Columns

As we all sit waiting, watching the drama being played out on the television and read all of the blogs or news stories about the debt ceiling, wondering if the checks will arrive in our bank accounts in August, or if the United States can pay the bills or even if we can pay our own bills, I get more and more dismayed.
Are we really playing this game? With people’s minds, money, lives? If it looks this bad to me, what does President Barack Obama look like to the rest of the world? Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to answer this.

It’s one of society’s most important challenges – rescuing at-risk youth from a life of crime, drugs or hardship.
Across the state and nation, people from all walks of life stand united in the shared goal of reaching out to troubled teens before it’s too late. Civic clubs, church groups, school organizations, government agencies and individual citizens alike devote much time, effort and resources toward helping at-risk young people.

Did you know:
u the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that Obamacare will cost the economy 800,000 jobs?
u President Barack Obama was responsible for reducing retirement plan holdings of GM stock by 90 percent and gave the unions a majority stake in GM?
u Obama failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina?

While it doesn’t often make headlines, funding the state retirement system is among the most important challenges facing state government.
 State employees have 6.5 percent deducted from their paychecks to go toward their retirement benefits, and their employers contribute an even higher 9.68 percent toward those benefits. Employees expect the pension system to remain healthy so benefits will be there when they retire.