What's Going on in Washington, April.

Financial Reform has been on President Obama’s April Agenda especially as it pertains to Wall Street and other big business like Goldman Sachs.

The Plan is devised into three key goals, some pain points are:

1. Holding Wall Street Accountable. Greater regulation, and creation of a mechanism that would prevent a company from becoming “too big to fail.”

2. Changing Credit Card Practice. Mandating brokers to use plain language when families want to buy y a home, and eliminating overdraft fees.
3.“Market Discipline Is Not Enough." Increasing company regulation.

The republicans in congress have a equal concern for the bailout situation and have often referred to it as a “bailout era”, this would supposedly end under their watch. Republicans have drafted a plan, the key premise being rather than institutionalizing bail-outs, the Republican plan ends the era of bailouts. Creating a new chapter of the bankruptcy code to make it more efficient and better suited for winding down large non-bank financial institutions. The idea is to stop the politicization of the economy by preventing the government from picking winners and losers in the marketplace. Also, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be led to gradually privatize. Those agencies as well as Credit Rating agencies would have to compete fairly in the market.

Fortunately, bipartisan meetings are being held to address the need for Wall Street and Overall financial reform, plans should be-come definite this Summer 2010.

Domestic Terrorism Grows

Texas Terrorist

In a disgusting act of violence with little indication of political leaning, 53 year old Andrew Joseph Stack of Northern Austin, Texas flew a Piper Cherokee PA-28 airplane into an IRS building where nearly 200 employees of the Internal Revenue Service were starting their workday.
The pilot apparently died in the crash , but late February 18th
2010, two bodies were pulled from the site, though the authorities would not discuss the identities of those found. Within hours of the crash, before the death or even the identity of the pilot had been con-firmed, officials ruled out any connection to terrorist groups or causes.
“I knew Joe had a hang-up with the I.R.S. on account of them breaking him, taking his savings away,” said Jack Cook, the stepfather of Mr. Stack’s wife, in a telephone interview from his home in Oklahoma. “And that’s undoubtedly the reason he flew the airplane against that building. Not to kill people, but just to damage the I.R.S.” In a six-page statement signed “Joe Stack (1956-2010)” and posted on a Web site connected to Mr. Stack’s wife, the author singled out the tax agency as a source of suicidal rage, concluding, “Well, Mr. Big Brother I.R.S. man, let’s try something different, take my pound of flesh and sleep well.” a portrait emerged of Mr. Stack as a man pushed over the brink by retirement dreams deferred by a long series of financial setbacks.

Jihad jane
A woman accused of trolling the Internet as Jihad Jane and agreeing to marry a suspected terrorist and kill a Swedish artist targeted by radical Muslims cooperated with authorities, a congressman said. Colleen LaRose, 46, pleaded not guilty March 18th of 2010, to the four-count indictment at a brief arraignment in federal court in Philadelphia. The hearing marked her first public appearance after six months of detention following her unannounced arrest in October. LaRose was accused of conspiring with fighters overseas and pledging to commit murder in the name of a Muslim holy war, or jihad. The arraignment lasted only minutes. LaRose uttered— "not guilty" — when asked her plea charges for stealing her boyfriends passport and attempting to commit acts of violence.When the FBI interviewed her about more than a year's worth of online posts and messages, including a 2008 YouTube video in which she said she was "desperate to do something" to ease the suffering of Muslims, she denied to agents that she had used the screen name Jihad Jane or had sent any of the messages recovered.
LaRose's live-in boyfriend of five years, Kurt Gorman has said that he knew nothing of her interest in Islam and that she disappeared without saying a word. She is among a short list of women charged in the U.S. with terrorist activities.

What's going on in Washington, March.

President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, March 23rd; two days after the House passed the legislation in a 219-212 vote.

The President on Sunday acknowledged that the bill was surrounded by controversy, but applauded the House for acting on one of his signature campaign promises. "This is what change looks like," Mr. Obama said. "I know this wasn't an easy vote for a lot of people. But it was the right vote." Republicans (and perhaps the 34 democrats who voted against the bill) still attest that the bill was crafted behind closed doors and should be as bi-partisan as possible because healthcare hold such significance nationally. Now that the House, has passed the Senate's health care bill and sent it to the president's desk, state lawmakers and attorneys are lining up to challenge its constitutionality and attempt to kill the bill in the highest courts.

They are expected to sue over the bill's mandate that requires everyone to buy health insurance. "The health care reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives this last night clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and infringes on each state's sovereignty," McCollum said in a statement.


The YBC wonders…if 50 million people were uninsured, and now 32million are (insured), how can the 18 million without insurance be mandated to pay for this measure, let alone those who do not support the reform at all? And is Obama forgetting about his pledge? You know, the one what said he would issue an executive order "clarifying" abortion language in the Senate bill?

So what’s the upside? Well, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the pas-sage of the bill will ensure lower premiums over time? How much? We’re talking circa 4 years since 2014 was the projector date used for the analysis. But how does the bill affect us now?

To start, student loans interest rates will rise, how-ever, this is said to be balanced with the student’s ability to remain under their parents insurance until the age of 26. Along with hundreds of millions of wasteful dollars going to combat childhood obesity, restaurants will be under new legislation to provide nutrition menus effective immediately. Yes, this is change alright, but is all change good?

We shall see.