The massive health care overhaul has morphed into a “patients’ bill of rights;” Wall Street reform is “consumer protection.”
via Speaker defends troubled majority – David Rogers – POLITICO.com.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released its most dire warning yet of a looming U.S. debt crisis, openly comparing the U.S. budget situation to the Greek, Irish, and Argentinian debt crises and calling for a 20 percent cut in the size of the federal government. The July 27 report, “Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis,” comes just days after the Obama administration revised upward its deficit projections for fiscal 2010-11 to a two-year total of $2.89 trillion. The CBO had labeled the federal spending path “unsustainable” in a June report.
via CBO Warns of Greek-style U.S. Debt Crisis.
The Federal Home Loan Bank model is more than sufficient to provide a method for smaller banks to spread their risks while maintaining skin in the game. The reason the housing market is weak is not lack of financing nor high borrowing costs thirty year mortgages are at 4.25%, but excess supply particularly of high end homes. If there is an excess of MacMansions in Venice, Florida increasing the supply of mortgages will not move them off the market.
Read on:
via Malcolm C. Harris, Sr. | The Economist.
Starting Jan. 1, 2012, Form 1099s will become a means of reporting to the Internal Revenue Service the purchases of all goods and services by small businesses and self-employed people that exceed $600 during a calendar year. Precious metals such as coins and bullion fall into this category and coin dealers have been among those most rankled by the change.This provision, intended to mine what the IRS deems a vast reservoir of uncollected income tax, was included in the health care legislation ostensibly as a way to pay for it. The tax code tweak is expected to raise $17 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
via Gold Coin Dealers Decry New Tax Law – ABC News.
It’s official now – Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has announced plans to launch a 24-hour Arabic-language TV news channel in partnership with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox.This deepens the relationship between the Saudi prince and the Fox News Channel that so many Americans rely on as the “fair and balanced” alternative to ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN. He was already a major, one might even say pivotal, stockholder in Fox’s parent company, News Corp. It is a relationship that compromises the integrity of Fox News now and into the future.
via Fox and the Saudi bagman.
As the unemployment rate sits at 9.5%, American jobs are literally floating away. Two oil drilling rigs from the Gulf of Mexico recently embarked on a two month journey overseas. Diamond Offshore announced one rig is going to the Nile River delta of Egypt and the other is heading to the Republic of Congo; and their job opportunities went with them.
These rigs were sitting idle due to President Obama’s deep water drilling ban and his administration’s subsequent new moratorium, even though a federal judge struck down the first ban.
via Bachmann Blog : News & Views from Minnesota Congressman Michele Bachmann.
There may be no vote a United States Senator casts that is more important than a vote to confirm a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now that the Court has clearly stated that the Second Amendment is a fundamental, individual right that applies to all law-abiding Americans, NRA members and gun owners expect a nominee to the Court to fully support, defend and preserve that freedom.
via NRA-ILA ::.
In an ironic twist of fate, the chairmen appointed by President Obama to study the impact of the Gulf oil spill turned their attention to Obama’s own offshore drilling moratorium as a significant factor causing economic harm.
via Obama’s Oil Spill Commission Criticizes Offshore Drilling Moratorium | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News..
Attorney General Eric Holder is blaming “politics” for delaying Team Obama’s decision on where to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his terrorist pals.
He’s right — but it’s Holder and the Obama folks who are playing politics. And, in fairness to voters, that needs to stop: It’s time for a decision.
On Sunday, Holder called congressional objections to civilian trials “regrettable,” insisting they’ve “resulted . . . in the delays that we have seen.”
But, recall, it was he who first suggested trying the thugs in a civilian court in Manhattan — a plan pushed by the Left — rather than a military tribunal.
And it was Holder who later backed down, after his decision sparked a furor.
via Holder needs to decide on Gitmo detainees–Editorial – NYPOST.com.
When White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told “Meet the Press” host David Gregory on Sunday that “there is no doubt there are enough seats in play that could cause Republicans to gain control”, he was, to many people, stating the obvious.
After all, political prognosticators — from Charlie Cook to Stu Rothenberg and every talking head in between — have noted (with varying degrees of certainty) that the House majority is clearly at risk for Democrats this fall.
via The Fix – The White House, the House and the impact of a majority in the balance.
Robert Gibbs, Barack Obama’s chief spokesman, got into hot water this week for daring to speak the truth – that the Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives in November. But it could be even worse than that.
Contrary to pretty much every projection until now, Democratic control of the Senate is also starting to coming into question. While Mr Obama’s approval ratings have continued to fall, and now hover at dangerously close to 40 per cent according an ABC-Washington Post poll published on Tuesday, the fate of his former colleagues in the Senate looks even worse.
via FT.com / US & Canada – Obama faces growing credibility crisis.
