Education: Recently, college costs have raised approximately 80% in the last 2 years, making them extremely expensive. With this in mind, the current president suggested to spend $60 billion in order to make 2 years of community college free for all students. All education has also been standardized with common core and NCLB ( No child left behind), making standardized testing mandatory and creating a new test system where the education must cater to the lowest students in the region. Furthermore, student and teacher testing are being discussed as for teachers there is no set national standards for incoming teachers. As for students, many individuals advocate for non-standardized testing since many students act above the level which they are being tested on, which also brings upon the possibility of social promotion where students can rise in grade level to keep up with their peers. Intelligent design is also an issue to this day, where many religious groups advocate for the ban of teaching evolution in schools. Last, but certainly not the least of the educational issues, many individuals are arguing for a mandatory bilingual education in public schooling.
War on Terror: The War on Terror has been an issue for the past decade, ever since the event of 9/11, where middle eastern terrorists bombed the trade centers of America. Following this was the patriot act, which increased international security such as on airplanes intended to “strengthen america”. Ever since, America has been involved with overseas countries, mostly in the middle east, attempting to spread our democratic ideals and to abolish the terrorist groups such as ISIS that exist on those countries.
Economy: In monetary affairs, the national budget is the #1 problem in the USA as our national debt increases every year, as we are not able to pay off the deficit each year. Currently, we are $18 trillion in debt with accumulating almost $250 billion in interest to that debt. Most of the budget issue occurs from entitlement programs, such as universal health care (Medicaid/Medicare) and the social security funds. Also, the national defense spending attributes to a large amount of the national debt, as homeland security and the funding of the pentagon is immensely expensive. On terms of revenue, income tax is the biggest source of the nation’s revenue, accounting for nearly $1.3 trillion. Corporate income taxes in the United States are 2nd in the world’s largest, which brings in a large monetary sum to the country. Finally, the budget deficit allows the country to print their own money, which causes inflation and only brings the United States into more debt as they try to cover the deficit each year.
Health Care: Currently, the main issue of healthcare is the implementation of Obamacare, also known as socialized medicine. The goal of this was to create a cost-free healthcare system run by the government available to all US citizens. However, the budget required for Obamacare needed for additional taxes, and opting out of the program for current healthcare holders was another issue. Also, euthanasia is an issue as physician-assisted suicide is argued between pro-life and pro-choice. This goes along with the “right to die”, where individuals are on the road to death and are able to choose to go earlier due to pain/discomfort.
Environment: In the Eastern part of the country, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy were two devastating natural disasters that wrecked many parts of Louisiana and New Jersey. They caused massive damage including floods and levy breaches, leaving the government harshly in debt as they needed to repair the areas. Also, energy has become a huge issue of the election as many debate to switching to alternate sources of energy. This is due to waste created from nuclear plants that are extremely difficult to dispose of. Global warming persists to be an issue as the carbon emissions from cars are heating up the earth and melting the polar ice caps, creating a much warmer climate. Many individuals wish to move to a better type of automobile transportation, such as hybrid / electric cars in order to reduce carbon emissions.
Welfare: The debate on welfare is mostly centered around income tax, depending on wealth and job income, of what percentage tax you’re entitled to pay. Also, block grants transfer unallocated federal funding to the state government, which would allow for states to battle the current war or poverty.
Foreign Policy: Nato provides a big discussion this year on which soviet allies to include within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. With the newest addition of Albania and Croatia, numerous countries such as Ukraine and Serbia are aspiring to join the organization. Also, the Crimean Crisis is a large part of the debate about foreign policies, whereas Crimea declared it’s independence from Ukraine in 2014 with a vote of 96% to pass the bill.
Immigration: Immigration is one of the biggest issues in the 2016 Election, as illegal immigrants have been an issue for many years now between the Mexican and American border. This is an issue as many Americans believe the Latino population is taking away jobs from the common American. Also, the Latino vote is becoming a good size of the poll, so their views must be taken into account. Many anti-immigrants seek the assimilation of non-English speaking individuals, and to go as far as to build a wall between the border of Mexico and the United States.
Social Security: Social Security has split up between two views over the past few years, whereas the democrats and republicans have complete polar views on it. The republican party believe that social security should be completely private, whereas the individual should decide on the monetary amount to be used in the retirement account, such as using the stock market and bond market. However, the democratic party believes that social security should be controlled by the national government, with a set percentage allocated into a retirement account through treasury bills.
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