I would say that the best answer to the question: What feedback would be most useful to give to the writer of this paragraph, would be, A: Find some common ground with the opponent.
Explanation:
The thesis that is being proposed in this paragraph is pretty straightfoward and pretty clear, although it is a bit impassioned when it uses words like waste, in relation to such a touchy subject as the way taxpayers´ money is used. However, the real issue lies with the counter-argument because it is so totally closed to any arguments against it that it becomes more of a subjective opinion and point of view, rather than an objective counter-argument that shows that the original thesis might not be completely true. In fact, the counter-argument looks more like the writer would insult whoever opposed him on that position, rather than be open to discussion. Therefore, the writer does need to find a bit more of a common ground with the opponents of such a position.
A passing tone is a melodic embellishment (typically a non-chord tone) that occurs between two stable tones (typically chord tones), creating stepwise motion. ... A passing tone can be either accented (occurring on a strong beat or strong part of the beat) or unaccented (weak beat or weak part of the beat).
