Business

Obamacare Is Romneycare

The American Conservative
When newly elected Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts attacked the Democrats healthcare plan during this week's Republican address, Senior White House adviser David Axelrod said on ABC's This Week: “Let me note that Senator Brown comes from a state that has a health care format in his state that is similar to the one we’re trying to enact here. He voted for it and said he wouldn’t repeal it. So we’re just trying to give the people in America the same opportunities that the people in Massachusetts have.” Visibly agitated when appearing on the same program, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said of Axelrod’s comments: “The American people are getting tired of this crap. No way in the world is what they did in Massachusetts like what we’re about to do in Washington. To suggest that Scott Brown is basically campaigning against the bill in Washington that is like the one in Massachusetts is complete spin.” Americans are indeed tired of lying politicians, but the only crap being put forth here is by Graham. And it’s not just Axelrod pointing out the similarities between the Democrats’ healthcare plan and Mitt Romney’s Republican model-everyone is.
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Operation Health Freedom

A Free Market Alternative To Government Run Health Care
Campaign for Liberty:
Campaign for Liberty believes America's health care system is in desperate need of reform, but current proposals only cement the status quo by mandating further government interference and requiring Americans to either carry a government-approved plan or surrender more of their hard-earned money to the IRS. There is a real alternative to yielding more power over our lives to Washington: implementing a plan centered on freedom, choice, and faith in the American taxpayers that they know how to spend their money better than some unelected bureaucrat.
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Can We Trust the CBO's Healthcare Figures?

By Raven Clabough / The New American
House Majority Whip James Clyburn and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were positively giddy on Thursday morning when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released preliminary estimates of the financial impact of the House reconciliation package on national healthcare. The package is said to mirror the proposal President Obama outlined in February as a compromise between the bills passed in the House and Senate last year. Because the Democrats were unwilling to share the actual reconciliation language prior to the release of the estimates, the CBO’s estimates were based on what they were told to expect in the package. Since then, the language has been posted online, providing little time for the CBO to produce more accurate figures.
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Ferris Geithner's Day Off

By Gary North / LewRockwell.com:
In my previous report, "Why Should Your Children Pay for My Retirement?" I went through the logic and economics of Social Security and Medicare. I made the point that, at some point, the bill-payers are going to resist the payments that previous generations have legislated. What one generation can legislate, a subsequent generation can repeal. The main political question is this: In which form will this repeal manifest itself? The statistical facts of Social Security and Medicare make it clear that the funding of both programs has hit a brick wall.
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Senators Push Biometric ID Card

By Jack Kenny / The New American
Two prominent U.S. Senators are promoting national ID cards as a means of mending the nation's "badly broken" immigration system. Senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have said they will co-sponsor legislation to require all workers in the U.S., citizens as well as aliens, to have a biometric Social Security cards, with a unique personal identifier such as a fingerprint or eye scan, in order to work. Prospective employers would be required to swipe the card through a machine to verify a worker or applicant's identity and immigration status. "Employers who refused to swipe the card or who otherwise knowingly hired unauthorized workers would face stiff fines and, for repeat offenses, prison sentences," the Senators said in an op ed entered Thursday on the Washington Post web site.
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Say 'Yes' to Capitalism

By Walter Block / LewRockwell.com:
There are some new kids on the libertarian block. Their group is called Libertarians Against Capitalism; see here or here. They describe themselves as follows: "We are a group of libertarians who understand that historically the word ‘capitalism’ has meant, not the free market, but crony capitalism – that is, collusion between business and State at the expense of consumers/workers. Thus we refuse to use the word ‘capitalism’ to describe what we favor: individual liberty in all respects and free, competitive markets. We believe that what we have today IS capitalism – and we oppose it."
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Ron Paul's Opening Statement in Financial Services Hearing

Congressman Paul gives an opening statement at a hearing on Fed bank supervision and monetary policy. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Paul Volcker are in attendance to testify.

