U.S. defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, resigns 

Chuck Hagel has been the U.S. defense secretary for less than two years and is already giving up the top defense position in the country. He is a former Vietnam vet and U.S. senator who came to power in 2013 with the goal of narrowing the defense budget and withdrawing troops from overseas. However, once ISIS had become a threat to the American people then Mr. Hagel and President Obama found themselves at odds about what to do with the situation. There had been a clear lack of strategy whenever ISIS had come along and after mid-term elections it was apparent it wouldn't work out. It is believed that Mr. Hagel was asked to step down by the President whenever he had opened up discussion about his possible departure.

I understand why the President and Mr. Hagel would decide to part ways but I also feel like it may have been a mistake having a lone Republican be a part of an entirely Democratic staff. Yet, President Obama is going to lose a potentially critical component based on his experience in the military and deeper understanding of the situation overseas because of his involvement with the Senate. Despite their differences and uniqueness to this particular issue, we are seeing the classic lack of communication and planning whenever dealing with complex issues that need attention to detail and strategy. If the threat of a group like ISIS had been discussed, then the issue would be fairly easy to resolve. Unfortunately, when Mr. Hagel had come to his position he wasn't aware of Obama's stance on how to deal with a threat of this nature despite it being one of utter importance.

President Obama is expected to announce Chuck Hagel's resignation on Monday afternoon. He most likely won't announce a nominee to replace Mr. Hagel on Monday but once chosen they will still have to be approved by the Senate. This may prove difficult for Mr. Obama due to a shift in a Republican majority following mid-term elections earlier this month.

Blog Stage Six: Comment on a colleague's work #1

Ignorance is not an Option: Weak President, Strong Government: What Would the Founding Fathers Think?

To answer the title of the post: yes. I feel that the Framers of our Constitution would be amazed to see the amount of informal powers that have been given to the president.

However, I disagree with the amount of scrutiny that is being placed on our current president. Our country is over 200 years old so it is without doubt that he, like other presidents, have inherited a slew of problems when entering office. In class we had discussed how legislation can continue to have an impact on events up to 30 years after and I feel that faulty legislation is why our veterans' programs are so ineffective. A broken health care system is also to blame as to why veterans aren't able to gain access to their supposed guaranteed benefits. Yet, the proponents of the Affordable Health Care Act fail to see that the Obama Administration was trying to solve a more widespread issue and hopefully veterans wouldn't have to see a 'broker', the V.A., to have healthcare because it would be one's right as a citizen and not just a veteran.

The redistribution of wealth is a completely different issue and his main stance was on changing tax brackets and definitely not giving 'hand outs'. Even if he were to provide more funding to social services there would be no giving 'entitlement' because anyone and everyone deserves to have food, education and a safe place to live regardless of the situation they are in. These are basic human rights that unfortunately aren't met without the help of our government, plain and simple. In fact, these programs desperately need to be expanded because the disproportional distribution of wealth in this country has most of its population in the clutches of poverty or right on the edge of poverty.