Financial Regulation – The Democrats continue to push their partisan financial regulation bill. Once again, like health care reform, thus far this bill falls far short of real reform. The bill does not do enough to regulate derivatives and to end government bailouts of private sector banks.
The Tea Party – They endorsed Democratic Congressman, Walt Minnick, of Idaho. This shows that this movement is not about voting out Democrats, it is about an ideology regardless of political affiliation.
Afghanistan – Seventy-seven U.S. soldiers died in the first 3 months of the year in the conflict. This is twice the number of 2009 casualties.
Gas Prices – Despite the nation still being stuck in a recession gas prices are approaching 3 dollars per gallon, up nearly 50% in the past year.
Kyrgyzstan – The recent coup could threaten the Manas Airbase that is vital for the Afghanistan war to transport troops and supplies. The new government is pro Russia and has distain for the United States since we backed the previous leader, Bakiyev, who was corrupt.
Anwar Al-Awlaki – He is a U.S. citizen that has been working with al-Qaida in Yemen. Al-Awlaki had ties to the Umar Abdulmutallab (The Underwear Bomber) and Major Nidal Hasan (Fort Hood massacre). Obama has issued a rare directive calling for the U.S. to assassinate Al-Awlaki.
Iran – A White House memo from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was leaked and it showed that Obama had no backup plan to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and what to do if they did indeed obtained a weapon. The Pentagon claims that Iran will have intercontinental missiles to attack the U.S. with nuclear weaponry within the next 5 years.
Obama’s Nuclear Summit – First the good news: Many countries have agreed to put tighter security on their nuclear material. Now for the bad news: They did nothing to curtail the two biggest nuclear threats – North Korea and Iran.
United Nations – Less 35 percent of the nearly 800 million they had to fund the Haiti Earthquake relief made it to the people. Talk about excessive overhead, inefficiency, and waste.
Goldman Sachs – The SEC has filed a civil suit against the financial giant accusing them of selling millions in subprime mortgage notes and betting that these investments would fail. Obama is using this incident as a good reason to call for the regulation financial giants. Oddly, Obama received nearly 1 million in campaign contributions from Goldman during his run for presidency.
Water Rights – The current clean water act allows the government to regulate all waters that can be navigated. However, in the latest government power grab, they are attempting to change the language in the bill to cover every puddle, pond, pool, and sink hole.
ObamaCare – A recent Associated Press article reports that health care premiums will go up, not down as Democrats insisted. They report that ObamaCare does not control the cost of rising health care. You can read any number of my blogs to understand why this AP report is true.
Aluminum Cars – There has been speculation that U.S. car manufacturers will have to go to aluminum frames (lighter than steel) to meet mileage standards. Manufacturing aluminum however, gives off more carbon emissions than steel and of course, people will be less safe in these cars.
Auto Industry – Government run GM and Chrysler posted losses in the first quarter of 2010. The good news is that GM has paid off their government bailout loans. Unfortunately, they paid off the loan using taxpayer money.
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