Obama Endorses 'More Jobs for Illegals' Plan

By Stephen Dinan / The Washington Times
Obama on Thursday gave a thumbs-up to the framework of a plan to legalize illegal immigrants and create a flow of low-skilled foreign workers for the future, saying the bill being worked on by a Republican lawmaker and his Democrat counterpart is "promising." The long-awaited framework, written by Sens. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, calls for illegal immigrants to be put on a path to citizenship and would create a temporary program for future foreign workers. Maybe most contentious of all, it would turn all Social Security cards into tamper-proof IDs to be checked by employers when they are about to hire a new worker. The cards would include biometric information designed to prevent counterfeiting — but the senators said the information would not be stored in a government database.
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New York State Puts $500 Million Tax Refund Checks On Hold

WCBS TV-2 News
For hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, the check won't be in the mail -- at least not on time. New York State has stopped paying tax refunds and won't start again until next month. The tax refund delay is part of a bigger cash crunch. Message to New Yorkers: don't start spending your tax refund money because it's going to be delayed. Half a billion dollars' worth of refund checks were put on hold last Friday, and state beancounters won't start sending you your money until at least April 1.
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Dennis Kucinich Switches Vote on Health Care

The Washington Post
Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, said today that he plans to support the health care bill when it comes up for a vote this week. He becomes the first Democrat to publicly disclose his intention to switch from a no to a yes vote on the legislation. “I’ve decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation,” Mr. Kucinich said at a morning news conference in the Capitol. Mr. Kucinich said he was “quite aware of the historic fight” underway and decided to drop his opposition that the bill did not go far enough. He said, “I believe health care is a civil right.”
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New Mexico Bans Traffic Cameras From State Roads

The Newspaper
Photo ticketing outlawed on state and federal roads in New Mexico. New Mexico DOTThe cities of Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe have sixty days to pull down the red light cameras and speed cameras currently operating on state and federal roads in New Mexico. The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) announced yesterday that transportation commission members unanimously decided to outlaw automated ticketing machines on thoroughfares within its jurisdiction.
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First Look: 2012 Ford Taurus Police Interceptor

AutomobileMag.com
Ford's aging Crown Victoria is barely relevant to most consumers, but cabbies and police officers across the country will bemoan its demise once production ceases next fall. The Transit Connect van may satisfy the livery fleets, but to appease law enforcement officers, Ford crafted its new 2012 Police Interceptor. Without a doubt, Ford's new Interceptor is a clean break from the decades-old body-on-frame, V-8-powered, rear-wheel-drive Crown Vic formula. Although Ford was once rumored to be modifying its rear-drive Australian Falcon platform for police use, Ford instead went to its American-built Taurus sedan for the new car.
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Is Greece the Future of America?

By Sheldon Richman / Campaign for Liberty
It may be possible to look into America's future. How? Watch what's going on in Greece. According to the Washington Post, "Greece needs to raise about €23 billion [more than $31 billion] in April and May to pay debts coming due. Greek officials say that either is impossible, or would require punitive interest rates -- making it harder to bring the budget under control -- unless Europe helps out." So the Greek government awaits a bailout from Germany and France, but first it has to impress them that it is serious about fiscal austerity.
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American Military: Trust in the Last Vestige of US Dominance

By Bill Bonner / LewRockwell.com
This must be some kind of golden age for government. In the US, the feds have seized major stakes in banking, autos, insurance and mortgage finance industries. The Chinese are paying for their enterprises. They already own footholds in some of the most important companies in the US. Yesterday, they announced another big move. CNOOC, China's state-owned energy company, is buying half of Argentina's second largest oil producer, Bridas. The Chinese have described the deal as giving them a "beachhead" for entry into Latin America. The world's richest people (two of the top five are Indians)…its biggest markets...it largest financial reserves…its most profitable companies – all are moving away from the US. And now the Chinese are proposing to help the US upgrade its transportation system. Word from Beijing is that Chinese contractors are pitching high-speed rail lines to California, Florida and Illinois.
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Senate OKs Jobs Bill for Obama's Signature

The Economic Times
WASHINGTON -- The US Senate is sending the first of several promised election-year jobs bills to President Barack Obama for his signature. It would provide a temporary payroll tax holiday to companies that hire and would pump $20 billion into the federal highway construction fund to make up for low gasoline tax revenues. Critics argue that it is not the job-creating engine Democrats have advertised. The bill was passed Wednesday on a bipartisan 68-29 vote. Democrats promise additional jobs legislation.
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China Criticizes US Pressure Over Currency

ABC News
China on Tuesday rejected U.S. calls to ease currency controls and said criticism would not help efforts to end the global crisis. A Commerce Ministry spokesman repeated Chinese complaints that Washington was acting unreasonably by expecting other countries to raise their value of their currencies in order to boost U.S. exports. The United States and other trading partners complain Beijing keeps the yuan undervalued and are pressing for it to rise. "Politicizing the exchange rate issue is not helpful to coordination among all parties in the course of fighting the global financial crisis," spokesman Yao Jian said at a news briefing.
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Judge Orders Banks to Trial Over Derivatives in Italy

