Challenges of historic import threaten America's future. Action on the deficit economy energy health care and much more is imperative yet our legislative institutions fail to act. Congress must be reformed.

Third issue and again I think it is important to note anyone can make a mistake and any administration can make a mistake once in a while but this is just a long train of abuses an unbroken chain of following special interests rather than the health of the American people.

Health care comprises nearly 20 percent of our national economy but outdated bureaucracy and red tape have stifled competition and raised costs. As a result today more than 45 million are without any health coverage.

Neither left nor right has focused adequately on maternal health.

The U.N. Population Fund has a maternal health program in some Cameroon hospitals but it doesn't operate in this region. It's difficult to expand because President Bush has cut funding.

There should not be one new dime in tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires as long as millions of children in America are poor hungry uneducated and without health coverage.

There's definitely evidence that capitalism at its most ruthless rewards psychopathic behavior. When you look at the worst corners of the American health insurance industry or the sub-prime banking market it really feels like the more psychopathically someone behaves the more it's rewarded.

The minute health care becomes a huge unwieldy expensive government bureaucracy it's a permanent feature of life and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

We are particularly interested in the mental health programs and policies that support our troops and their families before during and after deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In mid-May the House of Representatives approved the full amount of money that the Veterans Administration said was needed for next year - plus an additional $1 billion increase for veterans' health care.