MY SELF

My name is Paul K.Duah. I was born in Kumasi, Ghana. Ghana is located at the western part Africa. Kumasi has a population of about 3.5million, the second largest in Ghana.

I am 48years old and I am married with 3 children. The eldest and the next are boys. They are all in the University now. The 2nd and 3rd are in the US with me and the eldest with my wife in UK (Britain), where we lived before coming to the US.

Since infancy, USA has been my dream, therefore, when the opportunity came, I made no hesitation to come. My being here is a dream come through.

I started school in Ghana and I have both the Ordinary and Advanced Level of the General Certificate of Education (GCE). Our pattern of education is almost like that of UK.

I like this subject, though, I have not done it before, I can see the amount of information I will get out of the course. This will help me to become a better person and my responsibility in the community I live and the world at large.

Friday, April 25, 2014

CONGRESS MUST BE REFORMED

The 3 departments of Government are the Executive, Legislature, and the Judiciary. The Executive implement the laws, the Legislative make the laws and the Judiciary interprets the laws of the Constitution. The 3 branches of government were made to check each other to bring balance, so that none usurps it's authority on the other, as far as US system of government is concerned. Of the 3, Congress was to be the most powerful, looking at all the Articles of the Constitution. In particular, Article 1 section 8, the last portion, where the Elastic Clause is, which states, "Congress is to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper ....." When it comes to small laws, Congress is found to be effective, but on big issues such as Health care, Tax, and Immigration reforms Congress is found wanting. Health care needs to be reformed. If one looks around the globe, US is the most advanced country with the poorest health care system. A friend of mine went for surgery, where he had a piece of glass removed from his forehead, he had just five stitches and he was made to pay something like $5,000. He earns about $27000 a year. Whether he has insurance or not there is something wrong. It does not happen in Britain, Germany, France, Japan. Why here? The greatest Economy of the world? Is America lacking in intellectuals who can enact laws that will play it safe for those of low incomes? Answer is no. Or is it because low income earners are lazy and therefore they must be punished? The truth is that, everybody in this country knows that there is something wrong with the Health care system. The Executive branch has taken the initiative to do something about it, and we all know the reaction of Congress. Instead of helping the President, they want to rip him apart. They have vowed to do everything in their power to destroy the so called AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE aka "OBAMACARE". Do they have any alternative? Answer no. This is happening because of the way Congress has been structured. To begin with, about half of the composition of Congress are some of the richest individuals in the nation. They own some of the Corporations or are share holders. The Insurance companies are theirs. Those who are not among this group, are those who were able to use their ideas and strength to solicit help from rich individuals or Corporations. The effect is that they too become their puppets and collectively, they make laws that please only the rich and not the ordinary voter. The reason for this is that, to go to Congress involves time and money. The blue-collard employee will find it extremely difficult to combine his work schedule and campaign around the clock. Campaigning too involves money and the would be candidate should either be rich or fall on the rich for help. This put the rich at an advantage position. Incumbency too is another problem, they have advantage over the challenger, in that they have name recognition, staff, and the rich prefers to invest in them. Gerrymandering, which is redistricting of constituency, is done by state legislators, who are polarized to the main parties and therefore, there is no fair playing ground. The challenger is at a disadvantage position. All these play a part in voting apathy and also the lack of good representation at Congress. Those there are taking good care of themselves and awarding contracts to their cronies to the disadvantage of the ordinary citizens. Until something is done to reform Congress the ordinary citizen will have no peace but the rich few will grow richer and richer. Reformation is needed.

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