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Rep. David Obey Warns President Obama of Afghanistan War Surtax

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

ABC News - By Jonathan Karl - Nov. 23 (Interview) - The powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan -- sending more troops would be a mistake that could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild the economy."

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Senate girds for Saturday vote and long battle on health care

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

McClatchy - By David Lightman - Nov. 20 (News Report) - The Senate Thursday began what promises to be a bitter, lengthy battle over the future of health care in America, and taxes, abortion, affordability and federal deficits emerged as key flashpoints.

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How to boost fuel efficiency? Raise taxes, executives say

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Reuters - By Scott Malone - Nov. 06 (Opinion) - While politically unpalatable, gasoline that costs at least $4 a gallon would have a far greater effect on American fuel usage than Washington's $25 billion loan program meant to spark investment in new technologies

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With tax break, a big carbon footprint

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Boston Globe - By Edward L. Glaeser - Nov. 05 (Opinion) - ENVIRONMENTALISTS who are worried about global warming should pay attention to the congressional debate about extending the home buyers tax credit. Federal tax policies toward housing have long encouraged Americans to emit more carbon. President Obama could do the country, and the planet, a service by either refusing to sign the extension of the $8,000 credit or by insisting that it be accompanied by offsetting reductions in the home mortgage interest deduction.

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The Insurance Industry's Deceptive Report

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ezra Klein - Oct. 12 (Opinion) - In the hallowed tradition of the tobacco and energy industries, the health insurance industry has commissioned a report (pdf) projecting doom and despair for those who seek to reform its business practices. The report was farmed out to the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has something of a history with this sort of thing: In the early-'90s, the tobacco industry commissioned PWC to estimate the economic devastation that would result from a tax on tobacco. The report was later analyzed by the Arthur Andersen Economic Consulting group, which concluded that "the cumulative effect of PW’s methods … is to produce patently unreliable results." It's perhaps no surprise that the patently unreliable results were all in the tobacco industry's favor. He who pays the piper names the tune, and all that.

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The Empire Strikes Back

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Mother Jones - By Kevin Drum - Oct. 12 (Opinion) - AHIP, the insurance industry trade group, has apparently decided to hop off the healthcare reform bandwagon. After months of claiming that they were on board, they released a report on Monday claiming that current proposals would raise insurance costs for middle class families by about $4,000 more than otherwise projected over the next decade.

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Is the Insurance Industry Declaring War?

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Oct. 12 (Opinion) - Over the weekend, America's Health Insurance Plans circulated a study it commissioned from PriceWaterhouseCoopers. In a memo to AHIP members, reproduced here, president Karen Ignani explained its significance

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Insurance industry fights back with PriceWaterhouseCoopers report

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Hot Air - By Ed Morrissey - Oct. 12 (Opinion) - Until now, the health-insurance industry has mainly held its fire against the ObamaCare proposals in Congress, hoping that its givebacks would be enough to sate the Democratic class warfare that erupted this summer. Now, however, they have apparently taken off the gloves with a new analysis by accounting firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers. The study predicts that the Baucus plan would increase premiums for an average American family by $4,000 per year, a breathtaking increase from a plan that purports to save costs

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House leaders prepare to wrestle with question of taxes to pay for healthcare

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Hill - By Mike Soraghan - Oct. 03 (News Report) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow House Democratic leaders next week are expected to wade into the treacherous waters of how to pay for the House healthcare bill as they continue to negotiate the shape of the bill behind closed doors.

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Tax Code Woefully Out of Date on Energy Policy

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Emily Badger - Sep. 18 (Special Report) - From 2002 through 2008, the U.S. federal government spent about $72 billion subsidizing fossil fuel industries, much of those benefits embedded in arcane tax codes written in another era, for a different kind of energy economy.

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How GOP can manage Tea Party

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By John Freehery - Sep. 16 (Opinion) - While the Tea Party movement presents a threat to the Obama administration, it also presents a challenge to congressional Republicans. After all, many of the protesters have as low a regard for the GOP as they do for the Democrats, and they hold the previous administration in as much as contempt as they do the Obama White House.

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Charlie Rangel Hides Income and Assets

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - Aug. 28 (Opinion) - Charlie Rangel wins the personal lotteryWhen normal people happen to "find" their own money, it might mean a twenty left in a winter coat, or discovering change beneath the sofa cushions. But if you're Charlie Rangel, it means doubling your net worth.

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Privatized welfare plan price swells ::

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - Aug. 22 (News Report) - Indiana will spend nearly $180 million more than it initially planned to privatize and automate many of its welfare functions just two years into a closely watched 10-year deal that is one of the most lucrative contracts in state history. The cost of the $1.16 billion contract Gov. Mitch Daniels signed in late 2006 has risen 15 percent, to $1.34 billion, under changes made to the agreement with a group led by Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp.

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UBS will give IRS 4,450 names of suspected tax cheats

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Reuters - By Stephen Ohlemacher, Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writers - Aug. 19 (News Report) - Swiss banking giant UBS agreed Wednesday to turn over to the IRS details of 4,450 accounts suspected of holding undeclared assets by U.S. customers, ending an intense trans-Atlantic legal fight. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman says the accounts held $18 billion in assets at one time. Many have since been closed, he said.

