The cost to mail a standard letter is proposed, starting in January, to raise from $.44 to $.46, a 4.5% increase.  This increase will cost Americans an additional $2.3 billion a year.

This is yet another added cost to American consumers.  We need to significantly alter the Post Office.  Here are some thoughts to consider:

• Why do we need the Post Office spending millions of dollars on ads to compete against UPS and FedEx?  If UPS and FedEx can do the job, why do we need the USPS aggressively competing against private industry?
• Do we need six days of Postal service?  Personally, most days a week I don’t receive any mail, or if I do, it’s just junk mail.  Most time-sensitive items that I receive, I receive electronically.  Does the government have a long-term plan, over the next 20-50 years, to phase out the Post Office or at least minimize its use?
• The Post Office offers incredibly generous retirement benefits for their employees.  For example, Postal workers receive paid retirement.  In addition, they receive up to 5% matching of their salary on their equivalent of a 401K.
• Employees also receive up to 26 days of paid vacation per year on top of 13 days paid sick days and ten paid holidays per year.
• According to PayScale.com, the average USPS Mail Carrier earn $21.88 an hour.
• There are 596,000 employees of the USPS.  That makes it the second largest employer in the nation, only behind Walmart.
• We’ve had hikes in postage in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

These are some basic thoughts.  We need a more thorough review of the USPS and its direction before citizens are saddled with yet another pay hike.

A twelve year old student in Schenectady was sent home for wearing a Rosary to school.  Why?  The school administrators said that the Rosary could be gang symbols.  This is a Rosary worn by the young student to remember relatives that have passed on.

You can read about this in the Times Union.

This is in violation of our freedom of religion and freedom of speech and expression.  These are basic rights that must be defended.

Increasingly, our rights are being taken away.  Stories like these serve as a good reminder that we need to protect our freedoms from over-reaching government officials.

The Governor really has lost the forest from the trees.  He has spent a great deal of time on this.  Commissioners, Directors, HR staff, managers and others, from dozens of state agencies have spent weeks discussing and planning this feeble attempt to save a drop in the bucket.

Why?

Realizing this is the end of his political career, Governor David Paterson is going on the offensive, striking down everyone who has ever wronged him, in the waning days of his career.   He feels the unions have it out for him, as they defend their people by standing behind existing contracts.

He is also aiding those who stuck by him.

Several of his staff received double-digit raises, as they were given more responsibilities after many of his staff bailed on him.  The next day, after realizing this looked bad, the raises were canceled.

NYS politicians need to make the tough decisions.  Yes, the deficit needs to be cut, but cut the significant expenditures.

The NYS budget is over $100 billion.  The furlough savings would be less than 1% of the total budget.

New Yorkers need to ride out the last few months of the Paterson Regime.  We must stay united, and hold out hope that our next governor will make common-sense reductions to the state budget and in a consistent manner.

We see it as an entrepreneurial bill.  A bill that says to someone if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work and focus on your skill, your talent, your passion, your aspirations, because you will have health care.  You don’t have to be job-locked.

Here is the video.

With unemployment already around 10%, why is Pelosi urging Americans not to work?  The whole Obama-Reid-Pelosi elitists are completely out of touch.  Do they not know how hard ordinary, decent Americans are already working in order to just pay their own way?  Why would our leaders encourage people to do nothing, and to push their burden on others?

The Democrats are stuck in their Utopian society.  This is America – where hard work is required, and handsomely rewarded.  If someone chooses to quit their job to pursue a music career, and they get sick, they should find a way to pay their own medical bills themselves.  If that means they need to get a paying job, so be it.  If that means they take out loans and are paying it off for the rest of their life, that is fine by me.

Nancy Pelosi’s comments have reminded me of a song…

I don’t want to work
I want to bang on the drum all day
I don’t want to play
I just want to bang on the drum all day

Ever since I was a tiny boy
I don’t want no candy, I don’t need no toy
I’d take a stick and an old coffee can
I’d bang on that thang ’till I got blisters on my hand

Because I don’t want to work
I want to bang on the drum all day (yes, I do)
I don’t want to play
I just want to bang on the drum all day (that’s right)

Now Todd Rundgrens dream can come true.

Many Senators and Congressman are willing to at least talk about the issue.  Senator Reid has even proposed an outline (it may be a self-serving impractical outline, but it’s good to see he knows the topic can’t be ignored).  Senator McCain wants the Federal government to finish building the wall it started but President Obama quashed.

