AARP Support

With the current debate over health care, the AARP supports Democrats in their plan to cut $460 billion in Medicare to pay for landmark health insurance legislation. As Republicans wanted to restore the cuts, the AARP said Democrats were only recommending elimination of waste and inefficiency within the health care program for seniors. Barry Rand, the AARP's CEO, said that the legislation doesn't reduce any Medicare benefits. Republicans led by Sen. John McCain, said seniors would lose some of their add-on benefits that are part of their coverage under private insurance Medicare. he believes we shouldn't use "Medicare as a piggy bank" to pay for other programs. Democrats supporting a proposal made by Sen. Michael Bennet, said the bill wouldn't cause any sort of reduction in guaranteed Medicare benefits. Overall the legislation is designed to extend health care to millions of Americans who lack coverage, prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions and slow the rate of growth n medical spending. Most Americans would be required to have health insurance, while employers wouldn't be obligated to provide it and huge companies would face penalties if they didn't and their workers received federal subsidies to help defray their personal insurance costs.  

Senators Working on Financial Reform

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd asked important members of his committee to form bipartisan groups as part of an effort to "break the logjam" on financial reform legislation. The idea for this new plan came up on Saturday night right after the health care vote, this plan calls for each 2 people team to focus on one of the complicated issues that is included in the 1,136 page discussion draft that Dodd unveiled a couple weeks ago on Nov. 14. Dodd will pair up with Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama to work on two of the most difficult and controversial elements: prudential regulation of banks and consumer protection. Dodd proposed to create a single federal banking regulator out of the many agencies that supervise them, including removing the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s bank supervisory powers. A new measure to create a new consumer financial protection agency that the Obama administration wants has emerged as the biggest partisan issue of the reform debate. Sens. Jack Reed and Judd Gregg will focus on tackling derivatives and credit rating agencies. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Mike Crapo will work on executive compensation and corporate governance and Sens. Mark Warner and Bob Corker will work on two of the more complicated pieces: systemic risk and resolution authority.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

President Obama predicts that main plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be convicted and put to death because of the 9/11 attacks. US Attorney General Eric Holder assured lawmakers that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would not be set free even if he is acquitted by a jury in New York. Obama believes "these terrorists possess some special powers that prevent us from presenting evidence against them, locking them up and exacting swift justice." He also acknowledged the fact that he won't be able to meet the January 22,2010 deadline he announced on his second day in office for closing the Guantanamo Bay prison. Holder explains this delay for having to face "unexpected difficulties to reach that goal." He hopes to overcome this problem by finding destinations for those detainees that have been cleared for release. Holder believes that "failure isn't an option" and that these are cases that need to be won and doesn't expect any other result. Critics have warned that civilian trials will give the accused more rights and that as a result could set a precedent that could change how the US military gets intelligence from suspected terrorists captured overseas. the five men face trial just a few blocks away from Ground Zero where many lost their lives after Al-Qaeda extremists flew hijacked airliners into the towers. Relatives of the victims of 9/11 denounced Holder's decision. But he still believes that by bringing prosecutions to both courts and military commissions, the final steps to justice are being taken.

Bill O'Reilly and Rachel Maddow

Bill O'Reilly can be described as a man with not so liberal views who has a conservative view when it comes to immigration because as he states in his show with Geraldo Rivera as his guest, he believes that no one should enter the country illegally and that the border should be kept secured. He believes illegal immigrants "have no right to be here" and should be deported when they commit any type of crime. I could tell that those who watch his show are those that really share the same views he has because he constanly brings up his own opinions and those with more liberal views who don't agree with him are less likely to watch it.


Rachel Maddow can best be described as a a person who tends to have more liberal views because throughout this short video from her show she talks about the whole new tea party event that happened a couple months ago with a sarcastic tone. She criticizes the whole movement and even laughs when she explains what has happened and laughs when she talks about how Republicans were even promoting the whole thing. She even admits that she can't keep a straight face and can't stop laughing. I could really tell that people with more liberal views watch her show because she practically makes fun of Republicans and conservatives as well as the TV anchors from FOX news who report the tea party news.

