On the heels of last Thursday’s bipartisan Senate vote to repeal an Obamacare provision that would slap a 2.3% tax on medical device companies, industry and business groups are making a final lobbying push to knock out costly healthcare provisions
Chinese solar panel giant Suntech declared bankruptcy last week after it missed a $541 million payment to bondholders. Suntech, once the world’s largest solar panel maker, previously received a $2.1 million tax credit from the Obama Administration to open a
Media Matters is scrambling to discredit a much-discussed report on America’s disability program by journalist Chana Joffe-Walt that was featured on Chicago’s Public Radio This American Life and National Public Radio’s (NPR) All Things Considered. Media Matters researcher Hannah Groch-Begley
CNN says limousine services for Vice President Joe Biden’s February trip to Europe cost taxpayers $321,665. The contract information appeared on a federal government website. News of the pricey limo services comes on the heels of reports that Biden’s London
In an eye-opening six-month investigation into America’s disability program, Planet Money reporter Chana Joffe-Walt uncovered a “disability industrial complex” fraught with fraud that churns out 14 million checks every month to citizens the government has deemed disabled. “Since the economy
The Italian News agency ANSA is reporting that it has a seen a draft of the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook report slated for release next week and that that U.S. growth forecast has been lowered from 2% to
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has struck a deal with the European Union and International Monetary Fund that will seize up to 40% of uninsured funds from wealthier depositors with over 100,000 euros and will not siphon funds from those below
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to close 53 public schools and 61 buildings in largely minority neighborhoods to help close a $1 billion budget shortfall has some opponents calling the Emanuel plan “racist.” “[Emanuel] says that he wants to turn
An estimated 80% of the roadside bombs that have killed or injured U.S. forces in Afghanistan were made with chemicals manufactured by Pakistani fertilizer maker Fatima Group. Now the company wants U.S. taxpayer funds to open a plant in Indiana.
The U.S. government spends over $40 billion a year to compensate veterans and their family members for service in conflicts as far back as the Civil War. According to an analysis conducted by the Associated Press, the costs of veteran
Twenty-four of Guantanamo Bay’s 166 inmates are on a hunger strike to protest President Barack Obama’s broken promise to close the detention facility. “They had great optimism that Guantanamo would be closed. They were devastated apparently…when the president backed off,
On Monday, Pentagon officials confirmed that U.S. B-52 bombers carried out simulated nuclear bombing raids on North Korea. The war games exercise, known as Exercise Foal Eagle, took place over South Korea on March 8. “It’s not any secret that
President Barack Obama’s dire warnings that the across-the-board sequester cuts would spawn massive unemployment–losses of up to 750,000 jobs–were exaggerated, say top economists. UBS projects federal payrolls will decline 100,000 annually. “The major flaw in sequester-related government job loss estimates
The Senate Democratic budget will increase America’s gross federal debt per household by more than $50,000 over the next decade, according to GOP Senate Budget Committee staff. Factored on a per-person basis, the gross debt increases from $53,937 today to
America’s rapidly shifting demographic landscape promises vexing policy challenges and new political opportunities as candidates and parties vie for an ever-growing slice of the Latino electorate. Last year, more U.S. babies were born to minorities than whites. Today, over 45%
The number of U.S. homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth declined by 1.7 million from a year earlier, according to recently released data from research company CoreLogic. The encouraging news suggests home equity is rising
Increasing life-expectancy and low interest rates are combining to create a retirement crunch that could reach crisis levels, a new report finds. A survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found that 57% of U.S. workers have less than
Playing off the theme of “March Madness” basketball fever, the Business Roundtable is launching a public awareness campaign called the “Campaign for Home Court Advantage” to build support for lowering the corporate tax rate to 25% and limiting corporate taxes
During a Center for American Progress seminar on Monday, a former top Obama administration official charged with developing Obamacare said the shift to the president’s healthcare overhaul will be “messy” and fraught with “unanticipated” challenges. “We know it’s going to
Cypriot bank patrons say they were stunned and outraged by the unprecedented announcement of a possible one-time confiscation of up to 9.9% of ordinary savings accounts as part of Cyprus’s €10bn ($13 billion) eurozone bailout deal. “Nobody can understand how
