Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some business groups, upset about budget and regulatory policies they say are costing jobs, are accusing President Barack Obama of pursuing an agenda that is hurting the U.S. economic recovery. The criticism comes amid a tepid pace of private-sector job creation and the White House is responding by saying a lack of regulations triggered the economic crisis and that a balance is needed to protect Americans. The issue could give Republicans a potent weapon in the November elections in which they hope to overturn the dominance in the Congress of Obama's Democrats. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce,...

May 3 (Bloomberg Government) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 12 other business groups asked members of President Obama’s cabinet including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for more leeway in implementing the health-care overhaul. The groups said they’re being forced to make contract, employee-benefit and other decisions without guidance on how to comply with provisions that take effect in September. The letter dated April 30 was sent to Geithner, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

SANTA CRUZ — Downtown business owners spent Sunday repairing shattered windows and doors after a May Day rally Saturday night turned into a riot with approximately 250 people marching along Pacific Avenue, some carrying makeshift torches, throwing large rocks and paint bombs, and spray-painting walls with graffiti. At least 18 businesses suffered damage during the rally in honor of international workers that began at 9 p.m. and escalated into mayhem around 10:30 p.m., police said. Investigators estimated damage at $100,000, though some business owners said it could be more. No injuries were reported.

Obama asks businesses to get behind climate bill WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama wants business leaders to push Congress to pass long-stalled climate legislation. Obama made the plug during a meeting Friday with his Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which includes the heads of General Electric, Caterpillar and Oracle, along with labor leaders and economists. He told the group that the climate bill - which would cap global warming emissions - is good for business. Obama said that individual members of Congress may be worried about the short-term implications of voting for the bill and that hearing from businesses would...

PHOENIX – Federal agents arrested nearly 50 shuttle operators and smugglers Thursday accused of using vans to transport thousands of illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to Phoenix in what was billed as one of the government's largest-ever human smuggling busts. Investigators said the operators of four shuttle services in Tucson and a fifth in Phoenix created their businesses solely to help immigrant smugglers move their customers to Phoenix under a veil of legitimacy. The shuttle operators are accused of giving illegal immigrants fraudulent receipts to make the trips look legitimate and coaching them on what to say if the...

Friday, Walz toured Austin, talking with local business owners about their concerns regarding health care reform, regulatory agencies, availability of credit, pork barrel spending, energy and the cap-and-trade strategy, which allows facilities to buy and sell pollution credits in order to meet a national limit on greenhouse gas emissions. Walz stopped by Jim’s SuperFresh Produce, 2101 Fourth St. NW, Donker’s Appliance, 1107 First Ave. SW and Medicap Pharmacy, 1109 W. Oakland Ave., to talk with business owners before making his way to Main Street’s Town Center for a roundtable discussion Friday morning. Much of discussion was focused Friday on health...

Businesses are looking to revolutionise state education by bidding to run hundreds of schools, as politicians open the door to new education providers. Companies want to create national chains of state schools, eclipsing the current groups of charitable academy sponsors, which tend to be small and geographically based. Although both the Government and the Conservatives say that organisations driven by profit should not run schools, both have created a path for them to enter the sector. Governing bodies of new, or existing, schools can appoint a contractor to operate the school on their behalf — a model used widely in...

The cost to companies of the landmark U.S. health-care overhaul continued to mount Wednesday as Boeing Co. said it would take a $150 million charge against first-quarter earnings because of tax changes in the legislation. The Chicago-based aerospace firm became the sixth company to reveal charges tied to retiree prescription costs since President Obama signed the health bill into law last week. The mounting costs have prompted some lawmakers to call on the companies to detail how they are calculating the costs, which the administration has characterized as "premature."

The health-care overhaul that President Barack Obama signed into law will mean big changes for many small businesses. Through a combination of penalties, tax credits and purchasing pools, lawmakers aim to boost insurance coverage for U.S. workers. How this legislation will affect businesses depends in large part on their size. Beginning in 2014, organizations with more than 50 employees that don't offer affordable coverage will pay a penalty starting at $750 a year per full-time worker under the bill approved by the Senate and House of Representatives. A proposal approved separately by the House, which still requires Senate approval, would...