Media Research Center and FAIR

Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) mainly focuses on a diversity in the press, they deliver the news honestly without censoring anything. They tend to incorporate their own opinions into the article they are writing while being completely honest. They also tend to provide constructive critique along with using sarcasm when it comes to covering different issues or news. FAIR believes that it is necessary to have an "independent, aggressive and critical media" in order to have a successful democracy, this is why they provide their news in a straightforward way without censoring anything. They cover all sorts of news without being biased and criticize the different actions that politicians have taken as well as headlines that have made the news recently. In one of their articles they criticize the New York Times for using words in one of their health care articles that are intended to send a political message about what policy ideas are wise and which aren't. 

When it comes to the Media Research Center, they mostly focus on having a more conservative view on different topics and also provide counter arguments that are presented with a more liberal view. The also criticize past actions that have been taken that they believe should have been approached with a different view, like in one of their articles where they criticized Larry King for asking former Miss California Carrie Parjean many questions because she doesn't believe in gay marriage and has expressed many conservative views. They believe it wasn't right for him to ask her so many questions because they think the only reason he was persistent was because she has expressed in the past many conservative views. They tend to feel as if people with conservative views are attacked by a person with a more liberal view. 

Political Cartoons

The political cartoon illustrated by Trever is criticizing the health care reform because it is causing the unemployment rate to increase and the economy is just going down the drain. He is pretty much blaming the high rate of unemployment on health care because of all the time that is being spent to fix it instead of focusing on other important issues. As politicians continue to fix health care the economy and unemployment rate keep suffering. They are currently only focused on health care forgetting and almost ignoring the suffering economy outside the whole health care issue.

Eagen is criticizing the war because eve

n though the U.S. is wiling to help, the Afghans aren't really grateful because

 they still hate the U.S. They only want to be "friends"and form a "lasting friendship" when they find it convenient. They don't care about what the U.S. does all they want is for additional troops without thinking about what the consequences are. The U.S. is willing to actually provide all the necessary help their government and people might need but they don't care about where the help comes from, they only care about when they will be getting that help. 

The Obama administration is so focused with health care that it's forgetting or ignoring the fact that the economy can't afford it right now. It's necessary to first focus on the economy because that is the only way it can achieve a successful health care reform. Health care reform has been pushed for so long ignoring the fact that the country has other more important issues that need to be solved and health care is being placed atop all of those issues.  The main focus so far has been on health care without realizing that we can't afford it.

After having a war for so long many innocent soldiers have died because more and more troops are being sent to fight. The number of troops that are being requested keep increasing and as a result more innocent lives are being lost on the battlefield. The problem in Afghanistan is like a never ending problem because the U.S. is pretty much in a hole. It's going to take a long time to help and fix the Afghanistan government. 

Obama Wants Change in War Plans

President Barack Obama isn't planning on accepting any of the Afghanistan war options proposed by his national security team, he instead wants revisions that would clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn the responsibility of the government back to the Afghans. Military officials said Obama has asked for a new strategy and is resisting Gen. Stanley McChrystal's recommendation for more troops. Obama was considering options that include adding an additional 30,000 or more troops to take on the Taliban in main areas of Afghanistan and make time for their small forces to take over. The other options were troop increases from a small number to the 40,000 that the U.S. general in Afghanistan wants. The Obama administration wants to make it clear that U.S. commitment in Afghanistan is not open-ended because the war is now in its ninth year and is claiming the lives of many Americans at a rapid pace as a result of the Taliban being in control in many parts of the country. Military officials believe one approach is a plan that would add 30,000 or more troops adding onto the 68,000 already in the country. They describe this plan as "half and half" because half would be fighting and half would be training and "holding ground" so the Afghans can regroup. Officials believe Obama is considering possibilities for military expansion and that his decision will cover changes that are beyond adding more troops. Training and partnership operation with Afghan forces would be part of that effort even though expansion of better trained Afghan forces has always been part of the U.S. objective and the key to an eventual allied exit from Afghanistan.  

Creating Jobs

With unemployment rising and expected to hit the double digits soon when lawmakers run for reelection next year, President Obama urged his economic advisers to come up with ideas that would create new jobs when he met with business executives, labor officials and economists. Obama is concerned that the stimulus legislation passed in February won't do enough to turn things around. Obama promised his administration won't rest until they succeed in "generating the jobs that this economy needs." He finds it extremely necessary for his administration to do something about the job losses because of the severity in the number of jobs that were lost earlier this year, he believes it will take "some bold, innovative action" on everyone's part including his own and Congress. Panel members told Obama that the administration should focus on three areas when creating jobs: exports, infrastructure and energy-efficiency technology. While Obama talks daily about green jobs and environmentally friendly technology, one panel member argued that such a transition won't benefit the country unless certain policies make companies become more competitive. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt told Obama that the industries that made jobs grow in the past 2 decades aren't reliable to do that as the economy recovers. And when it comes to exporting, the US economy is way behind competitors, but he believes that the US could actually create between 3 million and 5 million jobs by simply doubling exports. 