A provision buried inside Obamacare will force many employers to pay an extra $63 per employee next year. Analysts say most of the cost will likely be passed on to workers. “It’s caught most employers, if not all employers, by
The U.S. Secret Service is tight-lipped about whether presidents utilize “food tasters” to ensure a commander in chief’s meals are safe to consume. But comments by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) appear to confirm what is widely assumed: the president’s food
New data reveals that the number of New York City residents on food stamps has more than doubled under billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg. According to the Independent Budget Office (IBO), 800,000 New Yorkers received food stamps in 2002. Today, New
The Los Angeles Times ran a Thursday editorial by Middlebury College Professor Bill McKibben arguing that allowing millions of illegal immigrants into America will reduce global warming. “I feel it’s urgent that we get real immigration reform, allowing millions to
Former Frasier star Kelsey Grammer says he has blown through over a hundred thousand dollars investing in windmills. “You’d think it would be lucrative, but it’s not really a friendly environment for new technology, it really isn’t,” said Grammer. The
After four years of the Democrat-led Senate failing to produce a budget, the Senate Budget Committee began work Wednesday on a budget at a committee mark-up session. Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee Jeff Sessions (R-AL) blasted Senate Democrats
On Tuesday, the New York Times warned that “Detroit, a mostly black city led mainly by Democrats” is at risk of “needless and undemocratic seizure of control” from “intervention by the state, mostly white and led by Republicans.” The Times’
Conservative spokesman Ron Meyer, 23, announced on Wednesday that he is forming an exploratory committee for a possible 2014 run for Congress against Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). If elected, Meyer, who will turn 25 just prior to the election, would
House Democrats released a “discussion draft” of carbon tax legislation Tuesday and requested feedback on whether pricing per ton of carbon should result in a $15, $25, or $35 tax, as well as whether the price per ton annual increase
The U.S. government has pumped $5.5 billion in federal grants and loans into manufacturing and promoting electric cars and batteries. But research by Bjorn Lomborg of the Copenhagen Consensus Center finds that a typical electric car driven 50,000 miles over
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is asking Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano tough questions about the recent jail release of 2,000 illegal immigrants awaiting deportation hearings, several of which reside in McCain’s home state of Arizona. The Obama Administration reportedly had
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Judicial Watch seeking records involving DHS’s suspension of some
The Federal Reserve’s quarterly “Flow of Funds” report issued Thursday showed U.S. family net wealth climbing $1.17 trillion at the end of 2012 to the highest level since late 2007. Household net worth, which includes the value of homes and
Citgo Petroleum is paying tribute to the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez by reportedly flying its flags at half-staff at some of its Texas refineries. Citgo is owned entirely by the Venezuelan government. In a statement, Citgo said, “President Hugo
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggest fears over American jobs being outsourced overseas may be overblown. In 2012, just 2,687 jobs were listed as “out-of-country relocations,” the BLS’s official designation for outsourced jobs. That works out to
The $85 billion in across-the-board sequestration cuts is not enough in deficit reduction to forestall another downgrade of the nation’s “AAA” credit rating, say top credit ratings agencies. The key to protecting America’s credit rating, say analysts, is lowering the
Recently uncovered government documents reveal that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) unmanned Predator B drone fleet has been custom designed to identify civilians carrying guns and track cell phone signals. “I am very concerned that this technology will
Some on Wall Street may be celebrating the Dow hitting a record high on Tuesday, but a new report says New York City now has a record 50,000 people a night sleeping in the city’s homeless shelters. The Coalition for
The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its highest mark ever on Tuesday, soaring to 14,226.2 at 9:40 AM. Propped up by the Federal Reserve’s stimulus purchase of over $2.5 trillion in Treasury and mortgage-backed securities, the Dow’s new record calls
An internal government email sent Monday instructed an official with a subdivision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make sure that sequester-related cuts inflict as much pain as possible to make sure “you are not contradicting what we said
