Congressional Republicans rightly opposed the stimulus leviathan last year on the grounds that it wouldn't spur job growth, or at least, not as much as cutting taxes and liberating the economy's true job creators — small businesses. In rare but classic political form, Republicans managed to draw a line in the sand, clearly pitting their arguments for an American economic renaissance against a Democratic plan that was headed for certain doom.

Republicans rightly opposed the stimulus last year on the grounds that it wouldn't stimulate job growth -- or at least, not as much as cutting taxes and liberating the economy's true job creators, small businesses. Fair enough. But over the past year, Republicans have used the stimulus as a sort of slush fund behind which they can hide their own political cowardice.

That Toyota brand and fleet of vehicles: Matrix, Sequoia, Highlander, RAV4, Camry, Avalon, Corolla, Tundra and Lexus. If any of you have become the proud owner of one of these vehicles over the past few years, I'm certain you have horror story after horror story you could testify about before Congress, just as several have done in recent days. Do you ever wonder whether anyone is listening to your cry in the wilderness?

Obama is exactly right: Americans want the health-care system fixed. Obama is exactly right: Republicans don’t have their own comprehensive plan. Obama is exactly right: Republicans are the ‘party of no’ when it comes to this bill.

The United States spend twice the money as the next closest nation on Health care per capita.  Many of these countries have found phenomenal success in spending less and with highly touted results in health care.  The key to our success is to drastically remove the cost from our system. How do we then take advantage of the strengths that already exist in our current system?  All of our diseases and procedures are categorized and coded.  Our computer systems are unmatched in the world which clearly indicates that we can do billings and collections electronically in an instant without needing mountains of paper and armies of people to push them around.  This of course has created enormous administrative cost that is absolutely unnecessary.

Congress has finally worked itself into a full-throated frenzy over the recent series of recalls by the world’s #1 auto producer.  I use the word “finally” because any time Americans are dying as a result of businesses cutting corners, it’s our government’s job to step in quickly and address the problem.  I’ve been a little less than satisfied with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) responses in recent months to these recalls.  It’s almost as if the agency and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wanted to look the other way as Toyota officials fixed its problems on their own; hoping the issue would quickly dissipate from the national conversation.  Yet the longer drivers waited for their Corolla’s to be repaired, the more we learned of other problems along the manufacturer’s complete line of autos.