Unpopular Biden

Biden's popularity has decreased in the past year with a recent poll this week showing that a favorable opinion of Biden has dropped by 42% and 40% of Americans view him unfavorably; this has been his worst evaluation since the national convention. Pollsters and experts wonder what the decrease in these numbers reveal about the public's feelings on Biden and his expanding role in the government as vice president or if it's simply exaggerated by Obama's high popularity and the state of the economy. Gallup Poll Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport thinks this is a "fascinating and important question" because he hasn't been in the news with any sort of highly negative coverage since he was first sworn in and there hasn't been any type of scandal that he's been involved in. When comparing Biden with other vice presidents like Al Gore and Dick Cheney, Joe Biden is far less popular than both of them were in the first year they took office. But many observers believe that Biden's decrease in popularity is just a reflection of Obama's decline in the polls, something that was expected and even though Biden’s press coverage has been for the most part favorable he can't avoid being "playing second fiddle" to the president leaving him with a very little amount of opportunity to boost his ratings. If the people are unhappy and the government isn't doing so well, they tend to blame both the president and the vice president and as a result the president and vice president become less popular. With the economy in terrible shape this year, pollster Scott Rasmussen believes that people should focus more on important issues instead of focusing on ratings. Instead of caring more about who is more popular people should instead be more interested in what exactly the president and vice president are doing to help the nation.

New Regulations

More than 70 million Americans who have health insurance through their jobs could experience higher costs or denials of certain coverages under a plan that is making its way through Congress because large employers that assume the cost and risk of health coverage for their workers wouldn't have to follow the same rules and restrictions that would be imposed on health insurers in a measure that has already been approved by the Senate Finance Committee. Large companies who already offer their workers coverage are really trying to keep the status quo and protect themselves from the new regulations and requirements in the health measure that is still being negotiated by the Obama administration and Democrats. Despite President Obama's promise that people will no longer experience being denied insurance because of a health condition or facing limits or high costs for simple services and treatments, a large number of workers wouldn't enjoy the same guarantees as others. Several big business groups have already joined together as the National Coalition on Benefits to maintain their special status that take on the risks and costs associated with insuring their own workers. They want to continue extending health insurance to their workers without insurance regulations like governing what services must be covered and regulations that decide when a person can be denied coverage. Firms that already offer coverage provide generous benefits and are already subject to certain federal requirements, most of them cover anyone regardless of their medical history or health status. But many lawmakers still believe they should follow the same strict requirements that health insurance companies would have to follow under the new system. They believe many workers would actually end up with really high health expenses if the companies don't follow these new rules.

Never Ending War

President Obama's war council is planning a new role for Pakistan in the 8 year war against al-Qaida, after concluding that there is no way the US can win in Afghanistan or succeed in the war against al-Qaida without the cooperation of Pakistan. President Obama planned many meetings with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to discuss the "unpopular" war in Afghanistan, including a meeting on Friday where they might finally decide how many more troops would be needed to fight in this war after many more troops were requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the number isn't exactly known, but it is estimated to range from 10,000 to 40,000 combat troops. A senior pentagon believes that the Obama administration's delay in deciding on a strategy for the war has caused European allies to postpone deciding how much more money should be provided for the war. Obama's national security team marked the 8th year anniversary with a three-hour session in the White House basement. Obama and his aides are proud of recent successes against al-Qaida through targeted missile strikes and raids in Pakistan and elsewhere; he believes that as a result, al-Qaida has "lost operational capacity." The Pakistani government has demonstrated a new willingness to fight extremists, but these operations are causing problems and controversy throughout Pakistan. Gen. McChrystal's request for additional troops will determine what the Obama administration decides and what happens next.

I'm a Liberal!

According to the typology test, I am a liberal. Liberals are opposed to assertive foreign policy, secular and have very liberal views when it comes to homosexuality, abortion and censorship. They are different from other Democratic groups because they are pro-environment and pro-immigration. Liberals also have a strong preference for diplomacy rather than military force and favor environmental protection. They're sympathetic to any group of immigrants and labor unions and are opposed to the anti-terrorism Patriot Act.  

