News Round-Up

There's a lot of news to catch up on from the long weekend, so let's get to it:

--President Obama has asked the Senate to move on raising the national debt ceiling to $12 trillion by mid-October. How short his memory span is: in a 2006 speech from the Senate floor, then-Senator Obama remarked about the Bush administration, “Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren... America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.” I concur.

--The United States is no longer considered the "most competitive" economy, according to the World Economic Forum. Switzerland knocked the US from the Forum's top spot following the past year's economic crash.

--Pres. Barack Obama spoke to the country's school students at noon today, calling on them to acknowledge and accept personal responsibility for their actions and future. This public speech comes the day before he plans to ask Congress to approve a national government-run health care plan--you know, for those who don't accept personal responsibility have coverage. [# More #]

--China has signaled that it's worried about the US printing more money to help ease current economic pressures. Cheng Siwei, the head of the Chinese green energy drive, commented that if America keeps "printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies."

--And in other news about America's monetary decline, the United Nations has said that the American dollar shoud be replaced with a "global currency" in an overhaul of the world's monetary system.

--Meanwhile, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez wants to "help" Barack Obama succeed. Shouldn't we be a little worried about this kind of generosity?

--Dem. Senator Max Baucus is calling for fines of up to $3,800 on families who fail to get health insurance after a health care overhaul goes into effect.

--And speaking of health care reform... opponents to tort reform might want to take a look at this report, which shows that budgets for advertising medical malpractice lawsuits in America has grown by 1400% in just the last 4 years--just another piece of evidence that shows we need effective medical liability reform to help reign in rising costs of health care today. In addition, Rasmussen finds that 53% of voters believe controling jury awards in malpractice lawsuits will significantly reduce health care costs.

--And yet another independent organization--this time the Center for Immigration Studies--has declared that HR 3200 would provide health coverage for illegal immigrants, despite Pres. Obama's insistence that it would not.

--White House green jobs advisor Van Jones was fired resigned his post over the weekend in the midst of mounting evidence of a shady past and personal ideology. The White House response: He didn't fill out all his paperwork!

--Most liberals are steaming mad that Jones has lost his role as green jobs czar in the Obama administration, but Arianna Huffington is thanking Glenn Beck for releasing Jones back into society.

--And now that a 9/11 truther has been booted from the White House, news is emerging that Obama's appointee for Undersecretary for Homeland Security Science and Technology has tried to hide the fact she was a lobbyist, yet another violation of Obama's "no lobbyists" pledge.

--And finally, in a speech about "special interests" working to bury Obama's health care overhaul plan, the president spoke to the special interest group AFL-CIO at its annual Labor Day picnic yesterday.