The President’s Budget The Actual Cost: The $634 billion in the President’s budget is only a “down payment” on health care reform. Experts believe that the actual cost of Obama’s health care plan could reach $1.6 trillion over 10 years. This is in addition to the trillions of dollars Obama has already spent on health care this year through the stimulus and SCHIP. Details, Please: On such an important piece of the President’s budget and agenda, there is little detail on what the Administration expects to spend with the $634 …
As you are aware, the President took quite a bit of heat last month from British and U.S. media outlets, when it was reported that he gave Prime Minister Gordon Brown a set of American movies on DVD, as the official gift of his state visit. It turned out that the DVDs were not compatible with British DVD players, and worse, that the Prime Minister had a vision problem that would make the gifts even more distasteful. Gordon Brown gave President Obama a pen holder carved from the timbers of …
A Direct Challenge Three, Two, One … Launch: North Korea is preparing to launch a long-range Taepo Dong-2 missile in early April, capable of hitting targets in the western United States. A Continuing Threat: A 2001 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate assessed a two-stage Taepo Dong-2 could threaten Alaska, Hawaii, and the western United States while a three-stage missile could threaten all of North America with a nuclear warhead. Civilian Satellite? North Korea is characterizing the launch as a civilian satellite to minimize negative repercussion from its provocative act. However, mastering …
Whom It Really Targets The Hit List: H.R. 1586 retroactively taxes AIG employees who are due deferred compensation and would tax that compensation at a 90% rate. A Much Broader Sweep: Going forward, the bill also imposes a 90% federal tax rate on anyone employed by a company receiving $5 billion in TARP funds who has a family income over $250,000, individual income over $125,000 (if single or married but filing separately), or performance pay larger than adjusted gross income. What Defines a Bonus? Under H.R. 1586, a “bonus” is …
According to Politico, CNN’s Dana Bash and Ted Barrett reported yesterday on how the $800 billion Stimulus bill managed to not only protect AIG’s bonuses; but a provision that would’ve prevented the executive bonuses was stripped. The obvious question is why these protections were put in place by Congress for AIG’s executive bonuses? A stunning comment from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) says it all: Frankly it was such a rush — we’re talking about the stimulus bill now — to get it passed, I didn’t have time …
Hitting the Federal ATM, Again Apparently, It Does Grow on Trees: After an $800 billion stimulus bill, the President’s budget increases spending by $1 trillion over 10 years, includes an additional $250 billion placeholder for another bailout, and calls for a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) law while astonishingly violating that rule by $3.4 trillion. More Deficits and More Debt: The President’s budget leaves permanent deficits averaging $600 billion even after the economy recovers and doubles the publicly held national debt to over $15 trillion ($12.5 trillion after inflation). To Pay for Historic …
Yesterday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called the United States a “deadbeat” donor to the world body. The White House called these words “unfortunate” and at least rightfully acknowledged the “the contribution that the American taxpayer makes.” However, these words are much more than “unfortunate.” Let’s start with our donor status. The United States puts up 22% of the operating budget of the United Nations. Compared to other well populated nations with large economies, this is an outstanding number. China barely tops 2%, Brazil is just over 1% and Russia and …
Unions Rally against Democratic Elections Card Check: The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would replace secret ballot organizing elections with publicly signed union cards, allowing union organizers to deceive, harass, and threaten workers into signing these cards and thereby unionizing. Stripping Away Privacy and Freedom: A worker may vote “no” against a union behind a curtain but may be less courageous if pressured in public. This is why most union organizers currently don’t call for elections until between 60% and 75% of a shop notes interest, knowing that there will …
