Debt

State media keep talking about the fiscal cliff as if it will obliterate Maryland's wealth if Congress does not reach a compromise on debt talks. The truth is, cuts are far down the road if they happen, and Maryland will continue to thrive as an extension of Washington's bureaucratic complex. There is an imminent financial crisis in Maryland, however: state debt. According to the nonpartisan nonprofit State Budget Solutions, the total debt of Maryland is almost $82 billion. (www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/state-budget-solutions-third-annual-state-debt-report-shows-total-state-debt-over-4-trillion)

Congress returned to "work" this week (now there's a laugh) to complete its lame-duck session before taking another holiday. Spending other people's money is a taxing experience. Their task is to avoid the "fiscal cliff," a geological construct of their own making. It doesn't take a genius to predict both parties will try to do two things: (1) reach an agreement that will allow each side to take some credit and (2) require those who work for a living to pay government more while they come up with phony or inconsequential spending "cuts.

They haven't solved the nation's fiscal crisis yet, but an advocacy group forming Monday in Maryland already has accomplished another political miracle: bringing together the operatives of Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley and former Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. A bipartisan coalition of business leaders and high-profile political aides - including the former chiefs of staff to O'Malley and Ehrlich - are launching a state chapter of the...

A growing number of young people are confronting a high-debt, low-wage trap that has more college grads working in the food service industry than as engineers ("Students trapped by high debt, low wages," Nov. 9). But how many engineering graduates didn't find jobs? Students are welcome to take courses in English, literature, history, sociology, ethnic studies, etc, but they should major in math, sciences, technology and health care. Or choose a trade and become welders, electricians, plumbers, mechanics or technicians.

There obviously has never been any doubt since the day he was elected that The Sun would endorse President Barack Obama's reelection, because you are a very left-of-center publication ("Obama for president," Nov. 4). It is all rather sad and speaks to the reasons behind your dwindling readership and growing irrelevance. Mr. Obama offers us a chance for a sustainable future? I don't think so. With the current massive unemployment and crushing debt, after four more years of him in office, there may not be any future at all for this country, let alone a sustainable one. Andy Sozio, Timonium

Based on estimates by the Federal Reserve, for the first time in U.S. history, student-loan debt ($867 billion) has surpassed credit card debt ($704 billion). These debt levels have real implications for productivity and lifetime earnings for this current generation of graduates. Much has been written about college students dealing with rising tuition, but there's been much less examination of how substantial student-loan debt, coupled with a slumping economy, affects new graduates. According to a June report by Drexel University's Center for Labor Markets and Policy, even as the overall job market has rebounded in the last two years, employment prospects for college graduates have declined.

I grew up in a Democratic home. My Dad was always very aware of what was happening in government. We have copies of letters Dad wrote to the politicians of his day and the responses he received. Dad kept a chart on the fridge of all the local, state and national politicians for whom he could cast a ballot. When the specified politician did something Dad agreed with, said politician earned a check. If he or she did something Dad deemed offensive that person earned a zero. When it was time to vote, Dad did his research for every candidate and took his chart to the polls.

I am not a Democrat nor Republican. I'm what my voter registration calls "unaffiliated. " I like to think that it allows me to accept and consider anything political, from all sides. In addition, I have a very pragmatic outlook on all things. Plus, my wife considers me a "rigger," one who has the attitude that any problem at home can be solved with whatever works. With this I am able, in my mind, to digest problems without any agenda, by looking at what works and what doesn't.

If the Bowles-Simpson commission deficit reduction plan is dead, somebody evidently forgot to tell Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Their proposal to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade fell one vote short of the majority needed to force congressional action, and President Barack Obama, though saying nice things about the effort, didn't pick up the plan and sell it to the American people. But now, nearly two years later and on the eve of a presidential election, the framework Messrs.

Marquis Jones remembers Peter Holland clearly. He's the lawyer whose work, with his law clinic students, led to the dismissal of a claim against her - a credit card debt she said she knew nothing about. "If it hadn't been for Peter and his team, I have no idea what would have happened," the Severn woman recalled, saying a debt-buying company had the wrong person and claimed it served the legal papers on her spouse. She's not married. But unlike Jones, most of those who've benefited from Holland's consumer advocacy never met him. Few of them know that in December he will receive an award for his legal work from the Maryland Legal Services Corp.