Monday, March 30, 2009

Ron Paul on the Economic Crisis VIDEO


Bankruptcy is Economic Stimulus

The distraction on Capitol Hill this week has to do with the jackpot bonuses that executives at AIG recently received. The argument is over a relative drop in the bucket. The total amount of bonuses given out was $165 million. The government has put $170 billion into AIG so far. Many now are demanding we get this money back. We ought to be spending our time and effort doing something more worthwhile, like figuring out how the Federal Reserve is handling the trillions of dollars they are creating and pumping into the economy, and how that is affecting the purchasing power of dollars in your pocket.

The big mistake was appropriating the TARP funds in the first place. A Johnny-come-lately bill of attainder won’t stop the spending epidemic. This whole situation is a perfect demonstration of why “doing nothing” and letting failing companies fail would have been much better than sinking valuable money and resources into them.

When a company makes a profit, it is a signal that it is taking resources and increasing their value while controlling costs. When a company operates at a loss, it is a signal that it is decreasing the value of its resources or letting out-of-control costs outstrip any value it has created. A company operating at a loss is therefore an engine of wealth destruction. Bankruptcies are a net positive for the economy because more productive competitors are rewarded by opportunities to buy up remaining assets at bargain prices to strengthen their operations. In an economy that allows this kind of growth and change, any jobs lost by bankruptcy are soon replaced by new ones as the most efficiently managed businesses gain access to more assets and expand.

Bankruptcy was the stimulus that we needed in the case of AIG. More bankruptcies would clean out malinvested resources and enable economic growth again.

AIG, by losing money and maneuvering their operations to the brink of bankruptcy, was telling us that they were inefficient. So what did we do? We forced the taxpayer to assume the losses, and now we are supposed to be shocked that it is not working out. Had AIG gone bankrupt, it would have been impossible to hand out these bonuses. The taxpayer would have been fleeced for $170 billion less last year. Had they gone bankrupt, the world would not have come to an end, it would just continue on with one less engine of wealth destruction.

We should have learned from Japan. The 1990’s is referred to as Japan’s “lost decade” because of the zombie banks kept on life support by the Japanese government. Any productivity was redirected through these engines of wealth destruction, resulting in long term stagnation. We should and can avoid this outcome if we come to our senses.

A recession should be a time of strengthening and regrouping for an economy. But as long as the government insists on maintaining the status quo by propping up failed institutions, we will continue to dig a bigger hole for ourselves. Texas Straight Talk A weekly column

Saturday, March 28, 2009

President Obama Weekly Address 03/28/09 PODCAST VIDEO TEXT


Remarks of President Barack Obama Weekly Address Saturday, March 28, 2009 Washington, DC PODCAST OF THIS ARTICLE Download MP3 4.7 mb

Even as we face an economic crisis which demands our constant focus, forces of nature can also intervene in ways that create other crises to which we must respond – and respond urgently. For the people of North and South Dakota and Minnesota who live along rivers spilling over their banks, this is one such moment.

Rivers and streams throughout the region have flooded or are at risk of flooding. The cities of Fargo and neighboring Moorhead are vulnerable as the waters of the Red River have risen. Thousands of homes and businesses are threatened.

That is why, on Tuesday, I granted a major disaster declaration request for the State of North Dakota and ordered federal support into the region to help state and local officials respond to the flooding. This was followed by an emergency declaration for the State of Minnesota. And we are also keeping close watch on the situation in South Dakota as it develops.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency continue to coordinate the federal response. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is helping to oversee federal efforts and she remains in close contact with state officials. Acting FEMA administrator Nancy Ward has been in the region since yesterday to meet with folks on the ground and survey the area herself.

In addition, The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is assisting in the emergency construction of levees. The Coast Guard is aiding in search and rescue efforts while the Department of Defense is helping to move people and supplies. Members of the National Guard have been activated and are on the scene as well.

Hospitals and nursing homes in the area are being evacuated and residents in poor health or with special needs are being transported to higher ground. Teams from the Department of Health and Human Services are aiding in this work. And the Red Cross is in place to provide shelter and supplies for folks in need.

It is also important for residents in these states to remain vigilant in monitoring reports on flood crests and to follow instructions from their state and local leaders in the event that evacuations become necessary.

My administration is working closely with Governors John Hoeven, Mike Rounds and Tim Pawlenty. And I’ve been meeting with Senators Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad, and Amy Klobuchar, as well as Congressmen Earl Pomeroy and Collin Peterson, to pledge my support. I will continue to monitor the situation carefully. We will do what must be done to help in concert with state and local agencies and non-profit organizations – and volunteers who are doing so much to aid the response effort.

For at moments like these, we are reminded of the power of nature to disrupt lives and endanger communities. But we are also reminded of the power of individuals to make a difference.

In the Fargodome, thousands of people gathered not to watch a football game or a rodeo, but to fill sandbags. Volunteers filled 2.5 million of them in just five days, working against the clock, day and night, with tired arms and aching backs. Others braved freezing temperatures, gusting winds, and falling snow to build levees along the river’s banks to help protect against waters that have exceeded record levels.

College students have traveled by the busload from nearby campuses to lend a hand during their spring breaks. Students from local high schools asked if they could take time to participate. Young people have turned social networks into community networks, coordinating with one another online to figure out how best to help.

In the face of an incredible challenge, the people of these communities have rallied in support of one another. And their service isn’t just inspirational – it’s integral to our response.

It’s also a reminder of what we can achieve when Americans come together to serve their communities. All across the nation, there are men, women and young people who have answered that call, and millions of other who would like to. Whether it’s helping to reduce the energy we use, cleaning up a neighborhood park, tutoring in a local school, or volunteering in countless other ways, individual citizens can make a big difference.

That is why I’m so happy that legislation passed the Senate this week and the House last week to provide more opportunities for Americans to serve their communities and the country.

The bipartisan Senate bill was sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Ted Kennedy, a leader who embodies the spirit of public service, and I am looking forward to signing this important measure into law.

In facing sudden crises or more stubborn challenges, the truth is we are all in this together – as neighbors and fellow citizens. That is what brought so many to help in North Dakota and Minnesota and other areas affected by this flooding. That is what draws people to volunteer in so many ways, serving our country here and on distant shores.

Our thanks go to them today, and to all who are working day and night to deal with the disaster. We send them our thoughts, our prayers, and our continued assistance in this difficult time.

Thank you.

Senator Judd Gregg Weekly Republican Address 03/28/09 VIDEO PODCAST TEXT


PODCAST Senator Judd Gregg Delivers Republican weekly radio address download MP3 5.6 mb running time 5:56 min.

Fuu Text Transcript:

"Hello, I'm Judd Gregg, Senator from New Hampshire. We all know these are difficult times. People are worried about keeping their jobs, paying their bills, the value of their homes and the cost of sending their kids to college. It's hard.

"Thus I appreciate, as do all Americans, the efforts being made by our President and his seriousness about addressing these issues.

"But what concerns many of us are his proposals in the budget he recently sent to the Congress that dramatically grow the size and cost of government and move it to the left.

"It is our opinion that this plan spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.

"You may have heard this before that the budget of the President spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.

"What do we mean? Well, let me give you a few examples.

"In the next five years, President Obama's budget will double the national debt; in the next ten years it will triple the national debt.

"To say this another way, if you take all the debt of our country run up by all of our presidents from George Washington through George W. Bush, the total debt over all those 200-plus years since we started as a nation, it is President Obama's plan to double that debt in just the first five years that he is in office.

"He is also planning to spend more on the government as a percentage of our economy than at any time since World War II.

