Mutanatia was now sitting at his desk, looking eagerly at
his students. “Welcome to week #5 of It’s
All Politics from NPR, hosted by Ken Rudin and Ron Elving,” He said. “This is
also our 10th week. This unit, we’ll discuss a somewhat entertaining
take on the news. Not only do these guys report political news in what I think is a relatively neutral way, but
they also make jokes and have a laugh on the way. It is by far the place I like listening to
actual political news for a quick recap.
This is the week after the Supreme Court decision regarding
Obamacare. With this in mind, all discussion questions have to do with the SC
decision.
For this episode, we will be dealing only with discussion questions.
Your homework will be the essay, posted below, and we will be off for 5 weeks so
you can write your essay.
Here are the discussion questions:”
1) Is
ObamaCare a tax or a penalty?
2) What
would be the problem if Romney called it, as he did at first, a “penalty?”
3) Did
Romney’s about-face exacerbate the situation for him?
4) Is
Romney calling the Patient Health and Affordable Care Act a tax, “Better” for
him?
He then passed out the homework:
ESSAY HOMEWORK:
Discuss the various merits and downfalls of sources such as
blogs, shows such as Real Time with Bill
Maher. For the merits, discuss what you might find there to gain a better
understanding of the political world around you, paying special attention to
ads you may not have seen, issues you didn’t know existed, etc. For the
downfalls, pay special attention to what happens if you take blogs, Bill Maher,
and so on as “fact” vs. taking them as what they are, which is opinion. See you
in 5 weeks!
Answers, in order:
ReplyDelete1) It's neither: it's a SERVICE. That's what Romney really objects to.
2) The problem there, is that people would think he was talking about football.
3) Or course. Those have been Romney's 3 problems this election: waffling, gaffes, and uncomfortable chuckling.
4) He probably *thinks* it's better for him, since the GOP is accustomed to whipping up its base into a reliably frothing frenzy at the mere mention of, "the 'T' Word." But with word of the GOP's multiple layers of hypocrisy on this issue gradually becoming common knowledge, the number of people he can count on to do so is shrinking. Besides, taxes don't worry people nearly as much as JOBS, right now, and that's where Romney's record at Bain has left him vulnerable.
ACK! I can't believe I didn't see this! >.<
ReplyDeleteWell, here's a relevant question from this week's past news: Do you think that Romney is having a connection problem with people because he keeps talking about taxes, as he says, or is it because he is rich and projects himself as looking down on people (see: the 47%) comment.