Rich I agree with you, that this appointment creates a great opportunity for Cong. VanHollen to seek a collective solution to the economic crisis in the Nation and in our region. Maryland/Montgomery County stand to gain quite a bit due to this appointment, so long as he keeps the focus on a sustainable solution that leads to growth in entrepreneurship and JOBS! One key area is the Green/Clean Technology industry that could create many jobs nationwide in BioMass, SMARTGrid, Agriculture/Food Supply and Alternative Energy.

We all seem to agree that he needs to stop the class warfare nonsense and start representing all the citizens. Cut the waste from the programs first and stop expanding welfare to people that should not be eligible to begin with. If you are looking for more revenue, you need to collect from free loaders and tax cheats.

"placate his party's base by resisting any effort to compromise at all"

That is a mischaracterization of what liberals are saying. Liberals want EQUITABLE sacrifice. That means revenues, and the people who are running away with wealth right now have not been asked to give up ANYTHING since 1993. Simply ending the Bush tax cuts in their entirety alone would cut the current deficit by more than half. Revenues from those who have been prospering in this recession hardly seems like a lot to ask, and polls of Americans regularly indicate that 65-80% of the people want this approach used (depending on how the question is asked). I am sorry, but this is NOT "class warfare nonsense", JH! We ignore the growing imbalance of wealth in this country at our own peril. Would we really sacrifice everything done over the last 100 years to build our middle class and make our country the beacon of hope and envy across the globe because the people who have the most are unwieldingly never asked to contribute more? While at the same time, working people can barely make ends meet, lose homes, can't afford to send their kids to college, can't get adequate health care or insurance to cover it, and feel more and more like their "American dream" is drifting away from them?

Talk to our relatively well-to-do neighbors even right here in Rockville, and even people making $80-90K per year are struggling. Something's not right. Look at the front page of the Washington Post today and there's a great article highlighting the disparity (Great Falls wealth).

The real problem is that WE THE PEOPLE no longer have government of, by, and for us. Corporations and the super-rich have exerted so much money, influence, and advantage over the rest of the country through controlling our political discourse and conversation to benefit themselves at the expense of the vast majority. It is time for the American people of all ages, political stripes, and locations to put a stop to it. Or it will destroy what is great about this country--"e pluribus unum".

One other important FACT--Social Security has NEVER in its entire history EVER contributed a single DIME to the deficit. Not one penny. It is not broken, and minor reforms will situate it very well far into the future. Medicare clearly needs some changes, as does Medicaid. But the solutions that focus solely on cutting benefits and not on addressing the drivers of cost (typically a small percentage of Medicaid patients drive 80-90% of costs) are not solutions at all. There was a Frontline story about a doctor in Camden, NJ (one of America's poorest cities) who got involved in the emergency care in area hospitals and started a non-profit who actually managed these 10-20% of patients driving huge cost increases, and by educating, assisting people in their living conditions, and other actions at the local level were able to reduce annual Medicaid expenditures in the city by about 40-50%. Cost containment and PATIENT MANAGEMENT is crucial. Also, addressing the hospital care system geared toward rapid inpatient treatment and release rather than holisitic healthcare that looks at the entire patient, takes into consideration other social factors, and is geared to keep people healthy would save billions.

We need to ask ourselves how an why almost every other major industrialized nation has healthier populations, universal health care coverage, mostly non-profit and regulated, and is spending on average only 8-12% of GDP on health care. Meanwhile, our for-profit, private insurance based system produces less healthy population while spending about 16-19% of our GDP on health care. Again, something is wrong.

Solutions, not rhetoric. Equitable sacrifice that does not gut opportunity and security for middle America, or keep our kids from getting an education that they work hard for and deserve. Ask those with historically low tax rates at the top to pitch in a little more again (even at 38% their contributions would be historically low!).

No more freeloaders. You pay for the education and health care needs of your own family! Too many people want others to pick up the bill ---- don't be a deadbeat. When half the households pay no federal income tax you know we have gone too far. Every household should contribute.

Save money?

With the exception of food and medicine, permanently stop all Foreign Aid.

Use some or all of the money saved to finance medical research. The United States could gift to the world, treatments and cures for disease instead of our (tax payer) money.

Save money?

In court charge a fee in civil cases for those who use foreign language interpreter services. I do not know what our courts language interpreters are currently paid, but a few years ago they were paid a minimum of $55.00 per hour, with a two hour minimum guaranteed.

In civil cases, that fee should be paid in advance by those utilizing the service.

Save money?

Start a National Sales Tax (NST) of 1% on goods and goods only, costing between $1.00 and $20, 000.00. Services would not be subjected to the NST.

The NST would be be temporary expiring after ten years. The NST would be applied to the nation's debt, and only the nation's debt.