MPR online budget discussion

Click the title to join the discussion. Enneverate!

HOW TO JOIN THE STUDENT CONVERSATION ON EDUCATION

1) First, cut and paste the Bit.ly link below. That takes you to a page where the public facing conversation is housed

http://bit.ly/StudentBudget

If you have any problems…. Here is the full (and very long) link to the same page…

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/minnesota-today-insight-now/archive/2010/11/balancing-the-budget---a-view-from-future-taxpayers.shtml

The page should look like this…….. (the window below is a preview window that appears before we make the conversation live).

2) This is what the WINDOW will look like when the chat begins. You can see that I typed in one comment

At the bottom is a place to put your name (write in your FULL NAME, add your grade level if you have room). Use that first comment simply to tell the moderator (me) that you are here … and hit send. Don’t worry that won’t be public.

3) Instead you will see a window pop up. That’s me inviting you to be a FULL PANELIST. That means that you will be able to type what you want to say and have it be live without me having to approve it. Click “yes” and hit “go”.

Now a CONSOLE will pop up. This is what you use for the rest of the discussion. Type at the bottom and discuss whenever you feel like it (For example: “Fake Michael’s” next entry went right to the conversation). Others will see it all happening through the window on our pages.

IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS GETTING INTO THE CONVERSATION … TALK WITH MR. DECKER or MR. THOMPSON. THEY WILL CALL ME AT 651-290-1081

MOST IMPORTANT…. FEEL FREE TO TALK WITH EACH OTHER…. AND HAVE FUN.

Pre-reading #3

comment here on Montaigne's "Of Cannibals."

Prep work for Friday

President Obama has named a commission (National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform) to make recommendations about reducing the federal deficit. He actually created it by executive order (a term you need to know from vocab list). It is co-chaired by Alan Simpson, a former longtime Republican Senator from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, current president of U of North Carolina and former chief of staff under President Clinton. Their website is here. Notice the 18 member committee. President Obama selected the 2 co-chairs and the non-elected members. The remaining 12 were selected by House and Senate leaders (3 each by Speaker Pelosi, House Minority Leader Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Reid and Senate Minority Leader McConnell)

Excerpts from President Obama's Executive Order:

Sec. 4. Mission.
The Commission is charged with identifying policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run. Specifically, the Commission shall propose recommendations designed to balance the budget, excluding interest payments on the debt, by 2015. This result is projected to stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio at an acceptable level once the economy recovers. The magnitude and timing of the policy measures necessary to achieve this goal are subject to considerable uncertainty and will depend on the evolution of the economy. In addition, the Commission shall propose recommendations that meaningfully improve the long-run fiscal outlook, including changes to address the growth of entitlement spending and the gap between the projected revenues and expenditures of the Federal Government.

Sec. 5. Reports.
(a) No later than December 1, 2010, the Commission shall vote on the approval of a final report containing a set of recommendations to achieve the mission set forth in section 4 of this order.(b) The issuance of a final report of the Commission shall require the approval of not less than 14 of the 18 members of the Commission.

WOW !!!! Lofty goals to get Republicans and Democrats to come together and agree to cut spending on programs vital to key stakeholders and to raise taxes on hardworking Americans. 14 out of 18 must agree to the reports contents. That is like 77.7777777777777777% of the committee's members.

On November 10th, 2010, the Commission released a draft of its recommendations. These are included in a 50 page document highlighting the commission's goals and objectives, its recommendations for spending cuts and for increasing revenue through tax reform.

This second document is the Commission's 58 point recommendation for reducing over $200 billion in spending from the US Budget by 2015. This is a more detailed explanation of the discretionary spending cuts mentioned above in the draft.

Have fun and looking forward to Friday's discussions,
Mr. Thompson

MPR and APLG

Some background reading

President Obama's Website

This is a link to the White House's website. Everything and anything you might want to find out about President Obama and what he is currently working on whether it be legislative priorities, foreign affairs or just ceremonial duties. You can follow his every step as he travels his daily schedule. You can even sign up to get e-mail notices so you will one of the first to know when the president signs the next piece of groundbreaking legislation into law. Isn't technology great!!!!!

Mr. Thompson

Need to some help choosing a career?

Dive into the 2008 Plum Book (sorry, they only get printed every 4 years so this is the most current copy) Want to travel, want to find that perfect job that will pad that retirement nest egg, want to get paid extremely well for doing something most Americans don't know what a person holding that title would do. All this and much more can be found in the Plum Book. There are over 9000 positions to which you can be picked to serve your country. Check it out.

Currently I have my cover letter and resume ready to go. I am just waiting for Virginia Gentiles to leave office. She is the Special Assistant in the Office of Innovation and Improvment working under Deborah Price the Assistant Deputy in the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools in the Department of Education. The downside to the position is I would be working out of Washington DC and while my starting salary would only be $95,390, I could work my way up to about $125,000 on the General Schedule. The upside is I will be the Special Assistant to the Assistant Deputy of the Deputy Secretary under the Secretary of Education of the United States government.

Mr. Thompson

So you want to get rid of the Electoral College?

Think the Electoral College is too hard to understand? Want to make that essay in class "Explain how we elect our president" a lot easier? Check the link to see some proposed alternatives to our current indirect election. Be prepared to discuss your favorite option, why it is your favorite, and if it is your favorite, why hasn't it been adopted?

Mr. Thompson

Election 2010

Now that the election of 2010 is in the history books (or should I say the Government books) the reults are in. Check out the link to the data. Post something profound from the data that you think is worthy of a minute or 2 worth of conversation in class someday in teh future.

eg. About 64.23 million people voted in the 2010 midterm election nationwide. Clearly the nation is fed up with the 2 party system and the haggling between the Democrats and Republicans. In the 2010 election, 3rd parties garnered about 3.78 million votes which accounted for a whopping 5.9% of the popular vote. The message has been sent! Dems and Reps....you can gridlock all you want but when the American people get sooo dissatisfied with the current establishment THEY WILL STILL ELECT ONE OF YOU!

Post by the time we discuss your brilliant find in class.
Mr. Thompson