The problems surrounding the subprime mortgage markets have pushed the housing market into its worst slump in 16 years – weakening the American economy and making American families less secure economically. According to a Congressional Joint Economic Committee Report, as many as 2.8 million Americans could lose their homes in the next five years due to the subprime mortgage crisis. Nationally, the expected economic costs of projected foreclosures total nearly $104 billion.

Foreclosures can devastate entire neighborhoods and cities, not just the borrowers who lose their homes. Some Studies have shown that foreclosures increase violent crime in neighborhoods. Properties that have been foreclosed upon have been shown to decrease the value of other homes in the neighborhood. Foreclosures reduce city tax revenue, making it harder to provide good schools, police protection, code enforcement and other services. We must work to assist homeowners facing foreclosure for the good of our families, communities and nation.

It is critical that in our politicians haste to find a solution to our housing market woes that they do not act in a way that could hamper the free market and further dry up credit leading us to only exacerbate the situation.

I agree with former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan: when demand for new housing sufficiently exceeds the available housing stock, the mortgage market will again begin climbing to equilibrium. Thus, we must find responsible ways of fostering this demand to hasten the process and end the sufferings and concerns of homeowners.

Reports of Medicare’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Though the trigger has been pulled by Republican ideologues, this year’s Trustees report shows that Medicare remains solvent and sustainable.

The trigger is an arbitrary threshold designed to scare people into thinking we can’t afford to continue Medicare as an entitlement. The fact is that we can’t afford not to.

Through the years, Congress has regularly modified and modernized Medicare to accommodate advances in medicine and meet the demands of a growing population. I look forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure Medicare’s viability for future generations.

Yesterday’s decision places the onus on the federal government to take immediate action to pass our Passenger Bill of Rights. With the summer travel season approaching, Americans nationwide will face the prospect of endless delays and no guarantee of service – the airline industry has proven its inability to protect passenger rights. Congress must put into place some sort of minimum standard. I would urge the leadership in the Senate to bring to the floor the Passenger Bill of Rights.

We have now completed five years of engagement in a war which was never sanctioned by Congress. It is a war which was declared by executive fiat under the guise of national and international security on the basis of extremely dubious intelligence estimates.

Five years later, 4000 American lives, an unknown number of Iraqi lives, tens of thousands of wounded and disabled, millions of Iraqis displaced and a cost now estimated to ultimately reach 3 trillion dollars, we are no more secure, the world in no more secure, and Iraq lies in shambles and locked in civil war.

Hopefully, with a new Democratic Congressional majority and the election of a new Democratic president we will move expeditiously and rationally to withdraw our troops and negotiate down the level of hostilities as far as possible. I hope we will use all of our diplomatic expertise to put together some semblance of justice for all the people of Iraq in an atmosphere of stability and security.

I believe we should turn our attention and our resources to our needs here at home: getting our economy back on track, protecting homeowners from losing their homes to foreclosure, creating jobs, national health care, providing a quality education for all our youth, keeping our bridges and roads in good repair, protecting our environment and moving by mid century to alternative sustainable sources of energy, breaking the cycle of recidivism by removing barriers to ex-offenders returning successfully to civilian life. It’s not rocket science . . . just common sense.

It is clear today that we have moved toward a better situation in Iraq, and that is principally because of the incredible work of our men and women in uniform. I have constantly been reminded over the past five years of their dedication, commitment, and sacrifice. Truly, these outstanding citizens and their families should serve as a model to us all. However, it is equally clear that we still have a tough road ahead – the situation in Iraq, while greatly improved, is by no means fully resolved. In the days ahead, we need to ensure that we carefully formulate the strategies and policies that will afford us the best chance of fully stabilizing both Iraq and the Middle East region. The Iraqis have much work to do on this front, as well. As such, we need to continue to press them to make real progress on both the political and security fronts. Our military can work wonders, but ultimately, total success is up to the Iraqi people.

Like many others, I look forward to hearing General Petraeus’ assessment of the conditions on the ground when he appears before the Congress in early April. His recommendations for a path forward should greatly inform us as to how we can safely and responsibly bring our troops home without negatively impacting the fragile security of the region. I firmly believe our precipitous withdrawal would increase the likelihood of a return of American troops to the region in an even more dangerous environment. We, as a Congress, need to ensure that we are guided by that reality and acknowledge the tremendous sacrifices of our Armed Forces. Accordingly, we have an obligation to set policies and funding that reject politics by choosing the path that best advances long-term stability in Iraq.

This past week, the war in Iraq hit two milestones: it has now been 5 long years since this President and a Republican Congress first took us to war and since then over 4,000 Americans have been killed in combat. Adding to the pain, over 29,000 Americans have been injured and tens-of-thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed. Though these are important statistics to bear in mind as the war continues, we must also remember to go beyond these numbers and recognize that each digit represents a real person with a life, a family, and friends. As America enters into a sixth year of sending our sons and daughters into a fight that shows no sign of ending, we must again ask ourselves if this war is worth the cost. My answer: not one American soldier should ever have been sent into the Iraq dessert. Now that the war is underway, we cannot bring our troops home soon enough.

Video of John McCain accepting the endorsement of former first lady Nancy Reagan outside her California home Tuesday.

On March 22, 2008, Adolfo Gonzalez Montes, a Colombian coal miner and leader of the union SINTRACARBON, was assassinated in his home, leaving behind his wife and children. Adolfo Gonzalez Montes was the 13th unionist murdered in Colombia this year, putting Colombia on course to far exceed its rate of 40 trade unionists killed last year.

Since 1991, around 2,300 union leaders have been killed in Colombia — a country which continues to lead the world in the murder of trade unionists. It must be noted that 433 of these unionists have been killed since President Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002. Some of these, moreover, have been killed by the Colombian military itself. And, all were put at risk by the Uribe Administration, which continues to wrongly stigmatize trade unionists as “guerillas” and “terrorists.”

As the LA Times recently reported, the Colombian military’s share of extra-judicial killings has been on a steady increase recently, with the military responsible for the killing of 287 civilians last year alone — a 10% increase over the previous year. In total, the Colombian military has been responsible for over 955 extra-judicial killings since Alvaro Uribe was elected president in 2002. Read the rest of this entry »