Many of the proposed plans are needed for our economy, but are long range projects that will take time to effect the economy.  The proposed tax breaks sound nice, but are a band-aid.  How much good is another $20 per week to a family facing foreclosure, unemployment, bankruptcy and possible homelessness.  May I suggest two alternatives.  First, no more corporate bailouts.  We have seen the results of the first $350 billion...nada, zip, except to bolster bonuses and spa retreats for the top dogs.  If a corporation is failing it is the responsibility of their board of directors and officers to correct the situation.  Reorganization, bankruptcy and liquidation are viable alternatives.  "Too big to fail" is a fallacy.  Other, healthier companies will buy the assets and business will continue.  Evolve or become extinct.  It is contrary thinking to support failing businesses rather than support new ideas, small businesses and the working class, upon whose backs this country was built and whose failure could become our downfall.
Second, there is a dire need for an immediate, significant ($5,000 or more) direct stimulus check per household.  That money will trickle up immediately, save families, save homes, save ruin of millions of Americans.  Those who don't need the stimulus can return the check as a way of giving back.  "We are too  many to let fail."

 We have seen several initiatives designed to rescue our economy.  Hundreds of billions have been given to banks and insurance companies to ensure that capital is liquid, with little or no results.   Billions are being given to automobile companies to help them restructure and avoid bankruptcy, but I am not convinced that these poorly managed companies will be able to survive.  There is talk of the government negotiating with banks to allow bankruptcy judges restructuring loan payments and reducing the principal of loans to ensure that people do not lose their homes.  None of these efforts seem to reward hard-working American families who have managed their finances reasonably well.  Rather, these same families benefit very little, if at all, from these measures.  In fact, it can easily be argued that they are being hurt by these measures.  Prices of their homes have dropped and will drop further if bankruptcy judges can negotiate lower principal amounts for loans.  Retirement savings have been decimated in the stock market crash.  Jobs are being lost.  Further, these same responsible people are now being asked to pay for the irresponsibility and fiscal mismanagement of other people and large institutions.  Why do we incentivize the wrong people to do the wrong things?  Where is the reward for the responsible citizen?  Is it really enough to hope that, once this financial mess is sorted out, everyone will benefit?  

I would like to suggest that we learn from Germany and give a "family grant" to every mother (or father) willing to stay at home and raise their children.  The amount would be $30,000 per year, regardless of the number of children.  The grant would begin on the day that the child is born and would end when the last child leaves home to begin the 7th grade.  This grant would allow a caring adult to be there through the critical years of learning and development.  It would have profound impact on our children's readiness for school.  And it would cost much less than what we pay to incarcerate every person who needed a loving parent but turned to gangs, drugs and violence instead.  We pay $40,000 per person per year to keep people in jail, why not pay $30,000 per family to allow one partent to devote full time raising their children well.  We have an economy that requires both parents to be gainfully employed in order to own their own home and car; why not employ one adult in each family to be a full time partent and recieve payment for this work that is foundational for a healthy society?

 Credit Scoring companies should provide a citizens personal credit score to them for free.  One time a year is not good enough.  Withholding this information is a form of extortion to the consumer because they have to pay to protect against false information and identity theft.  Credit Scoring companies should form their business model around charging banks not consumers.  Please put an end to this extortion.

 What I'd like to see is a way to help the unemployed help our schools and our communities. If we have the amount of available funds that I keep hearing about, then let's reinvest those funds into our schools and our unemployed.

Right now our math and science educational programs are poor at best. Let's start with the higher tech unemployed, and let's get them back to work, EARNING their keep. We have to help the kids in our schools that have the math and science talent, to further that talent.

There has to be a way to make this happen. Let's create JOBS. My friends and I ALL want to work. We have kids in college that we need to pay for, or we want to make the payments on our houses and put food on our tables. So help us all get back to work.

Put a program together that can get us all back to work. If we can use our talents to help our schools as teaching assistants and maybe IT or PR specialists? There are so many other jobs that we can fill. Maybe we won't earn the money we did in our old jobs, but we can be earning a living and help our community. 

