With a $50 billion budget and 5,000 employees, education spending per pupil by the Department of Education has increased; but, reading, math and science scores have not changed. Adam Schaeffer, Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute, says we have doubled per pupil spending since 1980 and ‘it hasn’t gotten us anywhere.’

Democratic Senator Evan Bayh from Indiana joins five democrats and six GOP Senators in announcing that he will not seek reelection. Bayh’s decision to leave the Senate gives the GOP a chance to pick up another seat in addition to the 41 they now control.

GOP Representative Ron Paul from Texas asks House members “What if…” by posing a series of questions about national defense, wartime spending, personal liberty and big government.

The job market may be improving but the number of foreclosures seems to be on the rise. One in every 409 homes was facing foreclosure in January 2010 – a 15% increase over last year.

The Index of Economic Freedom measures the “economic freedom” of 179 countries – how much the government intervenes in the economy. Economic freedom leads to economic prosperity. The bank and auto maker bailouts as well as government spending have lowered the position of the US from its typical highest category to a position now trailing Canada.

GOP leaders reported on their weekly house republicans meeting, commenting that discussions centered on how the Federal budget spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much and does nothing for job creation. The rhetoric from the SOTU was reassuring…the substance in the budget was jaw dropping.

Thirty six states in the United States have a state CON (Certificate of Need) law that requires proposed new hospitals to convince state regulators that a new hospital is needed. Reducing the supply of hospitals limits competition and raises the cost of hospital care for consumers.

GOP Representative Ron Paul from Texas told FoxBusiness that the original legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security was designed so that no cost was added to the federal budget; but, by the time it was passed the bill cost $3 billion. Ron Paul says the DHS gets too much information and the information doesn’t get to the right people.

Ethan Harris, head of North America economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch says the new employment report is a complicated, mixed report showing 20,000 jobs lost but a drop in the unemployment rate. He thinks any job gains in the report only reflect temporary census and health care workers.

This 3-minute video uses photos, graphs, lyrics and rhythm to highlight the key reasons Tea Party members are calling for immediate change in Washington. The video is an excellent synopsis of why Tea Party supporters want to see an end to increased Federal spending, a fast-growing Federal deficit, rising taxes, job losses and costly, ineffective big government programs.