Economic, Foreign, Welfare, and Environmental Policy Synthesis

The three-step process to making public policy consists of problem recognition, policy formation, and policy implementation. During problem recognition issues begin to emerge, normally from conditions of society such as employment rate, quality of schools, security of nation, and street safety. Policy formation is the process of actually formulating and enacting policy responses to the problem. Only during policy implementation is the public policy actually carried out. Policy implementation is normally left to the bureaucrats and sometimes even includes policy evaluation in order to determine whether policy has its expected effect.

In order to protect the preexisting order of mother nature, the government holds its authority as a protector of the environment. The government has been involved in land conservation for more than a century, the very first national park being Yellowstone established in 1872. National parks and forests have a “dual use” policy. Although they are nature preserves and recreation areas, they are also rich sources of natural resources and logging companies and ranchers are permitted to come and take these resources every now and then. In addition, global warming, or the “greenhouse effect”, is one of the most famously recognized environmental issues in society. People often believe it is a simple myth since they do not understand the difference between changes in weather and climate and fail to notice the real signs of global warming. Weather change does not equal climate change since the former is a short term change that normally affects a specific section while the latter is a long term change extending over vast regions of the world. Global warming has caused the melting of polar ice caps, rising in ocean levels that threatens low lying coastal areas, and some of the hottest recorded years of the decade. 

Although regulation has it's benefits, such as environmental regulation leading to dramatic improvements in air and water quality, this very regulation can ironically also sometimes be the very cause of environmental issues. Back during the BP Oil in 2010, when the idea of an underground oil pipe was being pursued, a leak in the pipe lead to an overflowing excess of oil getting released into the ocean, both damaging ecological disasters and the native animal species in that area.

Government also acts as a protector and regulator of the economy, a system of production and consumption of goods and services that are allocated through exchange. Economic efficiency is known as the process of gaining the highest possible output of goods and services from the limited given the amount of input (labor and material) used produce them. During competition between two or more very similar companies, producers will cut their production costs in order to keep up with lower priced competitors. In addition, government holds its own job regulatory activities. For example, when railroad companies drove many farmers bankrupt from overcharging short route fees (they didn't have any competition either at the time), Congress enacted the Interstate Commerce Act, which not only created the Interstate Commerce Commission(ICC) but also assigned it the responsibility of regulating railroad practices such as shipping rates. In addition, many federal agencies also look over business competition. The Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), for example, was created to monitor firms and make sure they were implementing federal regulations on air, water quality, and toxic waste disposal. When businesses perform externalities, when businesses or consumers fail to pay the full costs of resources used in production, the government has to right to make that business pay for the indirect costs. The Clean Air Act of 1963 and Water Quality Act of 1965 helped instill this rule by requiring firms to install antipollution devices designed to keep the discharge of air and water pollutants within specified limits. Another unqiue method of regulation is deregulation, the process of annulling of regulations already in force for the purpose of improving efficiency. A perfect example of this was in 1977, when the Airlines Deregulation Act eliminated government set airfares and the requirement for airlines  to provide service to smaller-size cities. Of course, when carried too far, deregulation can possibly lead firms into engaging in reckless or unethical behavior due to believing they can get away with such actions

Often seen to be ineffective at promoting the interests of the people, the government does play an exceptionally essential role in promoting economic interests. For example, the government provides traditional services such as education, transportation, and defense to businesses. Without the professional workforce from universities and transportation from roadways, waterways, and airports, businesses could not function. The government used to be quite hostile toward labor, going to point of using police and soldiers to break up strikes. However, after Great Depression attitude towards labor began to change. The government began to support general privileges and rights including minimum wage, maximum work house guarantees, unemployment benefits, better working conditions, and nondiscriminatory hiring practices. Today, farmers receive billions of dollars of assistance each year from the government. The Homestead Act of 1862 even made government-owned lands accessible for settlement. Often neglected in the past, farmers are now the most heavily subsidized individuals in the world thanks to Congress's five-year $300-billion farm bill that would put farmers in line for hefty government assistance. The bill went through many tests of rejection and approval, but was nonetheless accepted in the end. 

