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What if the 'Surge' Works?
Bucking your party to actively fight against the war when it would have made a difference--that would have been courageous.** Hagel hasn't done either of those things. Instead, he let loose at the precise moment when letting loose was least brave and least timely. Lest the MSM miss the point, his eruption took the form, not of arguing that his Republican colleagues were wrong, but of denouncing them for, in effect, being cowards, unlike you-know-who:
If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes. ... Don't hide anymore; none of us.
Never mind that the anti-surge resolution Hagel has cosponsored is all about hiding. It has no binding effect. But it does provide Senators who supported the war a convenient bit of late-inning skepticism they can point to when trying to save their skins. More>>
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Coalition working harder to give families tax credits
Mid-Iowa Community Action was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from Marshalltown's Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation to expand outreach efforts to help low-wage workers in Marshall County claim up to $4,716 each through the federal government's Earned Income Tax Credit. MICA already coordinates free tax preparation services for residents who qualify for the credit. “This grant will help more Marshall County families receive the Earned Income Tax Credit and that money could have a profound, positive impact on their lives," said Lisa Pagel, MICA's EITC outreach coordinator, in a press release. “I greatly appreciate the generosity of the Martha Ellen Tye Foundation in awarding MICA this grant." The grant money will allow the project to conduct a larger-scale community EITC outreach campaign and implement a mobile tax site. More>>
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Flush Ottawa spurns Toronto
Premier Dalton McGuinty says he would like to see some of the huge federal surplus spent in Ontario to improve public transit and to create jobs. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that Ottawa has put all of a huge $13.8-billion surplus toward paying down Canada's debt.
In an interview on Toronto radio station CHUM-FM, McGuinty noted that Ottawa has been running “some pretty big surpluses" for eight years now.
He said Ontario could use some help with a $17.5-billion investment the government wants to make in public transit. McGuinty said traffic gridlock not only inconveniences families, it hurts the economy.
McGuinty also said he would like to see some of the federal surplus used to help create jobs in the hard-hit manufacturing sector, which is facing “real challenges."
Harper says Ottawa is passing the savings on interest payments to taxpayers in the form of continued cuts to personal income taxes. More>>