Huffington Post,  May 4th, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama promised sternly on Monday to crack down on companies “that ship jobs overseas” and duck U.S. taxes with offshore havens. It won’t be easy. Democrats have been fighting _ and losing _ this battle since John F. Kennedy made a similar proposal in 1961. Obama’s proposal to close tax loopholes was a reliable applause line during the presidential campaign, but it got a lukewarm response Monday from Capitol Hill.

Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the plan needed further study, even though similar ideas have been around for years.

The president’s plan would limit the ability of U.S. companies to defer paying U.S. taxes on overseas profits. At the same time, Obama would step up efforts to go after evaders who abuse offshore tax shelters.  More…

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (Ken.) said later on Monday that he could not endorse Obama’s plan since it “gives preferential treatment to foreign companies at the expense of U.S.-based companies.”  More…

Texas Governor rallies Republicans by threatening to succeed. Please go right ahead! Here is the link.

Huffington reports that wing-nuts want to burn the books in universities especially those related to evolution and reproductive rights.

Washington Post, April 15th, 2009

As a tea party, what happened in Lafayette Square across from the White House yesterday was a washout.

There were no buttered scones, none of those dainty cucumber sandwiches and, as it happens, not a spot of tea. Organizers of the conservative protest were told at the last minute that they didn’t have a permit to dump a million tea bags in the square, as they had planned.

Instead, they served up a rather noxious brew.

“Hey Big Brother: Show us Your Real Birth Certificate,” said one sign in the rain-soaked crowd.

“Blackbeard Obama, King of the Tax Pirates,” said another. More…

Here is a video of a tea party meeting with the Burn the Books on tape!

Reuters, April 15th, 2009

MIAMI (Reuters) – A wealthy Florida yacht broker, caught up in a federal probe of UBS AG (UBSN.VX) (UBS.N), pleaded guilty on Tuesday to using the Swiss bank to hide more than $3 million in assets from the U.S. government.

The guilty plea by Robert Moran, of Lighthouse Point, Florida, was thought to be the first by a UBS client in a widening tax-evasion investigation of the bank, a U.S. Justice Department official said.

Moran, who runs a Florida-based company called Moran Yacht and Ship that bills itself as one of the world’s leading yacht merchants, entered his plea in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. More…

The budget passed congress without a single Republican vote. Meanwhile U.S. unemployment increases by 663,000 people this week. Republicans could care less.

Congress Approves Budget

$3.5 Trillion Spending Plan To Pay for Obama Initiatives

Washington Post, April 2nd, 2009

Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama’s ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday, endorsing a $3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.

Voting along party lines, the House and Senate approved budget blueprints that would trim Obama’s spending proposals for the fiscal year that begins in October and curtail his plans to cut taxes. The blueprints, however, would permit work to begin on the central goals of Obama’s presidency: an expansion of health-care coverage for the uninsured, more money for college loans and a cap-and-trade system to reduce gases that contribute to global warming.

The measures now move to a conference committee where negotiators must resolve differences between the two chambers, a prelude to the more difficult choices that will be required to implement Obama’s initiatives. While Democrats have sanctioned the president’s vision for transforming huge sectors of the economy, they remain fiercely divided over the details. More…

Actual revisions not expected til 2010, but panel meets now to weigh changes.

CQ Politics.com, March 24th, 2009

The Obama administration announced Wednesday the creation of a task force to propose major changes in the tax code.

The group will be an offshoot of the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which is led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and staffed by Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist who advised Obama’s campaign. Among the likely members who will focus on taxes will be former Clinton economic adviser Laura Tyson, Harvard professor Martin Feldstein, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson and Roger Ferguson, chief executive of TIAA-CREF.

“The only constraints on its activities are that there will be no tax increases during 2009 or 2010, and the proposals should not raise taxes on American families making less than $250,000,” Orszag said. More…

The Obama administration requires that all federal agencies pick “science advisors” and require the use of scientific data in preparing policy proposals.

New York Times, March 9th, 2009

Obama Puts His Own Spin on Mix of Science With Politics

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s directive on Monday to “guarantee scientific integrity” in federal policy making could have a far-reaching impact, affecting issues as varied as climate change, national security, protection of endangered species and children’s health.