I agree with my results because I support gay marriage, I think everyone should have the right to marry anyone they love regardless if they're the same gender or not.  When it comes to foreign affairs, I think that war isn't always the answer because it isn't necessary to spend an enormous amount of money when there are other solutions available.  

More Troops in Afghanistan

The US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, will request more troops in Afghanistan this week, but the Obama administration will decide on a solution once a review on war strategy is completed. Defense Secretary Robert Gates wasn't planning on presenting the troop request from General McChrystal to President Obama until strategy discussions on the Afghan mission were finished. Pentagon press secretary Geof Morrell, told reporters that it was "premature to consider additional resources" until an evaluation of the war effort submitted by General McChrystal was fully reviewed. He went on further to say that Secretary Gates understands that it's a huge decision for the president and he wants to make sure that he and the president feel comfortable with their decision before sending troops off to battle. Secretary Gates hasn't publicly indicated his stand-point but his perspective could play an important role in Obama's decision. The exact number of troops Gen. McChrystal plans to request is still unclear, but it is estimated to range from 10,000 to 30,000 to help defeat the "tide" against Taliban insurgents. The defense secretary hadn't decided whether or not more troops are needed in Afghanistan. The head of central command, General David Petraeus, said that "the most senior leadership" plan to have many important meetings over the next several weeks to discuss the future in Afghanistan. Democrats in Congress continue to feel anxious over the Afghan mission because of the rising numbers in casualties, a disputed election and the decrease in public support for the war. It's estimated that there are about 65,000 US troops in Afghanistan right now and it is expected to reach 68,000 by the end of the year. Gen. McChrystal's request for more troops is crazy and absurd because I think this war has been going on for too long already and more and more troops continue to lose their lives in war.

Health Plan Without Republican Support?

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus proposed a health care system that has been outlined by the president and has been criticized as being overly expensive by republicans. The Finance Committee is supposed to meet next week to vote on the plan and then after combining it with another bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid, plans to begin debating on the Senate by late this month or early next month. Baucus believes that "we can't let this opportunity pass," as his $856 billion plan is designed to protect millions of Americans who have unreliable health insurance or simply no health insurance at all. Experts believe the proposal would reduce the number of the uninsured by 29 million over the coming decade. They also predict that the plan would lower the federal deficits by $49 billion during the same period and savings estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars that might also result in the coming decade. Many of the bill's important provisions would be delayed until 2013, after the next presidential election. Baucus has made the main compromise of allowing cooperatives, instead of the federal government, to sell insurance in competition with private industry to gain Republican support. But it's had a great impact in this unsuccessful search for Republican support as it wasn't welcomed well and was judged harshly by others. Supporters believe the co-ops would compete successfully with private companies and it would also help maintain the cost of insurance low, but the Congressional Budget Office believes that it is "unlikely to establish a significant market presence," as a result it is more likely to strengthen advocates of government competition. Baucus remains optimistic as he told reporters that he expects to gain bipartisan support before the bill emerges from committee by next week. His plan would require insurance companies to sell coverage to everyone seeking it, without leaving out those with pre-existing medical conditions. It would also create insurance exchanges in the states where companies could sell policies that meet a criteria set by the government, with financial support available for lower-income people and families who are unable to afford coverage; any policy offered for sale in the exchanges would have to cover dental, prescription drug, mental health and vision services. His plan sounds like a fair plan so hopefully he is able to gain support from both Democrats and Republicans in the time coming. Most Americans are waiting and hoping for a bipartisan plan to be introduced really soon.

Withdrawal Plan for Iraq

The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, informed Congress that it is still on track to remove combat troops in Iraq by next August despite all of the new attacks. But lawmakers are concerned that even though violence has decreased, Iraqi troops aren't ready to take control of the country and maintain security with little or no help at all from the U.S. Hill believes that the recent bombings in Iraq has demonstrated that the Iraqis have moved past fighting a civil war. He is confident that the Iraqi government is able to stand on its own even though it is still necessary to deal with al-Qaida. He also believes that Iraqi forces have progressed over time and that now they are respected from ordinary Iraqis because they are committed to their job when they provide security for them. In July, Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke about the possibility of bringing home some 5,000 troops early from Iraq if violence continues to decrease despite this year's upcoming Iraqi national elections. While Lt. Gen. Charles Jacoby believes that only time will tell when Americans should be withdrawn completely from Iraq. Meanwhile, the American commander in Iraq told reporters at the Pentagon, that it is too soon to tell whether troops will be withdrawn by next year. Republican Senator of Indiana addressed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee saying that while the president and vice president continue to talk about withdrawing troops by next year, they "don't have a clear understanding of how that withdrawal will occur." But despite everything, Hill remains confident that America is prepared to withdraw all of its combat troops by next August and that the U.S. is working on developing a relationship with Iraq. Time is the only factor that will determine when it's appropriate to remove all troops stationed in Iraq and it's important to make this one of the main issues in the country because American troops have been in Iraq for a really long time.

