The power of the State of the Union By Mark Mellmanhttp://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/mark-mellman/281327-the-power-of-the-state-of-the-union
The USPS plans to halt Saturday delivery in an attempt to save money. This has been a suggestion for sometime and should save the Postal Service around $2 billion a year all the while giving Newman another day off. Courtesy of aguirreferman and NBCFurther Reading:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2013/02/06/u-s-postal-service-to-halt-saturday-mail-starting-august-1/
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) seems to be every where these days. He has been making the rounds on the Sunday news shows for a few weeks and also the morning shows. He has been especially vocal about gun control, Chuck Hagel's confirmation and immigration reform. So what is he up to?
It is not uncommon for Senators and Representatives to appear on news shows and write op-ed pieces in newspapers but Schumer seems to be the man leading the large in Congress for the President's agenda. He has done a good job articulating and expanding on the President's ideas and seems to be swaying public opinion and moving Republicans to support major parts of the President's plans. One thing is certain, the President needs someone like Chuck Schumer on the Hill supporting him, because without Hill support the President's plans are dead in the water and we will have another four years like the last. I think Schumer is trying to breakup the gridlock in DC and he seems to be doing a good job so far. I hope it lasts. Use the "Comments" section to share your thoughts on last nights Super Bowl
The Ravens where able to hold onto their lead int he second half to clinch Super Bowl XLII. John Harbaugh can now brag to his brother Jim about how he beat him in one of the biggest single day sporting events in the world.
The Ravens dominated the first half with a halftime lead of 21-6 and things looked like they would get out of hand after Baltimore's Jacoby Jones ran back the second half kickoff to make the score 28-6. but the 49ers were able to claw back and bring the game within a field goal of tying the game, but the clock did them in and Baltimore was able to punt away and leave the 49ers with no time. All in all it was a good game full of scoring streaks and hard hits. If you were not a fan of either team you were entertained, if you were rooting for one of them then it was nail biting. Further Reading: http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=330203025 The banks in this country have been labeled as "to big to fail." That is the reason for the bailouts of the various investing banks to help keep them afloat and "save this country." The truth is if the banks went under our economy would have collapsed, the world's economy would probably have collapsed as well. So why have we let them get this big and to the point where we can't let them fail even if they act in ways that are bad for our economy and citizens?
We had a similar problem in the early 1900s with big business being to powerful. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, Andrew Carnegie's U.S. Steel and various other large and monopolistic companies of the time had so much power and were abusing it to the point where the government had to intervene. The government broke up these large monopolies and created a stronger economy because of it. There was now competition and competition is critical in a capitalistic economy. I am proposing we do the same with these banks that are "to big to fail." We should split investing banks and loaning/savings banks apart. Keep our savings and home loans away from greedy investors hands. This will eliminate a lot of risk for the average citizen. Then break up all of the banks as we did Standard Oil and U.S. Steel into smaller entities to breed competition and and prevent the situation we find ourselves in. Currently, if one of the big banks fails, we have a major economic crises, if they are broken up into smaller companies and one fails the impact on our economy is smaller and less severe. Watch the below Episode of 60 Minutes that talks about prosecuting Wall Street banks and executives for wrong doing, let us know what you think of their power, greed and selfishness. To Watch: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7390540n Further Reading: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57336042/prosecuting-wall-street/ Welcome to this first Friday of February. Enjoy today's Friday Opinions!
Marco Rubio's bad deal By Rich Lowry -http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/marco-rubios-bad-deal-86965.html More Friday Opinions After The Break From New York to Moscow and on to Hong Kong, there are billionaires all around the world. Both males and females have been able to accumilate massive amounts of wealth and some in a very short time. Others have taken a while but in the end once you reach billionaire status you are in a small club of super rich.
Forbes Magazine has been documenting some of these billionaires for some time now. Follow the link below to see how they made their billions. http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/ Children are growing up today thinking that college is one big party and class is an afterthought. Thousands of kids this year will start their college careers but never end them because of excess partying, playing sports, clubs and other extracurricular activities. All the while the kids that do graduate (most go more than 4 years) are increasingly coming away with a degree that is bought (usually paid for by their parents) rather than earned.
Studies show that the kids that pay their way through college take it more seriously because they have a stake in their education. On the flip side the kids that have their school paid for tend to party more and care less about school. It is a sad trend that has major implications down the road. College graduates are expected to be the leaders of our future. Taking good jobs in companies and organizations that support our country and grow our economy. But today college graduates are showing more and more that they leave college with the same amount of knowledge as when they got their, they just took a 4 to 6 year vacation. It is not just the kids themselves whom are at fault. The colleges themselves spend more on student athletes than the average student simply because they make them more money. Degrees and courses have been watered down to the point where instead of college being a "full time" job it can be a part time event and socializing becomes more important. Now I know the top tier schools are challenging, but your average college where the majority of students go has created an environment where getting a degree is easy with the end result being that the student did not learn while being there. There are no easy solutions, you can't make a person learn, they have to be willing to put in the time and effort to do it themselves. You can make class attendance mandatory but beyond that you can't forcibly get a student out of bed. The change has to come from within our culture. We need to emphasize learning as a path to success. You should go to college with the mindset that you will learn something and grow as an individual not have a good time and get a degree on the side. Further Reading: -http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/23/does-college-put-kids-on-a-party-pathway/ GOP ready for Round II By: A.B. Stoddard
-http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/ab-stoddard/279075-gop-ready-for-round-ii More Friday Opinions After The Break |
Recommended ReadingScrew Business as Usual
|