Essay 15/ 16

15


     The Government gives certain people personal financial benefits, through programs referred to as entitlement programs. One of the largest entitlement programs is Social Security, which provides for the elderly, primarily through a tax, separate from the main body of taxes. If Social Security continues as it does, then eventually, one individual will be financially supporting a half dozen senior citizens. With an increase in life expectancy, but no matching increase in age requirement, more  people are collecting Social Security; and as such, the amount of money payed to individuals is decreased, and the amount payed by individuals in the community increases exponentially. If we were to increase the age requirement for Social Security, then most of these issues would be solved, as more people would die (from natural causes) before reaching the age required, and fewer people would be collecting Social Security, thus decreasing the amount individuals need to pay to support the elderly, as one beneficiary of Social Security would be supported by half a dozen tax payers.


16



     Two reasons why Congress grants policy making abilities to government agencies are that: Congress does not have the time (nor the ability to agree) to go over each, and every little thing that might occur, so they grant leeway to federal agencies, to regulate themselves (in part), and make several of their own policies; the second reason is that such agencies are more educated in their particular fields than the members of congress, who would be unable to make an educated decision on the of (let's say) extracting valuable information from a suspected terrorist. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one organization that is allowed legislative freedom by Congress, and they exercise this freedom by creating, and enforcing laws that are meant to protect the environment. Two ways that Congress makes sure these organizations follow legislative intent is that they have committees which look into things that might be going wrong, or possible misuses of power; they also have a habit of putting people into court when they do these things.