The Fed

       The Federal Reserve is not beneficial to the economy and the American people. The Fed has the power to create and destroy money, which is called monetary policy. They are not regulated to do this they can create as much as they want and destroy as much as they want. This can directly relate to inflation. The more dollars we have in the circulation, the less the currency is worth. Our money supply has rapidly increased over the past century due to the  Federal Reserve printing massive amounts of money like there is no tomorrow. Also, the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve are not directly elected by the American people. This means that those who run the Federal Reserve are unaccountable to the people. The seven members of the Board ultimately decide the price or purchasing power of our money. That kind of central planning would never exist in a true free market economy. The Fed essentially can control the cycles of the economy which is not good. It bears significant responsibility for every financial crisis over the past century including the Great Depression, the stagflation of the 1970s and recent economic meltdown. The Federal Reserve lowers interest rates below the market rate which increases the supply of money. Throughout its 100-year history, it has always operated under a veil of secrecy. The Federal Reserve has never been fully audited by any outside source. Our elected representatives in Congress have very little oversight over the central bank. It has continually resisted any kind of congressional oversight claiming that it would endanger its “independence.” The policies of the Federal Reserve hurt the average American. It benefits the privileged few at the expense of the rest of us. The central bank serves big spending politicians, big bankers and their friends. The Federal Reserve acts as the lender of last resort. An audit of the Federal Reserve revealed $16 trillion in secret bailouts to corporations and banks around the world in less than three years. These bailouts happened without a single vote taking place in any chamber of Congress.

http://www.federalreserveonline.org/

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102469189

http://www.freedomworks.org/content/top-10-reasons-end-federal-reserve

The Hidden Economy

      The underground economy involves the exchange of goods and services which are hidden from official view. Examples of such activities range from babysitting “off the books” to selling narcotics. To the worker it is beneficial because it is not on the books they do not have to pay taxes to the government and thus any money they make they get to keep. Also these people having essentially more money because it is not taxed can lead to an increase in the purchasing of goods and services thus stimulating the economy. This hidden economy can also be bad. The first is that it causes the government to loss money so they increase taxes to make up for the money lost in the hidden economy. Those who participate in the hidden economy don't receive social security and health benefits for the tasks they are doing.    

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is the freedom of speech for the internet. People can access anything they want and comment on whatever they want. Consumers have the freedom to say whatever they want on certain issues and give their two cents. If this is taken away that freedom is lost. Big businesses would own the internet and control what goes on it. These big businesses have the money to make their sites faster unlike the small free lance sites that don't have the money to do it and are also what keeps the internet open to everyone.  For consumers this would mean that only big companies would be able to have fast internet so little businesses would go bankrupt, thus limiting competition and increasing prices.  The FCC controls the neutrality of the internet because is in charge of all communications, including the internet, radio, and television.

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Merrit v. Spoils

     There are two systems in the American government over the years. The spoils system and the merit system. The spoils system is a way of awarding friends or rewarding people for something they did to help you get there. These people are usually not qualified for this job but get it because of their connections. The merit system gives people jobs that are qualified in that field and a good fit for the job. It is like a promotion for the person in their field. 
     Andrew Jackson's administration gives a good example of the spoils system. He defied the policies and hired close friends to his cabinet instead of people more qualified for the job. The merit system would then be created to stop the spoils system from plaguing the government. the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, which made the merit system common practice. The fitness of the candidate is determined by the ability to pass a written competitive examination, given by a commission of examiners. The answers submitted by candidates must be unsigned, so as to obviate the possibility of favoritism on the part of the examiners. It put more qualified people in office and kept politics a little more fair. The spoils system is still in use today. 
        The Washington Post's T.W. Farnam writes that Obama has doled out ambassadorships, at the same rate as the Bush administration (24 in total), despite all those promises by the former in 2008 to enact "the most sweeping ethics reform in history." That Obama handed out posts (47 administration jobs to top bundlers overall) shouldn't be surprising. Presidential candidates frequently break promises, especially if that candidate promises not to do something all his predecessors have done.

The Electoral College

     The Electoral College was created for two reasons. First was that the rich were afraid that the poor would vote for a tyrant that could manipulate them into voting for him, because the poor outnumber the rich they use the electoral votes to control this. It could be used as a safety to make sure the "right" candidate would be chosen just in case. Also another reason is that it gave more power to the smaller states because every state gets a minimum of three votes to put in. I do not believe this system is fair because a candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election if they score high enough.
     In 2000, Al Gore had won the popular vote against George W. Bush but only had 251 to Bush's 271 electoral votes so he lost the election. This just depicts how unfair the electoral college system is and that the decision of the majority of Americans can be ignored to fit a candidate for the rich.    

Head of State

          The movie Head of State satirizes real political parties throughput the movie. For instance at the fundraiser party, Mays whats to get the party going so he starts playing loud music and dancing because it was too dull and serious and was in fact not a "party". Also Mays does not wear a suit and tie during his campaign instead he wears jumpsuits and rolls around in a party bus. The person he is running against is made to look like the typical politician who just says what the people want to hear. He says god bless America for everything, sometimes avoiding the question asked.

         Gilliam evolves as a politician throughout his campaign. In the beginning he was reading off of the cards that were given to him even if he didn't believe in what he was saying. Then after talking to his brother he began to go off the script and start saying what he believed in. He stood for the people with his motto of "that aint right!". He started to gain a following and went from being blown out to becoming the president.

Lincoln

        Passing the 13th amendment was no easy task. President Lincoln had to overcome man obstacles to accomplish what he did. Lincoln was 20 votes short with all his republicans approving it and needed to buy votes before the war was over. He experienced a lot of resistance from his cabinet because they were more focused on ending the war then passing the amendment. But what gave him the hardest time was overcoming the racism by all the politicians. They were afraid that the blacks were going to own property,vote,rank high in the military, and hold office. They didn't want this to happen so they looked against it.
       
        Lincoln used some sketchy ways to buy votes under his implied powers as being the president. He bribed lame duck republicans with jobs. Also he twisted the truth by lying to the house that there were peace talks going on and that there were no delegates from the south in Washington.

       President Lincoln need this amendment to be passed as soon as possible. He needed it to be approved now so it would be in the constitution and not rescinded when another president came intro office.  This would be a catalyst to end the war and Lincoln knew it would give him an advantage in delegations.