Malaysian Mirror - AFP
MILAN -- A judge in Milan ordered banks JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Depfa, UBS and 13 people to stand trial for alleged fraud in the sale of derivative instruments, the prosecutor told AFP on Wednesday. "JPMorgan, Depfa, Deutsche Bank and UBS have been ordered to stand trial for fraud along with 11 of their managers and two former Milan city officials," said Alfredo Robledo, a prosecutor at the Milan court. The four banks allegedly hid the risks in the derivative financial products they sold to the city of Milan while restructuring its debt, promising that the products would save the city money. All the banks involved deny any wrongdoing.
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FDA Threatens Walnut Processor For Making Legitimate Health Claims

Natural News
With hundreds of thousands of people dying every year from the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, one would imagine that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be out in full force pulling these drugs from the market, right? Actually, the agency has recently been spending its time targeting a walnut manufacturer for making legitimate, scientifically-proven health claims about walnuts on its packaging.
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3D TV's Sell Out

Bloomberg
Panasonic Corp. said its 3-D TVs sold out in the U.S. in their first week, raising optimism the technology that helped "Avatar" break records at the box office will extend to living rooms and help boost profits. The shortage is prompting the world’s largest plasma TV maker to take back-orders from retailers, Hitoshi Otsuki, the senior managing director heading Osaka-based Panasonic’s overseas operations, said in an interview yesterday in Tokyo. He declined to specify figures. “It’s a great opportunity to turn around our TV business,” he said.
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Ron Paul: The Idea Of Regulating Away Financial Problems Is Deceptive.

Campaign for Liberty
Congressman Paul on Fox Business: On Tuesday, Congressman Paul appeared on Fox Business's Countdown to the Closing Bell to discuss Senator Dodd's financial regulatory reform bill. Other topics covered included the true nature of inflation and the role of the Fed in creating the economic crisis.

Senate Bill Takes Aim At Banks

Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senate legislation aimed at overhauling regulation of finance would cost large banks billions of dollars, prevent them from taking certain risks and create a new regulatory infrastructure to oversee their activities. The draft bill introduced Monday by Senate Banking Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut is tougher on financial companies than was expected just a few weeks ago. Mr. Dodd's bill would allow the Fed to examine any bank-holding company with more than $50 billion in assets, and large financial companies that aren't banks could be lassoed into the Fed's supervisory orbit.
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Non-Bank Resolution Process: House v. Dodd

Daniel Indiviglio / Atlantic Online
The next stop as I continue to go through Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd's (D-CT) new financial reform proposal (.pdf) is how he intends to resolve too big to fail firms. As with most other sub-proposals I've discussed thus far, this one largely resembles what's found in the House bill. The big differences have to do with the creation of a "Orderly Liquidation Authority Panel" of bankruptcy judges to bless the resolution and the size of the fund to pay for it. Both proposals call for firms to create resolution plans. In each proposal, the Treasury Secretary, Federal Reserve Chairman, relevant regulator or the firm itself requests resolution. The firm's failure must pose a systemic risk to the U.S. economy in order to utilize this process instead of the bankruptcy code. The Federal Reserve Board and the relevant regulator's board or commission vote on whether or not to proceed. A two-thirds vote is required. All of this is essentially identical for both Dodd's and the House's versions.
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Senate Bill Wipes Out Indian Tobacco Industry

Indian Country Today
WASHINGTON -- Handing big tobacco corporations a huge victory, the U.S. Senate has passed the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act – an act tribal leaders say is an attack on tribal sovereignty and economies that will devastate Indian tobacco businesses across the country. The PACT Act passed by unanimous consent without a vote or a hearing late the evening of March 11. The act bans the shipment of cigarettes and certain tobacco products through the U.S. Postal Service, cutting off the only remaining delivery service for Indian retailers who do business through Internet sales. A few years ago, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was ousted in a prostitution scandal, “persuaded” private carriers such as Federal Express and UPS to “voluntarily” stop shipping tobacco products.
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Oil Jumps 2.4 Pct On Weak Dollar as OPEC Gathers

