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Oklahoma senator hopes is putting the finishing touches on his plan to reduce the federal deficit by $9 trillion. He expects to release it this week. WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, who has been working on a deficit-reduction plan worth $9 trillion over 10 years, said he hopes to release the blueprint late this week. That timetable may slip since the scope of the plan requires so many calculations (mathematical, not political). Coburn, R-Muskogee, and his staff have been working on the plan since the senator dropped out of the bipartisan Gang of Six deficit reduction talks in May....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congress and the White House could raise the debt limit for a few months while they seek a comprehensive, long-term budget deal, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday. The Obama administration has warned it will run out of money to pay the nation's bills if Congress does not raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit by August 2 -- a prospect that could push the country back into recession and upend global financial markets. Congressional Republicans, particularly in the House of Representatives, have balked at raising the debt ceiling unless it is accompanied by significant spending...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the Congress on Tuesday signaled a willingness to raise the country's credit limit "sooner rather than later" and avoid a series of short-term measures that could damage the economy. In the face of intense pressure from business groups for a prompt and tidy handling of a statutory increase in how much the government can borrow, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner told reporters, "Why wait" until the last minute for Congress to pass legislation. He added that he would rather address the matter "sooner rather than later. The United States is on the verge of...

An angry and, at times, defiant gathering of Minneapolis homeowners sent a loud message to City Hall Monday - no new taxes. "We're not going to sit in our houses and just take this year after year after year," said Mark Johnson, who organized an evening rally on the steps of City Hall and launched the website for the group, Minneapolis Tax Payers United. When Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak came outside in the bitter cold without a coat to greet the 20 or so protesters, one person began shouting at the three-term mayor, who initially proposed a 6.5% property tax...

The White House continued to push Sunday for Congress to let the Bush tax cuts expire for the wealthiest Americans, teeing up a lame-duck standoff over the issue in Washington once lawmakers return from the campaign trail. David Axelrod, the president's senior adviser, said Sunday that the Obama administration still wants the tax cuts extended for middle-class families making up to $250,000. "That would be stimulative, because people who need money in their pocket to spend and pay for the things that they need to live would have more money in their pocket," Axelrod said in an interview. But he...

(CNSNews.com) - Almost 23 million American households are about to have their federal taxes raised by an average of $3,900 this year, but they may not know it yet. They could get a big surprise when they prepare their tax returns next year. Among those subject to this already-in-place tax increase are some families making less than $50,000 per year, and virtually all married couples earning between $100,000 and $500,000 a year, according to data published by the Congressional Budget Office. The looming tax hike is contrary to President Barack Obama's repeated promise not to increase taxes on any individual...

Wildlife officials have killed a grizzly bear in Wyoming and a grizzly bear in Montana to head-off potential lawsuits. The Montana grizzly killed and partially consumed Kevin Kammer at a Gallatin National Forest campground near Cooke City, Mont. on July 29. The Wyoming grizzly killed 70 year-old botanist Erwin Evert on June 17 on the Shoshone National Forest near the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The circumstances were quite different, but the decision to kill the bears was undoubtedly influenced by a 1996 court case over the terrible bear mauling of 16 year-old Anna Knochel at a U.S. Forest...

Governor Jennifer Granholm's tax hike proposal would wipe out 30,000 jobs in the first year, according to an analysis done by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Beacon Hill Institute in Boston. While the Governor's proposal does eliminate some taxes and does include some tax cuts, it would generate more than $940 million in new net taxes, according to the analysis. "More money is redirected to Lansing," said Michael LaFaive, the director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative at the Mackinac Center. "The state's insatiable appetite for revenue is driving job losses in Michigan. How much more can...

We turn to the Wall Street Journal for the math on what it will cost to raise taxes on corporations’ retiree prescription drug coverage. This is the provision that has caused several corporations to take markdowns recently. The bottom line: by closing this “loophole” — which was originally created to dissuade companies from dumping retirees’ prescription costs into Medicare Part D — the government could lose more than five times what it brings in. The Employee Benefit Research Institute calculates that the 28% subsidy on average will run taxpayers $665 in 2011 and that the tax dispensation is worth $233....

The forced march to pass ObamaCare continues, and all that matters now is raw politics. But opponents should go down swinging, and that means exposing such policy debacles as President Obama's 11th-hour decision to apply the 2.9% Medicare payroll tax to "unearned income." That's what savings and investment income are called in Washington, and this destructive tax wasn't in either the House or Senate bills, though it may now become law with almost no scrutiny.

