Germany will press today to end weeks of European haggling over an aid package for debt-laden Greece, seeking new rules to impose fiscal discipline on countries using the euro to buttress the faltering currency. Asserting Germany’s clout as the European Union’s largest economy, Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out an aid decision at today’s EU summit in Brussels, pushing for the International Monetary Fund to be part of any rescue, and called for tougher penalties on future deficit violators.
via Germany Asserts Clout to Impose Conditions on EU Aid to Greece – Bloomberg.com.
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]]>Subcommittee on Oversight ranking member Charles Boustany R-La. said the IRS provision in the bill “dangerously expands, in an ominous way the tentacles of the IRS and it’s reach into every American family,” he said today during a press conference. “This is a vast expanse of power,” he said.
Boustany said the bill would allow the IRS to confiscate refunds if there are penalties for not buying health care. Lawmakers have questioned whether the IRS can handle the increased workload to oversee, administer and collect penalties for people who don't buy health insurance.
via Republicans assail IRS provision in health care bill – The Hill’s On The Money.
It was every businessperson’s nightmare.
Arriving at Harv’s Metro Car Wash in midtown Wednesday afternoon were two dark-suited IRS agents demanding payment of delinquent taxes. “They were deadly serious, very aggressive, very condescending,” says Harv’s owner, Aaron Zeff.
The really odd part of this: The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff’s on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was … 4 cents.
Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv's with an obligation of $202.35.
]]>]]>“Health Insurers will keep on doing this for as long as they can get away with it. This is no secret,” the president said. “They’;re telling their investors this – ‘We are in the money. We are going to keep on making big profits even though a lot of folks are going to be put under hardship,’” the President told supporters at a stop in Pennsylvania today.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, meanwhile, wrote to insurance company executives demanding that they justify premium hikes.
Neither mentioned that the Senate health reform bill, which is the basis for Democrats’ last best chance at comprehensive reform, would give the insurance companies millions of new customers required by law to buy health insurance. It would also require insurers to cover everyone, regardless of age, gender or pre-existing condition.To help pay for the new insurance requirements the government would give to people money to buy insurance – $336 billion over the next ten years. That money, ultimately, would have to go to… drum roll… insurance companies.
via A Complicated Enemy: Obama Seeks to Vilify Health Insurers, Give Them $336 Billion Check – The Note.
Olle Johansson, a scientist at Karolinska Institute in Sweden, submitted testimony saying that “very serious biological changes” that include cancer risks have been noticed for years from exposure to low-frequency magnetic fields like those emitted from cell phones.
via The Associated Press: Maine panel weighs cell phone cancer warning.
]]>Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, suggested Friday the organization might one day be called on to provide countries with a global reserve currency that would serve as an alternative to the U.S. dollar.
“That day has not yet come, but I think it is intellectually healthy to explore these kinds of ideas now,” he said in a speech on the future mandate of the 186-nation Washington-based lending organization.
]]>The sales decline in January marked the third straight monthly drop following decreases of 3.9 percent in December and 9.5 percent in November. January’s weakness was evident in all regions except the Midwest, where sales posted a 2.1 percent increase. Sales were down 35 percent in the Northeast, 12 percent in the West and almost 10 percent in the South.
The drop in sales pushed the median sales price down to $203.500. That was down 5.6 percent from December's median sales price of $215,600, and off 2.4 percent from year-ago prices. New home sales for all of 2009 had fallen by almost 23 percent to 374,000, the worst year on record.
via New home sales hit record low in January – Yahoo! Finance.
]]>Healthcare advocacy groups are looking to the White House proposal and next Thursday’s summit to shore up public support, and Democratic votes, in the push to get comprehensive legislation to Obama this year.
“As soon as the president and (congressional Democratic) leadership are totally together on substance and a strategy, I think the votes will be there,” said Ron Pollack, who heads the Families USA healthcare advocacy group.
The administration, congressional Democrats and advocacy groups have been turning up the rhetorical heat on health insurers that have in recent weeks announced huge premium increases against the backdrop of sizable profits and growing numbers of uninsured people.
“The premium increases are a powerful reminder that the healthcare problems are not going away,” said David Kendall, a senior health policy advisor at centrist think tank Third Way.
]]>The US must fix its growing debt problems or risk a new financial crisis, Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, warned on Tuesday, adding a mounting deficit could spur inflation.
Mr Hoenig said that rising debt was infringing on the central bank’s ability to fulfil its goals of maintaining price stability and long-term economic growth. “Stunning” deficit projections were putting political pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates low, infringing on its independence at the risk of inflation, he said.
via FT.com / US / Economy & Fed – Lone voice warns of debt threat to Fed.
]]>David Cameron:”If I am elected for as long as I am prime minister the United Kingdom will never join the euro.”
via Greece debt bailout: EU leaders split over euro crisis | Mail Online.
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