"His budget assumes the deficit will average $1 trillion dollars every year for the next 10 years and will add well over $9 trillion dollars in new debts to our children's backs.

"He also is proposing the largest tax increase in history, much of it aimed at taxing small business people who have been, over the years, the best job creators in our economy. And further, he is proposing a massive new national sales tax on your electric bill. So that every time you turn on a light switch in your house, you will be hit with a new tax -- and it averages over $3,000 per household.

"These are staggering numbers and represent an extraordinary move of our government to the left.

"The President to his credit is not trying to hide this; in fact he is very forthright in stating that he believes that by greatly expanding the spending, the taxing and the borrowing of our government, this will lead us to prosperity.

"Here of course is where we differ. We believe you create prosperity by having an affordable government that pursues its responsibilities without excessive costs, taxes or debt. That it is the individual American who creates prosperity and good jobs, not the government.

"We believe that you create energy independence not by sticking Americans with a brand new national sales tax on everyone's electric bill, but by expanding the production of American energy, such as environmentally sound off-shore drilling, nuclear power, wind, solar while also conserving more.

"We also believe you improve everyone's health care not by nationalizing the health care system and putting the government between you and your doctor, but by assuring that every American has access to quality health insurance and choices in health care.

"We believe that you run a sound and affordable government not by running up the national debt to historic levels and unsustainable levels while over-taxing working Americans and spending as if there is no tomorrow, but rather by working on limiting the growth of government in a manner that is affordable not only today but for the next generation through limiting spending and addressing core issues like the cost of entitlements.

"Our nation has an exceptional history of one generation passing on to the next generation a more prosperous and stronger country, but that tradition is being put at risk. The dramatic move to the left and the massive increase in the size and cost of the government, proposed by the budget of President Obama, will lead to an immense national debt that not only threatens the value of the dollar and puts at risk our ability to borrow money to run the government. But it will also place our children at a huge disadvantage as they inherit this debt which will make their chances of success less than those given to us by our parents. It is not right for one generation to do that to another generation.

"Rather, we believe that if you properly steward the responsibilities of the government, if you do not spend too much, if you do not tax too much, if you do not borrow too much, we can leave our children a better nation where they will have even greater opportunity for prosperity, peace and freedom.

"Thank you for taking the time to listen, and have a great weekend."

Paid for by the Republican National Committee. 310 First Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003 -- (202) 863-8500 -- www.gop.com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

SOURCE Republican National Committee

Friday, March 27, 2009

President Obama "Scares" Dick Armey VIDEO


Rep. Armey Says Pres. Obama "Scares" Him, While speaking about Obama administration spending proposals and health care, Representative Armey said that President Obama "scares" him.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Daniel Hannan MEP: The devalued Gordon Brown VIDEO

"One of the advantages about being outside the EPP is that you get to speak on important occasions. Today was such an occasion. Gordon Brown was in town in advance of the G20 summit. There were a couple of things I wanted to tell him on behalf of my constituents"

Daniel Hannan



Daniel Hannan MEP: The devalued Gordon Brown - Download MP3 for Podcast 3.46 MB

Daniel Hannan, MEP for South East England, gives a speech during Gordon Brown´s visit to the European Parliament on 24th March, 2009.

Daniel John Hannan (born 1 September 1971, is a British politician, and Member of the European Parliament (MEP), representing South East England for the Conservative Party.

On March 24, 2009, after Gordon Brown had given a short speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in advance of the G20 London summit, Hannan followed up by delivering a speech criticising in very strong terms the response by Gordon Brown to the global financial crisis.

SOURCES

Monday, March 23, 2009

President Barack Obama press conference 03/24/09 LIVE VIDEO

Live Video Streams. Tuesday, March 24th, 5 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. EST, President Barack Obama will hold his second official, prime-time press conference. The president is likely to face question about the economy and foreign affairs. The press conference will be live on the network channels - ABC, NBC and CBS - and on cable news - C-SPAN CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
White House Photo, 3/18/09, Chuck Kennedy

LIVE STREAMING VIDEO NEWS FEEDS

C-SPAN - Windows Media

C-SPAN - Real Media

CNN - Flash Media

CNN's player will attempt to open in a pop-up window, you may allow if your blocker does not allow. Turner media will ask you to install Octoshape which is a P2P application that shifts the broadcaster's share of the cost of bandwidth to the listeners instead by running servers on the listeners' machines, which you may decline. CNN's live stream will then open a pretty nice player that will allow full screen viewing.

FILE TYPES: (as more types become available, wmv, ogg, mp3 for download and podcast, they will be posted here)

Full Press Conference Washington Post

Full Press Conference MSNBC

Transcript: President Obama's Press Conference

CQ Transcripts Wire
Tuesday, March 24, 2009; 9:20 PM

SPEAKER: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

[*] OBAMA: Hello, everybody. Please have a seat.

Good evening. Now, before I take questions from the correspondents, I want to give everyone who's watching tonight an update on the steps we're taking to move this economy from recession to recovery, and ultimately to prosperity. Now, it's important to remember that this crisis didn't happen overnight and it didn't result from any one action or decision. It took many years and many failures to lead us here. And it will take many months and many different solutions to lead us out. There are no quick fixes, and there are no silver bullets.

That's why we've put in place a comprehensive strategy designed to attack this crisis on all fronts. It's a strategy to create jobs, to help responsible homeowners, to restart lending, and to grow our economy over the long term. And we're beginning to see signs of progress.

OBAMA: The first step we took was to pass a recovery plan to jump-start job creation and put money in people's pockets. This plan's already saved the jobs of teachers and police officers. It's creating construction jobs to rebuild roads and bridges.

And yesterday, I met with a man whose company is reopening a factory outside of Pittsburgh that's rehiring workers to build some of the most energy-efficient windows in the world.

And this plan will provide a tax cut to 95 percent of all working families that will appear in people's paychecks by April 1st.

The second step we took was to launch a plan to stabilize the housing market and help responsible homeowners stay in their homes. This plan's one reason that mortgage interest rates are now at near historic lows.

We've already seen a jump in refinancing of some mortgages, as homeowners take advantage of lower rates. And every American should know that up to 40 percent of all mortgages are now eligible for refinancing.

This is the equivalent of another tax cut, and we're also beginning to see signs of increased sales and stabilizing home prices for the first time in a very long time.

The third part of our strategy is to restart the flow of credit to families and businesses. To that end, we've launched a program designed to support the markets for more affordable auto loans, student loans, and small-business loans, a program that's already securitized more of this lending in the last week than in the last four months combined.

Yesterday, Secretary Geithner announced a new plan that will partner government resources with private investment to buy up the assets that are preventing our banks from lending money.

And we will continue to do whatever is necessary in the weeks ahead to ensure the banks Americans depend on have the money they need to lend, even if the economy gets worse.

Finally, the most critical part of our strategy is to ensure that we do not return to an economic cycle of bubble and bust in this country. We know that an economy built on reckless speculation, inflated home prices, and maxed-out credit cards does not create lasting wealth. It creates the illusion of prosperity, and it's endangered us all.

The budget I submitted to Congress will build our economic recovery on a stronger foundation so that we don't face another crisis like this 10 or 20 years from now.

We invest in the renewable sources of energy that will lead to new jobs, new businesses, and less dependence on foreign oil. We invest in our schools and our teachers, so that our children have the skills they need to compete with any workers in the world.

We invest in reform that will bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses and our government.

And in this budget, we have -- we have to make the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term, even under the most pessimistic estimates.

