Stuff YOU Should Know
Affordable Care Act Under Attack
With all the headlines about racist tweets, abortion bans, and arguments over gun control in the news, it may seem like the debate over health care has been moved to the back burner. The Affordable Care Act–otherwise known as the ACA or “Obamacare”–has been regularly challenged by Trump and Republican legislators for the past decade, though attempts to defeat it have repeatedly failed because Republicans were unable to come up with an alternative plan. Now, however, the ACA is under attack once again: this time, through the courts.
Here’s what happened: In February, a group of Republican governors and attorneys general filed a suit against the ACA. Texas Judge Reed C. O’Connor agreed with the Republicans and ruled the ACA unconstitutional. His ruling was based on the fact that, under the new 2017 tax code, the government can no longer penalize people for not purchasing health insurance, and as a result, because the ACA is no longer covered under the taxing powers of Congress, it’s now unconstitutional. Meanwhile, Democrats argue that eliminating the ACA will cause untold economic and public health damage to the whole country. Twenty million Americans rely on the ACA for their health care, and without it, many families will be unable to afford medicine or even the most basic medical treatment. And Republican lawmakers still haven’t been able to come up with an effective plan to replace it.
Legal scholars–even those who are against the ACA–have expressed doubt that the case against it this time is a solid one. And the Supreme Court has held up the ACA both times it has been challenged in the past. But to further complicate matters this time, if the case does make it all the way to the Supreme Court, it’s likely to happen right in the middle of the 2020 presidential election.
What Do You Think? Imagine that you will be voting in the 2020 presidential election. How much will the different candidates’ positions on health care affect your vote? Explain.
House Condemns Trump Tweets
Earlier this month, Trump released a series of shocking tweets in which he called out four freshman Democratic congresswomen: Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), and Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts). In the tweets, he indicated that if these women–who are all women of color–have a problem with the way he is running America, then they should go back to the countries they came from and focus instead on fixing the problems there.
Except that all but one of the women–Omar–was born in the United States. And Omar emigrated to the U.S. from Somalia as a child and is now a U.S. citizen.
In response, last Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve a resolution condemning the president’s tweets. All House Democrats and four House Republicans voted in favor of the resolution, which stated in part that the lawmakers believe that Trump’s racist language increases fear and hatred of people of color and immigrants. However, most Republican lawmakers continued to stand by the president and were quick to dismiss the importance of his remarks.
The effects of Trump’s tweets were felt almost immediately when, just a few days later at a campaign rally in North Carolina, the crowd began to chant “Send her back,” referring to Representative Omar. Trump waited a full thirteen seconds before interrupting the crowd, and he didn’t say anything to stop the chant (though he later told the media that he was against it and had tried to stop it). Based on these events, most political experts are saying that unfortunately, the 2020 presidential election is likely to be even more divisive than the 2016 election was.
Dig Deeper How did the four congresswomen–Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib, and Pressley–respond to Trump’s remarks? In your opinion, were these appropriate responses? Explain.
USDA Faces Big Changes
Last month, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would be moving the bulk of its operations from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City, Missouri. The explanation for this decision is that it will move the department closer to the people it serves and will give it greater chances to be able to hire people with firsthand training and knowledge in agriculture. It will also save the USDA about $300 million.
But important stakeholders, such as agricultural unions and research organizations, are deeply concerned about the change. They say that this is the administration’s way of bumping the USDA out of Washington to make it less powerful and that the move presents a direct threat to science and food safety. It’s also possible that as tensions continue to grow between the White House and farmers, this relocation is a way to physically move the USDA and its concerns out of the public spotlight.
Regardless of the reason, it turns out that there’s a big problem with this plan: the majority of employees don’t want to move. In fact, recent numbers indicate that only about 36 percent of affected employees have agreed to relocate. (The USDA plans to move 544 jobs and keep 100 in Washington.) And this has an impact on all of us: far from saving taxpayers $300 million as originally thought, losing so many valuable employers will wind up costing the nation between $83 million and $182 million.
What Do You Think?Based on what you’ve read in the article and seen on the news, do you think it’s a good idea to relocate the USDA from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City? Why or why not?
Hand Dryer Dangers?
Replacing paper towels with hand dryers in public restrooms is an environmentally responsible choice, right? Probably . . . but hand dryers may also come with additional health risks that paper towels don’t. Some models of hand dryers are so loud that they could actually damage peoples’ hearing. Even more surprising: this danger was brought to public attention not by professional public health experts, but by a 13-year-old.
Here’s what happened. Back in 2016, Nora Keegan from Calgary, Canada, wanted to research the effects of hand dryers on hearing for her fifth-grade science fair project. So she traveled to more than 40 public restrooms in Alberta, Canada, where she used a professional decibel meter to measure the sound that was emitted. What she discovered is that many of the dryers operate at over 100 decibels, which is considered harmful to children’s hearing. Even worse, many dryers are placed on the walls at a height that sends them blasting directly toward the faces and ears of children. The loudest hand dryer was the Dyson Airblade, which measured at 121 decibels.
So what can be done about this? Stores and restaurants with public restrooms can select quieter models of hand dryer. Also, some of the louder models come with adjustable sound and speed controls, so that owners can choose the safest setting for their restroom.
And as for Keegan: this year, she presented her findings at the Calgary Youth Science Fair, and won.