Opinion

This past week House Democrats presented their $3.6 trillion budget resolution – a budget which spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much. The Democrat budget proposes a deficit of $1.2 trillion for 2010, with the national debt climbing to $17.1 trillion.  It also includes one of the largest tax increases in history.  The spending in this budget is so massive that independent estimates suggest roughly 250,000 new federal bureaucrats may be needed to spend it all.

    It’s hip to be “bipartisan.” It has been for quite some time now. But is it really all it’s cracked up to be?

    During his successful run for the presidency, Barack Obama got a lot of mileage out of talking about both parties “working together,” politicians in Washington abandoning their “old ways” and “getting things done” for the American people.

It’s always about the teachers

    I am writing in reference to the letter in your March 11, 2009 edition submitted: By David Goode “Limited Confidence.” While I agree with Mr. Goode and the point he is trying to make, I do take exception with how he goes about it.

    The problem is with one line in his letter stating “Increase Top Management salary while neglecting those who do the real work (Teachers). While I do believe our teachers need to have salaries equal to the surrounding areas, but what about:

I’m pleased to report that last week, Congress took swift, bipartisan, and decisive action to protect taxpayers. After it came to light that insurance companies who had taken billions in bailout funds had paid or intended to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in “retention” bonuses to the very executives who got us into this financial mess, the House put together a plan to block them.

    In Seattle, Washington, it’s affectionately known simply as “the P.I.” The city’s daily newspaper, the “Seattle Post-Intelligencer,” has announced that it will cease publication and convert to an “online only” newspaper.

    The missionary leading our trip gave out the warning: If you have any reservations about taking this hike, don’t take it. A Philippine woman from the area had stated: “Tell the big ones not to go.”

    I went anyway.

School

superintendent appointment

    Based on what I read in the Bedford Bulletin I find myself in the minority in siding with Talbot Huff who recently resigned from the Bedford County school board and Shirley McCabe who cast the only descending vote.   

    The Obama administration sent a clear signal last week that science, not a mixture of religion and conservative political ideology, will be its guide in all matters of public policy.

    The president signed an executive order that reversed Bush administration rules on embryonic stem cell research, opening the way for more federal dollars to be used on activities that could lead to new methods of treatments for Parkinson’s Disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and other ailments.

Sometimes perception is more important than reality. That very well may be the case in the compensation package being proposed for the Dr. Douglas Schuch, the Bedford County School Board’s choice as its new superintendent.