What can Pres. Obama say in Tucson to ease the pain?
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama observed a moment of silence yesterday to honor the victims of the Arizona tragedy. (PHOTO CREDIT: JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
It is the nature of events that confront our leaders that often serve to define them.
In the wake of the Tucson massacre, President Obama has been given an opportunity to deliver on a promise he made long ago: to raise the level of political discourse and by so doing to unify this country.
Politico has an excellent piece on how this tragedy presents Mr. Obama the chance to elevate the nasty tone of politics; much like Bill Clinton did after the Oklahoma City bombing.
Political analysts say that the president could use this experience to help move the country to a higher moral ground.
This is a promise the president first made in his famous 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention. And civil discourse is something he also talked about tirelessly on the campaign trail and since he's been in office.
But action speaks louder than words, and in the last two years we haven't seen much, if any, of this in Washington. In fact, the partisan divisions and heated rhetoric between the two sides are arguably worse than they've ever been.
And President Obama, at times, has been part of the problem. During the campaign, then-candidate Obama said of countering Republican attacks, "if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." And more recently, in the lead-up to the midterms, the president referred to Republicans as "enemies."
The president has called the Tucson shootings "a tragedy for the entire country." He's headed there on Wednesday. A nation increasingly weary of anger and division will be listening.
Here’s my question to you: What can President Obama say in Tucson to ease the pain?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
How to tone down the hateful rhetoric?
Well-wishers leave flowers, candles and notes outside the district office of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
It was probably only a matter of time.
For the past two years, the political rhetoric in this country has quickly grown more hateful, angry and divisive.
We've seen guns at rallies and signs with nasty and racist slogans. And now we have the tragedy in Tucson, Arizona. Is there a link between this inflammatory rhetoric and the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others, six of whom are dead? Bet on it.
Several lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are now calling for the political rhetoric to be toned down. They say politicians need to "cool it" and to think about "how our words affect people."
There's an idea!
This is happening at the same time some of them are deciding to start carrying guns.
Many are pointing fingers at Sarah Palin, who makes incendiary and irresponsible comments with some regularity. Palin once tweeted concerning the health care debate, "Don't retreat, instead - RELOAD!"
She posted a map online before the midterms showing crosshairs over 20 contested Democratic districts, including Giffords'.
At the time, Giffords said, "When people do that, they've got to realize there are consequences to that action."
Since the shooting, Palin has expressed her condolences and said she hates violence.
The Tea Party movement, which has also been a cauldron of inflammatory rhetoric, is distancing itself from the tragedy, condemning what happened.
But even if there is no direct correlation here, people such as Palin could bear some indirect responsibility for the mindset of the shooter and others like him.
Here’s my question to you: What can be done to tone down the hateful rhetoric in this country?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Most important issue facing country in 2011?
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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
As the new Congress gets down to business this week, there's no shortage of issues waiting to be addressed.
House Republicans say they will fulfill a campaign promise and vote to repeal President Obama's health care law before he delivers his State of the Union address.
Seems like a pretty futile exercise - even if such a repeal were to pass the house, it's unlikely to go anywhere in the Senate since the Democrats still hold a slim majority there. Plus, President Obama could veto it.
Also, by focusing on health care - when much of the country is still worried about jobs - Republicans risk making the same mistake Democrats did when they plowed ahead with health care in the first place.
The GOP also has its eye on other legislation passed by the Democratic congress - like new limits on greenhouse gas emissions and the reach of entitlement programs. Some are calling for various investigations into the Obama administration...
Just what we need, tying up the Congress with investigations at a time when there are other huge issues out there - like the economy, immigration and the skyrocketing deficit. Republicans have vowed to tackle government spending, but they'll soon have to decide whether they want to raise the debt ceiling, once again, from $14.3 trillion.
Meanwhile, a majority of Americans are optimistic about the new year. A new Gallup poll shows 58 percent say 2011 will be better than 2010. 20 percent say it will be worse and 21 percent say it will be the same.
The poll suggests Democrats and young Americans are more positive than Independents, Republicans and older Americans about the coming year.
Here’s my question to you: What's the most important issue facing the country in 2011?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
U.S. hunger at highest level in 15 years
Volunteers prepare meals for homeless and impoverished people at the St. Anthony Foundation dining room in San Francisco. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
As most of us get ready to gather around a bountiful Thanksgiving feast next week... and gorge on turkey and pumpkin pie, here's something to think about:
45 million Americans were food insecure last year - according to an Agriculture Department report.
This means they had difficulty feeding one or more of their members because they didn't have enough money. That's 14.7 percent of all U.S. households - or about one of every seven.
