The Patriot Act is a government bill hastily passed after the days of the 911 terrorist attacks. In essence it is essentially an extension of a currently existing program called FISA, which allows for spying on other countries. This program costs a total of 64 billion dollars a year. And it also allows for government overreach in the form of civilian surveillance which is supposed to be prohibited by the 4th amendment (Costly 2). However the Patriot Act hasn't stopped any terrorist attacks (Intelligence reform 12). Additionally information about the Patriot Act is highly classified (McCutcheon 6), with the only in depth information released by in 2013 by Edward Snowden. Because of this the Patriot Act needs to be abolished as it hurts America as a whole, it weakens national security by creating security theatre, it violates constitutional rights, and furthermore it ties up resources that could be better used in other more successful projects.
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In 2016 the ODNI which is essentially the head of the Patriot Act and also FISA requested an increase of 15% funding from 2014 (McCutcheon 3). This would increase the budget to 72 billion dollars a year. On top of that, the government is expanding its programs to include multiple branches. Sometimes for only specific tasks, like civilian information decryption. The ODNI has also overstepped in attempting to collect so much data that it needed a cancellation in 2011 (Gerdes 2). Instead of focusing on other countries methods for fighting terrorism, which are usually much more successful and cost much less, America continues it's own methods in almost a delusional hope that it will succeed even though it won't. As evidenced by the multiple breaches of security that have happened, but haven't ended badly. Or the continued mass
In 2016 the ODNI which is essentially the head of the Patriot Act and also FISA requested an increase of 15% funding from 2014 (McCutcheon 3). This would increase the budget to 72 billion dollars a year. On top of that, the government is expanding its programs to include multiple branches. Sometimes for only specific tasks, like civilian information decryption. The ODNI has also overstepped in attempting to collect so much data that it needed a cancellation in 2011 (Gerdes 2). Instead of focusing on other countries methods for fighting terrorism, which are usually much more successful and cost much less, America continues it's own methods in almost a delusional hope that it will succeed even though it won't. As evidenced by the multiple breaches of security that have happened, but haven't ended badly. Or the continued mass