What government services could you get by with less of?
Saturday mail delivery and collection may end in early 2011. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Big government costs big money, and in the recession, all levels of government are looking for ways to make budget cuts. On the national level, one of the big ones is the U.S. Postal Service, which is looking to move to a five-day delivery week.
Tomorrow, the USPS will submit a proposal to its regulatory board that would limit mail delivery and collection to Monday through Friday beginning early next year. However, post offices that are now open on Saturdays would stay open and express mail delivery would still be available seven days a week.
The postal service estimates the delivery change would save more than $3 billion a year which is a step in the right direction, considering it's on track to lose as much as $7 billion this year.
Then there are the states facing huge deficits. They are also under pressure to make some significant cuts.
In Illinois, lawmakers want to chop the school week to four days.
Supporters say that students would still have to complete the same number of hours per school year. They suggest a lot of money could be saved by not using heat, lights or cleaning the school buildings along with using school bus service for fewer days.
But critics say that students who receive free lunch would miss a day and a longer school-day means after-school activities would start even later.
Plus, there's a big question of what happens when kids are home an extra day but their parents are at work.
Here’s my question to you:What government services could you get by with less of?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Illegal immigration: should states be allowed to do what the federal gov't refuses to?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
President Obama has a pretty big to-do list for Congress this spring: Financial reform, an overhaul of No Child Left Behind, the closing of some campaign finance loopholes, maybe even a clean energy bill. But illegal immigration? Still nothing.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/03/29/art.border.jpg caption="A section of fence along the U.S./Mexico border."]
On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said despite promising an immigration bill in his first year of office, President Obama has done "almost nothing" on immigration.
Meanwhile, our border states in particular continue to be overrun with illegal aliens, and Washington could care less. Eight and a half years after 9/11 and we won't even secure the nation's borders.
In Arizona, police may soon be allowed to arrest illegal immigrants on trespassing charges for simply being in the state. There are currently 460,000 of them in Arizona alone. In addition, it would become a felony to employ them even as day laborers and transporting them anywhere in the state, even family members.
The bill's cleared the state senate and Governor Jan Brewer has indicated she will sign it. It would be the toughest law of its kind in the country.
But don't ask Senator John McCain about it. McCain, who was home campaigning this weekend, once backed a bipartisan effort in Congress to grant illegal immigrants amnesty. But he refuses to answer questions on where he stands on this state bill.
Here’s my question to you: When it comes to illegal immigration, should the states be allowed to do what the federal government refuses to do?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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