Reuters
Oil rose 2.4 percent on Tuesday as the dollar weakened after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates near zero for an extended period, and as OPEC ministers planned to keep oil output cuts in place at a meeting Wednesday. The dollar weakened 0.7 percent against a basket of currencies .DXY after the Fed signaled it would hold benchmark interest rates near zero and renewed a pledge to keep them there for an "extended period." The Fed also said the U.S. labor market was "stabilizing" following a recession. The dollar also fell after European finance ministers agreed to technical terms on Monday to provide debt-stricken Greece with aid. A flagging dollar makes oil cheaper for holders of other currencies.
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California's Illegal Red Light Camera Tickets' Refund Reach $3.1 Million

The Newspaper
South San Francisco, California red light camera refunds expanded to cover 7000 illegally issued tickets. Red light camera refunds will now reach $3.1 million in the city of South San Francisco, California. City officials decided this week that it had no choice but to refund tickets issued between January 28 and March 10 after being confronted by potential lawsuits over the city's failure to abide by state law. In January, the city admitted that every photo ticket that American Traffic Solutions (ATS) issued on its behalf between August 2009 and January 28, 2010 was invalid because the city council failed to ratify the contract. The council agreed to refund the tickets, nearly 3000 worth $446 each, and pay for the traffic schools motorists were forced to take. While generous, this move was not enough.
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China Trims Holdings of Treasury Securities

The Associated Press
China retained its spot as the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury debt in January even as it trimmed its holdings for a third straight month. The string of declines underscored worries that the U.S. government could face much higher interest rates to finance soaring budget deficits. The Treasury Department said Monday that China's holdings dipped by $5.8 billion to $889 billion in January compared with December. Japan, the second-largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, also trimmed its holdings but by a much smaller $300 million, to $765.4 billion.
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UK Taxpayer 'Will Pay Tens of Billions of Euros for Greek Rescue'

Daily Mail
The UK taxpayer could still end up forking out for the bailout of debt-stricken Greece despite Treasury assurances, politicians warned last night. The fears come as eurozone finance ministers are today expected to discuss a package of aid worth tens of billions of euros for the ailing country. Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, last night said it would be 'unacceptable' for UK taxpayers to be asked to pay any money to help Athens.
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Crooks & Thieves: Dodd Unveils Sweeping Financial Regulation Plan

The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- A new Democrat Senate bill to tame the financial markets would give the government new powers to break up firms that threaten the economy, force the industry to pay for its failures and create a consumer watchdog within the Federal Reserve. Legislation unveiled Monday by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd falls shy of the ambitious restructuring of federal financial regulations envisioned by President Barack Obama or contained in legislation already passed in the House. But the 1,336-page bill, which includes provisions negotiated with Republicans, would still be the biggest overhaul of regulations since the New Deal. It comes 18 months after Wall Street's failures helped plunge the nation into a deep recession.
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New York Fed Chief Would Need Lawmakers' Approval in Dodd Bill

Bloomberg
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York president, who supervises five of the seven largest U.S. banks, would be subject to White House appointment and lawmakers’ approval under legislation proposed today. Also, one member of the Fed Board of Governors would be designated vice chairman for supervision, and no firm under Fed oversight would be allowed to vote for or have past or present employees serve as directors of regional Fed banks, according to the bill to overhaul financial regulation. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, unveiled the proposed legislation in Washington. The changes are part of legislation that, if approved, would reduce the roles of the 12 regional Fed banks and vest more power in Washington-based Fed governors and lawmakers. Dodd’s plan curtails Fed supervision powers to oversight of about 35 of the biggest firms from 5,000 banks and houses a new consumer financial-protection agency at the central bank.
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Toyota: Analysis Doesn't Match Calif Prius Incident

Wall Street Journal
Toyota Motor Corp. said there are "strong indications" that a dramatic incident on a California highway involving a Prius last week was inconsistent with the findings of the auto maker's preliminary analysis. The Japanese auto maker said its engineers completed an investigation of the 2008 Prius driven by James Sikes that was subject to an emergency call a week ago, when the driver reported the vehicle was traveling at a high rate of speed and couldn't be stopped. For its part, Toyota said the accelerator pedal in Sikes' car was tested and found to be working normally. It said the front brakes showed "severe wear and damage from overheating," with the rear and parking brakes in good condition.
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China, Japan Reduced Holdings of U.S. Treasury Debt in January