But it will not divorce science from politics, or strip ideology from presidential decisions.

Mr. Obama delighted many scientists and patients by formally announcing that he was overturning the Bush administration’s limits on embryonic stem cell research. But the president also went one step further, issuing a memorandum that sets forth broad parameters for how his administration would choose expert advisers and use scientific data. More…

Associated Press, Washington Bureau, February 23rd, 2009

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama gave America the audacity to hope again.

After describing the U.S. economy in nearly apocalyptic terms for weeks, pushing his $787 billion stimulus plan through Congress, the president used his address to Congress on Tuesday night to tap the deep well of American optimism — the never-say-die spirit that every president tries to capture in words. And great presidents embody.

“We will rebuild. We will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before,” Obama said, echoing Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.

“The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach,” Obama said. “What is required now for this country is to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more.”

The themes of responsibility, accountability and, above all, national community rang throughout an address carefully balanced by the gravity of its times. Job losses. Home foreclosures. Credit crisis. Rising health care costs. Declining trust in government. Obama touched all those bases.

“The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere,” he said.

It seemed that the president might be sticking to the dour talking points of the stimulus debate, when he warned that failure to pass the legislation would lead to a catastrophe “as deep and dire as any since the Great Depression,” one that “we may be unable to reverse.”

Fearing (and hearing) the worst, Americans supported Obama’s package and lawmakers passed it. But his rhetoric carried a risk.

None other than former President Bill Clinton, husband of Obama’s former rival and now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, complained that the president’s words were too much of a downer. The president from Hope, Ark., told the author of “The Audacity of Hope” to get back on message. More…

Obama Has Plan to Slash Deficit, Despite Stimulus Bill

New York Times, February 21st, 2009

WASHINGTON — After a string of costly bailout and stimulus measures, President Obama will set a goal this week of cutting the annual deficit at least in half by the end of his term, administration officials said. The reduction would come in large part through Iraq troop withdrawals and higher taxes on the wealthy.

Mr. Obama’s budget outline, which he will release on Thursday, will also confirm his intention to deliver this year on ambitious campaign promises on health care and energy policy.

Mr. Obama inherited a deficit for 2009 of about $1.2 trillion, which will rise to more than $1.5 trillion, given initial spending from his recently enacted stimulus package. His budget blueprint for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, will include a 10-year projection showing the annual deficit declining to $533 billion in the 2013 fiscal year, the last year of his term, officials said. A reduction of that magnitude would more than meet Mr. Obama’s deficit reduction goal. More…

Deal announced on emergency stimulus plan

Associated Press, February 6th, 2009

WASHINGTON – With job losses soaring nationwide, Senate Democrats reached agreement with a small group of Republicans Friday night on an economic stimulus measure at the heart of President Barack Obama’s plan for combatting the worst recession in decades.

“The American people want us to work together. They don’t want to see us dividing along partisan lines on the most serious crisis confronting our country,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of three Republican moderates who broke ranks and pledged their votes for the bill.

Democratic leaders expressed confidence that the concessions they had made to Republicans and moderate Democrats to trim the measure had cleared the way for its passage. No final vote was expected before Monday.

Officials put the cost of the bill at $827 billion, including Obama’s signature tax cut of up to $1,000 for working couples, even if they earn too little to pay income taxes. Also included are breaks for homebuyers and people buying new cars. Much of the new spending would be for victims of the recession, in the form of unemployment compensation, health care and food stamps. More…

McClatchy Washington Bureau, February 5th, 2009

WASHINGTON — This much is clear: Sometime soon, probably this month, President Barack Obama will sign an economic stimulus plan.

However, it probably will have at least $50 billion less spending than the Senate’s current version does, and it probably will win a handful of Republican votes after lengthy White House-congressional negotiations.

Senators huddled on Wednesday — with each other and with Obama — trying to craft a plan that will get the 60 votes needed under Senate rules to stop any filibuster, the tactic that obstructs extended debate.

Republican moderates, joined by some Democrats, were looking for a way to pare the $900 billion-plus package by at least $50 billion, likely by cutting much of the education aid and a long list of small spending initiatives. More…