Kadoka High School
Kadoka, South Dakota
Teacher: Teresa Shuck
Government As Regulator
By: Beau Walker
11th grade
Government regulation is needed to control the environments that we live in. If we did not have government regulation, then the United States would be a crazy place to live in. Even though government regulation is needed, there is too much. Our government does a good job at regulating the United States, but in some cases they go overboard in some issues. Government regulation gets carried away in what they choose to regulate.
Wearing seat belts should be the choice of the people riding in the vehicle unless it is a baby or little kid. Adults are smart enough to know when to wear one or not I think kids under 14 should have to wear them. I don’t think its fair when a cop can pull you over for not wearing a seat belt in town can stop you. You should have to wear one on the interstate but not in town. Especially in a small town where I live, you are not going to get hurt driving around town because you don’t drive fast enough. The seat belt law may be a good idea but not around town, it should be our choice if we wear them or not.
I think the drinking age is legitimate. There are some people that think it should be eighteen. In some ways it might be better at eighteen, but it is probably smart to keep it at twenty-one. If it were eighteen, then kids would be drinking before basketball games and all other school activities. I know that parents wouldn’t like that at all. It would be beneficial if a parent wanted their son to go to the store and buy some for them, but that is only about one benefit. Keeping the drinking age at twenty-one would be a smart idea.
Pollution from factories gets pretty bad in some places to. It is worse in some cities than others but there has got to be some way to control all of the pollutants. All of the pollutants coming out of those factories are not helping the atmosphere at all. They should either have to be cleaner or make some kind of filter that reduces the pollutants that go into the air. Pollution is a bigger problem in the large cities like New York than in smaller towns. Maybe the pollution is not that bad but there has got to be some concern on this subject. If some factory has too much pollutants going into the air they should shut them down or make them change something that does not release so many pollutants into the air. Pollution should be restricted some either way that you look at it.
I think that security in airports needs to be stepped up because of what is going on right now in the world. Everybody in the world probably thinks twice before they get on an airplane anymore. Most people probably don’t even fly any more after September 11. I’m sure that the airports around the world have had a drop in business since then too. Airport security is nothing to joke around about. If I was going to fly on an airplane somewhere I would want to feel safe and know that I was going to make there alive. There are a lot of people that like to fly instead of drive and they need to be safe when they travel. They need to secure the cockpits in airplanes more than what they are now so no hijackers can have access that easy. If they stepped up security and made the cockpit unable to access by a criminal, it would make people feel a lot safer.
Unnecessary regulation would be for example in Charlestown, Indiana where it is illegal to play basketball, hopscotch, or soccer in the streets, sidewalks and alleys. That is not fair to the kids that want to play games like that because they never did anything to get these privileges taken away from them. This law is limiting the kids in what they can do to stay out of trouble. Most kids like these play games to stay away from trouble but if they cant play games they will turn to violence.
There is a little bit too much government regulation today in the United States. There are several steps to take in preventing too much government regulation. For once, the government could stop giving to much regulation and see what happens. It is just a process that takes time to see what happens. Some people may like more government regulation but I don’t.
Beau’s Questions:
Q1. What is the only way to prevent hijackers from gaining control of an airplane according to the unknown author?
Answer: There is only one way to prevent hijackers from gaining control of an airplane and that is to harden the cockpit. No way to get in short of explosives and nobody goes in or out during a flight. Aircraft redesign will be needed and it will cost, but less than the cost of not doing it
Q2. What
are the arguments given by lobbyists for the Bells in favor of HR 1542
(Tauzin-Dingell Bill) and arguments given by their opponents against this
legislation?
CQ May 5 p 1012
Answer: Help jumpstart the technology sector. The bill would speed deployment of broadband services.
Q3. Why
do small-business groups like HR 1831? From the small amount of information
presented in your required reading, do you think the legislation is a good idea?
Why?
CQ May 19 p. 1161
Answer: Small business’s like this bill because it protects businesses that discard less than 110 gallons of liquid waste or less than 200 pounds of solid, non-hazardous waste at a superfund site. It would also apply to small businesses that dump ordinary garbage in a landfill that later is designated a superfund site.
