Talking Points Afganistan Troop Withdrawal

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Michelle Obama's common-sense healthcare advice is the real Obamacare

by David Lazurus, LA Times, June 21, 2011 
Big props to the Los Angeles Unified School District for doing away with chocolate milk and other sweetened drinks. The district is now a full-fledged practitioner of Obamacare.

No, not that Obamacare. The other one.

President Obama deserves credit for taking a leadership role in promoting healthcare reform. But the complexity of our medical system is such that no one person can solve all our problems. "Obamacare" is thus a misnomer when it comes to making the necessary political, economic and regulatory fixes.

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Homeowners Refinance to 15-Year Loans

Cecelia Kirchman happily added $250 to her payment when she refinanced last August. Kirchman took out the new loan to reduce her interest rate to 4.5 percent from 7 percent, and slice the term in half to 15 years. She said she has paid down more principal in the past 10 months than in the previous six years of owning her home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Kirchman, a marketing director for a financial-planning firm who lives in a ranch-style house in Frederick, Maryland, with her husband, Mark. “For very little more each month, I’m paying it off much more quickly.”

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Small Manufacturers are Creating Good American Jobs

Supporting growth and innovation in manufacturing is critical to helping America out-compete the rest of the world and create 21st-century jobs.

Since 2010, nearly 250,000 manufacturing jobs have been added in the U.S., helping reverse a decade-long trend when millions were lost.

At the SBA, we put important tools directly in the hands of small manufacturers, including more than $2 billion in financing to them last year alone. Through the Small Business Jobs Act, we also raised the SBA loan limit to small manufacturers to up to $5.5 million (the highest SBA loan limit ever) to help them buy a new warehouse or a big piece of equipment, and put Americans back to work.

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HUD-DOT-EPA work together in Partnership for Sustainable Communities

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