President Obama has expressed an overwhelming desire to pass healthcare reform before the August congressional recess, but this artificial deadline limits the ability of the American people to fully give their input on the legislation.  If the plan is as good as they profess, then Members should be able to lay it out for constituents while they are in their districts in August and gain widespread support.  While the public can certainly contact their representative’s offices to comment, there is no comparison to having a series of town hall meetings around the country that give

By Aren Cambre:

Texas’s 2010 gubernatorial primary is a key battle for the Republican Party's future.

by Dale Davenport
One of my politico buddies was afraid Tom Ridge would run for the U.S. Senate next year and spoil all the fun.
"I was so looking forward to watching Pat Toomey and Peg Luksik move farther and farther right," he said with a smile, "trying to win the same far-right fringe."
And, he wondered, why would Ridge or anyone of similar moderate views want to take on Specter, whose popularity is premised on his refusal to toe the party line when he thinks the party is wrong?

It turns out that the prospect of being hanged really does concentrate the mind.

With a noose of tight credit threatening to choke the economy, the Senate this week set Washington back on track to respond to the turmoil that is destabilizing the financial markets. Eventually, the House seems certain to follow, perhaps by the time you read this. Although more twists may lie ahead, the economic and political risks of inaction make action almost unavoidable.

We do have a major leap in energy prices here in this country. No one can deny that.  The problem is that we have some knuckleheads in Congress dealing with the problem.  Instead of looking were we might come across some more oil for example, Congress narrowly defeated a bill to tax the oil companies more.  Their Profits are too high says those in Congress (mostly the Democrats lead by Pelosi and Reid).  Who gives them the right to decide what is too high?

THE FEDERAL budget is on an autopilot course to ruin. Spending on the three big entitlement programs -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- grows automatically, consuming a large and growing share of the budget with benefits that flow mostly to the elderly. Meantime, there is almost no public discussion about the trade-offs involved: Would the money be better spent on education, homeland security, defense or infrastructure? Even before the baby boomers retire, more than four dollars out of every ten go to these programs; if health-care spending increases at the current rate, within 40 years Medicare and Medicaid alone will amount to as large a share of the economy as the entire federal budget comprises today.

I was very sad to hear the news that Congresswoman JoAnn Davis passed away on Saturday after a battle with breast cancer.