During
budget negotiations in Dec. 2012, some Democrats, including Nacy Pelosi, supported a "chained CPI" adjustment to Social Security
benefits. Under this plan, recipients, who get an average of less than
$1,300 per month, would get even less. The longer such a plan was in
effect, the greater the reduction in benefits would be. The above video
shows AARP's position on this idea.
South Korea elected its first woman president in December 2012.
Terry McAuliffe has said he
intends to run for governor of Virginia in 2013.
Chuck Todd of MSNBC said there is strong speculation that actress Ashley Judd
may run for the US Senate seat in Tennessee.
outcome in the 2012 races:
Eliabeth Warren beat Scott Brown in the Massachusettes Senate race.
Tammy
Duckworth was elected to Congress in Illinois. She was a helicopter
pilot serving in Iraq, and lost both of her legs when her helicopter was
hit with an RPG.
If you think there should be more women in government, you probably will like this. The Senate will have a record 20 women serving
in the upcoming session. Another first is that the Senate will have
it's first openly gay Sentor, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. And we'll see
the first Asian American women serving in the Senate, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.
In
the race for the US Senate in Virginia, Tim Kaine won over George
Allen. But there was another candidate, a write in candidate... a cat.
Virginia doesn't reveal total votes for each write in candidate, but
people who follow this stuff estimate that about 6,000 write in votes
went to Hank.
If
you heard about Proposition 37 in California, which would have required
labeling of foods that contained genetically modified ingredients
(GMO's), it didn't pass. It did, however, get a lot of nationwide
attention to the issue. And similar bills will be coming up in other
state elections in the future.
The state of Maryland approved gay marriage with the passage of "Question 6".