Budget Negotiations Essays - Taxation In The United States

Budget Negotiations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the midst of the current budget negotiations, there is one neglected question worth asking: what does the public really want? Tax cuts? Paying down the national debt? More spending? If so, more spending on what? The available polling data, analyzed in this report, helps answer these questions. Does the public want to cut taxes? All else equal, of course the public wants tax cuts. But in the real world, all else is generally not equal -- cutting taxes involves giving up something else that might be done with the government's resources. When the tradeoffs are made explicit, cutting taxes does not fare so well. Take, for example, a choice between tax cuts and spending the surplus on strengthening Medicare or Social Security. According to a March 1999 Fox News poll, 65% of the public prefers funding Medicare while only 25% would choose tax cuts. The sentiment on Social Security vs. tax cuts is even more lopsided: a July 1999 CNN/Time poll found 74% wanting to use the budget surplus to stabilize Social Security, compared to just 21% who preferred a tax cut. Even if Social Security and Medicare are taken off the table, the public still finds other uses of the surplus more compelling than tax cuts. In a July 1999 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 55% of the public preferred using that part of the surplus not dedicated to Social Security and Medicare for unmet needs, like education, health care, and national defense. Just 34% said they would award themselves a tax cut. Even more impressive, though, was that 69% of the public thought that, once Social Security was taken care of, additional monies should be spent on education, the environment, health care, crime-fighting, and military defense, compared to only 22% who thought that a tax cut was the proper use of the money (July 1999 Pew Center survey). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Does the public want to pay down the debt? While the public believes paying down the national debt is a worthy goal, when it is stacked against other uses of the surplus, the public doesn't give it a high priority. For example, a January 1999 Pew Center poll asked people to choose among four uses of the surplus: paying down the debt, tax cuts, spending on domestic programs such as health and education, and making Social Security and Medicare financially sound.The result: a hefty 50% of the respondents chose helping Social Security and Medicare, 21% chose domestic programs, 14% chose tax cuts, and only 12% chose paying down the debt. Similarly, a February 1999 CBS/New York Times poll asked the public whether they preferred cutting income taxes, paying down the debt, or preserving Social Security and Medicare as uses of the surplus. A resounding 64% selected Social Security and Medicare, and only 14% expressed interest in paying down the debt. And cutting taxes - consistent with the discussion above - brought up the rear with a meager 12%. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Does the public want more spending? In a word, yes. Indeed, the only context in which they don't want more spending is when government programs are put forward in a vague and unspecified way as a use for the surplus. This is nicely illustrated by a July 1999 Pew Center poll that asked the public what they wanted to see done with the portion of the surplus not used to shore up the Social Security system. Did they want to see it devoted to a tax cut or to funding new (unspecified) government programs? By a wide 60% to 25% margin, the public declared themselves in favor of a tax cut. However, the same poll asked respondents whether they preferred a tax cut or spending on programs for, specifically, education, the environment, health care, crime-fighting, and military defense. The result: by an overwhelming 69% the public preferred spending; only 29% preferred tax cuts Music Essays

