● Chief Justice John Roberts found State of the Union scene 'troubling'... ● Obama's plans for NASA changes met with harsh criticism... ● House Ways and Means Chairman Levin says job creation will be top priority...Again?... ● Massa flirts with the right, but Beck isn't tickled... ● CBO Update... ● Massa under investigation for allegedly groping male staffers... ● From Greece, an economic cautionary tale for the U.S.... ● Obama wants to Overhaul Immigration System. What's Next? The People?... ● Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?... ● Analysis finds uneasy mix in auto industry and regulation...
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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'Taxes'

From Greece, an economic cautionary tale for the U.S.

March 9th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Government, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Look into the face of George Papandreou, America, and see your future.

The Greek prime minister is in town this week as part of a world tour seeking help for his beleaguered homeland. Greece is broke, its government on the verge of default. As Papandreou landed in Washington, there were strikes in the streets of Athens over his tax increases, his wage cuts for government workers and his scaling back of retirement benefits.

As he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced the cameras Monday, she spoke of the weekend’s election in Iraq. “Greece is the birthplace of democracy, so anytime there’s a democratic election anywhere in the world, Greece should get a royalty, Prime Minister,” Clinton said.

“Would help our deficit, too,” Papandreou joked.

“Yeah,” Clinton agreed. “It’s a new way of plugging the hole.”

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Key vacancies give Obama a chance to steer financial reform

March 8th, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Fraud Alert, Government Control, Greed, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By Binyamin Appelbaum Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 8, 2010

President Obama has the chance during his first term to appoint leaders for each of the federal agencies that oversee banks, an important opportunity to reshape the government’s approach to regulation even as the White House struggles to push structural reforms through the Senate.

In his first such decision, Obama chose to keep Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve, in part because administration officials concluded that Bernanke had demonstrated a commitment to increasing the Fed’s focus on regulation and consumer protection. The administration also appointed a second Fed governor, Daniel K. Tarullo, to lead an overhaul of the central bank’s approach to regulation.

A second opportunity comes in August, when John C. Dugan reaches the end of his term as comptroller of the currency, the chief regulator for most of the nation’s largest banks.

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Ethics clouds over Rangel and Paterson are the talk of political Harlem

March 8th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Government Control, Greed, States, Tax Dollars, Taxes

By Wil Haygood Washington Post staff writer
Monday, March 8, 2010

NEW YORK — Few will deny that the political landscape here in Harlem has yielded rich and galvanizing story lines. The arcs of those narratives have been taught and shared in classrooms across America.

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Charles B. Rangel became chairmen of powerful congressional committees. David N. Dinkins became the first black mayor of New York City, and David A. Paterson became the state’s first black governor. Percy Sutton and Basil Paterson, David’s father, became genuine power brokers, rolling between downtown and uptown with a sophisticated ease. The accomplishments gave Harlem a swagger and also a sweet pride.

Then came last week.

In what seemed like a double-barreled whammy of political shock and setback, Rangel stepped down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee because of an ongoing ethics investigation and Paterson’s reign took on a tick-tock, tick-tock echo as many — supporters and foes alike — called for his resignation because of allegations that he interceded on behalf of a staffer in a domestic abuse case and accepted free tickets to a baseball game.

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Thin wall separates lobbyist contributions and earmarks

March 8th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Greed, Money Lost, Politics, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes

By R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 7, 2010

House Appropriations defense subcommittee member James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) works hard at fundraising: Two to three times a week, he telephones contributors to ask for more. Yet, according to the account he supplied to the Office of Congressional Ethics last year, he is unaware of “who made donations” or how much they gave, and so that information plays no role in his earmarking — the systematic granting of public funds for mostly private purposes.

Fellow subcommittee member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) similarly presides over fundraisers arranged by his staff for defense firms and lobbyists every three months or so, according to his office’s account. An aide in charge of Dicks’s earmarks attends the fundraising events. But Dicks and the aide told investigators they were unaware of the substantial overlap between defense industry contributions to Dicks and his earmarks to contributors.

The House ethics committee on Feb. 26 exonerated Dicks, Moran and five other defense subcommittee members of allegations that they had abused their offices by, in essence, selling earmarks to donors. In so doing, it drew heavily on promises such as these by lawmakers and staff members that their campaign fundraising operations had been carefully walled off from their earmarking decisions. Otherwise, their actions would violate laws and rules that bar any link between such donations and legislative acts.

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Congressman Steve Kagen (D-WI) under fire from the media.

March 6th, 2010 · Deception, Federal Spending, Greed, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Unemployment

 The media is beginning to pay attention to Kagen’s record.  

Listen to a clip from Charlie Sykes Radio Show.

