Staff speaks out about our government in action

What an eventful and stressful week Cal High. On a national scale, a week has never given me so much anxiety, but then again I find myself saying that pretty much every week for the last month.

By the way congratulations to the Trump administration for surviving its first month. You guys really deserve kudos for not burning down the White House –  yet. It’s been a whirlwind of a time and I think you guys deserve a nap. Sleep for as long as you want as long as it’s 47 months.

That presser the President gave on Thursday was a doosie. There were many times I could not tell if the person speaking was Donnie T or Alec Baldwin. Speaking of Baldwin, Saturday Night Live should be good again this weekend. As the old saying goes “ Every thorn has its rose.”

Those wily Ruskies also have had a mixed bag week of antagonising us and losing their third or fourth most important White House FSB agent. Poor Vlad. It’s hard to run two countries at once.

And finally this week, the loud drone of the metaphorical fire alarms going off at everything else in Washington drowned out the quiet beeps of the metaphorical carbon monoxide detector going off over the confirmations of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education and “Wall Street” Steve Mnuchin as Secretary of the Treasury.

I see the conspiracy theory now. First the government makes us know less about finances than Devos does about the education system. Then they take all our money. Hold onto your wallets and textbooks folks, we’re in for a heck of a ride.   

  • Patrick Rettig, editor in chief

 

Yet again, politicians are trying to undo the progress former president Barack Obama has made over the last eight years. And when I say again, I mean this week.

In the last few days of Obama’s presidency, his administration passed a regulation that required states to put Title X funding toward family planning associations, such as Planned Parenthood, that perform abortions. Of course, this money does not go toward abortions themselves. It goes toward other health and reproductive services, such as birth control, and STD and pregnancy testing.

Unfortunately, the House of Representatives decided to overthrow this regulation: 230 voted yes and 188 voted no.

The pro-life representative who proposed this change, Diane Black (R – Tenn), argues that the taking away of the Obama Administration’s regulation supports the 10th Amendment, which is the relationship between federal government and state.

But, all for what? Instead of punishing associations just because they perform abortions, why don’t we put that energy toward helping the children of the mothers that did follow through with giving birth.

Frankly, this game of making such a huge effort to overturn the many achievements of former President Obama is childish. It almost seems like people are overturning just for the sake of doing so.

  • Gabby Reid, staff writer