NASHUA, N.H. – President Barack Obama unleashed bare-knuckled criticism against opposition Republicans on Tuesday, using some of his toughest language yet to paint them as electoral opportunists willing to switch positions at will to score points with voters. The president's fellow Democrats have been pleading with him, as de facto leader of his party, to get tougher on Republicans leading into this fall's midterm congressional and gubernatorial elections. Those calls increased with the Democrats' stunning loss two weeks ago of a Senate seat in Massachusetts, seen as an indictment of Democratic leadership in Washington and a potential bellwether for the...

BALTIMORE (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday proposed $33 billion in tax credits to coax small businesses into hiring workers as he underscored his commitment to pushing job creation to the top of his agenda. With public frustration over double-digit unemployment eroding his popularity, Obama has begun rolling out initiatives aimed at backing up his jobs pledge made in his economy-focused State of the Union Address earlier this week. The latest proposal calls for a $5,000 tax credit for every net new worker hired in 2010. The amount would be capped at $500,000 per firm to make sure that...

PORTLAND, Ore. – A surge of last-minute ballots was expected Tuesday as Oregon voters decided whether to impose higher taxes on businesses and the wealthy. Polling in the special election suggested the results on Measures 66 and 67 will be close. The stakes in the struggle between business interests and public employee unions are high — the revenue from the two measures is expected to account for about 5.5 percent of the state's general fund budget over the next two years. Opponents of the taxes say draining the money from private hands would damage the state's economy, still hurting from...

Businesses operating in the city of Lancaster will be required to ensure that all their new hires are eligible to work in the United States by using an Internet-based federal program to check the immigration and employment eligibility of potential workers. The free online program, called E-Verify, allows participating employers to use federal databases to compare information provided by job seekers with millions of records kept by the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. “We are working to ensure that all available jobs in our city go to hard-working, law-abiding citizens,” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said...

Note: The following news brief is a quote: Last Update: 12/25 9:52 pm Memphis Man Arrested: Accused of Making Bomb Threats & Threatening to Start "Holy War" MEMPHIS, TN – Tonight, Mohamed Ibrahim is out after posting $100 bond. Earlier in the day, he was arrested after police say he walked into several Memphis businesses and threatened to blow them up. Court records show Ibrahim was also telling people he was Muslim, and wanted to start a jihad, or holy war, in Memphis. Police say when they arrested him, he had a butcher knife hidden in one of his jacket...

As this page has long noted, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s goal of being revered as a global green giant has a potentially huge downside for California’s economy. The governor considers AB 32 – the landmark 2006 anti-global warming state law that forces increased use of cleaner but costlier forms of energy – his greatest achievement. But ever since the bill’s adoption, Schwarzenegger has found it increasingly difficult to reconcile his claims to support economic growth with his environmental policies, which add unique costs to California businesses not borne by their rivals in other states and nations. His cheerleading for ever-more-onerous regulations...

Short booking windows causing anxiety, uncertainty. Shorter booking windows have been the trend for over a year now, making it difficult for businesses in the lodging industry to predict vacancy rates even a few weeks in advance. this time of year, the week after Christmas should be completely sold out and the minimum stay required for a reservation is seven days. But because travelers are booking later and wanting shorter stays, most hotels still have vacancies. John Duvivier, director of sales and marketing for Park City Lodging, said his company has had to lower the minimum number of nights. "We've...

To the list of hundreds of schools, hospitals, and community health centers that have received limited allocations of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine, you can now add some of New York's largest employers. In the past week or so 13 companies, including Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS), have begun receiving small quantities of the vaccine, according to city health authorities.

In his speech to Congress two weeks ago, President Obama made a strong sell to small business owners that his health care reform plan would be blessing, not a curse, for them. Indeed, the President directly addressed "small businesses" no fewer than nine times in his speech. Now that small business owners have heard from the President, it's time for the President to finally listen to small business owners. The O'Leary Report recently teamed up with Zogby International to poll small business owners and officers to see what they think about various topics that are central to the health care...

More than one-in-ten British businesses are seriously considering a move abroad because of the Government's "punitive" tax regime, a damning new survey claims.

Four months ago, Californians were hit with the biggest tax increase in our state's history – more than $12 billion in new taxes on everything from income and sales to vehicle license fees. Since then, tax proponents have proposed 31 new taxes that they predict will generate more than $40 billion in the first year. On top of that, some legislators have singled out oil and tobacco products for massive new tax hikes. These are taxes that the people will pay, not just the corporations. The Neighborhood Market Association represents more than 1,800 independent grocers and small businesses in California...