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In e-mails, lobbyists perceive ties between campaign cash, earmarks

March 6th, 2010 · Accountability, Congress, Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Money Lost, Obama's Scheme, Politics, Selling Out the US, Stimulus, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Treason

By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 6, 2010

Lobbyists and corporate officials talked bluntly in e-mail exchanges about connections between making generous campaign donations and securing federal funds through members of an important House Appropriations subcommittee, according to not-yet-public documents reviewed by ethics investigators.

In summer 2007, for example, senior executives at a small McLean defense firm tried to figure out which of them would buy a ticket to a wine-tasting fundraiser for Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense. At the time, the company sought help from Moran’s office in securing contracts through special earmarks added to the defense bill.

In an e-mail exchange, one senior officer said he didn’t understand why he had to attend the fundraiser when he didn’t even drink wine.

“You don’t have to drink,” Innovative Concepts’ chief technology officer, Andrew Feldstein, shot back in an e-mail. “You just have to pay.”

“LOL,” responded the other officer.

The fundraiser was hosted by the PMA Group, a powerful lobbying firm whose unusual success in obtaining “earmarked” contracts from members of the military subcommittee was a key focus of a recent House ethics investigation.

Moran raked in $91,900 in campaign checks to his personal campaign and leadership PAC that day. He secured an $800,000 earmark for Innovative Concepts in the 2008 defense appropriations bill.

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Obama & Democratic Leaders – Pass Bill Now, Fix Later. Abortion is Small Price to Pay.

March 6th, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Greed, Healthcare Industry, Immigration, Insurance Industry, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within

Democratic leaders working to win over abortion opponents for health-care reform

By Alec MacGillis Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 5, 2010

As President Obama makes his final plea for a health-care overhaul, Democratic leaders in Congress are embarking on a delicate strategy to win over abortion opponents, a gambit that could determine whether the legislation becomes law.

The effort depends on convincing as many as a dozen antiabortion Democrats in the House that abortion language in the Senate bill is more stringent than initially portrayed. But Democratic leaders must be careful that they don’t drive away abortion rights supporters who are increasingly concerned that the measure would prove severely restrictive.

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Mikulski calls OPM retirement system ’scandalously wasteful’

March 4th, 2010 · Government, Government Control, Greed, Tax Dollars, Taxes

By Joe Davidson Thursday, March 4, 2010

Sometimes, it seems that the Office of Personnel Management won’t get the federal retirement system fixed until the crawfish whistles on the mountain, as the Russians like to say.

Consider the problems that Frederick Hancock has had trying to get the retirement income he says he is due. Hancock is a disabled Vietnam vet from Greenbelt and worked for Veterans Affairs for 25 years. He retired in 2007. He tells a frustrating story of being given the wrong retirement forms to fill out for submission to OPM.

It took OPM six months to get back to him with the right papers. He sent those in, then waited three months before calling OPM. He was told that it did not have his personnel folder — the VA Medical Center in the District did. The D.C. medical center bounced him to another office in St. Louis, which bounced him back to the VA in Washington, which again sent him to OPM, where he was told that his records were in its office in Boyers, Pa.

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Fannie Mae Seeks Another Bail-Out

March 2nd, 2010 · Federal Spending, Housing Industry, Stimulus, Tax Dollars, Taxes

Fannie Mae admitted last week that it needs another $15.3 billion from the federal government to stabilize its finances.

Fannie, which is controlled by the federal government, is making financial progress. It reported a fourth-quarter loss of $16.3 billion, including $1.2 billion in dividend payments to the Treasury Department, as compared to a loss of $25.2 billion in the same period in 2008.

Fannie’s problems stem from a continuing stream of bad loans, with 5.38 percent of its single-family loans more than 90-days delinquent, up from 2.42 percent in 2009.

Source: CNNMoney, Tami Luhby (02/26/2010)

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Reduction of Mortgage Tax Breaks Unlikely

March 2nd, 2010 · Congress, Dissention, Housing Industry, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Treasury

So far, Congress is ignoring President Barack Obama’s budget proposal to reduce deductions for mortgage interest and real-estate taxes.

The president proposed that taxpayers would save 28 cents of tax liability for every $1 of mortgage interest or taxes, down from the current 35 cents.

Congressional representatives on both sides of the aisle have concerns about how the idea would impact the housing market, says Matthew Beck, a spokesman for the Democratic majority on the House Ways and Means Committee.

The Joint Committee on Taxation says the current mortgage-related tax deductions will reduce tax revenue by $104 billion this year, with 75 percent of the benefit going to people who earn more than $100,000 per year.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, James R. Hagerty (03/01/2010)

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