More Americans Living in Poverty

The government is looking at whether to adopt the National Academy of Science's formula to count the number of Americans that are living in poverty; this formula would take into consideration the costs of medical care and other important necessities like transportation, child-care and housing costs. This new formula would show a significant rise in the poverty rate among older Americans as it would increase the poverty rate for Americans 65 and over from 3.6 million Americans to 6.8 million Americans. The new measure would consider everyday costs of necessities besides just food. If this formula is adopted it would eventually lead to changes in how billions of dollars for the poor are spent on health, housing, nutrition and child-care benefits. The overall poverty rate would also increase from 12.5% to 15.3%, this would mean a total of 45.7 million people. The rate for children under 18 living in poverty would decline to 17.9% and the number of single mothers who receive food stamps, would decline in rates of poverty. Large cities with higher costs of living might see higher rates, while rural areas in the Midwest and the South might actually see declines. The rate for "extreme" poverty, that is falling below 50% of the poverty line, would decrease because of housing and other benefits and immigrant poverty rates would increase because of the costs of transportation and low involvement in the government. All of these changes have been discussed for years and both Democrats and Republicans agree that it is necessary to adopt a new measure because the older one is outdated. This formula should be considered to be adopted because all these factors would influence how money gets spent and it would actually benefit many Americans. Americans who don't receive any or little help, would be assisted and it would also be very significant because the government is dealing with an economic crisis right now and the money that is being spent to help the poor should take into regard all of the circumstances that people live under. Just like other issues that are already discussed, it will take a long time to decide whether or not this measure is going to be adopted.

Worldwide Recession Coming to an End?

With recent improvements in the economy of Europe, Asia and the U.S.. hopes are being raised that the worldwide recession might be coming to an end pretty soon. But experts believe it might not be over as soon as we hope it would. Many question if the top economies of the world can actually maintain recoveries after stimulus spending and easy-credit policies have been in place for quite some time now and there has been a considerable absence of consumer spending. It is also believed that it will be really hard for other countries to come out of their recession if the U.S. doesn't come out of its recession and begins growing again. After an alarming fall in Europe in late 2008, France and Germany have reported a small improvement in their economy this year. Other European countries have also reported a small improvement even though they are still struggling and having a hard time with their economy. China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea have also began seeing recoveries thanks to government stimulus spending. Russia, one of the hardest hit countries has also began to become stabalize even after oil prices dropped and many foreign investors left the country. According to the Federal Reserve, things here in the U.S. seem to be "leveling out." But until consumers begin spending again and people continue to lose jobs, any recovery or improvement is still questionable. Retailers in the U.S. reported that consumers continue to control all of their spendings and consumers haven't seen any change in their lives despite everything. So many jobs have been lost since the recession first began that many experts belive that the unemployment rate will remain high even after the economy really begins to show improvement. Many unemployed Americans have lost unemployment and other benefits and are now spending their savings and others are saving more than they are spending. the latest statistics suggested that the recession is already in its final moments, while others suggest that it is already over. But economists continue to have mixed feelings and some continue to be optmistic about what the future holds for the economy. We still have a long way to go and we don't know what the future might hold for us but it is always important to remain optimistic in times like these. We have already began to show a slight improvement and maybe things will be back to normal really soon.

"Public Option" Important?

The debate over health care reform has become the dividing line between Democrats and Republicans. Most Democrats argue that any health care reform must include the choice of federal coverage, while Republicans can only see it as a step towards "government takeover" and Obama seems to be in the middle of everything. Policy experts believe that the federal plan will eventually become one of the largest insurer providers in the country, this would mean a large expansion in the government's responsibility. But despite everything, Democrats continue to debate whether health care should be available to all Americans or through private insurers for most Americans like it has for the past years. As a former breast cancer patient, Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Senator John Edwards, can see that so many people can't afford any type of health insurance and she feels like it's really important to do something about it. She became a strong advocate for a health care plan with a public option proposal that was first unveiled in 2007 by her husband. Before the 2008 presidential campaign a health care reform bill was only talked about, but now it has a become a major issue that needs to be addressed. Jacob Hacker, a political scientist, proposed a plan he called "Medicare Plus" in 2001, ths would give employers the choice to either offer private insurance or coverage through a government health plan similar to Medicare. Estimates showed that his public option plan would actually end up covering most of workers and their families and the government would have an important role in all of this. It's definately a tough job for everyone in the White House, but I think that a solution will definately come soon.

