I am retired and is on Social Security and RMD from 401K. After market crashing due to Banking and Mortgage Crisis, the market is slowly recovering. The market lost 6 % due to the Fiscal Cliff Concern. We middle class retirees cannot afford any delay in the resolution.

I am a working citizen of the United States. I am 30. I work for a non profit organization under a grant to decrease the massive dropout rate of our school children. Under the grant, I have no health care coverage. My income is on the moderate to higher end of middle class. However, what I make is ate up by health care expenses. I was born with Diabetes Mellitus Type I. I am insulin dependent. I have been on Blue Cross Blue Shield my entire life until I took this job in 2008. I did not realize I could denied to pay for health insurance out of my own pocket that would eat up my paycheck. I am not sick. I just need normal health insurance that covers all of my medication plus my insulin pump. I am spending roughly $500/month on diabetic supplies just to keep me alive. And now Governor Robert Bentley has decided he won't set up the health care exchange that would keep me supplied with my medicine and not being in the poor house!

Consumers deserve to know if our food contains potentially harmful genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Thirty countries have placed restrictions on GMOs, but the U.S. doesn't even require a labeling system, much less regulate them, due to a powerful, wealthy biotech lobby.

Banks to be restricted to a manageable size as to allow bank to be able to go out of business for committing poor or illegal business decisions. Bank conglomerates would not be able to take over banks that are willing to give consumers reasonable rates and fees. example Commerce Banks were consumer friendly and TD Bank took over and slammed consumers with fees eliminating competition and reasonable consumer banking fees. banks know the difficulty with having to change banking every time the reasonable bank you chose gets taken over. STOP THE Greed and Arrogance

Currently there is no FICA tax liability past the first 110,000.00 of income. If this cap was done away with and everyone paid the current rate at every level of income it would put millions perhaps billions into the Social Security and Medicare fund.

Thousands of people are seriously injured every year in TX by hit-and-run drivers. The current fund to help them is seriously under-funded and taken from court fees of common criminals, who are not the ones causing the problem. This is an external cost of driving that needs to be internalized and brought back to drivers. In my hit-and-run the medical bills alone came to almost $200K, not counting the lost income and pain and suffering that were never compensated.

I, and millions of Americans, have admired the work of Paul Krugman for many years and imagined how much faster and further along our economic revovery would be if he were Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Krugman would make an enormous difference and we desperately need his expertise, vision, and guidance in Washington!

Our country is losing revenue due to offshore banking tax shelters. Increasing taxes on money that has left or is about to leave the United States will help bring some of it back, which will help conquer the debt and the deficit. All money transferred out of the United States from 1970 into tax shelters must me taxed 90% of total amount that was sent or is about to be sent offshore. That's right, 90%. Under the Eisenhower administration (a Republican, by the way), the marginal tax rate on regular income over $400,000 was 91 to 92%.

Nevada Energy's management of our energy infrastructure is inefficient, shortsighted, environmentally unsustainable and costly to consumers. Public control and transformation of this vital resource is imperative. A Public Utility District to replace private, for-profit energy management is called for here.

When Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter says Obamacare will force many chain restaurants to reduce their employees’ hours, he’s half-right. A lot of restaurants are already cutting workers’ hours, and if Papa John’s begins to rely more on part-time labor then it will just be one of many large corporate chains to do so. A few of the businesses that are already doing that—such as Darden Concepts Inc., the owner of Olive Garden and Red Lobster—have said, like Schnatter, that they need to reduce costs because of the burden Obamacare places on them.

Students with Disabilities are required to participate in the general education classes. These students are functioning 2 and 3 grade levels below their non-disabled peers. These students are being taught the general education grade level curriculum with accomodations and modifications to be sucessful in the general education class rooms. They are continously failing the Standards of Learning Test because they are not on their grade level. if they are held to the same standards as the regualr education students, what is the reason for the special education services. I think they should be held accountable for learning the curriculum, but they do have a documented disability which hinders them from performing to the same standards as their non-disabled peers. This is frustrating to the studnets as well as the teachers, who have to witness these students trying to score the same score at a level in which they do not function. According to the NCLB Act, these students are not suppose to be left behind, but indeed they are being left behind and they are not motivated to learn under these conditions. Please lower the SOL score for the students with disabilites, they are not on grade level to take the grade level SOL test.

California has always been a progressive state, from the gold rush to the tech rush, California and Californians have made the smart moves to make this state the best in the union. Now it is time to continue that progressive attitude on something that not only will benefit us with new jobs and technology, but will benefit our children and their children's children. Its time to make the smart and bold investment in clean energy, and California with its vast array of intelligent residents, ideal climate factors and excellent resources is ready to lead the country, let alone the world, in showing what can be achieved when we work together for a better tomorrow.