Minnesota Power is seeking an almost 20 percent increase in rates for its residential customers to cover investments made in cleaner, greener energy. For the average residential customer, that amounts to $13 per month. “We know this is unwelcome news at an unwelcome time,” said Pat Mullen, the company’s vice president of marketing and public affairs. “These are improvements that need to be made. It is creating an environment that we all value.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration will raise its 10-year budget deficit projection to roughly $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion in a report next week, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday. "The new forecasts are based on new data that reflect how severe the economic downturn was in the late fall of last year and the winter of this year," said the official, who is familiar with the plans. "Our budget projections are now in line with the spring and summer projections that the Congressional Budget Office put out." The CBO said in June that deficits between 2010...

Washington – Yesterday, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Mike Huckabee to respond to Club for Growth President Pat Toomey’s op-ed on National Review Online, but Huckabee had no defense for his many tax hikes and liberal record.Instead, Huckabee bloviated about pheasant hunting and called himself an “authentic conservative,” but didn’t explain how an “authentic conservative” could have supported or raised as many tax hikes as he did as Governor of Arkansas. These include: Sales Tax, 1996 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 11/07/96)Gas and Diesel Fuel Taxes, 1999 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 04/02/99, 04/25/99)Sales Tax, 2000 (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 09/25/02)Cigarette Tax, 2001 (Associated Press, 04/02/01)Nursing Home Bed Tax,...

Passed in the House (57 to 52) on September 30, 2007, to increase the state income tax from 3.9 percent to 4.35 percent, effective Oct. 1, 2007.

As expected, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a minimum wage bill Tuesday that will boost the hourly rate by 75 cents in January, followed by another 50 cents a year later. The result will be $8 an hour, which will be the highest state minimum wage in the nation, if other states' rates remain the same. The increase is a compromise between the Republican governor and Democratic lawmakers who had been at odds over the issue for the past two years. At a bill-signing ceremony in Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger reiterated that California's economy simply wasn't ready until this year. "When I...

Nature-deficit disorder is ruining our kidshttp://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20060816/OPINION/108160053 http://tinyurl.com/zchy3 by jim stiles August 16, 2006 No matter how old I live to be, there will never be a place so full of mystery and adventure as a place of my childhood called The Woods. The stories that grew out of those trees still kindle powerful feelings, even after all these years. My friends and I knew the place was haunted. It had no boundaries, and in our 10-year-old minds, it went on forever. Jump ahead a few decades to a familiar topic: the commercialization of wilderness. What created the demand for such...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Republicans on Thursday were trying to move ahead with legislation to raise the federal minimum wage and to help small businesses lower the cost of health insurance for employees. "We are 99 percent of the way there," said Rep. Steven LaTourette (news, bio, voting record), an Ohio Republican active in the negotiations. But LaTourette added it was still uncertain whether a bill would be hurried to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives before it recesses at the end of this week for a long summer break. Democrats have been pushing to increase the minimum...

Take a Hike, Kidhttp://www.utne.com/webwatch/2006_258/news/12198-1.html Bears, sharks, and strangers -- oh my! How kids are taught to fear the outdoors By Rachel Anderson, Utne.com July 20, 2006 Issue Kids say the darnedest things. "I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets are," one fifth-grader told Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. Raise the age bracket and you might hear, as did one high school teacher querying his students on the environment: "If you go out [in nature], there has to be a parent because you can't protect...

BOJ urged to monitor missile test reaction By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago Japan's finance minister urged the central bank Friday to watch the market reaction to North Korea's recent missile tests, ahead of the Bank of Japan's meeting next week when the bank may raise interest rates for the first time in six years. Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki has repeatedly urged the bank to refrain from an early hike in rates, which have been at zero the last five years, so as not to hurt the nation's economic recovery. The bank's policy board meets...

SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Mexico - Smugglers in sunglasses and muscle shirts reclined on withering patches of grass in a tree-covered plaza, blending into clusters of migrants and offering them "safe" trips into the United States. But on this sweltering day, there were no takers. None of the Mexicans hoping to reach the United States could pay the $3,000 the smugglers demanded to hide them in a car and drive them across the border, a trip that just weeks ago cost $2,000. The sharp increase in smugglers' fees is due to the arrival of National Guard troops at the border...