Essential Government Services.. according to Clinton

Both animals slept in the house last night. It was 31 degrees and cold. They did pretty well. Missy woke me at 3:00 to go out and shortly after that, before I got back to sleep, Slinky wanted out to go pee. Then he slept the rest of the night.

I went with my brother-in-law to Bartlesville to his dermatoligist this morning and he had a few places that were frozen. They were keratosos. While I was there, I had him take a look at a place on my chin that has been there for months. It doesn't heal and it bleeds periodically. He took one look and said "Basil Cell Carcinoma". He cut it out and will have it biopsyed and will call me. It's a good thing I went.

Afterward, we walked the mall and then came on back home. Later this afternoon I will attend the CRMC, our hospital, open house for their new cancer center.

I have been reading the new book by Bill Clinton, "Back to Work". He does have some good insights. Here is a list of what he thinks are government's essential services.

Number One: National Security, including the military, intelligence agencies, diplomatic efforts and development assistance, homeland defence, federal law enforcement, border patrol, natural disaster response, and the area most recently added to the list by the Pentagon and the CIA, combating climate change.

Number Two: Assistance to those who are otherwise unable to fully support themselves. and to provide a decent retirement for seniors, including Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and aid for the disabled, food stamps, unemployment benefits, nutrition aid for newborns, and mothers, and public housing.

Number Three: Equal access to opportunity, including federal aid to education for low income and disabled students, and HOPE Scholarship tax credits for college tuition costs, the student loan program, Pell Grants, work-study programs and job training assistance.

Number Four: Economic Development: including trade agreements, financing for businesses to enter new markets, incentives to create new businesses, and jobs in advanced manufacturing, clean energy, energy efficiency, and other high growth areas, investments in basic research and incentives for private research and development to be done in the United States, an adequate minimum wage and support for work and child rearing, including the Family and Medical Leave law and the child tax credit Small Business Administration-guaranteed microcredit and community development loans, to promising businesses that would otherwise be shut out of credit markets, financing and other support to help companies sell products made in America in other countries, and incentives to invest in areas of high unemployment and low incomes.

Number Five: Oversight of financial markets and institutions to ensure transparency and honest dealing, competition, and consumer choice and to limit leverage to avoid future collapses and bailouts. :

Number Six: Protection and advancement of public interests the market can't fix, including clean air, clean water, safe food, safe transportation, safe workplaces, civil rights, access to affordable healthcare, and preservation of natural resources for the common good, including national parks, national monuments, and national forrests.

Number Seven: Providing investments through tax or fee revenue, for projects we all need when the costs are too great or the cost recovery period too long for the private sector to finance including highways, airports, rails, accelerated broadband connections, a national electric grid, and critical research and development in areas from space to advanced materials to nanotechnology and biotechnology to clean energy.

Number Eight: A revenue collection system to collect taxes and issue credits and deductions deemed by Congress to be in the national interest, including tax deductions for home-mortgage payments, charitable giving, health care payments, children and many business expenses and deductions.