Amazon River Essays

Amazon River Essays Amazon River Essay Amazon River Essay Introduction: In our world there are lots of river in the world which have different importances, the Amazon River is the one. The Amazon River is the one of world highest levels of biodiversity. Running out to the South Africa there is the Amazon River and Amazon rainforest which are the 2nd largest river and the largest rainforest in the world. The Amazon River is also the largest drainage basin in the world. Because of its large dimensions, it also called  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The River Sea†. As one of the most extreme place on the earth this research will tell you about insight information and specific data of the Amazon River. 103 words Geographical location: The Amazon River is not the longest river in the world however, it pass through many countries in South America. Its tributaries flow through the countries of Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean 6, 437 kilometres from the Amazons headwaters in the top of Andes Mountains of Peru. The length of the Amazon had been argued about which place the true source of the Amazon is. Nowadays, the satellite technology was helped researchers to calculate the river’s dimensions more accurately. The Brazil’s  National Institute for Space Research selected to use the southern channel and estuary as begin of measurement. Their final measurement for the length of the Amazon from Apacheta Creek which is the place that they decided to be the source of the river to the mouth of Marajo Bay was about 6,992 km(this fact may prove that Amazon is the longest river in the world). The Amazon Basin is the largest drainage basin in the world. It covers approximately 40 percent of South America around 7,050,000 square kilometres. It found just next to the Pacific Ocean. The Amazon River and forest is forested areas that become flooded every rainy season. Every year the water level rises more than 9 metres, flooding the surrounding forests called as flooded forests. In an average  dry season, 110,000 square kilometres of land are water-covered, while in the  wet season, the flooded area of the Amazon Basin rises to 350,000 square kilometres. The volume of water it carries from the Amazon River to the Atlantic Ocean is enormous: up to 300,000 cubic metres per second in the rainy season, with an average of 209,000 cubic metres per second from 1973 to 1990. The end of the Amazon River is the Atlantic Ocean (at Marajo Bay) 285 words History: Due to the fact that the flood in Amazon area is not a big event because Amazon is the largest drainage area in the world which made Amazon forests a flooded area every rainy season this have an effect on transporting system. In the past centuries, transporting system mostly use a boat to travel from place to place. Then, new age of transportation in Amazon area is started from 6 September, 1850 the emperor, Pedro II when he sanctioned the law authorizing steam navigation on the Amazon. This opened commerce on Para and Manaus, Manaus and Tabatinga, Para and Cameta, the Madeira, Purus and Negro with the steamboats. On 31 July 1867 the government of Brazil, pressed by countries encircling the  upper Amazon  basin, to open the water route every nations. The  mercantile  development associated with  steamboat  navigation, coupled with the internationally driven demand for  natural rubber  (1880–1920), this brought Amazon local country benefits. The first direct foreign trade with Manaus was commenced around 1874 this local trade along the river bring the Amazon Steam Navigation Company had 38 vessels. By the turn of the 20th century, the principal exports of the Amazon Basin were  India-rubber,  cacao beans,  Brazil nuts  and a few other products of minor importance, such as  pelts  and  exotic  forest produce (resins, barks, woven  hammocks, prized bird  feathers, live animals, etc. and extracted goods (lumber, gold, etc. ). Then, the demand of rubber from the Allied forces in World War II increased. After the World War II the long-term development plans continued. Roads were cut through the forests, and in 1970, the work on the  Trans-Amazonian highway  network began. 274 words Impact of h uman Use: According to the fact that the Amazon River is the extreme place in the world about biodiversity, resourceful place and Largest river in the world etc. , this make people interest to live, to use it commercially and to travel. First we focus on living of people in Amazon areas. There are at least 100 uncontacted tribes or groups of people who inhabit the  rainforest. These people are harmed by natural disaster, disease and other load of obstacles. Live on the water is not only to find food, eat and sleep. The one that going to survive is the one who organised and prepared for everything such as food, shelter, drugs and place to use as toilet. When it was people living in Amazon the boating and shipping is start too. Fishing on Amazon River was happen for centuries but there is no control even now it still no rules over fishing activity. Boating is due to the transportation system especially water way. Boating are not only makes life under water panic but it also effect the chemical rate of water when the petroleum things drop out into water from the boat engine or crash of boat also make river become toxin. The shipping is also the aspect that we look for. It is related to boating because to shipping things on the river you need to transport on water way. It gets same problems as Boating but the last aspect is the main problemâ€Å"tourism†. The most attractive tour is Amazon cruise tour. It is going to offer an intimate tropical natural experience. The tourism help country gain money but lot of tourist is not a cooperative people for the natural protection rules. 280 words Pollutants: The pollutant which found in the Amazon River is a producing of pig iron, petroleum environment problems and the most pollutant is gold rush from gold mining which using large amount of mercury to extract the gold were released into rivers and caused the fish, which are so important in the local diet, to become unsafe to eat. The research discovered the hair of people who live far from the mercury problem source as samples taken from adults contained an average mercury level of 15. 9 micrograms per gram (15. 9 parts per million). This amount of exposure is well below the threshold of 50 micrograms  per gram considered safe by the World Health Organization (WHO). The  WHO  threshold is based on the lowest level at which scientists in previous studies have reported the first clinical signs of mercury poisoning in adults. In fact, the study revealed a direct relationship between declining coordination and increasing levels of methyl mercury in peoples hair that live next to the mercury problem source. The research had discovered that mercury can damage human health even at levels well below accepted international safety standards. The investigation into the cause of mercury contamination in the Amazon is one of many projects which explain about what is going on at Amazon river and what was it effect. This knowledge can then be used to develop policies toward the better management of ecosystems in order to improve Amazon River and human health. 242 words Impact of a proposed: The amount water in the Amazon River can use to run hydroelectric power plants effectively. The energy requirements of both the Carajas development and the city of Belem are met by the giant  Tucurui  hydroelectric plant on the Tocantins River, one of the largest  hydroelectric power  stations in the world. A more modest hydroelectric facility on a small river north of Manaus supplies that city with power. A growing sensitivity to the harmful consequences for both  our life  and the environment due to the construction of large dams has caused projects to be placed on hold. The principal  oil  developments within Amazonia have taken place in the Oriente regions of the Andean countries. Oil pipelines originate from districts in both Colombia (the upper Putumayo) and Ecuador (Agrio Lake), as well as north eastern Peru, and end at  export terminals on the Pacific coast. Within the Brazilian and Bolivian portions of the basin, developments have been of minimal consequence. To understand and solve problem of construction of dam and hydro-electric power project we need to know that human use water especially damming and agricultural has affected over 77 percent of the annual discharge of the large rivers in the northern third of the world. While offering some benefit to humans, these dams reduce the ability of rivers to transport water. Dams also block the passage of fish upstream to spawning grounds. So construction of dam and sluice is very important but the large one would affect the ecosystem too much so why don’t you build it in many part of the river and it will less affect the whole of the ecosystem. In the same way as dam construction problems, the bridge oil and gas is need for South America people. But the way to solve is to keep it safer than normal pipeline and check it frequently to make sure and safe a nature. 310 words Conclusion: Amazon is the largest river in the world in volume and in area of drainage asin its basin encompasses the world’s most extensive rainforest and is home to an extraordinary diversity. It was also generated the economics of nations. These facts make Amazon become important river but it can also bring dirtiness to the river. So, everyone especially local people, tourist and government agency need to realize that Amazon also need to be protect because the water protect us and give us opportunities to live better. I think that if everything is done as my recommendation the problem might be solved especially the dam construction problems. 106 words