I've been a tv announcer in Chicago for the last 17 years, as the play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Bulls. I can use that talent, at least for a while in our local high school to help their newspaper and tv/radio station. I'd do it for free, but I'd love to earn some money at the same time. 

I'll do whatever I can to help this effort. I remember when I was a little boy and my Dad would tell me about the CCC's. He told me that the CCC's saved his pride. Let's do that now for all of us who are out of a job and want to work. I'm sure that there is a way to make something like this work. 

With the people who are not able to do a job like I've explained above, there have to jobs for them. What else needs to be done in America? That open ended question I hope will show us all that we need to stop playing video games and checking our fantasy football scores and get back to work.

Years ago when something was "Made in Japan" it was junk, and now that is not the case. Unfortunately we're now slipping into that same junk products mold. We need to follow their lead and make sure that everything from our cars to our paper and pens are high quality and affordable. 

I'm sure that there are a lot of companies that don't have the cash to support this but maybe they will do something else. Maybe they will give us raw materials or additional people to help us. I'm willing to go to the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB to ask for their help.. then let's go to every other company that we can get some help from and get that help. 

Like you Mr. President, I know the people of America. We're fighters, but right now we're lazy. You need to wake us up and you need to do it quickly. We need to get back to work, and we need to take pride in "Made in America"! I guess that's what I think.

Thank you for the right to express my opinion. I am passionate about our people and our country. 

Instead of having one Senator or Congressman speak at a time in the House or Senate.  Have them all debate simulaneously online.  Perhaps let them record their statements about a certain bill letting everyone know including American citizens why they support a bill or not.  Then give American citizens a chance to weigh in on the bill with comments about why they are for or against a bill.  Then let the public vote on it first and before Congress decides how they are going to vote.  Everything will be public and their for the country to see.  I think the web would be the ultimate tool for Congress to use in debates.  There could be links to all kinds of information backing up their statements, and then the public will have a chance to fully grasp the bill and make an informed decision about it as well as Congress.  The world is changing at the light speed and I think Congress needs to reinvent it's process to keep up with the pace of the information age.

Some of the greatest minds of times past have already explained the very reasons we find ourselves in the financial hardships of today. America has had to free herself from the grip of corrupt banking practices in the past. The following are quotes related to the very problems we face today. 

"I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies ... If the American people ever allow the private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”-Thomas Jefferson

  "Congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given to them to be used by themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations." - President Andrew Jackson

       "Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in
sin.....Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them
but leave them the power to create money, and, with
the flick of a pen, they will create enough money to
buy it back again.....Take this great power away from
them and all great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in.....But, if you want to continue to be the slave of the bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let the bankers continue to create money and control credit." - Sir Josiah Stamp, President of the Bank of England

      "Every effort has been made by the Fed to conceal
its power but the truth is, the Fed has usurped the government. It controls everything here and it controls all our foreign relations. It makes and breaks governments at will." - Congressman Louis T. McFadden, 1933, Chairman, Banking and Currency Committee

Thomas Jefferson gave us our solution in regards to a private central banking system, which he was fighting to remove in his time.

"The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." -Thomas Jefferson

That's right! The U.S government has the Consitutional authority to coin money. The government does not have to pay for money that's created out of nothing. The people should not be economic slaves to a few dominant banking families.

I thought the whole idea of this "change.gov" web site was to help You give America back to the American's. I thought you needed True Americans to come up with ideas on how America was going to fix itself. Yet, it seems as though you are completely ignoring what the American people want.  The economy, the environment, health care, along with many of the additional issues can be QUICKLY SOLVED with what the major majorety of the American citizens want.  Over 80% of Americans want Marijuana to be legalized. Those are the Change.gov statistics themselves, and not some "off the wall pot-head" website.  Please allow me to show you the Facts of what WILL be solved with the legalization of Marijuana.

THE ECONOMY :  Marijuana alone is a trillion dollor buisness. Over 10 states report Marijuana as being the top cash crop of that state. Political Economist will argue that thier dollor amount is in the Billions and not the Trillions. But the major things they are not taking in to consideration is that only 40% of American Marijuana users admitt to useing Marijuana out of parinoia from ramafacations of stating that they use Marijuana. Not only is Marijuana a trillion dollor buisness on it's own, we haven't even added in the tax factors.

