Monday, January 14, 2013

Veteran Affairs & Chairman of Council of Economic Advisors

Veterans Affairs


Eric Shinseki runs the Department of Veteran Affairs. He assumed office on January 1st, 2009; he is a four star general and served in the military during Vietnam. The Department of Veteran Affairs gives benefits and services to eligible veterans of the U.S. military service and their families. In addition providing medical services and retirement options, the department does medical research on different diseases and post-traumatic stress disorder. Eric Shinseki gives speeches at various veteran events such as The Air Force Association Annual Conference and during holidays like Thanksgiving and of course Veterans Day. In addition to this Shinseki talks to Obama and Congress about the funding necessary in order to help veterans and ensure they receive proper care. When elected Shinseki said he wanted to streamline the disability claims system, use new information technologies to improve the delivery of benefits and services, and focus on unemployed and homeless veterans.

Chairman of Council of Economic Advisors

The council of Economic Advisers provides objective research for the White House and prepares an annual economic report. The main duty of the council is to provide the President with information in order for him to change economic policy. The chairman is Alan Krueger. Krueger is an economist and professor at Princeton. It is his job to help gather data on the economy. Most of this data is quantitative. He works with other departments, like the SEC, and FED. He reports to Obama on what he can do to help the economy move forward. He uses things like interest rates, the GDP, and other economic indicators to put together an annual report as well as a series of reports throughout the year. 

No comments:

Post a Comment