The situation was especially bad for about one-third of the households which reported very low food security.
These numbers are higher than in 2008, and represent the highest levels since the government starting keeping track 15 years ago.
The report found the households most likely to go hungry included those headed by single parents. Access to food was also worse in big cities and among African-Americans and Hispanics.
Out of the 50 states, food insecurity was highest in Arkansas - at nearly 18 percent - and lowest in North Dakota, at close to seven percent.
With numbers like these, it's no surprise that more people are participating in government-sponsored food programs:
More than 15 million households used food stamps in any given month in 2009 - that's a 20 percent jump from the year before. Rates also rose for the free lunch program and the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
The report also shows the number of households getting emergency food from a food pantry almost doubled between 2007 and 2009.
Here’s my question to you: What does it mean when U.S. hunger is at the highest level in 15 years?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Country more divided now than under Bush?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
For most of the eight years George W. Bush was president, the United States was a nation divided.
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Liberals and many independents passionately opposed what President Bush was doing and the way he was doing it - from the wars, to torture, wiretapping of U.S. citizens, the response to Hurricane Katrina and the president's cowboy attitude when it came to international relations.
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, we were told things would change. Candidate Obama promised a new era of bipartisanship. He promised to change the way Washington works. A tall order for sure, but a lot of people believed it could happen.
Fast forward two years and in many ways this country seems more divided than ever. For starters, critics say the administration is insular and out-of-touch with most Americans. The same thing many said about Bush.
Also, they say the president's promises of bipartisanship fell flat, with the Democrats pushing through controversial legislation like health care reform with few, if any, Republicans on board.
Many Americans are now opposed to what this president has done, including health care, the stimulus bill and record government spending.
Some are so disgusted with what's going on in Washington that a whole new political movement has been born. In many ways, it seems like the phenomenon that is the Tea Party sprung up in reaction to President Obama's policies.
And, as the country votes today in the midterms, it's an election that's been marked by angry, nasty ads and personal attacks between the political parties, which seem to be worse than ever.
Here’s my question to you: In less than two years, does it seem the country has become even more divided than it was during the Bush years?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Americans' negative view of federal workers justified?
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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
At a time when millions of Americans are disgusted with the federal government, a new poll shows low marks and negativity toward civil servants.
The Washington Post survey finds 52 percent of those polled say the 1.9 million federal workers are overpaid for what they do.
Seventy-five percent say federal workers are paid more and get better benefits than those working outside the government, according to the survey.
Thirty-six percent think they're less qualified than private-sector workers.
And half say that federal employees don't work as hard as those at private companies.
The poll also shows a deep divide along party lines when it comes to the views of the federal work force, with Republicans being more negative.
Republican candidates are latching onto this sentiment. On the campaign trail, they're using civil servants as examples of what's wrong with government - too big, too invasive and too much in debt. They vow to freeze pay raises and furlough federal workers if they win control of Congress.
Federal unions and Democrats describe criticism of "faceless bureaucrats" as scapegoating.
The government says it's hard to compare salaries in the private and public sectors because many jobs outside government are in low-paying industries while government workers are typically more skilled.
The good news for government workers is that of people who have interacted with a federal worker, the survey found. Three in four say the experience was a good one. Also, the survey shows younger Americans are more likely to give positive reviews.
Here’s my question to you: Is Americans' negative view of federal workers justified?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Striking similarities between Great Depression & today?
In this photo from the 1930s, a group of boys on a residential street run after their homemade go-kart. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
While the White House insists this is a "recovery summer," others say it looks a lot more like the Great Depression.
CNBC reports that economist David Rosenberg says like today, the Great Depression also had its high points - including big stock market gains and a series of positive GDP reports. Yet in both cases, these signs of recovery were unsustainable and gave people a false sense of stability.
According to Rosenberg, the U.S. economy is in "a depression, and not just some garden-variety recession." He compares how both during the 1930s and today people have a "euphoric response" to any glimmer of good economic news.
He says in the 1929-1933 depression, there were six quarterly bounces in GDP. So far, we've had four this time around.
Several top analysts have slashed their GDP projections for 2010... down to the 1.5 and two percent range.
The president of the Chicago federal reserve says that the risk of a double dip recession is growing, adding that the government programs meant to help homeowners aren't working.
Existing home sales plunged more than 27 percent last month - twice as much as analysts expected. And new home sales also fell by more than 12 percent to their slowest pace ever.
Economists warn that a double-dip in housing prices is also just around the corner - which could slow the recovery even more.
Add in the fact that there are no jobs, unemployment remains stuck near 10 percent, and the outlook is dark.
