This is in response to a post by friend, Republican, and fellow Husker Justin Green and is cross-posted on my personal blog.

Tuesday, President Obama delivered a speech in Osawatomie, KS (where Teddy Roosevelt made a similar appeal just over a century earlier) announcing a throwback to "a New Nationalism." Obama's address imagined a cooperative, collective America, compared the one that Republicans in Congress want to create:

Last night, President Obama and Speaker Boehner addressed the nation as Washington, continues to fight over how to raise the debt ceiling. The President asked each of us to call our members of Congress and demanded a balanced approach that contains shared sacrifice and compromise. Today, we're asking every Nebraskan to do the same.

It is time to stop the games of Speaker Boehner and the extremist conservatives in Congress. Every time they come to the table to compromise, the goal posts move. First, they demand deficit reductions be yoked to the debt ceiling debate. Then, they demand only spending cuts and no revenue increases which means an unfair burden on poor and middle class Americans. Then they ask that a balanced budget amendment (which Nobel-winning economists have called, "unsound policy") be part of the deal.

Almost three years into the Great Recession, the economy does not look so hot.

The markets continue to solidify Federal Reserve Chariman Ben Bernanke’s assessment that our economic problems are more chronic than we thought. Bernanke held a recent press conference about the Federal Open Market Committee findings.  Their assessment that the economy is still in a “moderate recovery” has every one asking some version of an age old question, "Where da' cash at?"  Lil Wayne asked all the way back in 2008, and I’m starting to think that no one has the answer. But we have ruled out a few possibilities. Here’s a quick rundown of the places that the cash is NOT:

There’s no doubt the Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is the golden boy of the radical right.  Ryan’s the new chair of the House Budget Committee and has just unveiled his plan to fund the federal government until the end of the fiscal year.  It may be the biggest piece of partisan hackery designed to protect corporate donors that we’ve ever seen.

First of all, what exactly is in Ryan’s budget?  Everything but the kitchen sink.  He wants to repeal the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, cut Pell grant increases, repeal the Affordable Care Act (aka health reform), privatizes Medicare, lock in the Bush tax cuts and lower corporate taxes.  (Hat tip to Ezra Klein for the breakdown.)

Congress is still debating how to fund the federal government until the end of the fiscal year.  The one word on everyone's mind: JOBS.

If only Biblical conservatives could have stopped Moses' anti-business, regulatory binge.

As Congress debates funding for the federal government, Neal reminds us of what's truly important in the federal budget: Charlie Rose.

While this is a week of turkey, allow me just a few minutes to draw your attention to duck.  Lame duck, that is.  While the new kids on the block have already arrived at Capitol Hill for their orientation, the 111th Congress has some unfinished business to take care of before saying “adios” in December.  The lame duck session, which began Monday, November 15th and is expected to last until mid-December, contains high-profile legislation, some of which has been in the works for over a decade. However, there has been a public push from the Right to refuse passage for any legislation in the session.

State Senator Heath Mello is none too pleased with the lack of innovation state agencies are showing.  Reports were due last Wednesday from agencies, outlining how they planned to redesign government.  But apparently, none of them took it too seriously.

Most offered ideas on how to streamline services, focusing on efficiency rather than anything about innovation.  Mello said that agencies, especially those under the governor, didn’t take the legislature’s assignment seriously.

Wall Street reform passed the Senate today, 60-39. Nebraska's own Senator Ben Nelson voted for reform and protecting Main Street America from predatory practices that caused the financial collapse of 2008. We look forward to a financial system that has better consumer protections and sheds light on $600 trillion derivatives market.

We'll let Senator Nelson explain the significance of this vote in his own words: