The President takes a moment to congratulate our Olympic athletes. Discussing the unity and pride Americans feel in cheering them on, the President relates that sentiment to his own desire for bipartisanship in Washington. He praises the recent bipartisan meeting and talks about moving forward on health reform.
The President points to outrageous premium hikes from health insurance companies already making massive profits as further proof of the need for reform. Looking ahead to the coming bipartisan meeting on reform, the President urges members of Congress to come to the table in good faith to address the issue.
Okay, once again, I’ve dropped the ball on my monthly posts of the bills passed by the White House. The purpose for this post is to inform you of the new laws and acts enacted by Congress and President Obama. With the advent of the Internet it’s gotten easier to watch every step our government takes. And President Obama is making some nice moves to make what they do more transparent to the American people. We elect them, so we need to make sure they are doing their job. The laws I list are posted at govtrack.us, which is a nice site for checking laws in any stage their in. As always feel free to leave any additional comments.
On Jan 22, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
H.R. 4462: Small Business Act Temporary Extension. To accelerate the income tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for the relief of victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
On Jan 27, 2010, the President signed the following bill(s) into law:
S. 2949: Emergency Aid to American Survivors of the Haiti Earthquake Act. A bill to amend section 1113 of the Social Security Act to provide authority for increased fiscal year 2010 payments for temporary assistance to United States citizens returned from foreign countries, to provide necessary funding to avoid shortfalls in the Medicare cost-sharing program for low-income qualifying individuals, and for other purposes.
Reiterating once again his commitment to small business as the engine of our economy, the President urges Congress to move forward immediately on steps to help them expand and create jobs. These proposals include using $30 billion in TARP funds to create a new Small Business Lending Fund to provide capital to community banks to increase lending to small businesses, offering a new tax credit for over one million small businesses that hire new workers or raise wages, and providing targeted support for the most innovative small businesses with the potential to export new goods and products.
On February 1st, President Obama issued an annual proclamation declaring the month of February American Heart Month. Yes, with Black History Month and my birthday, the month of February is already a joyous time. Being the nice guy that I am, I’m willing to share (especially since they’ve been issuing the proclamation since 1963).
But even if that weren’t the case, having a month to focus on heart disease is extremely important because it is the leading cause of death in the United States. All of us know one or more people who’s lives have been affected by heart disease and if not taken seriously it could kill you. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put together a nice site, full of information for you to learn more about the dangers of heart disease.
While dangerous, heart disease is something that can be controlled if caught early enough. Knowing your family health history and living a healthy lifestyle are just some of the things you can do to prevent it. I’ve provided some links below for you to learn more on what you need to do to become heart healthy.
American Heart Association National Website
Go Red For Women
The Heart Truth Campaign
Men and Heart Disease
Heart Disease and Black People
I’m addicted to factcheck.org and I usually run to it after major speeches and political events to see how much of the wool was pulled over my eyes. I have yet to hear from one politician that hasn’t told a skewed version of their truth and it causes me to wonder why. Are they so concerned with getting elected that they tell the American people what we want to hear?
The speech in my opinion was the most inspiring State of the Union I’ve ever heard and the President made some very good points regarding our current situation. A lot of the problems we face today are due to things that happened in the past and I admire the effort he’s making to fix some of those things. While still important, I’m glad the Administration is regrouping and not putting so much their energy into health care. There’s so much to fix and the Democrats and Republicans need to buddy up and work together. It’s a big hope, but I do hope they can come together with some solutions to fix the economy and health care. All of this bickering and fighting is childish and the world is watching.
According to fact check they found “the president strained the facts at times. The Republican response had its problems, too”. To read what they found in the speech check out Obama’s State of the Union Address.
As the President continues to work on immediate job creation, he discusses his proposal for a new fee on the largest financial institutions to ensure that every cent of taxpayer assistance gets paid back. Saying that, “we’re not going to let Wall Street take the money and run,” he then discusses the ongoing push to make sure banks can never put our economy at risk again.
Everyone is making a big deal about Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s comment and I can understand why. If it had been a Republican, a committee would have been formed to investigate and Senate member would have been embarrassed out of their position. The committee would have given the report and findings to President Obama and he would have thrown them in the trash. I’m sure this isn’t the first (or last) time he’s a heard a comment like this.
What Harry said was wrong and insensitive, but how many people have thought the same thing? When Obama announced his decision to run for president, I remember thinking to myself, “now this brotha has a shot”. Let’s be honest, if he were dark-skinned and well spoken, he would have been “one of those uppity negros” and probably wouldn’t have been accepted by such a large, diverse demographic as Obama was (it was either him or Harold Ford Jr.)
While sad, the discussion over dark vs. light skin is nothing new in the black community. Growing up, light-skinned was in and the Al B. Sure brotha’s were on top of the world and I remember at times being envious of them with their “light skin” and “good hair”. It’s an issue that has plagued many dark-skinned people of color (whether they want to admit it or not) and I really believe that’s why I’m not surprised by Harry’s comment. You have to ask yourself, if everything except skin color were equal, would a darker-skinned person have a had a chance running against Obama?
President Obama knows the game. This isn’t the first time he’s been talked about and he knows he needs Reid to get his agenda through Congress. But the difference now, is that Reid is Obama’s personal bia bia and will get do what he needs to do to get back in the good graces of the black Democrats. These people are politicians and they will do what they need to do to get their personal agendas passed. I’m no fan of fake public apologies and Reid meant exactly what he said. What bothers me are all the complaints from people who have probably said the same thing and didn’t get caught.
The President discusses the recent attempted act of terrorism on the Christmas day flight to Detroit, and his broader strategy to fight Al Qaeda.
It’s hard to believe it’s already 2010. But we’re here and there are still new things in store for this blog. When I started blogging, the main goal was to share information and hopefully open up dialogue on issues that affect the black community. I think I did that in some way this year, but it wasn’t to the extent that I’d done in previous years.
The goal for this year is to continue on the track of keeping the site informative. I plan on opening it up to others who are interested in sharing their point of view with the readers of this site. There are some talented, well-written people out there and I want to showcase them and get some real discussions going.
Late in the year, when I got swamped with projects for work, I fell off the blogging scene for a couple of weeks. Blogging can be a daunting task and coming up with things to write about can be time consuming (especially when it isn’t one of my strengths). So this year, I’m going to solicit your help. If you or someone you know are interested in blogging, but don’t want to manage their own site, email me at info @ theotalks.net. I’m always in need of someone to write and it usually turns out to be a win-win situation for both parties.
This year, I also want to focus more on minority small businesses. In these turbulent economic times, a lot of people are turning to owning their own business. I think that’s great, so I decided to start a list of some of my favorite small businesses. I’ll be highlighting small business owners throughout the year, so contact me if you’re interested in participating.
Finally, here are some websites that you need to keep an eye on for 2010. I’ll be blogging a lot about them and hope to be visible on most of them as time permits. Check them out when you get the chance:
Have a Happy New Year and God Bless!
