RESEARCH LINKS
Issue 1: Debt Ceiling
Congress.gov: H.R.3877 “Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019”
Congressional Budget Office: “The 2019 Long-Term Budget Outlook”
Peter G. Peterson Foundation: “Debt Ceiling Update: What’s at Stake”
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: “Everything to Know About Debt Ceiling”
Bipartisan Policy Center: “The Debt Limit—What You Need to Know”
Investopedia.com: “Debt Ceiling”
Issue 2: Reparations
Congress.gov: H.R.40 Summary and Text
Constitutional Rights Foundation: “Reparations for Slavery Reading”
The Atlantic: “The Case for Reparations”
Oxford University Press: “Postconflict Reparations”
Axios: “The World’s Long History of Reparations”
CNN: “People Are Talking About Reparations. But It’s a Complex and Thorny Issue.”
CRITICAL-THINKING QUESTIONS
Issue 1: Debt Ceiling
- What do you think about Congress’s decision to suspend the debt ceiling for two more years? What alternative solution(s) would you propose? Explain your reasoning.
- Read the Congressional Budget Office’s 2019 budget outlook (see link above). What is the long-term projection for the federal debt? How will this affect your future?
- When governments create budgets, they prioritize some programs over others (such as health care or defense). What types of trade-offs should be made, in your opinion, to reduce the national debt?
- How important is the issue of the national debt? Do you think this country is doing enough to address the problem? Why or why not?
- Looking at the “Buck Stops Here: What It Takes to Fund Our Nation” infographic, do you agree with the 2017 budget allocations? What would you change and why?
Issue 2: Reparations
- What are the arguments for and against reparations for slavery in the United States? Where do you stand, and why?
- Do you agree that some of the problems faced today by the African American community are the “legacy of slavery?” Why or why not?
- How are reparations for black slavery similar to, and different from, the reparations paid by the U.S. government to Japanese Americans interned in prison camps during World War II?
- What might a government program of reparations look like? How would you design it?
- Morally speaking, do you think a person can owe a debt based on the actions of previous generations? Why or why not?