OBAMA: At the end of the day, the best way to bring our deficit down in the long run is not with a budget that continues the very same policies that have led us to a narrow prosperity and massive debt. It's with a budget that leads to broad economic growth by moving from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest.

And that's why clean energy jobs and businesses will do all across America. That's what a highly skilled workforce can do all across America. That's what an efficient health care system that controls costs and entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid will do.

That's why this budget is inseparable from this recovery: because it is what lays the foundation for a secure and lasting prosperity.

The road to that prosperity is still long, and we will hit our share of bumps and setbacks before it ends. But we must remember that we can get there if we travel that road as one nation, as one people.

You know, there was a lot of outrage and finger-pointing last week, and much of it is understandable. I'm as angry as anybody about those bonuses that went to some of the very same individuals who brought our financial system to its knees, partly because it's yet another symptom of the culture that led us to this point.

But one of the most important lessons to learn from this crisis is that our economy only works if we recognize that we're all in this together, that we all have responsibilities to each other and to our country.

Bankers and executives on Wall Street need to realize that enriching themselves on the taxpayers' dime is inexcusable, that the days of outsized rewards and reckless speculation that puts us all at risk have to be over.

At the same time, the rest of us can't afford to demonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit. That drive is what has always fueled our prosperity, and it is what will ultimately get these banks lending and our economy moving once more.

We'll recover from this recession, but it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that, when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interest to the wider set of obligations we have towards each other, that's when we succeed, that's when we prosper, and that's what is needed right now. So let's look towards the future with a renewed sense of common purpose, a renewed determination, and, most importantly, renewed confidence that a better day will come.

All right. With that, let me take some questions. And I've got a list here.

Let's start off with Jennifer Loven, A.P. FULL PRINT FRIENDLY TEXT TRANSCRIPT

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Governor Haley Barbour Weekly Republican Address 03/21/09 VIDEO PODCAST TEXT


PODCAST Governor Haley Barbour Delivers Republican weekly radio address download MP3 3.5 mb running time 4:56 min.

Full Text Transcript:

"Hi, I'm Haley Barbour. It's budget time for a lot of states, and we governors, Republicans and Democrats alike, are working to balance our budgets.

"Though the stimulus package spends an incredible amount of money, with some of it going to state governments, the mandates about how we have to spend much of that money, plus the severe drop in most states' revenue, mean all governors are preparing a wide variety of significant spending cuts to balance our budgets.

"With the federal government it's just the opposite: President Obama's budget spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.

"It's breathtaking: The new Administration's budget for next year alone calls for a one point two TRILLION dollar deficit ... nearly triple any past federal deficit.

"While families are cutting back, President Obama has proposed a massive government spending spree. It reminds me of how one of our old senators used to joke about the federal budget. He said it was like a newborn baby: insatiable appetite at one end and total irresponsibility at the other.

"This astronomical record federal deficit would be accompanied by the largest tax increases in history. But trillions of new taxes won't nearly cover all the new spending, so our children and grandchildren will be saddled with trillions more in debt.

"And this budget blowout comes on top of the debt for the $787 billion Obama stimulus package, the $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill passed by Congress this month, the $300 billion the Federal Reserve said this week it would spend to buy U.S. government bonds, and the $750 billion the Fed announced just Wednesday it would spend to buy mortgage-backed securities. Trillions and trillions in new spending mean record tax increases and record government debt.

"The cap and trade tax and other energy taxes will drive up both electricity and gasoline prices for families and for businesses. And while Wall Street gets trillions to bail them out, small businesses will get stuck with not only income tax increases but also enormous cost increases for energy: for electricity and gasoline. Families will get clobbered, too.

"Don't take my word for it; listen to what Barack Obama himself told The San Francisco Chronicle last year, and I quote: Under my plan of cap and trade, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.

"And President Obama was right. His energy taxes, like the cap and trade tax, will drive energy costs for American families through the roof.

"In this budget season we have choices. While states are controlling spending and balancing their budgets, the Obama budget spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much. It's not the right choice for America."

Paid for by the Republican National Committee.

310 First Street SE, Washington, D.C. 20003 -- (202) 863-8500 -- www.gop.com

Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

SOURCE Republican National Committee

President Obama Weekly Address 03/21/09 PODCAST VIDEO TEXT


Remarks of President Barack Obama Weekly Address Saturday, March 21, 2009 Washington, DC PODCAST OF THIS ARTICLE Download MP3 4.82 mb

Last week, I spent a few days in California, talking with ordinary Americans in town halls and in the places where they work. We talked about their struggles, and we talked about their hopes. At the end of the day, these men and women weren’t as concerned with the news of the day in Washington as they were about the very real and very serious challenges their families face every day: whether they’ll have a job and a paycheck to count on; whether they’ll be able to pay their medical bills or afford college tuition; whether they’ll be able to leave their children a world that’s safer and more prosperous than the one we have now.

Those are the concerns I heard about in California. They are the concerns I’ve heard about in letters from people throughout this country for the last two years. And they are the concerns addressed in the budget I sent to Congress last month.

With the magnitude of the challenges we face, I don’t just view this budget as numbers on a page or a laundry list of programs. It’s an economic blueprint for our future – a vision of America where growth is not based on real estate bubbles or overleveraged banks, but on a firm foundation of investments in energy, education, and health care that will lead to a real and lasting prosperity.

These investments are not a wish list of priorities that I picked out of thin air – they are a central part of a comprehensive strategy to grow this economy by attacking the very problems that have dragged it down for too long: the high cost of health care and our dependence on foreign oil; our education deficit and our fiscal deficit.

Now, as the House and the Senate take up this budget next week, the specific details and dollar amounts in this budget will undoubtedly change. That’s a normal and healthy part of the process.

But when all is said and done, I expect a budget that meets four basic principles:

First, it must reduce our dependence on dangerous foreign oil and finally put this nation on a path to a clean, renewable energy future. There is no longer a doubt that the jobs and industries of tomorrow will involve harnessing renewable sources of energy. The only question is whether America will lead that future. I believe we can and we will, and that’s why we’ve proposed a budget that makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy, while investing in technologies like wind power and solar power; advanced biofuels, clean coal, and fuel-efficient cars and trucks that can be built right here in America.

Second, this budget must renew our nation’s commitment to a complete and competitive education for every American child. In this global economy, we know the countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow, and we know that our students are already falling behind their counterparts in places like China. That is why we have proposed investments in childhood education programs that work; in high standards and accountability for our schools; in rewards for teachers who succeed; and in affordable college education for anyone who wants to go. It is time to demand excellence from our schools so that we can finally prepare our workforce for a 21st century economy.

Third, we need a budget that makes a serious investment in health care reform – reform that will bring down costs, ensure quality, and guarantee people their choice of doctors and hospitals. Right now, there are millions of Americans who are just one illness or medical emergency away from bankruptcy. There are businesses that have been forced to close their doors or ship jobs overseas because they can’t afford insurance. Medicare costs are consuming our federal budget. Medicaid is overwhelming our state budgets. So to those who say we have to choose between health care reform and fiscal discipline, I say that making investments now that will dramatically lower health care costs for everyone won’t add to our budget deficit in the long-term – it is one of the best ways to reduce it.

Finally, this budget must reduce that deficit even further. With the fiscal mess we’ve inherited and the cost of this financial crisis, I’ve proposed a budget that cuts our deficit in half by the end of my first term. That’s why we are scouring every corner of the budget and have proposed $2 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade. In total, our budget would bring discretionary spending for domestic programs as a share of the economy to its lowest level in nearly half a century. And we will continue making these tough choices in the months and years ahead so that as our economy recovers, we do what we must to bring this deficit down.