Deficit Increase to $9 Trillion

Senior administration officials believe that the White House is more likely to have an increase of nearly $2 trillion in its estimated 10-year budget deficit nest week. The Obama administration has concluded that the economy last year was much worst than expected and tax revenues are extremely lower than what they had expected. This means that the estimated deficit will escalate from $7 trillion to about $9 trillion in the coming decade. This new revision will definitely be taken as really awful and terrible news for the Obama administration as Republicans have already began accusing Obama of "budget-busting" spending. Even Obama political supporter and billionaire investor, Warren Buffett, wrote in a letter that massive amount of spending leaves the country in unknown "fiscal territory" and that the government needs to take aggressive and essential steps to cut back on spending after the economy begins to blossom again because spending is only necessary in the short term. This is the reason any increase or worsening of the deficit is very much likely to be seen as negative for the White House. Everyone needs to understand that in order to overcome this recession it is necessary and important to do some stimulus spending to help the economy and everyone else. This is the only way the economy can be helped and everyone just needs to relax and be patient to see what happens next and only hope that the best will come in the coming years. The economy will prosper in the future once the administration takes all of the necessary steps and measures.

Coming Soon... Health Care Reform

Obama recently addressed the debate over health care reform guaranteeing people that a health care reform will get done in no time. He has recently been struggling to regain force on a bill that would extend health care coverage to almost 50 million Americans who don't have health insurance and face extremely high costs. Opponents have overwhelmed supporters for the past month in town halls all around the country and public supporters for Obama's health care reform have recently reduced in public opinion polls. He also addressed untrue claims that a new health care reform will provide health care for illegal immigrants, create "death panels" and pay for abortion with taxpayers' money by simply saying that we must "cut through the noise and misinformation" and continue "pushing the truth." I think it's important for everyone to know what exactly this health care bill would do before they start protesting or complaining about something that isn't even true because it just makes them look like ignorants. He admitted that health care is the toughest fight he has faced in office since becoming president as he faces many opponents who insist that any type of health care reform must include a government-run insurance option and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that the House of Representatives won't pass any bill without it. But Obama assured everyone that he is doing everything he can to create a bipartisan plan where both parties can come to an agreement. Who knows when they will finally come to an agreement but it will hopefully come really soon because many are waiting for a health care reform to happen now. While Obama is still looking for Republican support, Democrats are preparing for a one-party push they feel is inevitable.

Increase In Poor and Uninsured

The number of poor and uninsured Americans are increasing greatly with now more than 38.8 million Americans believed to be living in poverty. It is estimated that the release of the 2008 census data will show a large increase of the poverty rate to at least 12.7%. In 2007, the poverty rate was up to 12.5%, that is 37.3 million people, compared with last year, this means an increase of more than 1.5 million people. The number of uninsured Americans is also very likely to increase because of the rising unemployment numbers and the deterioration of private coverage paid by employers and individuals, this is compared to last year when the number of uninsured dropped by more than 1 million because of government programs for the poor like Medicaid. But these numbers are more likely to be "the tip of the iceberg" of the actual number since the poverty rate has the tendency to grow rapidly over time and it was estimated earlier this year that poverty could eventually be up to 14.8% or more if unemployment reaches 10% like many analysis predict. Many believe that the numbers will keep increasing and as much as no one wants this to happen it seems like that is more likely to happen because more and more people are losing their jobs and many continue to be uninsured. We, as a nation, have the tendency to look the other way when so many people around us are poor, but now as we go through a recession we seem to focus more on the rising numbers and we forget that we can all do something to help those who have been less fortunate because of the recession. It will take a lot of time for the Obama administration to do something about the growing number of people who continue to lose their jobs, but they are doing everything they possibly can to help the nation and those who are unemployed. The release of the rising numbers of the poverty-stricken and uninsured could have a great impact as Congresses addresses health care reform, its cost and the way to pay for it.