Obama Seeking Tax Increase in Budget Plan

President Barack Obama proposed almost $1 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade on the highest earning Americans. Obama’s 2010 budget proposal would reinstate the top two Clinton era tax rates of 36 percent and 39.6 percent, up from the 33 percent and 35 percent the richest Americans pay now. This would affect about 2.6 million taxpayers.

Obama speech to the Congress

Last night was Barack Obama's speech to congress. I thought it was a good confident booster to those he is helping. I know some of the issues he addressed made me feel better to know that he was handling some of our problems. Lowering Health Insurance, making our educational system more efficient, and cutting taxes for people who earn below a quarter million(250,000) a year. He is also addressing the energy sources issue, as well as medicine. Let see what is coming to us in the next coming years and hopefully we will come out even stronger.

Obama heads to meet with Canada's Prime Minister

President Obama meeting with Canada's prime minister on his first official trip abroad. Obama warned against a "strong impulse" toward protectionism while the world suffers a global economic recession and said efforts to renegotiate NAFTA will have to wait. Obama said he wants to find a way to keep his campaign pledge to add labor and environmental standards to the continent's trade agreements without interrupting trade. This sounds good; maybe we will get out of this with some help from our neighboring countries. Obama said during the campaign that he would consider opting out of NAFTA if he was unable to renegotiate it.

Obama sending more troops

The United States will put pressure this week on its NATO allies to increase their commitments to Afghanistan. U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered in 17,000 more troops to battle a downhill insurgency. He announced the troops were needed to "stabilize a deteriorating situation." I thought he was supposed to get us out of this stupid conflict? We will need to watch very closely what he is doing overseas and make sure were not heading to another world war. The U.S. troop increase will bring U.S. numbers in Afghanistan to around 55,000. Allies from 40 other mostly NATO countries have around 30,000 in total.

Compromise met on Stimulus Package

The $789 billion plan slims down some of the tax breaks in the Senate's version of the bill and restores some spending for school repair and construction and state assistance in the House version. The total is lower than the stimulus bills passed separately by the House and Senate. There will be more than one-third of the bill is dedicated to tax cuts for the middle class. This sounds fantastic, more jobs and school repairs. The economists are urging in their prediction that if we do not act, we face a potential catastrophe and a depression like in 1929. This plan creates 3.5 million jobs for those who are jobless. It is possible the House could take the bill as early as Thursday and the Senate possibly on Friday.

Obama going Green

Barack Obama shows action on the energy front who ordered his government on Thursday to establish higher efficiency standards for household appliances such as dishwashers, lamps and microwave ovens. This sounds great to me; it will help cope with our environmental problems. This will save consumers money, this will spark innovation, and this will conserve vast amounts of energy. Obama has taken a major step toward letting California and other states target greenhouse gases through stricter auto emission standards. And he has also ordered new federal rules directing automakers to start making more fuel efficient cars as required by law.

Children's Health Insurance

President Barack Obama signed a bill Wednesday expanding the health coverage to 4 million uninsured children.The bill went to the White House fresh from passage on a vote of 290-135. I think this is a good thing for our country. Our children now will be the future of this country, so we must help them succeed. It will provide millions of uninsured children with important health care coverage.
The bill calls for spending an additional $32.8 billion on the State Children's Health Insurance Program, known as SCHIP, which now has an estimated 7 million children. They came up with the money by raising the federal tobacco tax. This news sounds great to me. There will be less children smoking and more health coverage. It will definitely take down the number of people smoking.