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Instruction: Each person should create their own tread first, and respond to at least 4 classmates threads. Respond with 100 word each to 4 classmates

Student Name: Cruz Herrera

Topic In the lecture we discussed the various challenges that the state of Texas are currently facing. How do you believe each of the new policy challenges pose a political dilemma for Texans favoring limited government spending, lower taxes, and minimal state regulation of agriculture, industry, and the environment?

Texas loves to praise itself as an independent, self sustaining, low tax, limited goverment state. While this may have worked in the past, I do not believe this structure will benefit Texas citizens in the future. The population, economy, and culture has changed drasically and can no longer sustain the traditionalist or individualist mind set. 

Looking at the policy challenges we are experiencing today, the 1st example that crosses my mind that will not favor those that want limited government spending & lower taxes is the "Trump Wall". A portion of this wall is to be built along the Texas-Mexico border with the goal to prevent or lower illiegal immigrant crossings. As a state with the 2nd highest population of illiegal immigrats, I can understand how we need to find a solution to this issue. While President Trump pushed the rhetoric of Mexico paying for the wall contruction, we all know, that did not happen. So that leaves us to ask – Who will pay? As we read in chapter 1, Trump bascially forced a portion of the wall cost though legislation, which means US citizens are paying through taxes. Then 15,000 National Guard troops were promised to protect the portions of the border without a wall but only 5,800 were actually deployed. Sadly these 5800 troops couldnt even enage in border patrol activites due to previous laws. This promised 'portection', or lack there of, end up costing Texas $800 million a year. And guess who gets to pay that… yup, us through taxes. 

Maybe instead of focusing on a wall, we should really look at what is driving immigrants to our state. We could look at the food processing warehouses or sevice industries that opt to hire illegal immigrants at a cheaper rate instead of paying minimal wage to legals. To do that though it would require regulations,which brings me to the my next example. 

The second policy challenge that comes to mind is fracking. As a state, we dont want the government telling us what to do or how to do it. We want minimal regulations. This though applies to business and coporations as well. With the push to not rely on other countries for oil and gas resources, some energy companies started the practice of fracking. With minimal regulations, engery companies were drilling all over North Texas! Who remembers the numerous earthquakes around Irving? Without regulations, companies could practically drill close to neighborhoods without the scientic evidence of how it would impact water supply, the ecosystem, and air polution. Is the need for minimal regulations really worth the risk of contaminating our water supply? Shouldn't we have regulations in place to ensure energy companies have the adaquate testing and safety precautions before pushing gas into our ground?

As much as I want lower taxas and limited government spending, I believe this structure is simply further expanding the income gap. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. We cannot continue with the wild wild west mind set unless we are willing to put in the work ourselves. 

Respond to you class mate ans: Hello Cruz, I agree with what you said about the Trump-wall. This project was a total waste of time and tax money. As you mentioned, President Trump assures the voters that Mexico will pay for the wall, but Trump's wall funding came from the voter's money through the taxes. The primary goal for the Trump wall was to prevent illegal immigrants come to the United States, but as we know from the news, it has been breached over three thousand times. Every Us citizen and legal immigrants work hard and pay taxes to the government. If the politicians use that tax money for projects like this, I believe they should have consequences.

Student Name: Nohely Garza

Topic In the lecture we discussed the various challenges that the state of Texas are currently facing. How do you believe each of the new policy challenges pose a political dilemma for Texans favoring limited government spending, lower taxes, and minimal state regulation of agriculture, industry, and the environment?

The majority of Texas voters favor limited government spending, lower taxes, and minimal state regulations. In recent years issues such as immigration, water supply, education, poverty, and social problems have made their way to the forefront. These are issues that Texas’s majority voters tend to be against.  These voters reject immigration because they worry about government spending on social programs used by immigrants. Along with government spending they worry about the job availability to citizens because companies tend to employ immigrants because they know that immigrants are not as well protected as American citizens and that they will work for less money. These voters place a high importance on attracting companies to Texas therefore they tend to be against state regulations. State regulations are put in place to protect things such as the environment and workers. Companies tent to be attracted to states with lower regulations because they decrease the amount of money, they might have to pay on complying to environment regulations and workers salaries and benefits. Another thing that benefits companies looking to move to Texas is the limits on social programs. In recent years Texas has made it more difficult to enroll in programs such as the Affordable Care Act making it harder for Texas citizens to receive affordable medical treatment. This benefits companies because citizens who miss these deadlines must pay for out-of-pocket medical care.

Respond to you class mate Ans: Hello Nohely, I agree with what you summarized about the Texas voters favoring limited government spending, lower taxes, and minimal regulation. As you mentioned, voters reject immigration because they worry about the government spending Tax money on social programs for immigrants. Immigrants may take employment opportunities for a much lower wage than voters when they come to the country. The immigrants tend to for lower wages, which can create a wage disparity in the local population that can affect job growth. Less income means fewer supportive employment opportunities because less money is being spent. 

Student Name: Armando Castillo

Topic In the lecture we discussed the various challenges that the state of Texas are currently facing. How do you believe each of the new policy challenges pose a political dilemma for Texans favoring limited government spending, lower taxes, and minimal state regulation of agriculture, industry, and the environment?

Texas is currently facing many issues, but a huge issue is Texas's low taxes and limited government spending. These two issues play a big part in which why Texas has bigger issues, to begin with, our education system here in Texas is failing our current students by not being budgeted enough for resources. The budgeting of schools is also affecting instructors because at the moment here in Texas there is a shortage of teachers. With low taxes, Texas cannot afford to increase the budget on education systems and provide students with good resources. Another major issue Texas faces is a healthcare problem. Currently, in Texas, there are a lot of residents who do not have health insurance due to financial problems. An example can be that they just cannot afford it due to them being a single parent or having job issues, it varies.

Respond to you class mate Ans: Hello Armando, I agree with what you said about healthcare. Healthcare has been a significant issue in Texas for a long time. I believe health insurance has been a big scam for the people, which leads to most people in the states not being able to afford it. In addition, drug prices continue to skyrocket for both insurers and patients. Therefore, it is crucial to introduce more competition to the market to lower costs and ensure patients can feel savings.

Student Name: Brandon Nguyen

Topic Topic In the lecture we discussed the various challenges that the state of Texas are currently facing. How do you believe each of the new policy challenges pose a political dilemma for Texans favoring limited government spending, lower taxes, and minimal state regulation of agriculture, industry, and the environment?

Texas is absolutely being impacted by each of the policies being added. Limited government spending and lower taxes is essential to education in the state. This is because the majority, if not all, of salaries for teachers in public schools come from local taxes. Looking at Texas, it ranks 38 out of the 50 states in spending per student. The limited spending can also be a result of poverty and social problems in Texas. Minimal state regulation of the work industry is important to why Texas ranks near the bottom of states for government response to poverty. Those who do not live in poverty and are on top of the wealth hierarchy are not ready to support their state's population. I believe this is the select portion of Texans who are favoring limited government spending. Lower taxes can help both the lower and higher class, but it is important to maintain inflation.

Respond to you class mate Ans: I agree with your discussion board, if we had more resources and listen to our problems we wouldn't be having this discussion. Also, limited spending for schools has caused teachers and students not to be focused enough on the materials being thought. Secondly, lowering the taxes would be beneficial to buy more supplies for schools to be able study and learn better.