Is AOC a liar?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez states she grew up in the Bronx more specifically the ‘hood’. It’s unclear whether she actually lives in the Parkchester neighborhood that has been tied to her upbringing in politics. Cortez has used her deceased father’s Bronx condo as her voter registration address since 2012. Yep, you read that correctly.

Her apartment’s next-door neighbor said she had never seen Ocasio-Cortez. Another neighbor, who has lived down the hall from the congresswoman’s apartment for the last 40 years, said he’d never seen her or her boyfriend, Riley Roberts, who has claimed the address as his own since last spring.

The New York Post has been investigating her claims and I believe they will crack the case.

Why We Should Build the Wall

“ ‘We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked…’ Barrack Obama, 2005. I voted, when I was a Senator, to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in…’ Hillary Clinton, 2015,”(Balluck). The hot topic in today’s day and age is whether or not we should build a wall on our southern border. This is something that Donald Trump ran his campaign on and largely helped his election. I believe that building the wall will benefit America because it will make our border safer, decrease wasted money on illegal immigrants, and cut down America’s crime.

Building the wall will decrease government spending on illegal immigrants. It is estimated by the Federation for American Immigration (FAIR) that illegal aliens cost the federal, state, and local governments a total of $135 billion a year. Illegal aliens pay some taxes for purchasing goods which are estimated at $19 billion. This totals to a net loss of $116 billion a year due to illegal aliens (O’Brien). They add to the cost because they use things such as public education, health care, food stamps, and many public facilities. (Immigrants and Public Benefits) If the wall costs $25 billion it seems like common sense that we could save an estimated $91 billion a year(O’Brien). The extending of the wall would boost the economy by 20,000 to 25,000 jobs to erect and staff (Bahler). Without illegal aliens taking America jobs, more jobs will be open to our citizens.

The creation of a southern border wall will also decrease crime and create a safer border. The wall will make it far harder for drug mules to bring in illegal narcotics because they will be forced to go through border checkpoints where security is tight. In 2015 about 1.5 million pounds of illegal drugs were seized by border security from the southern border alone. Nearly all, 99.8%, of drugs are shipped from Mexico to the United States. In 2015 our coastal and northern borders had about 9,000 pounds of drugs seized from government agencies (Bedard). The wall will also decrease crime because drug use is directly linked with crime. As well, illegal aliens are more likely to commit violent crimes than citizens.

A popular opposing argument would be that the wall will cost an estimated $25 billion to erect. The U.S. government has a federal budget of $4 trillion so creating the wall is relatively cheap(Schallhorn). Trump has also stated that to reduce the costs he will reallocate money from defense which the U.S. already spends a vast majority on. With the U.S. population at about 325.7 million, a $25 billion wall is only about $77 per person. Another argument against the wall says that natural born citizens are responsible for more crimes than illegal aliens, this is true but it is also irrelevant because as stated before there are 325.7 million American citizens compared to the estimated 11 million illegal aliens, so it would make sense that natural born citizens will commit more crime there is a vast majority of them. What we should look at is the rate of crime and how much more likely illegal immigrants are to commit crimes of natural born citizens.

To wrap everything up we should build the southern border wall because it will create jobs, cut wasted spending, decrease crime, and make our border safer. Creating the wall is the only way to secure a safer and more efficient country.

Should Gun Control Be Increased?

britannica.com

“A free people ought… to be armed” George Washington. An increasingly large amount of discussion has risen in today’s politics about whether or not the United States should increase gun control. There are two sides to this discussion those who think guns should be taken away or made very difficult to attain and those who believe everyone has the right to own a gun. More gun control would hurt our country because it would infringe on peoples right to protect themselves, crime would increase, and it would hurt more people then it would help.

An increase in gun control would increase crime. In 1997 Britain banned all guns, in the year 2000 armed robbery, kidnapping, assault, attempted murder,  and sexual assault all increased by a minimum of 112% since the pre-ban (Gun Control and Crime in Non-US Countries). This shows how banning guns will not help stop crime but increase it and also takes away protection from the law-abiding citizens who were forced to give up their guns. Many of the countries with the strictest gun laws are higher on the homicide rate than the United States, in fact, the U.S. isn’t even in the top 75 countries for homicide rate.  The top ten countries all have near or total gun bans (Gun Control and Crime in Non-US Countries). It is clear that gun control does not decrease crime rather increase crime.

Besides increasing crime, gun control would infringe on the basic human right for people to protect themselves. The 2nd amendment which is the right to bear arms was originally written as a safeguard against a tyrannical government and all domestic and outside threats. Including suicides about 30,000 lives are taken each year, but only about 12,000 excluding suicides (CDC). Overall 59% of gun-related deaths are suicides (Fallows). According to the CDC, a minimum of 500,000 likely more than 3 million lives were saved by legal defensive use of firearms. Without guns, a minimum of 500,000 lives may be lost each year (CDC). This shows that gun control would put more people at risk and wouldn’t help save lives.

The opposing side says that gun control saves lives. A phrase said often is that guns kill people. In reality, guns don’t kill people, people make conscious decisions to murder a human being. A gun is just a tool, the way you choose to use the tool is what turns it into a weapon. Instead of pushing gun control we should push for better gun education. Mental health education would also help lower crime. If people can get help and talk about their problems and feelings rather than acting upon their angry we may be able to prevent violence. Guns, as stated before, help save lives because its a tool for self-defense  “Gun bans disarm victims, putting them at the mercy of murderers or terrorists who think nothing of breaking the gun laws” Michael Badnarik. Criminals don’t buy their guns legally. Bad people do bad things taking away good peoples right of defense will only allow criminals to commit crime more easily. The argument of people saying getting a gun is easier than getting a driver license is a myth as well. Just to get a gun you need a drivers license to ID yourself. When you purchase a gun you go through a background check through the FBI and you must be at least 18 years of age. Overall it is difficult to purchase a gun.

To wrap it all up gun control would increase crime, infringe on peoples right to self-defense, and would generally do more bad than good. We need to educate people on how to properly use guns in a safe and responsible matter as well as promote public health. Follow in our founding father’s footstep by never forfeiting our right to bear arms.