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Feds Build Criminal Cases Against US Tax Evaders

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

CNBC.com - By Lynnley Browning The New York Times - Aug. 14 (News Report) - Federal prosecutors are building criminal cases against 150 wealthy American clients of the Swiss banking giant UBS as part of a continuing investigation into tax evasion. In February, UBS agreed to pay $780 million to settle charges that it had helped American clients evade taxes on nearly $20 billion hidden in offshore accounts.

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US, Swiss Cement Deal On Secret UBS Bank Accounts

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jessica Gresko - Aug. 12 (News Report) - The Swiss and U.S. governments announced a deal Wednesday to settle American demands for the identities of suspected tax dodgers, despite Switzerland's vaunted bank secrecy. But they kept all details under wraps, including how many of the 52,000 names sought by the IRS from banking giant UBS AG will be revealed.

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Obama's EPA plans fewer toxic cleanups

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Dina Cappiello - Aug. 11 (Special Report) - For years, the Bush administration was criticized for not cleaning up enough of the nation's most contaminated waste sites. The Obama administration plans to do even less.

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Billionaire Tax Felon Says UBS Lied in Pledge to Report to IRS

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bloomberg - By David Voreacos - Aug. 10 (News Report) - With evidence from the Olenicoff case and cooperation from Birkenfeld, U.S. prosecutors have been able to penetrate the veil of financial invisibility that Switzerland guards as a national treasure. To avoid immediate prosecution, UBS, Switzerland’s second- largest bank by stock market value, behind Credit Suisse Group AG, agreed on Feb. 18 to pay the U.S. $780 million. It renewed a pledge to stop unlicensed recruiting of customers in the U.S. and agreed to cooperate with investigators during 18 months of probation. The bank admitted in court that it had helped American clients dodge taxes from 2000 to 2007.

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UBS Client Chernick Admits Filing False Tax Return (Update2)

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bloomberg - By Voreacos - Aug. 10 (News) - submit hid the original story window. Wait a bit.

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UBS Tax Settlement Delayed on U.S., Switzerland Talks (Update4)

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Bloomberg - By David Voreacos, Mort Lucoff, Carlyn Kolker - Aug. 07 (News Report) - The U.S. and Switzerland need at least five more days to negotiate settlement of a Justice Department lawsuit against UBS AG seeking the names of Americans suspected of evading taxes through 52,000 secret Swiss accounts. U.S. District Judge Alan Gold in Miami today agreed to a request by Justice Department attorney Stuart Gibson to reschedule a telephone conference call for Aug. 12. Gibson told Gold on July 31 that the two governments had agreed in principle to settle the case and hoped to reveal final terms today.

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Cohn-Bendit Advocates "Revolutionary" Carbon Tax

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Pierre-Alain Furbury, Lucie Robequain - Jul. 31 (Interview) - Michel Rocard, president of the Conference of Experts on the "climate-energy tax," must hand in proposals to Christine Lagarde and Jean-Louis Borloo. The former prime minister envisions the establishment, by 2010, of a carbon tax on fossil energy, but also on electricity. The cost would be 32 euros per ton of CO2 emitted next year and 100 euros as of 2030.

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Pinched States Wrestle With More Cuts

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Leslie Eaton - Jul. 30 (News Report) - Just a few weeks after many states struggled to balance their budgets for the new fiscal year, plunging tax revenues are forcing more cuts.

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Health Care Reform and the Unpopular T-Word

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Leonhardt - Jul. 29 (Opinion) - The many-headed Hydra, with breath poisonous enough to kill, is one of the more gruesome beasts in Greek mythology. In Hercules’s great clash with it, he would cut off one of its heads, only to have two more appear. No matter what he did, he couldn’t keep up. You can think of Congress’s efforts to pay for health reform as being a little bit like a battle to slay a many-headed Hydra.

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TARP IG Reports Underscore Need for Better Transparency in Financial Bailout

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ombwatch.org - Jul. 29 (Investigative Report) - Two recent reports by the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), Neil Barofsky, provide useful information and stand in sharp contrast to the Treasury Department's attempt to provide comparable transparency for the program, also known as TARP. One report clearly presents existing TARP information, while the other supplies new data that Treasury should be providing. In both cases, the reports highlight changes Treasury should make to how it conducts and presents TARP data. To date, TARP, the most prominent element of the larger initiative colloquially known as "the bailout," has been a relatively secretive program.

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How the Ultra-Rich Are Trying to Kill Health Reform

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By David Sirota - Jul. 28 (Opinion) - Cash payoffs made, re-elections purchased, the absurd story somehow goes that because blue-collar constituents in Flyover America like guns and love Jesus, they must also reflexively adore politicians who defend 1-percenters' bounty. That fantastical fairly tale, of course, couldn't exist without the Millionaire Media -- the elite journalists and opinionmongers who represent corporate media conglomerates and/or are themselves extremely wealthy. Ignoring all the data about inequality, they legitimize the assertions of the 1-percenters' first two battalions, while actually claiming America's fat cats are unfairly persecuted.

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