Respond in your own word 350 words each. Please provide a Turnitin report.

Discussionn post 1

 

A good use of my personal income taxes is Medicaid. Medicaid is a government-funded health insurance program that provides access to health care services to people with low incomes or disabilities. It is funded by federal, state, and local taxes, including personal income taxes. Medicaid plays a crucial role in ensuring that people who otherwise might not be able to afford medical care can get the care they need. This helps to reduce the financial burden on those who are unable to afford health care and keeps people healthier in the long run.

A program I do not think is a good use of my personal income taxes is military spending. The United States currently spends a huge amount of money on its military, more than any other country in the world. While military spending is likely necessary in some cases, I think it could be reduced by better-utilizing diplomacy and other methods of conflict resolution. Additionally, the money that is currently spent on the military could be used for programs such as education, health care, and infrastructure, which would benefit more people than military spending alone.

Medicaid is a worthy cause that may benefit from a portion of my own income taxes. People with low incomes or impairments are eligible to participate in Medicaid, a health insurance program that is sponsored by the government and provides access to health care services. It is supported by taxes collected at the federal, state, and municipal levels, including taxes on individual income. People who otherwise may not be able to afford the medical treatment they need can obtain the care they require thanks to Medicaid, which plays a critical role in guaranteeing this. In the long term, this serves to keep individuals healthy while also reducing the financial burden that would otherwise be placed on those who are unable to afford health care.

The expenditure of my personal income taxes on the military is one program that I do not believe makes appropriate use of those resources. The United States of America presently devotes a greater proportion of its economy to funding its armed forces than does any other nation on the planet. Even though there are situations in which spending money on the military is unavoidable, I believe that expenditure might be cut if diplomacy and other techniques of conflict resolution were used more effectively. Additionally, the money that is now being spent on the military might be redirected into initiatives like as education, health care, and infrastructure, all of which would benefit a greater number of people than military expenditure alone.

https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/

2 discussion post 2

 

Infrastructure is an important, often overlooked aspect, of the federal budget.  According to 2017 census data the U.S. spent only 2.3% of GDP on infrastructure. Taking into account every highway, bridge, waterway and rail system, across the United States, this seems like a small amount of money. Given recent events involving railroad systems, I believe we need to take a closer look at how we spend our infrastructure budget. Any person that has driven on our highways here in Jacksonville can see that we need better roads and better road maintenance. The aging bridges in this city are also a concern for all involved. The events over the past years involving supply chain issue shows that America’s waterways also need a major overhaul. In my current job I work regularly with the fuel terminals here in Jacksonville and they are under constant attack from sand and soil pushing along the shorelines and blocking docking ports. The fuel industry spends millions every year (that cost being past on to consumers) dredging the river instead of the State building a one-time beachhead.

Medical subsidies are an expenditure I believe that the federal government spends to much money on. One of the unforeseen effects of the Affordable Care Act was the cost paid by people trying to buy coverage on the government exchange. As of 2022 there were almost 15 million people buying their insurance through the affordable care act, and 89% of those people get government subsidies to help pay for them. That is 316 Billion (not including the 462 billion on Medicaid) for a system that is not effective when it comes to providing Americans with Healthcare. That money would be more than enough to provide lower income people with free healthcare under Medicaid, not giving money to insurance companies to get more people to sign up for them.

References 

Affordable Care Act (ACA) – Glossary | HealthCare.govLinks to an external site.

Fact Sheet: Celebrating the Affordable Care Act | HHS.govLinks to an external site.

DOT Infrastructure Programs and Projects | US Department of Transportatio