Senator Christopher Evans, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, has announced a 14 per cent cut in the 2008-09 Australian permanent skilled migration program intake from 133 500 to 115 000 in response to the global recession and growing unemployment.
While this cut is significant, it should be remembered that the number have only been taken back to the levels that existed in 2004.
The government has also stated that it is now only processing general skills migration visa applications, and granting visas to permanent visa applicants that are State/Territory sponsored, nominated/sponsored by an employer or who have nominated occupations on the new critical skills list.
Further administrative changes saw the removal of building and manufacturing trades from …

I’m sure we all would like to believe that our government can create prosperity by simply handing out more money. Wouldn’t it be great if, like the businesses “too big to fail”, we could all receive big government bail-outs?
But why do they stop at only giving us a few hundred dollars or maybe even a few thousand? If giving big business and bankers billions will save our economy, why not at least give each of us a hundred thousand or so? Then we could really go out and spend our economy back to health. The new administration and congress would be heroes; they would receive our undying devotion, right!
But wait, you say, I’m just being …

From the beginning of his political career in 1982 as a member of the House of Representatives John McCain has supported our armed forces, worked to stop extravagant government spending, and to lower taxes. In 1986 he was elected to the United States Senate. He has fought against special interests and their lobbyists. These are the reasons many people of conservative bent like John McCain.
He has been aligned with the pragmatists conservatives who are less war like, though he thinks we need a strong and modern missile defense. He understands that we need a capable defense against countries that have and would use intercontinental ballistic missile to bomb the United States.
McCain knows that our troops …

The President wants health care reform, well so do a lot of other people in this country,BUT, will it ever come.
I don’t care how hard he tries, he will never be able to achieve this, why, because this depends on forces bigger than him. This takes me back to 1976, in Oklahoma, I was working for an agency that was implementing section 8 housing.
We kept running across the same problem, elderly people that received 15 dollars a month in food stamps. Some were eating dog food, some weren’t eating at all. We had a representative in to explain some rules and regulations, and the question was asked, “why did they receive such a small amount …

The Private Sector Can Do It With The Correct Guiding Policies
The private medical health care system is not broken. It provides excellent care for patients. What is broken is the cost of the service.
Before health insurance use became wide spread, the market determined prices. The doctor would determine what price he could provide the service for. The patient would determine if he/she was willing and able to pay the price. When a third party became involved, such as an insurance company or the government, the price rose to the amount of the third party’s ability to pay.
The government decided to increase the number of people that were purchasing health insurance. Lobbied by the insurance companies, …