Bloomberg
China and Japan, the two biggest foreign holders of Treasuries, reduced their positions of U.S. government debt in January as a measure of demand for American financial assets fell to a six-month low. China remained the biggest owner abroad of Treasuries, even as its holdings dropped by a net $5.8 billion to $889 billion, according to Treasury Department data released yesterday in Washington. Japan cut its holdings in January by $300 million to $765.4 billion, the report showed. China has been a net seller of Treasuries for three straight months, the longest such stretch since the end of 2007. Chinese officials have questioned the dollar’s role as a reserve currency and recently sought assurances about the safety of U.S. government debt as the budget deficit widens to a projected record $1.6 trillion this year.
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U.S., U.K. Move Closer to Losing AAA Credit Rating

Bloomberg
The U.S. and the U.K. have moved "substantially" closer to losing their AAA credit ratings as the cost of servicing their debt rose, according to Moody's Investors Service. The governments of the two economies must balance bringing down their debt burdens without damaging growth by removing fiscal stimulus too quickly, Pierre Cailleteau, managing director of sovereign risk at Moody’s in London, said in a telephone interview. Under the ratings company’s so-called baseline scenario, the U.S. will spend more on debt service as a percentage of revenue this year than any other top-rated country except the U.K., and will be the biggest spender from 2011 to 2013, Moody’s said today in a report.
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Two More Bank Failures Raise Year's Tally to 30

The closures of Statewide Bank in Louisiana and Florida's Old Southern Bank brought the number of bank failures this year to 30, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Even though both banks were closed Friday by state regulators, customers can continue using checks and cards because other banks will take over, the FDIC said in a statement. Centennial Bank in Arkansas will take over the more than $319 million in deposits from Old Southern Bank. Home Bank of Louisiana will assume the $208 million in deposits from Statewide and buy its $243 million in assets, the FDIC said.
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Collapse of the American Empire: Swift, Silent, Certain

By Paul B. Farrell / Market Watch
"One of the disturbing facts of history is that so many civilizations collapse," warns anthropologist Jared Diamond in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Many "civilizations share a sharp curve of decline. Indeed, a society's demise may begin only a decade or two after it reaches its peak population, wealth and power." Now, Harvard's Niall Ferguson, one of the world's leading financial historians, echoes Diamond's warning: "Imperial collapse may come much more suddenly than many historians imagine. A combination of fiscal deficits and military overstretch suggests that the United States may be the next empire on the precipice." Yes, America is on the edge.
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A Constitutional Dollar

Michael Rozeff / Tenth Amendment Center
Are you aware that a Federal Reserve dollar bill is not a constitutional dollar? Perhaps you are, but if so, do you know what a constitutional dollar literally is? Is it gold? Is it silver? Is it both? What is actually meant by a metal standard? Can the United States or any country be on two standards at the same time? Can two metals circulate as coin if there is but one standard? Or does one metal have to drive the other out of circulation? How and why does Gresham’s law work when a country uses metal coin for money? In what ways are certain statements of Gresham’s law misleading?
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States May Hold Onto Tax Refunds for Months

USA Today
Residents eager to get their state tax refunds may have a long wait this year: The recession has tied up cash and caused officials in half a dozen states to consider freezing refunds, in one case for as long as five months. States from New York to Hawaii that have been hard-hit by the economic downturn say they have either delayed refunds or are considering doing so because of budget shortfalls. "It's an indicator of how bad it is," says Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers. "You know things are bad when you have to do that." New York, hit with a $9 billion deficit, may delay $500 million in refunds to keep the state from running out of cash, says Gov. David Paterson.
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Detroit Family Homes Sell For Just $10

Daily Telegraph
The once thriving industrial city has suffered a dramatic decline following the global economic crisis. According to Tim Prophit, a real estate agent, the crisis has led to a unprecedented portfolio of homes, but they are failing to sell. He said there were homes on the market for $100 (£61), but an offer of just $10 (£6) would be likely to be accepted. Speaking on a BBC 2 documentary, Requiem for Detroit, to be screened on Saturday, Mr Prophit said: "The property is listed by the city of Detroit as being worth $35,000 (£22,000), but the bank know that is impossible to ask.
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Why the U.S. Can't Inflate Its Way Out of Debt

CNNMoney.com
It's dawning on people that getting a handle on burgeoning U.S. debt will be a long and hard process. So if lawmakers can't agree on a credible plan, some have suggested that the country could just "inflate its way" out of its fiscal ditch. The idea: Pursue policies that boost prices and wages and erode the value of the currency. The United States would owe the same amount of actual dollars to its creditors -- but the debt becomes easier to pay off because the dollar becomes less valuable. That's hardly a good plan, say a bevy of debt experts and economists. "Many countries have tried this and they've all failed," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.
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Feds Weighs 'Black Box' Requirement For All New Vehicles

