Category — Politics

The ethics committee’s decision on Rangel’s trips resolves just a small part of the ethical controversy in which he’s caught up. The ethics committee is still investigating a variety of issues related to Rangel’s personal finances, including his use of a rent-stabilized apartment, his fundraising on behalf of a research institute bearing his name, and his failure to declare hundreds of thousands of dollars on income and assets on annual financial-disclosure reports.

via Charlie Rangel ruling puts Nancy Pelosi in a jam – John Bresnahan – POLITICO.com.

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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.

via Obama to spell out new healthcare plan – Yahoo! News.

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“I used to think it would take a great financial crisis to get both parties to the table, but we just had one,” said G. William Hoagland, a former adviser to the Senate Republican leadership on fiscal policy.”These days, I wonder if this country is even governable.”

via November’s consequence: A paralyzed government,, by Patrick Buchanan

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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.

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Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister on Monday expressed doubts about the usefulness of more sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

Prince Saud al-Faisal told a news conference in the Saudi capital that the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions demands a more immediate solution than sanctions…

…The Saudi minister also said efforts supported by the U.S. to rid the Middle East of nuclear weapons must apply to Israel.

“Sanctions are a long-term solution,” the Saudi minister said. “But we see the issue in the shorter term because we are closer to the threat,” referring to Iran. “We need immediate resolution rather than gradual resolution.”

via Saudi official questions new sanctions on Iran – Yahoo! News.

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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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The original bill had won support from across the political spectrum, from President Barack Obama as well as conservative Republicans in the Senate, offering the promise of a rare bipartisan package in a Congress that has been gripped by partisan fights. To get that support, however, the package had morphed into a 361-page grab bag of provisions that included extending benefits to the unemployed and tax breaks for businesses.

Now, the bipartisan agreement is off.

via My Way News – Senate Dems ax bipartisan jobs bill.

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Memo from Al Gore: Please discontinue use of the phrase “Global Warming.” From now on it’s Climate Change. Climate Change. Climate Change.

But some independent climate experts say the blizzards in the Northeast no more prove that the planet is cooling than the lack of snow in Vancouver or the downpours in Southern California prove that it is warming.

As an illustration of their point of view, the family of Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, a leading climate skeptic in Congress, built a six-foot-tall igloo on Capitol Hill and put a cardboard sign on top that read “Al Gore’s New Home.”

The extreme weather, Mr. Inhofe said by e-mail, reinforced doubts about scientists’ conclusion that global warming was “unequivocal” and most likely caused by human activity.

via Climate-Change Debate Is Heating Up in Deep Freeze – NYTimes.com.

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Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, mounted stiff resistance tonight to any swift bailout of Greece, as a rift opened up between European capitals over how best to tackle the risks posed to the euro.

Despite a show of Franco-German unity on the crisis and the first statement from EU leaders pledging to safeguard the currency's stability, hopes on the markets of a German-led rescue plan to shore up Greece’s critical public finances were dashed by Merkel, who repeatedly emphasised that Athens would need to put its own house in order and brushed aside all questions of financial support.

“Germany is stepping totally on the brakes on financial assistance,” said a senior EU diplomat. “On legal grounds, on constitutional grounds and on principle.” Another senior diplomat said of the Germans: “They’re not waving their chequebooks.”

via Angela Merkel dashes Greek hopes of rescue bid | Business | The Guardian.

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Greek tax collectors and customs officers walked off the job on Thursday, kicking off a spate of strikes against government austerity cuts designed to halt a financial crisis caused by massive debt.

Both groups embarked on a two-day walkout ahead of industrial action called by civil servants, doctors and Communist-backed workers on February 10 and a general strike called by Greece’s main umbrella union on February 24.

“We have already made sacrifices and will accept no more cuts,” the chairman of the customs officers’ union Argyris Sakellaropoulos told Flash Radio.

The unions are on the warpath over a government austerity programme that they say has progressively become harsher under pressure from the European Union and market speculation that has hurt Greek finances and rattled the euro.

via Greece faces strike barrage over austerity cuts – Glock Talk.

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