ENERGY :  Marijuana makes a higher effeciancy bio-fuel of any type of bio-fuel available. Useing corn as a bio-fuel formost will be takeing much needed food from our starving children of America. The use of algi as fuel is very time consuming and very expencive. The use of any other types of bio-fuel have just as much of a down fall if not more. The veggitables and other bio-fuels NEED Toxic Chemicals used on them for pest controle and fertalization.. As for useing Marijuana as a Bio-fuel it NEEDS NO chemicals for pest controle or fertalization. As far as Marijuana being cost effective in the production of energy, the crop yield of Marijuana is four times greater then any other bio-fuel.

ENVIRONMENT :  Again, Marijuana needs no chemicals for pest control. Not only does Marijuana not need fetalizer, Marijuana REPLENISHES the soil nutrients as it grows. As for Global Warming, the Marijuana plant absorbes 78% more CO2 then any other plant grown in America.

HEALTH CARE :  It has been proven again and again that Marijuana has madicinal factors binificial to man kind. 80% of all perscription drugs would not be needed if Marijuana was used instead. The THC in Marijuana has also proven itself to safely CURE cancer, Notice I said CURE, and not TREAT. Not only has it proven to CURE cancer, it also has proven to stimulate brain cell growth.THC has also proven to Cure Breast cancer, Lung Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Colon Cancer and many more too numerouse for me to list here and now. Visit www.phoenixtears.ca and watch "RUN FROM THE CURE".  Something else I would like for you to look into, How did Kennedy get rid of his brain tumors? So many times the FDA uses the excusse that Marijuana has no madicinal values to it and thier "alternatives" to Marijuana are much safer. Lets look at some facts .. 
Between Jan. 1st. 1997 threw June 30th of 2005. Only ONE person has died, and yet there is only speculation that Marijuana killed this ONE  person. YET, durring the same time frame and only looking at  seventeen of the "FDA's APPROVED DRUGS. 11,687 people have died from the use of these 17 FDA approved drugs. Is the FDA really doing thier job? Does the FDA really care about the well being of Americans. OR does the FDA only worry about keeping the rich, rich and the poor sick?

TECHNOLOGY:  The metals and plastics made from the Marijuana plant are stronger then any plastic or metals we use today. Not only are they strong, but they are 100% recyclable and biodegradable. Did you know the very first Ford car was made of Marijuana? It's true, the car known as the Model "A" was entirely built from Marijuana.

HOMELAND SECURITY :  If you gave the American people what they truely want, more and more would be willing to die to save the America they love....

Dear Presedent, none of these facts are new, they have just been hidden by propaganda. Dear Mr President, Do you truely care what Americans want or are you just another in the long line of lies that We as American's have come to expect? Please show you have what it truely takes to lead an America that we can be proud of again.
I hope my misspelling did not confuse you in anyway. But I'm sure that if you are the MAN you claim to be, you will not use that as an excuss to blow off this letter...

Steve Jones
316 Geronimo Road
Lusby, MD 20657

Idea: 
1. find the idea "MEXICAN DRUG WAR is AMERICAN DRUG WAR: Revamp the  Controlled Substance Act for Border Security"
2. vote it up
3. get everyone you know to vote it up
4. tell everyone you know to get everyone they know to vote it up

Green Giant uses a combination of numbers and letters to provide a large amount of information in the product code on its cans.  Regrettably, none of this information is intelligible to consumers, including the meaning of the first letter in the code, which is the month of manufacture.  To find out what the code means and what the shelf life of a particular product might be, one must call the company and ask.  

A clear "use by" date will allow consumers to make decisions about how long a shelf life they are purchasing and to use the items they have purchased in a timely manner.  This will save money (by reducing waste) and promote wellness (by protecting consumers from potentially spoiled food).  We expect to see these dates on perishable meat and dairy products, but there's no logical reason why we can't also have this kind of information for other foods intended for the pantry rather than the fridge.

Different companies use different codes.  Some companies have clearly indicated "expiration dates" on their canned products; others do not.  Apparently a federal regulation is needed to get the manufacturers on the same page with their codes and date stamps.