Q4 Give
an argument in favor of government regulating activities such as roller blading
and bungee jumping.
Governing, March 1993 p 23
Answer: Some insist that government is just doing its job, protecting people from public nuisances and unscrupulous thrill-providers who don’t take proper safety precautions. Other fret about what they see as the creeping influence of self-appointed safety types out to protect fun-seekers from themselves.
Q5
Define a “burden hour.”
CQ ‘April 28 p. 896
Answer: A burden hour is supposed to measure the time it takes to collect data and fill out federal forms, surveys and reports.
Q6 Why
was Connecticut Senator, Joseph Lieberman, concerned enough to vote against the
nomination of Professor John Graham as administrator of the office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs in the current Bush administration?
CQ May 26 p 1229
Answer: Unlike current Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., Lieberman is expected to raise frequent questions about White House decisions to roll back environmental and workplace safety regulations. He also is likely to ask whether the administration consulted with industry representatives about regulations under development, in violation of a 1993 executive order issued by President Bill Clinton.
Q6a Graham is a proponent of “risk analysis.” How is risk analysis defined on page 992 of the May 5, 2001 issue of Congressional Quarterly Weekly?
Answer: Risk analysis calculates the likelihood of a hazard against the costs and benefits of preventing it.
Q6b Who
was the first president to order federal agencies to weigh potential costs and
benefits when writing a rule?
CQ May5 2001 p 993
Answer: Jimmy Carter was the first president to order federal agencies to weigh potential costs and benefits when writing a rule.
Q6 How
much would compliance with OSHA’s regulations to limit injuries or disabilities
from performing repetitive tasks cost according to an estimate by business
groups as reported in the 2000 CQ Almanac? What was the response of OSHA and
Labor Department officials?
CQAlmanac p 2-111
Answer: Business groups say the pending rules’ breadth and vagueness would drive up their cost of compliance-their estimates range from 14 to 80 billion a year-and would wrongly cut into business productivity and profitability.
Q7 What
was the makeup of the “iron triangle” during the Reagan years and what do
environmentalists and consumer activists foresee as its composition in the
current Bush administration?
CQ May 5 p 990
Answer: The iron triangle is an unbreakable alliance among Democratic committee chairmen, agency officials and interest groups that worked in concert to achieve common goals, whether it was funding for special projects or protecting specific constituencies.
Q8 Name
5 actions of the Bush administration that have drawn criticism from
Environmentalists.
CQ May 5, 2001 p. 994 and 995
Answer: Bush stoked public criticism by reneging on a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide and by rejecting the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Trying to reduce the levels of arsenic in drinking water. Complaints from environmental activists and moderate Republicans.
Q9 What
did the executive order issued by Ronald Reagan in 1981 and still in effect
today, require agencies to prove before new regulations were enacted? How did
the Democratic House counter in 1986?
CQ May 5, 2001 p. 995
Answer: The White House can indirectly reverse a regulation through the courts-either by mounting a weak defense of a rule written by a previous administration or by seeking a settlement with plaintiffs whose arguments it supports. This tactic is a gamble because judges can be unpredictable and their rulings can be appealed.
Q10 On
the average, how long does it take to build an airport? A highway?
CQ May 19, 2001 p 1163
Answer: The average time for highway is 12 years and the average for airports is 15 years.
Q11
Discuss the pros and cons of licensing requirements.
Wall Street Journal June 18, 1993
Answer: Monique should go to a yearlong cosmetology school if she wants to braid hair. She made a profit of about $100 per month doing it. The board won’t let her own her own money and won’t let kids like her learn how to take care of themselves.
Q12
Discuss the pros and cons of master plans and planning departments.
Taking A Stand On Regulation pp 80-82
Answer: Polls show people are willing to sacrifice for common goals that are judged to be good for today’s society and the future. Not if the trade is a huge and unnecessary expenditure of money for archaeological reports, environmental impact reports, clearances by engineers, architect plans and so on and so forth whether opinions and skills of these professionals are need or not.