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NYS Comptroller: we can’t borrow our way out of crisis

SagamoreMan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:49:39 +0000

3:51 PM, March 10, 2010 ι By MAGGIE HABERMAN

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli came out hard against Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch’s “borrow-our-way-out” proposal for the state’s fiscal crisis, saying, “Borrowing bililons is part of the reason we’re in the current crisis.”

“Borrowing to plug a deficit has serious consequences,” DiNapoli said in a statement. “For every dollar the state borrows, we end up paying two dollars back. And all those dollars we spend paying off debt are dollars that can’t be used to teach our children, keep us safe, provide health care or give taxpayers some relief.

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Final ‘reform’ push: twisting arms

SagamoreMan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:43:23 +0000

By MICHAEL TANNER

Last Updated: 1:57 AM, March 10, 2010

Posted: 1:21 AM, March 10, 2010

President Obama’s attempts to ram health- care reform through an increasingly reluctant Congress are starting to resemble a really eventful episode of “The Sopranos.”

Whether or not you believe former Rep. Eric Massa’s bizarre accusations of locker-room confrontations and conspiracies to drive him from office, there is no doubt that the Obama administration and its congressional allies are willing to use every trick in the book to get this bill passed.

They’ve already bought votes with pork and special deals — the “Louisiana purchase” ($300 million to bolster that state’s Medicaid program, which swayed Sen. Mary Landrieu); the “Cornhusker kickback” ($100 million to Medicaid there, sweetening the pot for Sen. Ben Nelson), and Florida’s “Gator Aid” (a Medicare deal potentially worth $5 billion, a hefty price for Sen. Bill Nelson’s vote). Plus the millions for Connecticut hospitals, Montana asbestos abatement and so on.

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Budget deficit sets record in February

SagamoreMan — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:31:45 +0000

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER (AP) – 5 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The government ran up the largest monthly deficit in history in February, keeping the flood of red ink on track to top last year’s record for the full year.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the February deficit totaled $220.9 billion, 14 percent higher than the previous record set in February of last year.

The deficit through the first five months of this budget year totals $651.6 billion, 10.5 percent higher than a year ago.

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Budget Squeeze May Imperil State Regents Exams

SagamoreMan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:27:04 +0000

Mar 9, 2010 8:46 pm US/Eastern

Slew Of Tests At All Grade Levels Could Get The Ax

Reporting
Marcia Kramer

NEW YORK (CBS) ― New York State’s fiscal crisis may force the State Board of Regents to eliminate 13 of 17 Regents exams, raising serious questions about how student achievement would be measured.

They have long been a staple in classrooms throughout New York City and the state — millions of students taking regents exams to test their proficiency in everything from reading and math to science and foreign languages.

But the state budget deficit may force the Board of Regents to eliminate many of the tests.

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Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?

SagamoreMan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:03:47 +0000

By Michael A. Fletcher and Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2010; A01

Millions of Americans have been forced to rely on unemployment payments for extended periods as the nation struggles through its longest period of high joblessness in a generation, and critics are taking aim, saying that the Depression-era program created as a temporary bridge for laid-off workers is turning into an expensive entitlement.

About 11.4 million out-of-work people now collect unemployment compensation, at a cost of $10 billion a month. Half of them have been receiving payments for more than six months, the usual insurance limit. But under multiple extensions enacted by the federal government in response to the downturn, workers can collect the payments for as long as 99 weeks in states with the highest unemployment rates — the longest period since the program’s inception.

The unemployed say extensions help to tide them over in unusually difficult times when jobs are hard to come by. Although unemployment held steady at 9.7 percent in February, millions of jobs have been lost in the downturn, particularly in the hardest-hit sectors including real estate, construction, manufacturing and financial services. Those jobs are unlikely to return even when the economy recovers, many experts say.

But complaints that extending unemployment payments discourages job-seeking have begun to bubble into the political debate. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) recently single-handedly held up the latest extension, a bill to keep unemployment benefits in place for 30 more days, saying Congress should find other cuts to cover its $10 billion price tag.

