Policy Changes and Challenges Ahead

National-On Tuesday November 30 the United States first homeland security secretary Tom Ridge gave notice that he will resign on February 2 if no successors are found for him by then. Ridge is the seventh cabinet member to announce his resignation since the election.

Ridge is known for his consolidation of American Security. With the occurrence of 9/11 he has kept the country aware of potential terrorist threats as well as provided education on how to prepare for a terrorist attack should one occur in the future.

Other members resigning include: Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, Education Secretary Rod Paige, and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

President Bush has chosen: White House counsel Alberto Gonzales for the Justice Department, Carlos Gutierrez for Commerce and Margaret Spellings for the Education Department, and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice for the State Department.

While the loss of members of the cabinet has caused much discussion, it is typical for members to leave and new members to be appointed in during a second term of presidency. President Clinton, Nixon, Reagan, Truman, and Johnson have all lost and replaced many cabinet members.

"I think that all the change in the administration its good at this moment with certain members gone like Ridge and Ashcroft but I don't know if we'll see any difference. Bush could appoint people that see things the same exact way as their predecessors," states Junior Matt Appel.

On December 1 Bush traveled to Canada in order to make amends over disagreements in the Iraq War. During 9/11 air traffic was completely shut down leaving 33,000 U.S. citizens stranded and Canadians gave them shelter until they were able to return home. Bush thanked the Canadian citizens as part of a plan to refurbish allies lost since the terrorist attacks. In order to make amends he plans on adjusting the beef ban that has been placed on Canadian beef since 2003. Bush plans to focus on more mutual problems with his allies such as security and economics.

In Mid November congress gave 131 million dollars towards abstinence programs that are to replace the "safe sex" based sexual education programs in schools. There is a national evaluation that is currently suspended that will report on whether or not the abstinence programs work in decreasing sexuality in the youth of the nation. Under the abstinence programs students will not be exposed to learning about use of contraceptives and other "safe sex" practices.

" I don't think this is going to help because if kids don't learn about using contraceptives then they might not end up using them, or they might use them incorrectly, and in the long run more kids will end up with STDs or getting pregnant. Sex is part of nature, we might as well educate children to the fullest and let them make the choice of when they are ready to have sex," stated PSU student, Katie Morrison.

The administration will soon be faced with the problem of the weakening of the U.S. dollar. A November 29 report on CNN states, "The U.S. currency tumbled to a record low against the euro, at $1.3329, and multi-year lows against most major currencies on Friday after a report that China's central bank had cut back on U.S. Treasuries in its foreign exchange reserves."

"The money situation in our country is bad right now. You used to be able to buy a lot for a dollar, now 20 dollars is pocket change...20 bucks gets me half of a tank of gas, a pack of cigarettes, and a coffee...if I'm lucky," states Tiffany Courtemanche a junior at PSU.