Reuters
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief David Strickland told a congressional hearing on Thursday that the regulator is considering whether to make "black boxes" mandatory for all new vehicles. The devices can capture data on speed, braking effort and other details which can be vital in reconstructing accidents. Toyota has recalled more than 8 million vehicles globally to address the risk that accelerator pedals on a range of its vehicles could become stuck because of a loose floor mat or a glitch in the pedal assembly.
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Obama Healthcare II Is Financial Lunacy

By Bob Adelmann / The New American
Even if the Obama administration is able to persuade (or bludgeon) enough Democrats into passing his latest version of healthcare, it would still be financial lunacy. According to CBS, the Director of the CBO, Doug Elmendorf, told the Senate Budget Committee that none of the bills he has seen would reduce health care costs: “In the legislation that has been [analyzed so far] we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of ... health care spending by a significant amount.... On the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs.”
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Obama Seeks To Overhaul 'No Child Left Behind'

LA Times
Obama said he would send to Congress on Monday a blueprint for overhauling the nation's education program and the No Child Left Behind project to improve schools, support teachers and set standards that would give high school graduates "the best chance to succeed in a changing world." Worried that the U.S. is falling behind in education, Obama warned Saturday in his weekly address that "the nation that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow." He said America had "lost ground" over the last several decades, pointing to 15-year-olds who no longer are near the top in math and science compared with their peers around the world, high school graduation rates that have lagged behind most other wealthy countries, and a United States that no longer leads the world in producing college graduates.
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Social Security to Start Cashing IOU's

The Associated Press
The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration. It's time to start cashing them in. For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year. Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more.
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The Coffee Party kicks off movement to take on the Tea Party

NY Daily News
Move over Tea Party there’s another movement brewing. Saturday is the kick-off of the national Coffee Party with gatherings scheduled across the country of like-minded citizens upset with government and angry that the Tea Party movement has grabbed the spotlight. "We need to wake up and work hard to get our government to represent us," Annabel Park, the movement's founder, told CNN. The 41-year-old filmmaker from Washington said she rejects the idea that the Tea Party represents “real America” and claims other groups are also concerned about economic issues, including job security and the federal debt.
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National ID Cards Won't Stop Terrorism or Illegal Immigration

By Rep. Ron Paul, MD / LewRockwell.com
The US House of Representatives passed a spending bill last week that contains provisions establishing a national ID card, and the Senate is poised to approve the measure in the next few days. This week marks the American public’s last chance to convince their Senators they don’t want to live in a nation that demands papers from its citizens as they go about their lives. Absent a political miracle in the Senate, within two years every American will need a conforming national ID card to participate in ordinary activities.
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States Move to Reclaim Power Over Intrastate Commerce

By Michael Boldin / Tenth Amendment Center
For decades, using a tortured definition of “interstate commerce,” Congress has claimed the authority to regulate, control, ban, or mandate virtually everything – from wheat grown on one’s own land for personal consumption, to weed grown in an individual’s own home for the same purpose, to guns manufactured, sold and kept in state boundaries. Today, Dave Freudenthal, the Democrat Governor of Wyoming Governor stood up and gave a resounding NO to this by signing into law House Bill 95 (HB0095), the Firearms Freedom Act. Wyoming joins Montana, Tennessee and Utah as the fourth state to make the act law.
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Regulators Shut LibertyPointe Bank in NYC

The Associated Press
Regulators on Thursday shut down LibertyPointe Bank in New York City, boosting to 27 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over LibertyPointe, with three branches, $209.7 million in assets and $209.5 million in deposits. The bank catered largely to the Orthodox Jewish community in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Valley National Bank, based in Wayne, N.J., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of LibertyPointe Bank.
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Unemployment Tops 20% In Eight California Counties

The Los Angeles Times
For many California areas, unemployment rates moved persistently higher in January, indicating that the national economic recovery hasn't yet translated into jobs for the Golden State. New county-by-county figures released by the state Wednesday showed that in eight counties, more than 1 in 5 people were out of work. Moreover, revised numbers for last year show that fewer people were employed than was previously believed. The state was one of five, along with Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, that reached their highest unemployment rates since the government began keeping track in 1976, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. California's was 12.5% in January, up from 12.3% in December.
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Gov't May Seek More Authority On Vehicle 'Safety'

