Posts from — January 2010

For 15 Democratic and 6 Republican Congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,406 tax dollars each. That’s $2,200 a day – more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment.

via Congress Went to Denmark, You Got the Bill – CBS News.

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After the Jan. 19 Republican upset in the U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, Bayh said Democrats who control Congress should pursue a more limited health-care overhaul measure that could achieve bipartisan consensus.

Such legislation might include proposals to let insurance companies compete across state lines, insurance-market changes including a ban on coverage exclusions for pre-existing conditions, and subsidies that would encourage more small businesses to cover their workers.

via Bayh Says Obama May Call for Freeze on Discretionary Spending – Bloomberg.com.

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“I haven’t seen Rahm Emanuel except on television,” Jim Pascrell, a Democratic lawmaker from New Jersey, told Politico, the news website, on Friday. “We used to see him a lot; I’d like him to come out from behind his desk and meet with the common folk.”

via FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy – White House nightmare persists.

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Air America has announced it will end all broadcast operations and file for bankruptcy protection.

In a memorandum posted on the progressive talk radio network’s Web site Thursday, chairman Charlie Kireker said, “the very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America’ business,” forcing it to cease “its live programming operations as of this afternoon.”

Air America was founded in 2004 and filed for bankruptcy protection two years later. It managed to remain on the air but continued to struggle to find an audience and advertisers.

Two liberal MSNBC commentators, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz, once hosted programs on Air America. Minnesota Sen. Al Franken had his own show on the network from 2004 to 2007.

via Progressive Radio Network Air America Goes Under — Politics Daily.

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has expressed some skepticism behind closed doors about the broad bank limits proposed on Thursday by his boss, President Barack Obama, according to financial industry sources.

The sources, speaking anonymously because Geithner has not spoken publicly about his reservations, said the Treasury chief is concerned the proposed limits on big banks' trading and size could impact U.S. firms’ global competitiveness.

He also has concerns that limits on proprietary trading do not necessarily get at the root of the problems and excesses that fueled the recent financial meltdown, the sources said.

via UPDATE 3-Geithner aired concern on bank limits-sources | Markets | US Markets | Reuters.

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Others accused the White House of adopting a populist message to divert attention away from the blow delivered by the Democrats’ defeat in the Senate race in Massachusetts.

The measures, which require congressional approval, hark back to the response to the 1929 stock market crash that ushered in the Glass-Steagall Act, separating commercial and investment banking, which remained in law until 1999.

via FT.com / US / Politics & Foreign policy – Obama hammers Wall Street banks.

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President Barack Obama and House Democratic lawmakers signaled a willingness to scale back legislation overhauling the health-care system, a day after the party suffered a defeat in a Massachusetts Senate race.

The administration will push to revive the U.S. health overhaul after giving lawmakers a couple of days to digest the results of the Republican upset in the Massachusetts election, an administration official said.

“I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements in the package that people agree on,” Obama said in an interview with ABC News broadcast tonight.

via Obama, Democrats Signal Readiness to Limit Health Law (Update2) – Bloomberg.com.

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Warren Buffett opposes President Barack Obama’s proposed levy on financial institutions because firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. already repaid bailout funds.“I don’t see any reason why they should be paying a special tax,” said Buffett, the chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., in an interview on Bloomberg Television today. Supporters of the plan to tax the banks “are trying to punish people,” he said. “I don’t see the rationale for it.”

Obama announced a plan last week to impose a fee on as many as 50 financial companies to recover losses from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. The levy would apply to firms with more than $50 billion in assets, including Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, two companies that Berkshire has investments in. It would exclude Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage lenders taken over by the U.S.

“Look at the damage Fannie and Freddie caused, and they were run by the Congress,” said Buffett. “Should they have a special tax on congressmen because they let this thing happen to Freddie and Fannie?…”

via Buffett Says He Can’t See Rationale for Bank Levy Update2 – Bloomberg.com.

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Getting another American chicken into Russia just got harder.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin weighed into the Russian ban on U.S. chicken imports.

“We haven’t seen any readiness to meet Russian standards on the part of some of our partners, mainly the companies from the United States,” Putin said. “If our foreign suppliers are unable or reluctant to meet our security requirements, we will use other sources.”

The Russians banned chickens from countries using chlorine in poultry processing beginning Jan. 1 2010. Putin made the Americans the odd man out saying that Russia was merely joining the European Union in banning, for food safety reasons, chickens from chlorine-using countries.

via Putin Says Chlorine in Chickens Unsafe – Food Safety News – Global Food Safety News & Information : Presented By Marler Clark LLP, PS.

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Yes, readers, believe it or not, here is what the darling of the Hollywood glitterati had to say about Haiti the other day:

“I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that’s what the United States should send,” Chavez said on his weekly television show. “They are occupying Haiti undercover.”

via Chavez says U.S. occupying Haiti in name of aid | Reuters.

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