Senate Health Care Vote

The Senate today voted to end the debate on the Health Care bill after side deal after side deal in which Nebraska will never again have to pay for Medicaid even though this bill will push many people into Medicaid.  The Senate is going to have a final vote on the bill Christmas Eve as they try and rush this bill into law.

New Material

Ok, it has been a while so I want to go over a list of things that have taken place recently.

• Leaders throughout the world are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss climate change and different policies on environmental issues.  One thing that they have been discussing is making more prominent countries, like the U.S., pay developing countries to go "green".  America would have to send payments to China and India.
• Obama just received the Nobel Peace prize.  There has been a lot of controversy around this for many months.  He was nominated just days into office on what he "might" do in his presidency.
• Congress voted down an amendment on health care to not allow federal money to fund abortions.  Up to now people cannot use federal money to fund abortions, but unless it explicitly says in the health care bill that money cannot be used for abortions it still leaves the door open.
• Congress will be voting to raise the debt ceiling.  The government is spending so much money that they have to vote to raise the debt ceiling.  If this does not pass drastic cuts will have to be made and possibly for the better.  

More news to come... stay aware

Job Summit

The President held a jobs summit today at the White House and I wanted to comment on it.  Obama has had many things on his plate since he took office, and people are becoming overly concerned as unemployment has now gone over 10%.  People want to see results considering the massive stimulus package and the bailout of the banks and auto industry.  Some criticism of this job summit is that it doesn't have the US chamber of commerce involved as well as no involvement from small business organizations.  This summit mostly contained academics, big business, and unions.  Whatever the President does it has to happen fast and it must be productive because the economy continues to suffer and more governmental involvement with high spending has not produced the results that he had hoped.

Comments

I heard that some people were having trouble leaving comments, and I think that I have fixed the problem.  If you would, please re-post, I really want to hear what you all think!

What does victory in Afghanistan mean?

Victory in Afghanistan is a highly debatable topic and one that has been thrown around on both sides of the political spectrum.

To me victory means that the Taliban or Al Qaeda no longer has a nation to train forces, maintain forces, and plan attacks towards the United States or her allies.  Al Qaeda has been at war with the U.S. for decades and the citizens of the United States realized this for the first time on Sept. 11.  People that want us to get out of Afghanistan seem to forget the reason we are there is to capture or kill those responsible for that attack.  So far that mission is incomplete with Osama Bin Laden still being at large.

Lets not go into this blindly though.  We are not in the business of nation building, and we do not have the money to stay in Afghanistan for an extended period of time like we already have.  There needs to be a comprehensive balance in which we can complete our mission and return home with a safe ally in Afghanistan that no longer breeds terror.  We cannot forget the destructive attack that came to our shore.

Late Night Snack

Just some things to look for tomorrow.

President Obama will be unveiling his plan for troop deployment in Afghanistan at West Point.

• No matter what decision Obama makes we are at a crossroads in Afghanistan.  All indications are that Obama will send 30,000 new troops to the theater, and attach many stipulations for the Afghan government to increase their civilian forces.  
• Earlier in the week Obama also made it clear that regardless of the progress the United States will withdraw from Afghanistan within 8 years.  

One last thought: Iran capturing 5 British in their waters will really strain the talks the international community is trying to have with Iran on their nuclear proliferation.  American forces surging into Afghanistan and the continuation of Taliban forces flowing across the border to Pakistan is making the Middle East a very problematic and complicated situation for the United States and her allies.