Constitutional Amendment

Constitutional Amendment

What is the topic based on? How is it important?

With the COVID-19, the disease resulting from the Coronavirus, now being declared a global pandemic, economists are getting concerned about the impact of the epidemic on the American economy. In the last couple of weeks, the U.S has witnessed a record high number of citizens who have lost active employment following the calls to allow people to work from their homes (Goolsbee, 2020). Not only has this led to a significant number of unemployment cases in the U.S, but also limiting physical interactions has led to decreased activities such as sporting activities that would otherwise generate income. These contribute to the adverse economic impacts on the U.S. Additionally, the closure of Chinese firms has rendered the majority of manufacturing companies in the U.S dormant with little or no materials to work with (Goolsbee, 2020). This has not only lowered commerce in the U.S but has also led to the indefinite closure of some of these firms, meaning reduced income in terms of taxes and levies.

Therefore, COVID-19 threatens not only the American health systems but also the economic systems both at the state government level and federal government level. The proposed amendment, therefore, focuses on enabling a collaborative approach between federal and state governments towards creating legislation aimed at cushioning the U.S economy from the adverse effects resulting from COVID-19 pandemic (Goolsbee, 2020).

History and development of the topic

Historically, the United States has proven to rise to the occasion in legislations every time there is a health pandemic arising in the country, a good example Project BioShield Act of 2004 that was prompted by anthrax and plague outbreaks (Kavet, 2017). Similarly, the amendment proposes the establishment of a Senate amendment that will help the American economy to recover from the effects of the global pandemic.

Historical background of the amendment issue, a balanced view of the issue/amendment (liberal and conservative) and political ideology surrounding the issue/amendment

While previous clauses have been designed to provide a framework for dealing with health pandemics in the United States, the proposed amendment proposes a combined effort towards creating a conducive environment that will allow for the American economy to bounce back after the COVID-19 pandemic.  On the onset of the Coronavirus in China, the epicenter of the outbreak, the liberals were concerned about the level of unpreparedness exhibited by the government. Despite their ideology against anti-globalization, liberal Senators were pushing for the closure of the U.S borders from the hotspot areas. However, the conservatives did not consider the seriousness and threat posed by the virus (Bar-Siman-Tov, 2020). Conservatives chose to remain adamant and overlook the danger while the liberals were more concerned with taking proactive measures.

In pandemic situations, liberal ideology is the most effective ideology to adopt. Therefore, the liberal ideology forms the basis for my proposed amendment. Now that COVID-19 has hit the U.S hard, the most effective way to overcome the pandemic and bounce back economically is to come up with a legislation that allows for a collaborative approach encouraging governments at all levels to work together to enable the burnishing of the U.S economy during and after the pandemic (Bar-Siman-Tov, 2020).

The benefit of the amendment to the United States

What has come to be described as the world’s most pressing uncertainty, COVID-19 is not only posing significant threats to the American health system but also the country’s economic systems. Despite the uncertainty revolving around the effects of the pandemic on the American economy, one absolute fact is the need for a policy that will prevent the United States from experiencing total economic fallout after the epidemic (Bar-Siman-Tov, 2020). The amendment proposes the remarking of federalization, thus allowing the federal government to create a platform encouraging innovation and production at the state level while at the same time enabling a bottom-up approach to economic stimulation.

Which federal provisions or mandates would affect your issue?

The American system of leadership can be described, in simple terms, as a complete federalism system of governance, meaning that the federal government has no direct supervisory authority over state and even local governments (Bar-Siman-Tov, 2020). This particular provision could pose significant effects on the proposed amendments. This is because the amendment suggests that the three levels of government work together, and the federal government creating a conducive environment for the other levels of governance would be interpreted to mean the federal government is exercising some degree of supervision over the different levels of government. Such can easily be construed as undermining federalism.

Competing (liberal/conservative) positions regarding the issue. Which is the ultimate best option? Why?

For years, the argument fronted by liberals towards federalism was based on expanding federal power over states while the conservatives moved to limit this power (Somin, 2019). Based on this argument, an amendment that allows the federal government to exercise some level of supervision would generally generate a considerable degree of resistance from the conservative in as much as it would generate favor from liberals in equal measures. However, recent events displaying an uncoordinated approach towards dealing with COVID-19 between the federal and state governments are worrying some. Therefore, based on such cases, the liberal ideology of the federal government exercising some level of supervision over state and local governments, especially in crucial situations like when dealing with a pandemic, is the most preferred approach.

References

Bar-Siman-Tov, I. (2020). Parliamentary Activity and Legislative Oversight during the Coronavirus Pandemic-A Comparative Overview. Available at SSRN 3566948.

Goolsbee, A. (2020). Why the Coronavirus Could Threaten the U.S. Economy More Than China’s. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/business/coronavirus-economy-us-china.html.

Kavet, J. (2017). A perspective on the significance of pandemic influenza. American Journal of Public Health, 67(11), 1063-1070.

Somin, I. (2019). How Liberals learned to love federalism. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-liberals-learned-to-love-federalism/2019/07/12/babd9f52-8c5f-11e9-b162-8f6f41ec3c04_story.html%3foutputType=amp.