Government vehicle safety regulators may seek greater authority to investigate defects in cars and trucks and are weighing a range of new safety requirements in response to Toyota's recall of more than 8 million vehicles over brake and acceleration problems. David Strickland, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Thursday his agency will take a "hard look" at the power it has to set safety standards for automakers. Current authority, acquired in the 1960s and 1970s, may not be enough to oversee the technology used in modern vehicles, he said.
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Ron Paul on Bloomberg

Bloomberg
U.S. Representative Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, talks with Bloomberg's Lori Rothman about the outlook for financial regulation and the Federal Reserve's authority. Paul, a former Libertarian Party presidential candidate, also discusses prospects of a run for the 2012 Republican U.S. presidential nomination.

Value-Added Taxation

Joel McDurmon / The Gary DeMar Show:
European nations have instituted value-added taxes and now American politicians are considering it. Joel discusses what a value-added tax is and why it is bad for the economy and the tax payer.

Senate Approves $138-BILLION Spending Bill

LA Times
After months of wrangling, the Senate on Wednesday approved a $138-billion spending bill that would extend jobless benefits, help states pay for Medicaid and continue a bundle of tax measures designed to stimulate the economy. The measure -- which must still be reconciled with a version passed in the House -- also extends tax cuts for college tuition, the program that helps laid-off workers keep their job-based health insurance, and tax breaks for research and development that have long been important to the nation's high-tech industries.
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Keeping the Masses Sick, Fat, and Happy

By Karen De Coster / The LRC
Here's an interesting post on food subsidies from 2007. When the House of Representatives debated the bill in July, PCRM, along with many other health and public interest groups, supported the Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment, which was offered by Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). This amendment would have limited government subsidies of unhealthy foods, cut subsidies to millionaire farmers, and provided more money for nutrition and food assistance programs for Americans and impoverished children overseas.
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Obama Says Curbing Waste, Abuse Will Help Fund Health-Care Plan

Bloomberg
Obama made his case for an overhaul of the U.S. medical system to Missouri voters, emphasizing his efforts to curb waste and fraud in government health programs. "The health-care system has billions of dollars that should go to patient care and they’re lost each and every year to fraud, to abuse, to massive subsidies that line the pockets of the insurance industry," he said yesterday at a high school in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Missouri. Obama is trying to rally public support for the biggest changes to U.S. health care in 45 years in the face of unanimous Republican opposition. He said his proposals show there are ways to pay for expanding insurance coverage to tens of millions of Americans without running up the federal budget deficit.
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Stop The Federal Reserve From Shredding Its Records

Should the policymaking committee of the most powerful peacetime entity in the United States government be allowed to destroy their source records? The Federal Open Market Committee of the nation's central bank, an intricate part of the United States government may be continuing to destroy its source records, a policy it began in 1995 with an unrecorded vote -no fingerprints - conducted by then Chairman Alan Greenspan. The FOMC committee is, when at full strength, composed of 12 unelected members. Five of these members are regional Fed Bank presidents who are internally appointed without having to go through a confirmation process where their views and credentials can be publically examined.
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Pondering Our Collapse While We Watch Others Fall

By Bob Chapman / The International Forecaster
The current dollar rally wont endure, questions for the future of the Euro, No collapse of currency overnight, but we see it coming, record low interest rates drive bond purchases, Fed will continue to feed the economy, the threat is deflationary depression, China continues to dump dollars, US in a box, Fannie and Freddie bondholders should not hold their breath, unemployed are also exhausted... Every important factor we see is working against the dollar and we believe that trend is irreversible. That means the present dollar rally probably cannot endure and it could well be the time to short the USDX.
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Senate Bill on Finance to Include Agency That Tracks Financial Risk

NY Times
Senate Banking Committee members from both parties said on Wednesday that they had agreed to include in their regulatory overhaul bill a new Office of Research and Analysis that would provide early warnings of possible systemic collapses. The proposed agency, which has sometimes been referred to as the National Institute of Finance, is intended to give federal regulators daily updates on the stability of individual firms as well as that of their trading partners, including hedge funds. By standardizing financial instruments and reporting mechanisms, the agency would give regulators a broader view of the health of participants in the financial markets and the potential for problems to spread. The idea’s supporters say that kind of information was lacking in recent years as the housing bubble burst and troubles spread from firm to firm.
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