To top it off, Morgan Stanley says a global debt crisis is just beginning, and the bond market tussle we saw in Europe this past spring is just the beginning.
Here’s my question to you: What might it mean that there are striking similarities between the Great Depression and today's economy?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Is a second American revolution coming?
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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The first one started with the Boston Tea Party. More than 230 years later, some think the time is ripe for a second American revolution.
An editorial in "Investors Business Daily" suggests people are now asking if the government does more harm than good—and if we should change what it does and the way it does it.
Much of the blame is laid on what it calls the "imperial presidency." It says that through his policies – like record spending and deficits, taxes, health care, etc. -President Obama is "diminishing America from within".
And there are growing signs that many Americans have had a bellyful of President Obama's policies.
Start with health care. 71 percent of Missouri voters supported a measure that would forbid the federal government from penalizing people who don't buy health insurance as mandated under President Obama's health care law.
And it's not just Missouri. Five states have passed similar bills, and two other states will have constitutional amendments on their November ballots to opt out of all, or part of, the new health care law.
There's immigration, which one day may be seen as the turning point in this struggle. While the federal government refuses to enforce the nation's immigration laws and refuses to secure our borders – it's going after Arizona in court for trying to protect its own citizens from an invasion of illegal aliens.
One Arizona sheriff says the federal government "has become our enemy and is taking us to court at a time when we need help." A Mexican drug cartel has reportedly offered $1 million to kill another Arizona sheriff, the controversial Joe Arpaio.
Things are getting very ugly. No surprise the president's approval ratings continue to decline. In some of the major polls, it's now approaching 40 percent.
Here’s my question to you: Is a second American revolution coming?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
How effective is U.S. intel with 1,300 govt. orgs & 2,000 private companies?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
In the nine years since the September 11 terror attacks, the U.S. intelligence community has become so large that it's unmanageable, redundant and inefficient. Not unlike the rest of the federal government.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/07/19/art.top.secret.jpg caption="A 'Top Secret' page from the U.S. congressional report on the 9/11 terror attacks."]
The Washington Post reports on a stunning two-year investigation of a so-called top secret America that's hidden from the public and lacking in real oversight.
Examples:
- There are nearly 1,300 government organizations and 2,000 private companies working in 10,000 locations across the country.
- There are 854,000 people who have top-secret security clearances.
- There are 33 building complexes for top-secret work that are under construction or have been built just in Washington, DC since 9/11... totaling 17 million square feet of space.
- Analysts turn out 50,000 intelligence reports every year... you can bet many of them never get read.
- And, at least 263 organizations have been created or reorganized as a response to 9/11... that of course means hiring lots and lots of people. But don't ask where Osama bin Laden is… nobody knows.
With such a sprawling bureaucracy, it's no wonder they couldn't put together the dots in recent attacks - including the shooting at Fort Hood and the attempted Christmas day airline bombing in Detroit.
The government is pushing back against the Washington Post report. The national intelligence director says they provide oversight and work constantly to reduce inefficiencies and redundancies. What would you expect him to say?
A top Obama official adds that they're looking at inefficiencies "and remember, we have prevented attacks." Who does that sound like?
Here’s my question to you: How effective can U.S. intelligence be with nearly 1,300 government organizations and 2,000 private companies working in 10,000 locations?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
What's the answer to America's financial crisis?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The United States' national debt level is the highest it's been since World War II. The Congressional Budget Office is warning President Obama's deficit commission that something must be done - and quickly.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/02/17/art.debt.clock.jpg caption="FILE PHOTO: A shot of the National Debt Clock on July 13, 2009"]
By the end of this year, it will represent 62 percent of the nation's economy and will rise to 80 percent in 2035. That means that simply paying the interest on the national debt will consume one-third of all federal revenue. And that's the CBO's most optimistic scenario.
Their worst case scenario has the debt hitting 185 percent of GDP by 2035 and interest payments consuming nine percent of GDP, or more than two-thirds of all federal revenue.
And getting to that point is not at all improbable. The CBO says it has just extend the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for most people, permanently protecting the middle class from the Alternative Minimum Tax, and permanently increasing Medicare payments to doctors, and Presto! We're there.
The president's bipartisan deficit commission has until December to come up with some ideas on how to bring down debt and stabilize the deficit. But none of their recommendations will be binding on anyone. And it's no accident their report isn't even due until after the midterm elections. In the meantime, we have a ticking financial time bomb on our hands and our government is sitting on theirs.
Here’s my question to you: What's the answer to America's deepening financial crisis?
Tune in to the Situation Room at 6pm to see if Jack reads your answer on air.
And, we love to know where you’re writing from, so please include your city and state with your comment.
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