This month, pundits from across the political spectrum are noting the 50th year of Lyndon Johnson's declaration of war on poverty. Liberals cite the good intentions of the programs, while Conservatives rue the trillions wasted on this failure and the massive growth of the federal bureaucracy it spawned (as I wrote about last year), but rarely do we do any self-examination. What do we do about it? We can't just be about pointing out that the war on poverty has failed. We have to offer solutions. I participated in an intriguing discussion group this morning that posed this very challenge.

See how the major budget plans coming up for a vote in Congress this week stack up to one another - we rate them here!

Earlier this year, White House press secretary Jay Carney suggested that Americans losing their jobs due to ObamaCare should be thankful. “At the beginning of this year,” he said, “we noted that as part of this new day in health care, Americans would no longer be trapped in a job just to provide coverage for their families, and would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams.”

Maybe, maybe not. U.S. House of Representatives Republicans will unveil a 10-year budget blueprint in the next few weeks that will champion fiscal austerity, a theme party leaders hope will energize conservative voters ahead of the November congressional elections.

A lot of important things were happening in 2008. Banks were failing, jobs were being lost, and our economy was about to be pushed off a cliff. The problems our country faced in 2008 were grave, and have had lasting consequences even to this day. Luckily, while voters, politicians, and pundits wasted their time trying to select new leaders of government to tackle these problems, then-Congressman Mark Udall saw something different. In the midst of economy downturn, Congressman Udall and his taxpayer-funded congressional staff felt the best use of their time and resources was to write a bill to get Americans to stand up and actually do something! Literally, something—anything actually that made a person sweat. And they wanted the government to design a program and devote resources promoting it.

1. On Syria: "The world is literally about to blow up and our president did not really paint a fair picture of the threats we face." Source: Huffington Post.

Up until recently, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been pretty silent about online gambling. Now he’s expected to introduce a bill to federally ban online gambling as early as next week. What’s the deal?

President Obama is calling on the U.S. to increase funds for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to the current situation in Ukraine. Obama has been pushing Congress to pass the 2010 IMF quota reform package for several years with no success. It’s an expensive package and most House Republicans are no fans of the IMF. Now with the crisis in Ukraine, Obama sees a perfect political opportunity to pressure Congress into voting for more IMF funding.

Here are three possible budgetary futures for the US government. Which one do you prefer?

Earlier this week, President Obama released a budget plan that has to have most Americans wondering if they've found themselves in the middle of a Bill Murray Groundhog Day scenario. The budget offers little in the way of new ideas, simply a repeat of the President's failed policies of the past.