Unable to secure the votes needed to pass Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) debt plan, House GOP leaders first delayed then canceled a vote on the Budget Control Act last night. The House could take up the measure today, but many conservatives and Tea Party activists remain strongly opposed to the plan. All eyes are on Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is trying to secure the last handful of votes. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has started preparing an answer for the question millions are asking: If there’s no money to pay the bills, …
Do the nation’s trial lawyers deserve a taxpayer bailout? That’s what they’re after: a special-interest tax break of $1.6 billion. In fact, after Congress refused to consider giving them that break, they are now trying to get it from the Treasury Department. In order to bestow that gift, though, the Treasury Department would have to reverse the view it took back in the Clinton Administration (which, incidentally, was not known for its hostility to the trial lawyers) and change its 1997 ruling without any intervening change in the underlying facts …
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) this month has been trying to threaten the U.S. economically. However, their plan could actually harm China, not America. Many, many Chinese see reunification with Taiwan as a deep emotional issue. But much of the PLA sees it as a way to pad the military budget. Any attention to Taiwan has Chinese generals demanding some sort of strong action or another, while naturally observing that the controversy justifies more money for them. This happened again with the recent announcement by the Obama Administration that it will provide limited arms to Taiwan. The …
The Treasury Department and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank have just released a highly complex 253 page draft bill that is supposed to deal with questions ranging from indentifying and dealing with systemic risk facing the financial services system, regulating and closing failing “too big to fail” financial services firms, and a wide variety of other potential problems. As expected with a bill that long and detailed, it will take a while to understand everything that it contains, but first impressions are that it contains many bad ideas …
“We’ll Need To Raise Taxes Soon” opines Roger Altman, a former Deputy Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, in a Wall Street Journal editorial today. Of course, he comes to this conclusion because deficits are high, excessive entitlement spending continues to darken the budget outlook, and, well, that’s the solution he most desires. Of course, he’s wrong, again. President Obama and his congressional allies have accomplished a remarkable bait-and-switch. Remember the Obama directive to his cabinet to hunt down budget savings? Nothing. Remember going through the budget line by line? Nothing. …
The federal government’s bailout parade wasn’t enough to save California this week. In a move that drew praise from some conservative quarters, President Obama refused to send federal aid to the Golden State. California had asked the Treasury Department to help with its $24 billion deficit. But rather than open the U.S. treasury to ailing states, Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner decided California must first get its budget in order before relying on a federal bailout. Reacting to the news at this week’s Bloggers Briefing at The Heritage Foundation, …
The Department of the Treasury has again declined to label China a currency manipulator. This will ruffle some feathers on the Congress, labor groups, certain industries, and some plain ol’ regular Americans. Those with ruffled feathers can make good points but Treasury is still right to have done nothing. There are definitely weaknesses in the justification given for doing nothing. Treasury cites the PRC’s stimulus package as helping the situation when the stimulus is just more of what China has been doing the past six years to create its gigantic …
