What are Taxes?

What are taxes, and why do people have to pay? Taxes are financial charges from our government in order to pay for our public needs, and in 2016 the government collected 3.9 trillion dollars in taxes to spend. There are many different types of taxes like income tax, federal income tax, sales tax, property tax, estate tax, and more. Twenty percent of households pay around seventy percent, and the top one percent has to pay a quarter of taxes. The government has great reasons to tax the state because the tax money goes into many public needs, for example, education, military, public roads, Medicare, public defense, and more.

Tax is a way for the government to receive money from their people. There are plenty types of tax in different categories that many people do not know about. The most important types of tax are income, sales, sin, and hotel tax. A person pays tax differently depending on the situation. For example, income tax is when the government collects some money depending on the citizens income, so not everyone will be the same. Sales tax is a tax everyone pays after buying a product from a retail store or other business. Sin tax is a tax for those who enjoy alcohol and cigarettes. Sin tax is also more expensive than sales tax because it will hopefully discourage people from buying products unnecessary like alcohol and cigarettes. Another tax that charges at a high number is the hotel tax. Hotel tax can charge around up to twenty five percent of the buyers total bill. Although tax can be expensive it does help our state.

If people do not pay taxes we would not have what we have now, and society would be lost. The government rarely keeps any of the tax money we give them because they use everything they collect for the public. Our government uses the tax money to provide public defense like police officers, firefighters, and more. The government also helps us pay most of our education for students who need help paying for classes or even books. The government even provide Medicare, and resources for the military in order to help us defend the United States, but in order for the government to pay for everything the people must be taxed. Many people complain about paying taxes every year, or every day, and a lot of them don’t realize where it is going. People just assume it’s for the government to keep for themselves, but, the government uses the money we give them to help us instead. Even though people get annoyed of almost everything having tax, the government will spend the money received usefully.

Departments of Government

Three government has many different functions to keep order in our society, and one of those functions are the three branches of government. Government is divided into three different branches so no individual group will have too much power. These three branches of government are known as legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch is Congress, house of representatives, and the Senate. The executive branch is the president, vice president, and cabinet. The judicial branch is the supreme court, and other courts. The legislative branch makes the laws, the executive branch carries out laws, and the judicial branch evaluates them. Since the three branches were created to make sure no one is in power of everything, each branch of government can change the acts of other branches. The legislative branch (Congress) can reject or confirm the president’s nominees and for a good cause, the branch can remove the president from office. Executive branch (the president) has a choice to veto something created from Congress. Judicial branch ( supreme court) can overturn laws and are nominated by the president.

The government has many different departments to keep us from crumbling and one of those departments are the “department of defense,” also known as the military. When most people think about the military they usually only imagine the navy or army, but it’s much more than that. The military is a group of different departments and those departments are, The United States Marine Corps, United States Army, United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, United States Air force, and The United States National Guard. All of these different departments fall under the military which fall under the Department Of Defense (DOD). The United States Army is special as it is one of three different military departments who respond immediately to the (DOD), they also have missions around the world. The Marine Corps is a small part of the Navy who protects our shores and sea, while the Navy responds directly to the (DOD) and is ready to battle at the ocean around the world. The Coast Guard watches our oceans in ports to keep people safe. Our sky is constantly being watched by the Air Force, and are always ready for battle since they also connect directly to the (DOD).  Lastly, the National Guard is our oldest military operation as it supports our community and country by doing combat missions, emergencies, and much more.

United States HealthCare

Everyone needs health insurance, but what is it? Health insurance is when someone gets covered fully or some of their medical expenses. Around the 1800’s the U.S. did not have any type of health insurance.  Healthcare is important to our society because when a person gets in an accident without health insurance there is a possibility that person would try to take care of the wound themselves and will probably make it worse. Even though the U.S. did not have health insurance in the late 1800’s, we had a president during our Progressive Era 1901 who supported healthcare, and that president was Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt was in power during the Progressive Era, and he stated to the people that no country could be strong with sick and poor people. Although he was our president, Theodore Roosevelt was ignored, and healthcare was pushed away. Eventually after being postponed for a while in 1906 the American Association of Labor Legalization (AALL) finally decided to lead campaigns for health insurance. Im 1912 (AALL) created a community that had their first national conference for social welfare on 1913, and created a bill around the year 1915 for health insurance. Citizens who work and those who make less than 1200 dollars a year benefit from the insurance plan. The new system would allow most people to get benefits like hospital care, sick pay, funeral expenses already being paid for, and more. Even though the (AALL) were supported by many people, and physicists, the bill was not passed.

President of the American Federation of Labor union(AFL) was against the bill that (AALL) and others hoped to achieve. (AFL) did not come to any agreement with (AALL) because (AFL) assumed if the bill was passed and a government health insurance system was created, then their unions would become weak and useless for providing social benefits, and all the (AFL) want is to contain its union power. Although (AALL’s) bill was not passed Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to create another type of healthcare system. Roosevelt attempted twice to create a type of health insurance during the time of World War One, and The Great Depression, but was denied both times. Throughout time Roosevelt passed away and Truman became president. Unlike Roosevelt, Truman’s idea of health insurance was planned to be a universal healthcare system. Truman wanted everyone to have healthcare no matter what class they are in. Everyone was afraid of Truman’s universal healthcare system because people say it is a socialists idea. Like all the others Truman’s healthcare system eventually came to s failure. After many failed attempts in creating a new healthcare system a congressman named Aime Forand suggested and idea in 1958. Forand’s idea was to cover all of the elderly’s medical bills. Since the subject of healthcare was now being focused on the elderly many people thought about it being a great idea. Other companies attempted to copy the idea and call it “eldercare plan.” The government finally took action and added more to the healthcare plan and eventually called it Medicare and Medicaid which is still existing today.

The Current Healthcare System

Healthcare has always been an issue in the United States. There have been many problems with health insurance like, expenses, benefits, plans, and more. Health insurance is when a person gets their hospital bill covered or medical needs covered by the insurance company they are paying. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a new law that was passed in 2010 and changed the way many insurance companies work. The (ACA) is mostly known as Obamacare, and was first signed by our president Barack Obama in twenty third of march 2010. The (ACA) is a new law that will give more americans access to healthcare, make healthcare more affordable to many people who are struggling with money, provide more private and public health insurance, and much more. Also the Affordable Care Act will reward hospitals for their quality and not their quantity. The (ACA) will make health insurance more affordable by charging people based on the person’s income, so everyone will be able to apply and pay for Obamacare. People will also stop getting rejected from healthcare because the (ACA) will cover those who had any type of medical condition before they applied into the insurance company, unlike older insurance companies who would not want to help those who have had a pre existing medical condition. Although, Obamacare sounds like nothing but benefits to our society there are problems. One major problem with Obamacare is those who do not apply and pay for it will have a tax penalty to pay. Obamacare is trying to make more people apply for it, but many Americans dislike the way they are being forced into health insurance. Nevertheless, thanks to the (ACA) people can now afford healthcare, receive better care from hospitals, and will not get denied healthcare if a pre existing health condition was seen before applying to an insurance company.

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