NevadaFive, since when are workers ENTITLED to perquisites and mediocre work ethics? You sound like one of those with the inbred entitlement mentality. Have you never heard of make your own way and the government owes you nothing? Where in the Constitution does it guarantee you 40 hour work weeks, health benefits, and a job? Get over yourself and start living in the real world.

There's an easy way to reduce student loan debt. Limit the amounts to tuition and books only. Don't add an extra $2-3000 per semester for living expenses. Get a job and earn those living expenses. Hundreds of thousands before these kids did it, so can they.

One look at what the UAW has done to the automotive industry should have any legislator feeling nauseous about backing such a measure. This is not turn of the century America when labor laws and unions were needed to protect workers. The only purposes unions serve now are to inflate wages and perks, promote mediocrity in worker performance and productivity, and add to the already heavy tax burden we all have. Whatever happened to hard work brings increased wages and benefits, and mediocrity gets shown the door? We have enough federal employee protection laws on the books now so that unions aren't necessary - unless of course one has been inbred with a sense of entitlement without putting forth the effort. Three words - blue collar welfare.

The first couple in this story need some serious budget education! If the numbers are correct, they earn about $3000 per month. Take out $800 for rent and say $800 for car payments, and they have $1400 left over. Let's say they have $250 in revolving credit and medical payments. That still leaves $1150 per month. And they had to dip into savings for groceries? Granted times are a tough and prices have gone up a bit, but I know families of four who would feel like kings on that income these days. Were they featured in the wrong article or something? Were they meant for the article on "Whiners With Decent Income In A Down Economy" instead?

So let me get this right......we can't spare a few more dollars to pay the people who protect our lives and deliver emergency health service. Yet we have a Congress who is considering giving copious amounts of money to an industry whose unskilled workers get paid $75 per hour (on average) to slap knobs on gearshifts on an assembly line. Sure. Makes perfect sense to me. Where's Obama when you need him to spread THAT wealth?