Should the Congress Freeze the Affordable Care Act?

Overview

You might not realize how often the Legislative and Executive Branches are in the news. Have you heard of the Affordable Care Act (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.? Ever wonder how that came about? Who proposed it and why? Who opposed it? Did it change through the legislative process? What about the President’s stance on Immigration Reform (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.? The Federal Budget? We hear about all of the legislation that’s pending or that has passed and that will ultimately affect us. 

Directions

Choose a current or recent event that illustrates a theme covered in this week’s content on the Congress. Think about what Congress is working on and what’s the process. Use and cite at least one quality news article or story. How does the article explain a theme or themes about Congress from our textbook or other class sources? Offer your opinion, thoughts or insight as well.

Some ideas of places to go for your news story:

• The Hill.com (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (hover over News and you will be able to choose House or Senate) 
• New York Times  (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
• Politico  (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.(check out the Congress tab)
• Roll Call (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
• The LA Times (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (check out US tab and then Politics)

For your Initial Post due by Wednesday 11:59 PM:

1. Create a 250 word summary of your article. Make certain to include a citation. For help with citations you can check out this PCC Citation page. There are many resources to help you: Citations (Links to an external site.).
2. Create 1 or 2 thought questions about the article. These should be questions that help your classmates’ think more deeply about the topic and their own perspective. Such as: 
   1. If …. happened, what do you think would happen?
   2. How should the President respond to…?
   3. Why do you think…?
   4. How do you feel about…?

1. Ask for clarification (that is, ask questions) if needed.
2. Respond to the thought question making certain to refer to the information in the article summary and to add your own perspective.
3. Please note the discussion guidelines below. If there are topics you may have differing opinions on, it is still important to respect each others’ ideas and thoughts!

Discussion Guidelines

Read and respond to others’ posts as well, keeping in mind some basic rules for netiquette (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.:

• Be kind and respectful to others
• Use full sentences
• Don’t use too much jargon
• Treat others online as you wish to be treated
• Use language that supports others

Discussion question adapted from Mary S. Haberman, POLS 202. CC by 3.0 unported, the Washington State Colleges (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. The Open Course Library (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and the Washington State Legislature.