Today is a pretty slow day in
kitchentable News but one major development sticks out:
Bush's secret plan to make drastic cuts in education and health care to finance his tax cuts for millionaires if he gets re-elected. (1. & 2.)I will definitely keep you updated as more information comes in on this. Over all there is some pretty good news out today- economic growth is up (6), health care premiums are slowing their rate of increase (7), oil prices appear to be falling (5).
In other topics, while it might appear to some from my choice of topic area that I am a big liberal I do have some conservative tendencies or at least some tendencies that don't match up to most people's concepts of liberal. I hesitate to call them conservative tendencies because its so hard to know what is truly conservative anymore post-Bush. An example of my non-liberal tendencies is my unequivocal support for free-trade(3.). I think that trade produces more and better jobs for our country- it might create tough encomic transition periods but it is the job of government to give people the resources they need to be ready for changes in the job market and to provide a real safety net for those that fall between the cracks.
I am what I like to call a new populist. I believe deeply in people and in progressive programs in education, health care, housing and so forth but at the same time we live in a new global world of technology and instant communication which means our goals have to be made with those new conditions in mins. That's why I oppose internet taxation and support the deregulation of information and believe heartily that one of our most important goals of the next generation is bridging the digital divide. Information, now more than ever, is power. Enjoy and please put in your 2 cents.
Site of the Day: Bureau of Labor Statistics - This is a page where you can find a lot of the latest numbers that the Bush administration would rather not feel obligated to release. It includes the latest job numbers, CPI, wage levels, and much much more.
- WaPo - 2006 Cuts In Domestic Spending On Table
- and a great discussion specifically on this topic from romantotale.
- WaPo - Trade and Mr. Kerry
- WaPo - The First Enron Trial
- WaPo - Stocks Up as Oil Prices Fall
- WaPo - First-Quarter Economic Growth Numbers Released
- NyT - Increases in Health Care Premiums Are Slowing
- JK - Kerry Pushes Plan for Energy Independence