Real problems for congress to address (besides ones GOP creates)

[yurbud]

I was looking for something on Kerry's website and found this page:

http://www.johnkerry.com/action/principle/|STAND UP FOR PRINCIPLE>

Bill Frist and the Republicans in Washington seem determined to prove how much they care about their own political power . . . and how little they care about using power to fight for what really matters to America's families. Tell Frist about what really matters to you. Make sure Washington stands up for the needs and interests of America’s families.

My response:

Senator Frist,

When you get through working on the Schiavo case, flag burning amendments, and demanding apologies from Democrats, could you find time to work on some of these things:

Affordable health care. I teach college but my employers don't provide health care, and I can't afford to buy it for myself. No one seems to be looking at solutions that rein in insurance companies, the major cost driver. If you are incapable of supporting a single payer system, you should at least require that health insurance companies be run as non-profits or strictly regulated since the profit motives encourages them to collect the highest possible premiums while delivering the least possible services.

Affordable public higher education. My students have trouble paying for college and many work full time as well as go to school. We cannot compete with other countries at creating low wage jobs, but we could continue to lead the world in producing knowledge workers if you made that a funding priority. Right now, the GOP seems to be aiming for displacing Bangladesh as the sweatshop leader of the world.

Good K-12 education. There are two simple fixes for K-12 education, and if you were putting your kids in a private school, you know you would look for these things: smaller class sizes, and attracting smart , motivated people to teaching. Both cost money, but conservatives are quick to defend exorbitant executive salaries as the only way to get the best talent.

Replace oil. We could dramatically simplify our foreign policy and save money if we switched to biofuels, solar, and wind. This would help our farmers and also farmers in the Third World. Whatever the cost of changing over would be, I doubt that it would be as much as invading and occuppying the countries that have the world's dwindling oil supplies.

Hillbilly Hitler art:



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