I will be discussing each of these principles next week, as Congress takes up the important work of debating this budget. I realize there are those who say these plans are too ambitious to enact. To that I say that the challenges we face are too large to ignore. I didn’t come here to pass on our problems to the next President or the next generation – I came here to solve them.

The American people sent us here to get things done, and at this moment of great challenge, they are watching and waiting for us to lead. Let’s show them that we are equal to the task before us, and let’s pass a budget that puts this nation on the road to lasting prosperity.

Author: whitehouse.gov
Keywords: President Barack Obama; Weekly Address; White House
Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Friday, March 20, 2009

Battlestar Galactica at the United Nations VIDEO

United Nations, 17 March 2009 - a retrospective of the science fiction TV series "Battlestar Galactica" at UN headquarters. The show's Oscar-nominated actors Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos, and UN Assistant Secretary-General Robert Orr talk about the portrayal of UN themes like human rights, terrorism and reconciliation among civilizations and faiths.

Edward James Olmos, on his authority as Admiral of the Battlestar Galactica, tells the assembled crowd at the United Nations there is no race but the human race (so say we all). edgeofthewest

View the entire events (Real Media, 2 hours and 4 minutes): webcast.un.org/ramgen/ondemand...

News Story: www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp...

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

RNC Announces February Fundraising Numbers

Republican National Committee logoWASHINGTON, March 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Republican National Committee (RNC) today announced its fundraising numbers for February 2009.
With $24 million cash-on-hand, the RNC raised $5.1 million in February and is currently debt free. The Committee's strong financial position entering March allowed it to transfer funds to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the New York Republican State Committee throughout the past few weeks.

"The Republican National Committee is in a strong financial position thanks to our motivated base of supporters and contributors," RNC Chairman Michael Steele said. "We are building the organization we need to be successful in 2009 and beyond."

Paid for by the Republican National Committee. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

SOURCE Republican National Committee

Federal Reserve says it will buy Treasury securities and more mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac VIDEO

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in January indicates that the economy continues to contract. Job losses, declining equity and housing wealth, and tight credit conditions have weighed on consumer sentiment and spending. Weaker sales prospects and difficulties in obtaining credit have led businesses to cut back on inventories and fixed investment. U.S. exports have slumped as a number of major trading partners have also fallen into recession. Although the near-term economic outlook is weak, the Committee anticipates that policy actions to stabilize financial markets and institutions, together with fiscal and monetary stimulus, will contribute to a gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth.

In light of increasing economic slack here and abroad, the Committee expects that inflation will remain subdued. Moreover, the Committee sees some risk that inflation could persist for a time below rates that best foster economic growth and price stability in the longer term.

In these circumstances, the Federal Reserve will employ all available tools to promote economic recovery and to preserve price stability. The Committee will maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and anticipates that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period. To provide greater support to mortgage lending and housing markets, the Committee decided today to increase the size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet further by purchasing up to an additional $750 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities, bringing its total purchases of these securities to up to $1.25 trillion this year, and to increase its purchases of agency debt this year by up to $100 billion to a total of up to $200 billion. Moreover, to help improve conditions in private credit markets, the Committee decided to purchase up to $300 billion of longer-term Treasury securities over the next six months. The Federal Reserve has launched the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility to facilitate the extension of credit to households and small businesses and anticipates that the range of eligible collateral for this facility is likely to be expanded to include other financial assets. The Committee will continue to carefully monitor the size and composition of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet in light of evolving financial and economic developments.

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; Elizabeth A. Duke; Charles L. Evans; Donald L. Kohn; Jeffrey M. Lacker; Dennis P. Lockhart; Daniel K. Tarullo; Kevin M. Warsh; and Janet L. Yellen.

2009 Monetary Policy Releases

Monday, March 16, 2009

Timothy F. Geithner Cold Open Saturday Night Live VIDEO


Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Opening Statement
– As Prepared for Delivery
– Senate Finance Committee Hearing

Chairman Baucus, Ranking Member Grassley, and members of the Committee, thank you for providing me the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the President's Budget at this moment of economic crisis, but also of real possibility, for the United States.

What I propose to do in the remarks that follow is to:

*
Describe the economic and financial challenges that greeted us upon our arrival in office, and discuss how we are addressing them;
*
Lay out the intermediate and long-term threats to our fiscal condition, and explain how the President's Fiscal Year 2010 Budget will return the nation to a sustainable fiscal position; and
*
Explain how this Budget puts the nation on a path towards energy independence, better educational outcomes, and a reform of health care that both lowers costs and expands access.

Current Economic and Financial Challenges

The economy suffers from a severe lack of aggregate demand, both from families and businesses – a problem that is driven by a slumping job market, where 3.6 million jobs have been lost in just over a year – the largest number as a fraction of total employment in more than a quarter century and the largest number in absolute terms in over a half century. This problem is made worse by a contraction of demand from many of our key trading partners.

Businesses, facing or projecting fewer customers for their goods and services, are laying off workers or cutting back on their hours or wages, causing families to further reduce their demand and businesses to respond with more layoffs and cutbacks.

This dynamic is made worse by a financial system that is unable to provide the credit necessary for recovery. You can see this across America as families find it difficult to get the financing they need to buy new houses and cars while businesses have trouble lining up the credit necessary to meet payroll.

The contraction in credit is causing more job losses and further declines in business activity, which, in turn, is adding more pressure on the financial system.

Both our economic and financial problems are being compounded by problems in our housing market, where a record 2.5 million families faced foreclosure last year, undercutting overall home prices, shrinking Americans' real estate wealth by $2.8 trillion from its peak, causing further reductions in demand, more layoffs and a greater credit squeeze that threatens another round of foreclosures.

You can see the scale of the damage in last Friday's announcement that the Gross Domestic Product, the broadest measure of the nation's output of goods and services, dropped at a 6.2% annual rate during the final quarter of last year. That was its worst performance in more than a quarter century, and the third worst in more than a half century.

In addition to a deepening recession and financial troubles, the Obama Administration inherited the worst fiscal situation in modern American history, with a federal budget deficit of $1.3 trillion, equal to nearly 10% of GDP – the largest that the nation has faced since World War II – not counting the economic recovery or other legislation undertaken by the Obama Administration.

And we begin our time in office after a long period in which our government was unwilling to make the long-term investments required to meet critical challenges in health care, energy and education.

This is the reality that we face today. These are the challenges that shape both the American economy and the Administration's strategy. I want to outline for you today the President's program for addressing these challenges.

Let me start with our immediate response to the acute problems confronting the country.

A Comprehensive Economic Recovery and Financial Stability Plan

Economic Recovery Plan

Immediately upon taking office, the President and the Administration worked with Congress to enact the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a package of targeted investments and tax cuts designed to get Americans back to work and get the economy growing again.

Every agency of government is moving quickly to implement the recovery plan in order to reignite economic growth. In the last week alone, we introduced three of the plan's major tax provisions–the Making Work Pay tax credits of $400 a year for individuals and $800 for working families; a first-time homebuyer credit that could get up to $8,000 into the pockets of those buying homes before December 1, 2009; and a subsidy to ensure that unemployed Americans and their families can keep their health insurance.

We estimate that the plan will save or create at least 3.5 million jobs over the next two years, and will boost GDP – over where it would have been had we not acted – by almost 1% this year and more than 3.2% next year.

Financial Stability Plan

But reviving economic activity is not enough because without a regular flow of credit to families and businesses, recovery will be impeded. Therefore, we have taken another critically important step.

