Participation in our weekly discussions is the heart of our class. It is also 25% of your grade, so engage in the topic and with your peers!

Grading criteria:

1. You must post at least 200 words for your first post. Remember to list a reference at the end of your first post. APA format is preferred.

2. While opinion can be important in politics, it needs to be an informed opinion–one that relies on our readings or discussions.

Please list your reference(s) at the end of your initial post.

Here is how to reference the Budget Puzzle.

Committee for a Responsible Budget. (2019). The debt fixer. Retrieved from http://www.crfb.org/debtfixer/.

Post

Length Requirement

Day Requirement

Score

First post –

reply to prompt in your own words, with no more than one short direct quote.

200 Words, scholarly references required*

By Wednesday (but try to make it earlier)

35 points

Reference at end of initial post included, APA format preferred

5

This week we look at economic policy. We learn about the annual deficit, the accumulating debt, and the differences between Monetary Policy and Fiscal Policy. Each year the President and the Congress are supposed to work together to create a budget that funds the government and establishes new taxes and revenues. In recent years those budget negotiations have been increasingly hostile. One side wants to stimulate the economy by providing government programs and jobs that will help people, while raising taxes on those in the top 1% of earners. The other side wants to cut the deficit by cutting government programs, with decreased taxes for the top 1% designed to stimulate job growth. The American people just want their leaders to fix the problem. In our discussion this week, we are going to do just that.

Copy and paste this link into your web browser:

https://www.crfb.org/debtfixer Your task is to get the debt to 90% of GDP by 2032. Are you up to the task? You are given a list of budgeted items to keep, eliminate, or alter. What did you decide to do with each one? When you have achieved this metric, return to this discussion thread and share your results. Discuss your views on the process.

· What did you find hard to cut?

· What surprised you that you kept?

· How do you justify the cuts that you made?

· How do you justify what you kept?

· What are the consequences (intended and unintended) of those programs that you cut?

· If you were a politician running for re-election, would the budget that you created be popular with your constituents back home?