While the U.S has a much stable economy state compared to other nations in the world, poverty is still remain to be very big issues disturbing the U.S. There are two different ways to categorize poverty. Absolute poverty measures poverty through a poverty line, and if certain families or individuals fall below this poverty line, they are considered to lack the resources and basic needs in having a healthy life, along with insufficient income for food, shelter, and clothing. U.S poverty line is about is arguably low at 11670 for a single individual or 23850 for a family of four. Relative poverty deems individuals as poor when they have significantly less income and wealth compared to other people of society, the U.S relative poverty rate being at 24%.

Initially, the U.S social welfare policy had little federal government activity or influence. The commonly held outlook was negative government, where the government governs by staying out of the lives of people. Later on, following the aftermath of the Great Depression, the U.S turn towards more of a positive government model, when the government intervenes in other to enhance personal liberty and security during times of difficulty.

The federal government has helped the U.S economy grow through a variety of social insurance programs. Social security is the means of paying for retired persons through the means of payroll taxes on employees and employers' salaries. Therefore, the amount of retirement money is direct proportional to the amount of money put into the system when working. The long term issue with social security is that as people can now live longer lives, the amount of money made through the workers (young) cannot sufficiently pay for retirees (old). Especially with the baby boomer generation now retiring, it is especially hard for workers to pay for a generation much larger than theirs.

Likewise, there are also a number of public assistance programs, all of which require a means test (test to prove that applicant are poor enough to receive the benefits) in order to be eligible. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) provides public assistance to the blind and disabled. The Food Stamps programs provides an in-kind-benefit (not a cash related benefit), food stamps, that can be spent on grocery items. Head Start, a program of LBJ's Great Society, offers free preschool education to low-income children.

Modern day Americans believe that society can run well without the aid of welfare. The result is a welfare system that is both inefficient (much of the money spent on welfare never reaches the intended recipients) and inequitable (most of the social welfare spending does not go to the ones who need it the most). Eligibility for benefits can be hard to pinpoint since overlapping needs can conflict with each other. A person making $495 a month can be eligible for a certain benefit whereas someone making $500 a month isn't.

Today, Americans endorses the idea of equality of opportunity, the idea that people should have a reasonable chance to succeed if they make the effort. This has been demonstrated several times the American education system. In order to ensure proper education opportunity of every student in America, President Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act, which makes standardized testing mandatory in all schools in order to access the education quality students receive. Schools with less improvement will then therefore receive federal aid. The idea of school choice gives students the option of leaving poor performing schools for better ones. With the growth of charter schools and school vouchers, students can almost “shop around for schools” to find which one suits their needs best.

Ever since World War II, the U.S acquired the position and the world leader, possibly because of it switch over from an isolationist to internationalist (deeply involved in world affairs) country overview. During the cold war, international power was bipolar, with the U.S pitted up against the Soviet Union. Later on as the Soviet Union began to collapse from its heavy expenditures and inefficient centralized economy, with all of its Soviet republics declaring their independence and splitting away, the U.S soon became the unrivaled single international power and initiate a unipolar international structure.

Following the aftermath of the Cold War, President George H.W Bush sought to have a multilateralist society, the idea that major nations should act together in response to problems and crises, leading to the creation of organizations such as the UN and NATO. This was successfully demonstrated during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, when the U.S intervened and drove the Iraqi tops out of Kuwait, thus ending the war. Later on during President George W. Bush's reign, multilateralism was abandoned, and Bush (jr) instead chose to focus more on a “war on terrorism” approach, which aimed towards making national security the main priority of the nation. Following the transnational terrorism (terrorist attacks on the national borders including attacks on nonmilitary targets) attacks of 9-11, American soon began to narrow it's enemy to al Qaeda.

Just like national security, global trade is also a very important goal of the U.S. The U.S is a supporter of free trade, the idea that barriers to international trade should be kept to a minimum. The World Trade Organization (WTO) was created just for this reason: to promote global free trade through reductions in tariffs and protections for intellectual property. However, there are also many U.S policymakers that disagree with the idea of free trade and instead argued for protectionism, the idea that domestic producers should be protected from foreign competition. Trade with China can be frustrating, as although China still remains to be a frequent trading partner with the U.S, providing it inexpensive goods in return for a marketplace for its goods, America's trade deficit with China has increased up to over $250,000 each year.