We have introduced a Financial Stability Plan to get our financial system operating so that it promotes recovery rather than prevents it, by supplying the necessary credit for Americans to once again buy homes, purchase cars, go to college and turn good ideas into flourishing firms.

The stability plan will ensure that banks have the capital cushions they need to keep lending under currently troubled economic conditions and, as a precaution, under even worse conditions as well. It will help thaw our important, but now largely frozen, non-bank financial markets so they can go back to generating the credit that families and businesses must have. And it provides a method for the government to join with private investors to begin buying the mortgage-backed securities at the center of so many of the financial system's problems, but whose resumed trading is so important to the stability of the system.

Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan

Just as economic recovery requires financial stability, stabilizing our financial system requires us to improve conditions in our housing market.

The Administration's affordability plan will help all Americans buy and refinance their houses by encouraging low mortgage interest rates. In addition, it will offer to help 4 to 5 million homeowners to refinance. And it will help another 3 to 4 million homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure through no fault of their own to convert their unaffordable mortgages into affordable ones.

These three plans form our immediate and integrated response to the nation's economic and financial challenges. All three are carefully linked to our 2010 Budget.

The Budget: A Plan for Fiscal Sustainability and Investments for Shared Prosperity

The President's Budget carries forward and expands upon our immediate response to the acute problems confronting America.

It also marries these efforts to an honest plan for how to proceed after recovery has taken hold and the financial system has stabilized. It lays out how to achieve long-term deficit reduction by reversing the short-term increases that are now necessary to achieve recovery and stability – increases that will have to be substantially reduced in order to get the nation back into fiscal shape. And it provides a blueprint for the investments in health care, education and energy that are so critical to our long-term future.

Budget Honesty

The President's Budget begins by offering an honest assessment of the dimensions of the problems facing the country in the intermediate and long-term.

The President's Budget ends the practice of only recognizing the costs for overseas contingency operations – such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – for as little as one year at a time and instead acknowledges that there is multi-year cost that must be reflected in the Budget. Although the budget includes estimated costs of these operations in the out-years to be fiscally conservative, these estimates do not reflect any specific policy decisions. Several strategy reviews are underway that will inform out-year costs, and it would be premature at this time to prejudge those reviews.

It takes into account the possibility of a natural disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, instead of assuming that the country will be free of such disasters and the costs of helping Americans put their lives and communities back together.

It ends the practice of assuming an increase in revenues from the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The AMT has been "patched" year after year, but for the first time our Budget reflects the cost of doing so.

It acknowledges that, as expensive as it already has been, our effort to stabilize the financial system might cost more. It establishes a placeholder to help ensure we can cover any additional financial stability costs.

I should note here that the existence of the $250 billion placeholder for financial stability in the President's Budget does not represent a specific request. Rather, as events warrant, the President will work with Congress to determine the appropriate size and shape of such efforts, and as more information becomes available the Administration will estimate potential cost.

Finally, the President's Budget gives a fuller view of the government's finances by looking out ten years, rather than the five years which has been the practice with budgets in recent years.

Reducing the Deficit to Return to Fiscal Sustainability

We have set an ambitious, but economically crucial goal for bringing our deficits down dramatically once the recovery is firmly established and financial stability has returned.

We project that the deficit for the current fiscal year, including the recovery and stability plans, will be $1.75 trillion, or 12.3% of GDP. Of that, $1.3 trillion, or 9.2% of GDP, was already in place when we assumed office.

The President is determined to cut this $1.3 trillion deficit by at least half in four years. The budget would bring the deficit down to $533 billion by fiscal year 2013. More importantly, it would reduce the deficit to about 3% of GDP.

By bringing the deficit down to the range of 3% of GDP, we can keep our national debt – the aggregate total of our past deficits – from growing faster than the economy itself and keep the size of our debt relative to the economy from rising towards the end of our ten year budget window.

Failure to reduce deficits to this level would result in higher interest rates as government borrowing crowds out private investment, leading to slower growth and lower living standards for Americans.

Key Revenue Provisions in the President's Budget

Our revenue provisions are designed to encourage growth and recovery, improve the fairness of the tax code and support the President's critical priorities in a fiscally responsible manner.

Our recovery plan reduces the overall tax burden on the American economy to help get the economy back on track.

The President's Budget takes up where the recovery plan leaves off, cutting taxes for 95% of working Americans by making permanent the Making Work Pay tax credit of up to $400 for individuals and $800 for families. The Budget provides additional tax relief by expanding the earned income tax credit for lower-income families and extending the American Opportunity Tax Credit that provides up to $2,500 toward higher education. All of these are in the recovery plan that Congress enacted last month, but only in temporary form. The Budget also expands the Saver's Credit as part of the President's commitment to help Americans rebuild their savings.

The President's Budget includes tax provisions to help small businesses. It recognizes that many small businesses are operated as sole proprietorships or through partnerships and other flow-through entities, and leaves the individual income tax rates at which these small businesses are taxed unchanged in 2009 and 2010. By extending the current rate structure for families earning less than $250,000 after 2010, it ensures that 97% of small businesses will receive additional tax relief at that time or see their rates remain unchanged.

Moreover, the President's Budget will provide small business owners with a new zero capital gains rate on new investments in their businesses, which should help them plan for expansion and succession.

In addition, the budget will help provide more incentives for innovation and increase stability in the tax code by making the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent.

By 2011, when the economy is projected to have recovered, it will be important for the nation to put in place policies that restore fiscal responsibility. For this reason, our Budget includes revenue changes that become effective at that time. Those making less than $250,000 will not see taxes increase. The marginal rates for the top 2% of income earners will return to where they were during the powerful economic expansion of the 1990s.

The Budget also seeks to restore fairness to the tax code. For example, the Budget proposes to tax the compensation paid to hedge fund managers, private equity partners and others in the same way that we tax the wages paid to ordinary American workers. By closing this "carried interest" provision, the tax code will provide equal tax treatment for wages regardless of whether an individual works as a teacher or a hedge fund manager.

The Budget addresses the serious issue of the "tax gap," the difference between what taxpayers legally owe and the amount that they pay. Building on the recently enacted proposals to increase information reporting, the Budget includes a new proposal to require additional information reporting for rental property expense payments. We will make additional information reporting proposals when the full Budget is released.

The Budget also seeks to close the "tax gap" by tackling tax shelters and other efforts to abuse our tax laws, including international tax evasion efforts.

The Budget addresses the use of offshore structures and accounts by U.S. corporations and individuals to avoid and evade U.S. taxes. Over the next several months, the President will propose a series of legislative and enforcement measures to reduce such U.S. tax evasion and avoidance.

Some proposals will focus on the rules in our tax code that put those who invest and create jobs in the United States at a disadvantage. We will propose rules to both reform U.S. corporations' ability to defer foreign earnings and deter high income individuals and corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxation.

Path to Prosperity: Investments in Health Care, Education and Energy

The President's Budget will put the nation back on a sustainable fiscal path that is so important for long-term growth. But the Budget is about much more than deficit reduction. In it, the President reverses our government's long neglect of critical investments in health care, education and energy in order to improve the economy's performance and lift the standard of living of this generation of Americans and of future generations.

Investing in Health Care

Without a plan to reform and bring down costs throughout our entire health care system, budget deficits will start climbing again as the costs of Medicare and Medicaid increase with rising overall health system costs. And we will not have taken a single step toward the time when every American – no matter their income – receives the quality, affordable health care they deserve.

