The United States of America is a union of countries that teamed up to provide a consistent means of protection from outside threats and give us more economic power, more specifically at the time of the British King George III. We act as a country now, sort of, but we are not a true country, which causes much of the confusion and recent distress in politics. The proper role of the U.S. government is to stay out of the way of the American people. Federal government programs should be eliminated, the bureaucracy should remain small and limited, and the powers of every branch and political position should remain as is written in the Constitution. The States have or should have as said in the Constitution, the power over what is not specifically written to give to the federal government. The Constitution actually is supposed to limit the power of the U.S. government and give authority to the individual states. Unfortunately, we the people and the states have lost sight of this limitation and have invested the U.S. government with much more power than they constitutionally have. For example, one such issue is that Congress is the only group that can write a law, and yet we see that Congress has allowed other government independent agencies to write rules that are then treated as laws, such as The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Great Depression is a large contributor to the power increase of the government when President Franklin Roosevelt created hundreds of new agencies to regulate various aspects of the national economy. World War II increased this even further, as a large increase in military power was wanted and maintained afterward. This created more programs for the government to regulate, and therefore, led to more power over the nation’s social and economic well-being. (“Chapter 11,” slide 5).
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In society, the U.S. government makes policies, enforces laws, and allocates resources. Public policy can be generally defined as a system of laws and priorities concerning a given topic promoted by a government body or its representatives. When a law is being considered for passing, to give something priority or rule in a certain way, they do so because of public policy. The issue of gun rights is a matter of public policy. When gun laws are more strictly enforced, this is based on the opinion that stricter laws are likely to lower crime and keep guns out of the hands of criminals. When gun laws are looser and less restricted, this is based on an opinion prioritizing the rights of gun owners and on a belief that stronger gun laws will not be effective in stopping violence. Administrators also try to interpret policies in ways designed to simplify compliance with their requirements. As such, they possess and control the evidence of the policy's impact. Natural catastrophes are a type of triggering device that can induce policy activity. Panic by sectors of society in response to natural catastrophes provokes government action. For example, agitation by coal miners who lost friends and family in mine cave-ins throughout the country led to government action. However, this is a natural occurrence. It is an accident, and many times it is not the fault of anyone, but simply a misfortune. The agitation of the public causes government agencies to look at the problem and think “I have to do something to fix this.” This is actually where the government should step out. The government is meant to stand as a stabilizer for society to function, not be a parent holding a child’s hand. While it is true some policies should be implemented, such as taxes or a speed limit on highways, other policies are not as necessary and end up affecting the economy and general population. The government’s spending and budgeting decisions have a large impact on the economy and can address priorities by directing certain resources such as funds to a specific problem. The government’s budget deficit can eventually affect long-term growth and interest rates (“Chapter 13,” slide 8). A mining accident or natural disaster can be devastating, especially to one individual’s family, but that individual’s family is not the government’s family. The government agencies setting these policies do not know these people personally, and these are not the government’s responsibilities. This emphasizes the problem that our society has weakened to the expectation that the government can fix everything, or at least holds that responsibility when originally they do not. What is not outlined in the Constitution is, again, not the government’s role. This is what was originally intended to be avoided, but it has been forgotten and pushed aside.
America’s foreign policy is the expression of its goals in the world and of how it proposes to achieve them, a reflection of the nation’s interests and a guideline of how to interact with other countries. Compared to every other liberal democracy though, the U.S. conducts foreign policy in an awkward way. Safety was built into the Constitution to prevent tyranny, yet they frequently make it difficult to develop and implement a cohesive foreign policy, create uncertainty as to what that policy is, and give foreign governments and special interests an opportunity to apply pressure at many points, not just one. As a result, the actors of foreign policy in the U.S. are often difficult to recognize. To most, the first goal of foreign policy is security. Traditionally, the U.S. has been concerned with hostile relations and the dangers of other nations, but today, we rely on a large military fleet to protect us (“Chapter 14,” slide 3). Up until World War II, we relied on isolation to shield us from foreign attack, but that clearly did not work as well as we had hoped for. Now, the United States has the biggest military force in the world. While this is all well and good, it isn’t the best priority when it comes to foreign affairs. A major goal for the United States is to promote economic prosperity. Maintaining foreign resource access is one way that can help achieve this, and it would not only help us economically but can strengthen relationships with other nations (“Chapter 14,” slide 7). It is best that we pay more attention to not only our relationships with our countries but also our border security. While there are many people that disagree with President Trump’s idea to build a wall, it is more of a vision than a reality. The symbolism of the wall is to restrict our immigration limits not so we stop it, but to regulate it. National security has always been and continues to be, one of our nation's top priorities. Some may even argue national security is the highest duty a nation's leaders are meant to ensure and protect. If this is true, then it is essential to pay attention to this because it is not just a problem anymore, but a crisis. The first step toward a solution is securing our border and fulfilling our duty to all Americans to provide a physically safe and economically prosperous country, even if the government is given more power to do so.
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