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Albany Switches Into Soda Tax Mode

SagamoreMan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:04:20 +0000

Mar 8, 2010 7:09 pm US/Eastern

Gov, NYC Mayor Say They Are Trying To Nip Obesity In Bud, But Many Residents Say It’s Just Another Money Grab

Reporting
Hazel Sanchez

ALBANY (CBS) ― The soda tax proposal is back. Governor David Paterson is defending the tax as a way to cover the high cost of treating obesity issues.

A sugary soda to wash down a meal can be taxing on your body, but a New York State tax on soda is being proposed to prevent you from packing on the pounds.

“They already tax you on everything else pretty much, clothes, some certain foods. Where’s it going to stop?” Bedford-Stuyvesant resident William Pate said.

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A Complicated Enemy: Obama Seeks to Vilify Health Insurers, Give Them $336 Billion Check

SagamoreMan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:45:33 +0000

March 08, 2010 6:20 PM

The Note

Washington’s Original and Most Influential Tipsheet

ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports: President Obama and Democrats launched a campaign to vilify insurance companies in the final stretch of their health reform effort.Republicans, meanwhile, pointed out that those very same insurance companies would get huge checks from the government if health reform is enacted.

“(Health Insurers) will keep on doing this for as long as they can get away with it. This is no secret,” the president said. “They’re telling their investors this – ‘We are in the money. We are going to keep on making big profits even though a lot of folks are going to be put under hardship,’” the President told supporters at a stop in Pennsylvania today.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, meanwhile, wrote to insurance company executives demanding that they justify premium hikes.

Neither mentioned that the Senate health reform bill, which is the basis for Democrats’ last best chance at comprehensive reform, would give the insurance companies millions of new customers required by law to buy health insurance. It would also require insurers to cover everyone, regardless of age, gender or pre-existing condition.

To help pay for the new insurance requirements the government would give to people money to buy insurance – $336 billion over the next ten years. That money, ultimately, would have to go to… drum roll… insurance companies.

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April 15th TAX DAY TEA PARTY 2010!

TeaParty365 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:09:06 +0000

Get ready! The April 15th Tax Day Tea Party 2010 is coming soon!

Details will be announced shortly. Please sign up for our email updates to get information as soon as it is available.

Big bank oversight to stay with Fed

SagamoreMan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:08:32 +0000

By Tom Braithwaite in Washington

Published: March 7 2010 22:30 | Last updated: March 7 2010 22:30

Banks with more than $100bn of assets will be overseen by the US Federal Reserve in a regulatory reform plan that represents a partial victory for the central bank after months of attacks in Congress.

Chris Dodd, the Senate banking committee chairman, had proposed hiving off all bank supervision to a single regulator but is set to propose this week that the 23 largest institutions stay under the Fed’s oversight, according to people familiar with the plans.

At issue over the weekend was the regulation of several hundred state chartered institutions that also want to remain under the Fed’s supervision.

While attention has been focused on argument between Democrats and Republicans over the powers and location of new consumer protection functions, which may also be housed within the Fed, other elements of regulatory reform – deemed more important by many institutions and policymakers – are close to fruition.

A new “resolution” regime to deal with failing, but systemically important, institutions would allow the government to wind up a company quickly to avoid contagion spreading through the financial system.

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Congressional estimates show grim deficit picture

SagamoreMan — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:33:55 +0000

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer – Fri Mar 5, 6:17 pm ET

WASHINGTON – A new congressional report released Friday says the United States’ long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama’s grim budget submission last month.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama’s budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion more than predicted by the administration.

The agency says its future-year predictions of tax revenues are more pessimistic than the administration’s. That’s because CBO projects slightly slower economic growth than the White House.

The deficit picture has turned alarmingly worse since the recession that started at the end of 2007, never dipping below 4 percent of the size of the economy over the next decade. Economists say that deficits of that size are unsustainable and could put upward pressure on interest rates, crowd out private investment in the economy and ultimately erode the nation’s standard of living.

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