In recent years, most proposals for how the government should cope with its rising health care costs have centered on trying to hold the growth of Medicare and Medicaid costs below that of the overall system. But there is wide agreement among experts that this is not a long-term solution for containing health care spending.

Any effort to slow the growth of Medicare's and Medicaid's costs requires slowing down the costs of the overall system and that, in turn, is helped by substantially expanding access to care. To do otherwise would result in economically distorting cost shifts, where those who are covered end up paying higher prices to pick up the medical tabs of those who are not.

That's why this President is committed to achieving a goal that has eluded presidents since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which is to reform America's health care system to make it less costly, more comprehensive and fairer.

We already have made a down-payment on this effort by including over $20 billion for health information technology, comparative effectiveness and prevention in our recovery plan and by extending and expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program for eleven million children.

The President's Budget will greatly advance that effort by setting aside a reserve fund of more than $630 billion over ten years to help finance reforms. The fund will be financed on a roughly 50:50 basis from new revenues from those Americans who can best afford this sacrifice and health system savings associated with, among other things, reducing drug prices by speeding access to affordable generics.

Investing in Education

Without the President's new investments, we risk leaving a generation of workers unequipped to compete in the 21st century's global economy. In order to ensure that our workers are prepared to compete and that the economy can continue to grow, we must increase the number of Americans who have the opportunity and ability to earn a college degree.

This is particularly important because of the projected slowdown in the growth of our labor force over the coming decades. And it is particularly important for those in our society – such as those from minority and lower-income families – who have traditionally had lower rates of college success.

In this light, the higher education provisions in the President's economic recovery plan are essential to our long-term economic strategy because during periods of economic stress, the students who are most likely to drop out or never attend college are those for whom cost is the biggest barrier.

The President's Budget includes substantial strides towards ensuring that a college education is affordable for all Americans. The American Opportunity Tax Credit will provide up to $2,500 a year of tax relief for a student going to college. The combination of the partially refundable nature of the credit and a sizeable increase in the maximum Pell Grant to $5500 a year embodies the President's commitment to ensuring young people at all income levels can obtain a college degree.

At the same time, the President's Budget ensures that more young adults will be ready for college by starting them on the right track in early childhood.

The President's commitment to quality early childhood education reflects the belief of experts ranging from child psychologists to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve and Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman that these programs are among the highest-paying investments not only for children, but for the economy as a whole. That is why the President's Budget includes measures to help states improve their early education programs, along with funding to expand Head Start and double the number of children in Early Head Start.

Investing in Reducing America's Dependence on Foreign Oil

Without the President's new investments, the nation will remain dependent on uncertain supplies of foreign oil and carbon-intensive energy – a dependence that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security.

The President's energy investments reflect our efforts to use broad-based market incentives to move us as efficiently and as quickly as possible towards a clean energy economy, while also providing relief to those who may bear a temporary increase in expenses during that transition.

The recovery plan includes $65 billion in investments in clean energy technologies for programs like creating a smart electricity grid, improving energy efficiency, and investing in green jobs. As the President has made clear, we will work with Congress to develop an economy-wide emissions reduction program to bring emissions down approximately 14% from 2005 levels by 2020 and approximately 83% from 2005 levels by 2050. This program should include a 100% auction of emissions allowances – ensuring that the biggest polluters don't profit on the basis of past pollution – and should use a cap-and-trade system that has worked effectively in the past as a mechanism to combat acid rain.

The funds raised through this auction could be used to invest an additional $15 billion a year in clean energy technologies. It would also go towards covering the cost of making the Making Work Pay tax credit permanent, providing 95% of American families with tax relief. If there are any additional revenues, those could go back to the American people, with a focus on compensating vulnerable communities, businesses and families.

The government will set the example by, among other things, retrofitting its buildings in order to improve their overall efficiency and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

In all of the President's Budget proposals, as in our recovery, stability and affordability plans, we will make good on the imperatives set by the President to operate in the bright light of day so that taxpayers can know how their money is being spent and can hold us accountable.

The problems that confront this nation are daunting. But we are a strong and resourceful country. Faced with great challenges in the past, we have shown the will to overcome adversity and carve a path back to prosperity. We will do so again.

A budget is about more than columns of numbers and trend lines across a page. This Budget embodies our values, our aspirations, and our will to overcome the current crisis and usher in a new prosperity.

I look forward to working closely with you in this great endeavo

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Senator Chuck Grassley Weekly Republican Address 03/14/09 VIDEO PODCAST TEXT


PODCAST Senator Chuck Grassley Delivers Republican weekly radio address download MP3 2.9 mb running time 4:56 min.

Full Text Transcript:

"I'm Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa. I serve as the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which handles all tax legislation.

"The President of the United States has the pleasure of leading the country in the best of times, but the responsibility for digging us out of the worst.

"He has to govern in the present and build confidence for the future.

"Right now, Americans need jobs. They want Washington to fix only what it can, without destroying opportunities for the next generation.

"The President's programs don't connect all the dots.

"His plans fail to recognize that Americans are not an endless source of tax dollars to pay for government spending.

"The President's proposed budget raises taxes. For the vast majority of people who earn less than $200,000, raising taxes on higher earners might not sound so bad.

"Yet a lot of small businesses are in that category. The landscaper or the general contractor with a dozen employees could land in the bull's eye.

"Tell these business owners their taxes will go up. Odds are, they'll cut spending. They'll cancel orders for new equipment, cut health insurance for their employees, stop hiring, and lay people off.

"These small businesses happen to create 74 percent of all new private sector jobs in the United States.

"Meanwhile, the President's budget includes a tax increase on more than half of small businesses with 20 or more employees. Businesses of that size account for two-thirds of the small business workforce. The tax increase is equal to 20 percent of the marginal tax rate paid by those small businesses.

"Ask people what number of jobs they're willing to sacrifice right now. To a person, they'll tell you zero.

"The Administration also wants to cut the tax deduction for giving to charity. Even the Tax Policy Center, a left-leaning think tank, says this would mean $9 billion less for philanthropy.

"The Administration's proposal to reduce the carbon production could amount to an average hidden tax increase of around $3,000 per household a year. In effect it's a national sales tax on energy.

"All of these tax increases would be the biggest tax increase in history.

"That's not all: Even if every one of these tax increases goes on the books, this budget still nearly triples the national debt by 2019.

"The President and his allies in Congress want to spend too much, tax too much, and borrow too much.

"Somebody has to pay -- if not the middle class now, then later. Eventually the middle class gets hit.

"Meanwhile, if taxes get too high, people drop out of the workforce and pay less taxes.

"So higher taxes don't bring in more money.

"Government spending is a pretty inefficient way to create jobs anyway. Economists say the new stimulus bill will cost $787 billion to create or save 2.5 million jobs -- one million fewer than promoted by the Administration and congressional supporters. It amounts to $315,000 for each job created or saved.

"It's very simple. The government doesn't create wealth. It expends wealth.

"No wonder then the public is skeptical about Washington trying to fix the economy with one massive spending bill after another. It's hard to convince taxpayers that more deficit spending is the answer.

"There's evidence that the President and his people understand this, even if their budget doesn't show it. They say they don't want to raise taxes until 2011 because the economy is too weak.

"Well, if the President admits that tax increases hurt the economy, that will be true in two years as it is true today. Americans need leadership, and they need confidence now. They need their President and their elected representatives to connect all the dots. Jobs are hard-won. The government should first, do no harm. Thank you for listening."

