Discussion: Presidential Advisor

Discussion: Presidential Advisor

ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: Discussion: Presidential Advisor

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This is a graded discussion: 25 points possible

due Aug 18

Week 6 Discussion 1: Presidential Advisor
2 2 unread replies. 2 2 replies.

Required Resources
Read/review the following resources for this activity:

Textbook: Review Chapter 2, 3 (pp. 56-59), 13
Lesson
Additional scholarly sources you identify through your own research
Initial Post Instructions

You are an advisor to the President tasked with cutting at least $300 billion from the budget. The president wants your recommendations to cut lines, not large categories. Explain why you chose those cuts.
Note: These are not true US budget numbers.

DOMESTIC PROGRAMS AND FOREIGN AID

Cut some foreign aid to African countries

$17 billion

Eliminate farm subsidies

$14 billion

Cut pay of civilian federal workers by 5 percent

$14 billion

Reduce the overall federal workforce by 10%

$12 billion

Cut aid to states by 5%

$29 billion

MILITARY

Cut the number of nuclear warheads, and end the “Star Wars” missile defense program

$19 billion

Reduce military to pre-Iraq War size and further reduce troops in Asia and Europe

$25 billion

Cancel or delay some weapons programs

$19 billion

HEALTHCARE

Enact medical malpractice reform by reducing the chances of large malpractice verdicts

$ 8 billion

Increase the Medicare eligibility age to 68

$ 8 billion

Raise the Social Security retirement age to 68.

$ 13 billion

EXISTING TAXES

Return the estate tax to Clinton-era levels, passing on an estate worth more than $1 million to their heirs would have portions of those estates taxed.

$ 50 billion

End tax cuts for income above $250,000 a year

$ 54 billion

End tax cuts for income below $250,000 a year

$ 172 billion

Payroll tax increase for people making over $106,000 annually contributing more to Social Security and Medicare.

$ 50 billion

NEW TAXES

Institute a Millionaire’s tax on income above $1 million

$ 50 billion

Add a national 5% sales tax

$ 41 billion

Add a tax on carbon emissions

$ 40 billion

Tax banks based on their sizes and the amount of risk they take.

$ 73 billion

Total gap covered by your budget plan

$_________________

Use evidence (cite sources) to support your response from assigned readings or online lessons, and at least one outside scholarly source.

Follow-Up Post Instructions
Respond to at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Further the dialogue by providing more information and clarification. Minimum of 1 scholarly source, which can include your textbook or assigned readings or may be from your additional scholarly research.

Writing Requirements

Minimum of 3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format for in-text citations and list of references
Grading
This activity will be graded using the Discussion Grading Rubric. Please review the following link:

Link (webpage): Discussion Guidelines
Course Outcomes (CO): 7

Due Date for Initial Post: By 11:59 p.m. MT on Wednesday
Due Date for Follow-Up Posts: By 11:59 p.m. MT on Sunday

Discussion: Presidential Advisor

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.