Banning the word 'trillion'

Submitted by Collin Berglund on June 27, 2012
Tags: 
Problem-Solver's Daily
Congressional Gridlock
FDA
education
No Budget No Pay
Debt Crisis

BANNING THE WORD TRILLION: Which is bigger--$15.8 trillion, or $15,772,177,351,447? The two numbers are essentially equal, but No Labels Co-Founder Andrew Tisch argues most Americans don't know this, and as a result, don't understand the fiscal challenges facing our country. To fix this, Tisch argues we should ban the use of the word "trillion" entirely:Andrew Tisch for The Wall Street Journal: Let's Ban the Word 'Trillion'

A "D" ON THE ECONOMY: CNNMoney asked 20 economists to grade our country's leaders on their handling of the economy. The results weren't pretty. The economists gave Congress and the President a "D" saying, "Congress is more interested in scoring political points than in helping the economy." Not the type of problem-solving attitude we need: Jack Cafferty for CNN: Economists give the president and Congress a 'D' on the economy. How would you grade them?
 
STUDENT LOANS IN THE BAG: Senate leaders confirmed Tuesday night that they have reached an agreement on how to keep current student interest rates the same. Now it will be up to the House to approve it, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Sen. Reid are optimistic that their counterparts in the House will find the agreement acceptable: Manu Raju for POLITICO: Senate reaches deal on student loans
 
FDA BILL PASSES SENATE: Despite this Congress' reputation for gridlock, the Senate has been busy solving problems the past few weeks. Yesterday, the Senate passed a bipartisan FDA bill with a 92-4 vote, that will allocate more than $6 billion in user feeds to the FDA, to help fund the agency's review of medical devices. Brett Norman for POLITICO: FDA user fee bill passes Senate, 92-4
 
ROADBLOCK ON HIGHWAY BILL: A lack of communication between parties is threatening to hold back an important compromise of the Highway Bill. House Democrats on the committee are complaining that their Republican counterparts are shutting them out of the negotiations. Our lawmakers cannot shut the door on each other when a solution is so close: Keith Laing for The Hill: Highway conferee threatens not to sign compromise report
 

THREE NEW CO-SPONSORS: No Labels gained three new co-sponsors this morning for the No Budget, No Pay Act. Reps. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and David Schweikert (R-AZ) are the latest. There are now 65 co-sponsors in the House and 11 in the Senate, bringing the the total number to 76. Cheers to all three of the new co-sponsors for their support!

ACTION OF THE DAY: Click here to check out yesterday's blog post on our Make the Presidency Work! action plan and share your thoughts in the comments.

STAT OF THE DAY: Only a third of Americans support the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that is currently awaiting a Supreme Court decision. In spite of that, more than three-fourths say that should the Supreme Court strike down the law, Congress should work together on a new reform of the health care system. Mark Sherman for Associated Press: Political leaders should work on new bill if Supreme Court throws out Obama health

Written & edited by Collin Berglund, Lauren Gilbert, John Thornburgh, Jack McCullough, and Henry Morris

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