As a candidate on November 15, 2007, Obama said, “As president I will make sure that we finally have the kind of border security that we need.”  Thus far, he has done nothing to improve our borders.  In fact, his own Homeland Security Security Janet Napolitano has said that it’s “as secure now as it’s ever been”, which, of course, is not saying alot.

This all stems from the passage of an Arizona law that does nothing more than reiterate Federal law.  You can read the Arizona law here.  Arizona’s Republican Governor, Jan Brewer, has said she signed the law primarily due to the Federal government’s lack of enforcement of its laws.

Brewer has attacked Napolitano’s statement.  Brewer said regarding the borders, “well, they’ve never been secure.”  Brewer went on to say “We are a gateway for every illegal immigration and criminal element into the United States.”

For myself, the negative reaction to this legislation is perplexing.  There are protests, riots, boycotts, etc all aimed at removing this law.  Even President Obama chimed in (no surprise there since he doesn’t know how to be silent on an issue) and said that he felt the legislation was “misguided.”

However, Arizona was very careful to mirror Federal law.  The new law happily coincides with existing law.  All it does is allow Arizona State enforcement agencies to do exactly what the Federal enforcement agencies should be doing.

President Obama should feel embarrassed that a State feels that his administration is doing such a poor job enforcing the law that they have to do his job.  Instead of feeling embarrassed and admitting his failures, he pushed off addressing the systemic problem until it is more convenient for his political motives.

I hope the Republicans are smart enough to capitalize on this.

So…Did you figure out what’s wrong with the bill?  Hint:  It’s not the bill itself.  I think the concept of free health care for all is very noble.  Just it’s very misguided.  Here are some random thoughts:

* The more benefits people get for being poor ruins incentive to actually work.  I want people to have to work hard in life.  The fear of “what happens if I lose my job” SHOULD be big.  If not, people slack off, and us people who do actually work just pay for their slacking off.

* Why increase taxes so much on successful Americans?  They should be rewarded for their hard-work/determination/inventions/etc.

* The government shouldn’t be able to FORCE innocent people to do anything – especially if the reason is “it’s for your own good.”  Let people decide for themselves.  If they have the money and want the safety of insurance, they will get it.  Otherwise, they are smart enough to know they are risking their financial and physical well-being.  With freedom comes responsibility, and people need to learn that.

* Where does it stop?  What is the next thing the government is going to try to intrude on?

* The process was corrupt.  The bill was created by Democrats with essentially zero input from the Republicans.  The D’s did not invite the R’s to their backroom meetings or White House deals.

* Democrats in the House knew it was such a bad bill that they tried to get it into law without voting on it!  They didn’t want their “Yes” vote in their record!

* Literally, a majority of Americans were opposed to the bill.  It is extreme arrogance on the part of Democrats to say, “I know you don’t like this, but trust us, this is good for you.”

There are many more reasons this is a bad bill for America.  For signing up Americans to pay $1 trillion, it should be something they love, not loathe.

Why did we have to purchase new street signs, and pay people to rip out the old signs and concrete in the new ones?  There were dozens of signs that were replaced.  Sure seems like a waste of taxpayer money.  Were none of them functional any more?

In addition, and what really caught my eye, is that the new signs are harder to read!  They are in “mixed case,” as opposed to the old ones which were all in capital letters.

You be the judge…  If you are in your car, driving 30 miles per hour, is it easier to read “Delaware” or “DELAWARE”?

President Obama asked for an accounting of jobs saved or created.  Why not ask for an accounting of expenses avoided?

Gruber was contracted by HHS for $297,600 to provide “technical assistance” evaluating the various health reform proposals.  His function is to advise internal staff to make a more informed recommendation.

He has publicly defended his support of the tax on “Cadillac insurance plans.”  These public positions – talking to the press, writing articles, etc – were supposedly done on his own time.

So President Obama’s administration hires a non-objective economist to evaluate proposals?  Why?  Can’t we find an objective one that doesn’t need the spot light?

Also, nearly $297,600 was spent obtaining this one person for a short-term contract to evaluate these plans.  Is this cost being included in President Obama’s estimates of how much health care is costing us?  How many more contractors like him exist?  The people deserve to know.

Give us the full cost, President Obama.  Make it transparent, as promised.

The accused Islamic terrorist comes from Nigeria, is a student in London, and received training and materials from Yemen.

As a nation, we need to remember that our “#1 domestic policy” must be to protect our country from attacks.  It certainly properly focuses our attention and priorities.