Now that Obama has a second term, we need to pressure the White House to "cut a deal" with the Congress to reduce the debt facing this country. This will necessitate raising taxes on those making over $250,000, as well as figuring out ways to cut out unnecessary federal spending.

Instead of cutting Social Security and Medicare, increase the sources of revenue. I am on the verge of receiving Social Security and Medicare and I would like to keep both solvent. The government cannot continue to make cuts AND not increase revenue.

The purpose of this petition is to let congress know that a substantial number of citizens want them to raise taxes on individuals earning more that $250,000 a year as part of a compromise to balance the budget.

There are many older experienced workers who have been displaced in the workplace due to attrition and funding cuts. There is an atmosphere in the job application process today that makes it suspect that these displaced workers are intentionally sifted out before even before the interview process. Reasons may be attributed to higher education requirements for equal positions or the unspoken discrimination of hiring the applicant on the basis of too many years in the workplace contibuting to the employers bias that the appllicant is not trainable. I am a worker with many transferable skills but have faced over two years of unemployment. I find the application process unfriendly and discriminating in many ways. This creates a feeling that many older workers are too old to hire and too young to retire forcing us to use up any savings and or retirement funds with imposed penalties in order to survive, leaving nothing for retirement years. This creates and forces the need for even longer years of employment beyond the retirement age creating financial instability and a bleak outlook for obtaining the needed employment.

Wages are taxed as ordinary income. Investment gains are taxed as capital gains. I assure you, having made both, that it takes more effort to make a dollar in wages than a dollar of capital gains. Capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income. Investors will still put money in the stock market. (And only investors in startups and IPOs are really making the economy grow, the stock market has little to do with economic growth and jobs.) It's only fair.

Social Security is a vital lifeline for seniors, the disabled and handicapped and children. Corporations are trying to destroy the public good and privatize government by creating a myth of a bankrupt country. America is the wealthiest country and social security ensures that Americans live in dignity.

I work for less than $8.00 an hour. I rely on the government to help me meet basic needs to survive and many people are in the same boat. Lessen the amount of tax dollars paid out in food stamps, stimulate local economies and give people the ability to support themselves by raising the minimum wage to $9.50.

This petition is to encourage State legislators in Missouri to set a limit on interest rates for home loans, to help reduce predatory lending practices. Two of my siblings- hard working people who pay their bills on time and always have- lost their homes within the last two years, due to their lenders raising interest rates. And raising them, and raising them again. Until the payments became so ridiculously high that they had no hope of paying off the loans, at which point the lenders seized and kicked them out of homes they had been faithfully paying on for YEARS. This has to stop!

Kansas needs to support our veterans.

Congress will be back in Washington, D.C., on November 13 and they’ll be making high-stakes decisions on jobs, the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2%, and whether to cut Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid before the end of the year. Corporations and millionaires—who spent record amounts trying to buy the election for Mitt Romney—are going to be spending tens of millions on a full frontal assault in the halls of Congress to keep their special perks. Working families didn’t vote for further attacks on the middle class. Tell your Congress members: No cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and no more tax cuts for the richest 2%.

Republicans, it is now time for you to STOP obstructing the passage of the Jobs Bill which is designed to help Veterans make the transition back to peacetime life.

Now that Obama is in his second term it is time for him to change course from shoring up the banks and Wall Street to listening to the Nobel Laureates. Many of us knew that the first mistake President Obama made was appointing Geithner and Summers. We have stayed faithful to him despite his vicissitudes. Now for the people's sake he should let Geithner, et al., go and appoint Joseph Stiglitz or Paul Krugman as his Secretary of the Treasury. We would also suggest Robert Reich, who's been brutally but truthfully critical of Obama's policies, but loyal to the people and the Democrats. It is time to emulate FDR and put the government to work for its citizens.