Paid for by the Republican National Committee. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

SOURCE Republican National Committee

President Obama Weekly Address 03/14/09 PODCAST VIDEO TEXT


Remarks of President Barack Obama Weekly Address Saturday, March 14, 2009 Washington, DC PODCAST OF THIS ARTICLE Download MP3 5.3 mb

I’ve often said that I don’t believe government has the answer to every problem or that it can do all things for all people. We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative. But there are certain things that we can’t do on our own. There are certain things only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and don’t cause us harm. That is the mission of our Food and Drug Administration and it is a mission shared by our Department of Agriculture, and a variety of other agencies and offices at just about every level of government.

The men and women who inspect our foods and test the safety of our medicines are chemists and physicians, veterinarians and pharmacists. It is because of the work they do each and every day that the United States is one of the safest places in the world to buy groceries at a supermarket or pills at a drugstore. Unlike citizens of so many other countries, Americans can trust that there is a strong system in place to ensure that the medications we give our children will help them get better, not make them sick; and that a family dinner won’t end in a trip to the doctor’s office.

But in recent years, we’ve seen a number of problems with the food making its way to our kitchen tables. In 2006, it was contaminated spinach. In 2008, it was salmonella in peppers and possibly tomatoes. And just this year, bad peanut products led to hundreds of illnesses and cost nine people their lives – a painful reminder of how tragic the consequences can be when food producers act irresponsibly and government is unable to do its job. Worse, these incidents reflect a troubling trend that’s seen the average number of outbreaks from contaminated produce and other foods grow to nearly 350 a year – up from 100 a year in the early 1990s.

Part of the reason is that many of the laws and regulations governing food safety in America have not been updated since they were written in the time of Teddy Roosevelt. It’s also because our system of inspection and enforcement is spread out so widely among so many people that it’s difficult for different parts of our government to share information, work together, and solve problems. And it’s also because the FDA has been underfunded and understaffed in recent years, leaving the agency with the resources to inspect just 7,000 of our 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses each year. That means roughly 95% of them go uninspected.

That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg, whom I am appointing today as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. From her research on infectious disease at the National Institutes of Health to her work on public health at the Department of Health and Human Services to her leadership on biodefense at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Dr. Hamburg brings to this vital position not only a reputation of integrity but a record of achievement in making Americans safer and more secure. Dr. Hamburg was one of the youngest people ever elected to the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. And her two children have a unique distinction of their own. Their birth certificates feature her name twice – once as their mother, and once as New York City Health Commissioner. In that role, Dr. Hamburg brought a new life to a demoralized agency, leading an internationally-recognized initiative that cut the tuberculosis rate by nearly half, and overseeing food safety in our nation’s largest city.

Joining her as Principal Deputy Commissioner will be Dr. Joshua Sharfstein. As Baltimore’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Sharfstein has been recognized as a national leader for his efforts to protect children from unsafe over-the-counter cough and cold medications. And he’s designed an award-winning program to ensure that Americans with disabilities had access to prescription drugs.

Their critical work – and the critical work of the FDA they lead – will be part of a larger effort taken up by a new Food Safety Working Group I am creating. This Working Group will bring together cabinet secretaries and senior officials to advise me on how we can upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century; foster coordination throughout government; and ensure that we are not just designing laws that will keep the American people safe, but enforcing them. And I expect this group to report back to me with recommendations as soon as possible.

As part of our commitment to public health, our Agriculture Department is closing a loophole in the system to ensure that diseased cows don’t find their way into the food supply. And we are also strengthening our food safety system and modernizing our labs with a billion dollar investment, a portion of which will go toward significantly increasing the number of food inspectors, helping ensure that the FDA has the staff and support they need to protect the food we eat.

In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your President, but as a parent. When I heard peanut products were being contaminated earlier this year, I immediately thought of my 7-year old daughter, Sasha, who has peanut butter sandwiches for lunch probably three times a week. No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch. Just as no family should have to worry that the medicines they buy will cause them harm. Protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has, and, with the outstanding team I am announcing today, it is a responsibility that I intend to uphold in the months and years to come.

Thank you.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Borrower Information: Making Home Affordable Refinance and Modification Options

Learn About the Making Home Affordable Refinance and Modification Options.
plan to help millions of homeowners refinance or modify their mortgages.

Refinancing: Many homeowners pay their mortgages on time but are not able to refinance to take advantage of today’s lower mortgage rates perhaps due to a decrease in the value of their home. A Home Affordable Refinance will help borrowers whose loans are held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac refinance into a more affordable mortgage.

Modification: Many homeowners are struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments either because their interest rate has increased or they have less income. A Home Affordable Modification will provide them with mortgage payments they can afford.

Who is Eligible? Please use the self-assessment tools provided on this website to see if you are among the 7 to 9 million homeowners who can benefit from Making Home Affordable. Based on your results, we will provide suggestions about what you can do next.

FIND OUT IF YOU ARE ELIGIBLE. Borrower Q&A Icon: PDF Document

Beware of Foreclosure Rescue Scams - Help Is Free!
  • There is never a fee to get assistance or information about Making Home Affordable from your lender or a HUD-approved housing counselor.
  • Beware of any person or organization that asks you to pay a fee in exchange for housing counseling services or modification of a delinquent loan. Do not pay – walk away!
  • Beware of anyone who says they can “save” your home if you sign or transfer over the deed to your house. Do not sign over the deed to your property to any organization or individual unless you are working directly with your mortgage company to forgive your debt.
  • Never make your mortgage payments to anyone other than your mortgage company without their approval.
Borrower Information: Making Home Affordable Refinance and Modification Options

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

S. B. 1098, An Act Modifying Corporate Laws Relating To Certain Religious Corporations VIDEO


On SB-1098, AN ACT MODIFYING CORPORATE LAWS RELATING TO CERTAIN RELIGIOUS CORPORATIONS

March 10, 2009 - Joined by House and Seante Republican caucses, State Senator John McKinney speaks out against Senate Bill 1098, An Act Modifying Corporate Laws Relating To Certain Religious Corporations.

SB 1098 proposes to dictate the way the Catholic Church organizes and operates, replacing the control of the Bishops and pastors with that of a board of directors consisting of lay people elected from the parish. Once in place, this board would have administrative and financial powers, strategic planning authority, and control of the outreach and community services provided by the church.

In 1866, Connecticut enacted legislation to distinguish between the Protestant and Roman Catholic structures of churches. An 1897 Connecticut Supreme Court case, State ex rel. George Barry v. Getty et al, further supported the intent of the initial law and an excerpt of the decision reads as follows:

“It is the settled policy of this State to so frame its legislation that each denomination of Christians may have an equal right to exercise ‘religious profession and worship,’ and to support and maintain its ministers, teachers and institutions, in accordance with its own practice, rules and disciplines; and this policy is conformable to the provisions of our Constitution. Christ Church v. Trustees, etc., 67 Conn. 554, 565. In pursuance of this policy our statutes provide a scheme for the formation and conduct of corporations known as “ecclesiastical societies,” which may “hold and manage all property belonging to them, appropriated to the use and support of public worship, and may receive any grants or donations, and by voluntary agreement establish funds for the same object.”

General Statutes Sec. 2051, et seq. This scheme is arranged with special reference to the customs of the denomination of Congregationalists, which prior to the adoption of a constitution formed a sort of established church; and while furnishing ample provision for the needs of many denominations, is not consistent with the customs of some. And so we have special legislation for “societies of particular denominations,” and among these are the Roman Catholic. This legislation is contained in Secs. 2092, 2093 and 2094 [now 33-279, 280, 281].” (emphasis added)

The Court further stated: “Such special legislation is not passed unless upon application of some religious body, and is intended to be framed in accord with what the legislature understands to be the peculiar customs and wishes of the applying denomination.” (Id., at 289)

Employee Free Choice Act H.R.800 VIDEO


On the bill, known as the Employee Free Choice Act of 2007.

