2.7 Gerrymandering

1. The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) might try to avoid this case, why do they have to hear it? Though they are hesitant to look into this, they have to because of regulations on these voting rights cases. Additionally, because of gerrymandering, the districts are given an unfair advantage or disadvantage. 

2. How can Trump impact the outcome of this case - in the event that it wasn't decided this year?Because Trump won the presidency, he has the power to appoint a new supreme court justice, thus altering the progress they are making. 

3. How big do Democrats have to win national elections in order to actually win control of the House? Democrats have to win by nine popular percentage points to win control of the House. 

4. Why has SCOTUS been unwilling to weigh in on partisan gerrymandering before? The people on the Supreme Court don’t want to seem undemocratic and unfair, or disrespectful to their representatives. 

5. Why does SCOTUS look bad for intervening in Bush V Gore? Since SCOTUS basically picked the Republican president in this election, they are weary to intervene anymore. 

6. How does the lack of political parties during the writing of the Constitution allow for political parties to take advantage of the current laws in place? The Framers did not take into consideration political parties, so the judges are now left to pick sides and judge democracy. 

7. Why have judges in the past found it so difficult to come up with a solution for partisan gerrymandering?  (They don't like gerrymandering, but don't have a solution - why?) They don’t want to involve themselves with the elections because they want to remain fair and unbiased when judging cases. Additionally, they must decide which group should be helped.

8. What do the new litigants mean when they use the term "wasted votes"? Wasted votes is used to determine party dominance in a certain district, so the opposition is so small that it doesn’t really matter who they vote for the majority will win. 

9. Why is Wisconsin a particularly good place to try their ideas? Districts  are already Republican, so the minority can’t gerrymander their way into a higher position. 

10. If gerrymandering is struck down by SCOTUS, who feels the effects immediately? When would most people feel the effects of the decision? Wisconsin will be impacted first of course, and then when the census comes around, redistricting will be an issue. 

2.6 Paul Ryan, more like Paul Cryin. :'(

1. What are the reasons given that suggest that Trump will likely follow Ryan's legislative agenda instead of Ryan following Trump's? Trump isn’t the most pleasant person to get elected, even his own party is unsure of him; he isn’t in the position to get what he wants from them. He tries to appeal to his party first, rather than being problematic. 

2. What is the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities? This Center want to help the poor and low-income Americans. 

3. What Lyndon Johnson programs are likely to be cut significantly? Johnson established permanent food stamps in 1964 and Medicaid in 1965. The Affordable Healthcare Act will be repealed, food stamps will be slashed and given over to the states to fund other things (block grants). 

4. What happened to welfare in the 1990s that will likely happen to these programs? With block granting, welfare was basically nonexistent. These programs were basically nonexistent due to this block granting system. 

5. If states have freedom to make decisions in spending for these programs, what are they most likely to do? States will use this for their own purposes rather than being conscious of poor people. 

6. Why does Paul Ryan's plan advocate for allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines? Ryan can ban states from enabling strict regulations on insurance and the marketplace. 

7. What would be the effect of funding Medicaid through block grants? Disadvantaged people will lose their funding, causing more issues, as states will probably invest in things other than Medicaid if they had a choice.

8. What are the two areas the article claims are the things Paul Ryan does not want  to cut? Medicare and Social Security. 

9. Ryan wants to cut spending for all sorts of programs, but where does he want to increase federal spending? He wants to increase it in spending on defense. 

10. According to the article, what was the impact of poverty fighting programs implemented in the 1960s? These programs pumped more money into the welfare system, but wasn’t really enough to decrease poverty, rather just make it less….poverished. 

11. Who would benefit most from Paul Ryan's tax plan? The wealthy, insurance companies, and hospitals. 

12. What does he want to do to Social Security & Medicare (programs in which ALL people use)? He wants to reform them so that way the government has more control over what happens with the funding.