The Younger family is an African American family in Chicago in the 1950s. The family lives in a small and ratty one window apartment. They are an “average” family who receives the proceeds from a $10,000 life insurance policy from the death of Walter Lee Sr. Everyone in the family has their own idea of what they want to do with the money, if it was up to one of them. The author's story setting is in the apartment surrounded by various conflicts, conversations and actions of the characters. The story line is only a couple of days, but in that time the author is able to show how poverty can have a negative effect on the Younger family.

The right of free speech granted to all citizens in the first amendment, the necessity of funding expensive political campaigns, and the fact that small donations make a candidate responsive to the needs of their constituents, all make any restrictions on campaign financing unneeded and onerous. Congress should strike down any bills attempting to reform this essential part of the U.S. election process. Any further restrictions on donations to political campaigns will prove detrimental to the United States functioning system of elections by limiting individuals’ freedom of speech, making our candidate’s campaigns underfunded and unresponsive to the needs of the American people.

President Andrew Jackson veto against the bank bill is truly a communication to Congress but it is also like a political manifesto. He states that the privileges possessed by the bank are unauthorized by the Constitution, subversive of the rights of the States, and dangerous to the liberties of the people.

The involvement the president should have with congress is critical due to balance of power. President Taylor not sending a clear message to congress is significant due to the importance of congress and the president invoking each other's thoughts and collaborating. Although Taylor did bar slavery, he was not in office for long enough in order to impact our nation greatly, which led to his elimination. I also disqualified John Tyler who was the tenth head of state of our nation. In 1841, John Tyler vetoed a bill in which would establish a National Bank of the United States with branches in numerous states. The Whigs were dissatisfied with this decision which prompted them to expel him from their party and led to the resignation of his cabinet as a whole. Tyler also vetoed a tariff bill which led to the first impeachment resolution of a president to begin. The House of representatives believed he was abusing his veto power. Although the resolution failed, it made it evident that he abused his executive rights and did not allow the power to be distributed between the three branches. These factors influenced my decision to conclude that Tyler did not meet my criteria

The Democrats have diminished spending in military and sunk money into activities that’ll accommodate the nation. Whereas, Republicans have increased their spending, regardless of the nation’s debt.

When World War II ended in 1949, the debt grew at a slow and steady pace for the next 20 years. When the Vietnam War began in the 1960's the debt accelerated sharply. Thanks to the growth of television and news media, growth of the deficit was widely publicized. For the first time, the American people were given access to what was going on with the nation's debt. When the Gulf War began the early 1990's, the national debt reached a trillion dollars for the first time. By the end of the Gulf War, the government decided to make amendments to fix the continuing problem with the deficit. Despite those promises to reduce spending, the debt is currently at it highest point ever.

He vetoed a lot of bills that congress attempted to pass and in his time as president, he only passed one major bill. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 which generally was supported by most people except for the Indians.

Grant signed his first bill on March 18th which promised the United States to pay back bonds in coins or its equivalent. During this time, Virginia, Maryland, and Mississippi were all not properly reconstructed. After little attention from the President, Grant sent a letter of desired peace and harmony to the three states. Congress agreed with Grant’s wishes and ratified the states’ constitutions while giving the President an option to alter the notion. The only change the President made was the recommendation that the three states ratify the pending Fifteenth Amendment. Grant was more laid back than previous presidents and let his cabinet do the work of their departments with little supervision. This further lead to Fish and Boutwell overshadowing him. Secretary of State Fish dealt with foreign affairs such as the Cuba-Spain war and the Alabama Claims. Fish urged Grant to forbid any American citizen from aiding the revolutionists. The Secretary of State asked Spain if an amount of money could buy the Cubans’ independence, but no agreement was met. Fish was also unsuccessful in agreeing for an amount that England would pay the United States after the country helped construct cruisers that the confederacy used in the Civil War. In an effort to reduce the national debt, Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell was

With the introduction of “soft” money in politics, elections no longer go to the best candidate, but simply to the richer one. Soft money is defined as unregulated money that is given to the political parties that ends up being used by candidates in an election. In last year’s elections, the Republican and Democratic parties raised more than one-half of a billion dollars in soft money. Current politicians are pushing the envelope farther than any previous administrations when it comes to finding loopholes in the legal system for campaign fundraising. The legal limit that any one person can contribute to a given candidate or campaign is one thousand dollars. There is, however, no limit on the amount of money one

For as long as Americans can remember there has always been a federal deficit. In fact, the only time in American history when there was no federal debt was under president Andrew Jackson, and it only lasted a single year(Wall Street Journal). The federal government never managed to pay off the debt again, although some administrations, like Coolidge’s and Clinton’s, have managed to run brief surpluses(Wall Street Journal). Yet today there seems to be no limit on the debt and deficit spending, and a key question has been pressed into the forefront of politics and fiscal policy, “is