How 2014 Helped Teens

How 2014 Helped Teens

Anthony Hare, Staff Writer

Between picture collages on Instagram and making those concrete New Year’s resolutions that people stick to for two weeks, most teenagers don’t exactly look back on 2014 with a politically critical demeanor. During 2014, the 113 Congress did very little. (It’s the least productive Congress since the 71 Congress who was in office on Black Tuesday during Herbert Hoover’s presidency.) While it may have been unproductive it did some useful things for America’s youth.

When a teenager is asked what a major proportion of their money goes to, it’s usually towards gas. Gas is something that everybody spends a lot of money on, but through the Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel and America That Works Act (apparently all the shorter names were taken) it is quite possible that gas prices could be lowered considerably in the upcoming 5-6 years. This bill would increase the possible acreage for offshore drilling by at least 50% on the Outer Continental Shelf through a government implemented leasing program. The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is the area off the coast of the United States where considerable amounts of oil is waiting to be taken. Increased levels of oil procured from our soil, or waters in this case, means lowered prices at the pump. While I am personally against the continuation of anything that slowly kills our Earth, I also realize that lower gas prices mean more money in the pocket of the average American. This bill should be put in motion in July 2015.

Another issue that is not only on the radar of teenagers, but also the average American is wage discrimination. For every $1.00 that the average American male makes, a woman at the exact same position makes $.77. That’s an issue that both sides of the isle can agree on needs to be changed. The Paycheck Fairness Act is on the right track towards ending these injustices. This bill would allow employees to sue their employees for the punitive damages of wage discrimination. An added provision to the bill would initiate the training of women for the better negotiation of wage discrimination. This progressive bill however met stark GOP opposition and failed to be passed. Even though it was not passed, the fact that set-in-stone laws are being created to stop the injustice of wage discrimination is a great thing for Americans, including the average teenager.

One large issue holding back high school students is a lack of government funding towards education and the research behind the betterment of education. Nationalpriorities.org, a website showing a graph of this year’s President’s Proposed Discretionary Spending shows the approximately $3.9 trillion planned federal budget displayed through percentages. I personally think that the best way to advance a nation is to simply have smarter citizens. According to this statistic our country will spend more than six times as much on our military (55%) as it will our education system (6%). I’m not short changing the need for the military by any measure, but it is not even speculative to think that our national priorities are misaligned on how our tax dollars are spent. The Strengthening Education through Research Act (SETRA) would allocate $3.8 billion of our federal budget for 2015-2019 towards education research. Considering $3.8 billion is just a fraction of our annual federal budget, some may think that this change is unnoticeable, but in a time when words like “stalemate” and “gridlock” are immediately associated with Congress, I think it’s a step in the right direction.

Politics are something that a very small minority of teenagers will ever honestly care about, but it means so much to the future. Many people, especially in the surrounding area, seem to confuse the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with the terrible decree that it is made out to look like on many news outlets, but honestly, it may be very helpful to most teenagers. High Schoolers now will be able to stay on their parent’s health insurance until the age of 26 and in the future will no longer have to live in fear of being dropped by their insurers if they become ill, as outlined in Obamacare. These are great things initiated recently by our government. The ball may be rolling slowly, but it is at least headed in the right direction for American teens.