Blocking access to a secret ballot invites harassment, costs American jobs

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following statement on Tuesday regarding the effort to strip workers of their access to a secret ballot in union elections:

“The right to a secret ballot is one which has been protected in America for hundreds of years because we know the value of political expression without fear of coercion. The attempt by some Democrats to take away this fundamental right goes against the ideals of political freedom upon which our nation was founded.

“Not only will this legislation invite harassment and intimidation into the work place, it could also cost America even more jobs. At a time when we are trying to strengthen our economy and put people back to work, we should be making it easier – not harder – for jobs to expand. While we need to work together for the good of the economy, Senate Republicans will oppose any attempts which undermine our economic health and costs jobs.”

SOURCE: Republican.Senate.Gov

Sunday, March 08, 2009

George Prescott Bush Biography VIDEO

George Prescott Bush Biography VIDEO. Republican National Convention Blog. George P. Bush wins GOP nomination for Texas land Commissioner


Bush announced in September 2012 his intention to run for office, saying that he was considering one of several state offices. In November, he filed papers required to run for state office in Texas.

In January 2013, Bush filed a campaign finance report stating he had received about $1.3 million in campaign contributions. In March 2013, Bush filed to run for Texas Land Commissioner.

Outgoing Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is running for lieutenant governor in 2014.

As of June 2013, Bush had raised $3.3 million dollars of campaign funds. On November 19, 2013, he officially filed the papers to run for Texas land commissioner.

In November, 2013 John Cook, the former mayor of El Paso officially filed to run for Texas Land Commissioner on the Democratic ticket.

March 4, 2014, George P. Bush won the Republican nomination for Texas land commissioner.

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George Prescott Bush

George P. Bush at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Date: June 18, 2011 (by Gage Skidmore)
George Prescott Bush (born April 24, 1976 in Texas) is the eldest of three children of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his wife Columba Garnica Gallo who was born in Mexico. He is the nephew of President George W. Bush, and the grandson of President George H. W. Bush.

At the age of 12, Bush spoke before the 1988 Republican National Convention, which nominated his grandfather.

People magazine ranked P, No. 5 on its list of 100 most eligible bachelors in 2000.

P went to high school with popular musical artist Enrique Iglesias at Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami. He earned an undergraduate degree in history from Rice in 1998, and earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 2003.

Like grandpa and uncle at Yale, P was a freshman walk-on to the Rice University baseball team but unlike grandpa and uncle, he got little playing time and abandoned the game by his sophomore year. Bush played quarterback for the Jones College intramural football team. Bush earned an undergraduate degree from Rice in 1998, After earning his history degree, George P. took a teaching job in an agricultural community south of Miami. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 2003.

When asked in 2003 about whether he planned to run for office himself, P. replied that his grandmother, Barbara Bush, had advised that anyone thinking about entering politics should distinguish himself in some other field first: "Make a name for yourself, have a family, marry someone great, have some kids, buy a house, pay taxes, and do the things everyone also does instead of just running out and saying, 'Hey, I'm the nephew of or the son of or the grandson of...'."
Amanda BushP married a law school classmate, Amanda "Mandi" Williams, on August 7, 2004 in Kennebunkport, Maine, the Bush family gathered to attend his wedding at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church near Walker’s Point. P. met Williams in a trial advocacy class at the University of Texas at Austin Law School.
He sat behind her and passed notes during class, asking her if she wanted to join him in a round of golf. P. says he wants to "start a family as soon as possible," Amanda is a media law attorney at the Jackson Walker LLP in Fort Worth. They currently live in Austin, Texas.

During the 2004 campaign, he was a clerk for a federal judge; the Hatch Act prevented him from getting involved until the final months.

P. practiced law in Dallas until 2005 before joining N3 Capital, a real estate investment company of which he is part owner, in Fort Worth, Texas. N3 Capital has since moved its headquarters to Austin, Texas and changed its name to Pennybacker Capital.

On March 21, 2007 the United States Navy Reserve announced the selection of George P. for training as an intelligence officer. Once commissioned as an Ensign for eight years of reserve service, he will attend direct commission officer training, and then undergo a year of intelligence training. "My grandfather's my hero, and what really sold me on the ultimate decision was having the chance to see the CVN-77 be commissioned under his name," refering to the aircraft carrier named for his grandfather -- the USS George H.W. Bush.

P. said the death of Pat Tillman, the NFL player and Army Ranger who was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 in what was later determined to be a friendly-fire incident, "was a wake-up call for me." He said he had "looked into active duty" and had somber conversations with his wife about the possibility.

The commitment involves two weeks of annual training. He can volunteer for active duty or be deployed after he finishes his intelligence certification, which takes about two years. He'll have to run a mile and a half in 13 minutes, which he said he can do now, but he's trying to get down to the 10 minutes and 30 seconds required for SEALs and special operations. He's also a weightlifter as well as golfer.

In 2007 He was a member of the board of directors of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and was involved with the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Bush attended a small Catholic parish in downtown Fort Worth.

P. is a leader of the Maverick PAC, which was formed by young Texas donors to the Bush-Cheney campaign. The group scheduled a series of meetings with the 2008 Republican presidential candidates.

SOURCES:
George Prescott Bush Image Licensing: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Attribution: Gage Skidmore

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Congressman Roy Blunt Weekly Republican Address 03/07/09 VIDEO PODCAST TEXT


PODCAST Congressman Roy Blunt Delivers Republican weekly radio address download MP3 2.9 mb running time 2:27 min.

"Hello, I'm Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt. I serve on the House Energy and Commerce Health Care subcommittee and chair the Health Care Solutions Working Group here in the House of Representatives.

"I attended President Obama's health care summit Thursday afternoon. I appreciated the opportunity and again told the President that I'm ready to work together to improve health care in America.

"Americans are worried about their access to quality, affordable health care and they are looking for responsible solutions. Republicans agree, and we are committed to developing new and innovative solutions to fix what's broken, while making sure that we keep what works.

"Republicans are committed to access, affordability, competition and a quality system that puts patients and doctors in the driver seat.

"I agree with President Obama that if you like your current health insurance plan, you should be allowed to keep it. But that's not what is currently being discussed in Washington. Some people are spending a lot of time talking about how to spend more of your money on bigger government run programs. I'm concerned that if the government steps in it will eventually push out the private health care plans that millions of Americans enjoy today. This could cause your employer to simply stop offering coverage, hoping the government will pick up the slack.

"Just imagine a health care system that looks like a government run operation most of us are all too familiar with -- the local DMV. Lines, paper work, taking a number. Or how about another government agency -- the IRS.

"I don't want our health care to resemble that system and you probably don't either. That's why real competition is the key -- it encourages innovation so that the health care treatments and services available to you are the ones that you need and you want. Republicans are committed to common-sense solutions that promote competition and innovation.

"Not surprisingly the government never gets the price right: overpaying for some services, underpaying for others. It's also a system that leads to unfair rationing of care.

"Part of that comes from the backward way the government looks at problems. Washington is the only place that tells you how much they care about something based on how much it costs, instead of how well it works.

"America has the best doctors, health care providers and hospitals in the world. Republicans will lead the effort to make health care work for Americans. We'll also lead the fight against any proposals that undermine your ability to get the treatment the doctor you choose recommends.

"This is Roy Blunt, thanks for giving me a moment of your time."

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Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

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