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SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT—Local wife and mother Josefina Quedando made a bold claim Monday: that her $3.5 trillion shopping spree at Target would actually cost the family just $0. Quedando had originally told her husband she would be spending $3.5 trillion at Target on prairie dresses, shoes, Magnolia decor, "a few things for the kids," groceries, knick-knacks, throw pillows, and candles, among other "small" purchases. When this proposal didn't poll well among her husband base, she quickly released a statement that the $3.5 trillion in spending would "actually cost $0 when you think about it." According to Quedando, when you look...

Senate Democrats have assembled a laundry list of possible tax hikes to help finance their $3.5 trillion spending bonanza, according to an internal committee document obtained by The Post. Many Democrats are eager to implement the host of corporate and individual tax hikes to fund the $3.5 trillion plan, but Beltway insiders are dubious the more controversial plans — like taxing share buybacks and hefty executive payouts — will make the final bill.... ...Sen. Mike Crapo, a Republican of Idaho, said in a statement to The Post that he had “serious concerns” about the Democratic “tax-and-spending spree.” He said the...

Joe Biden will offer his post-pandemic economic plan on Monday as the stock market rose with the news of another potential COVID vaccine and President Donald Trump continues to insist he won the election. Biden and running mate Kamala Harris will speak on their plan to revive the pandemic-battered U.S. economy as stocked soared after drugmaker Moderna said its COVID-19 vaccine is 94.5 percent effective based on preliminary data. His remarks come as talks are stalled between the Trump White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill about another COVID relief package and several states have started to institute new restrictions...

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party's major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress. Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck's local crew to cater the RNC's Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii. For some major GOP donors, both decisions were symbolic of the kind of...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. House Democrats, without a single Republican vote, passed a $447 billion appropriations bill Thursday to fund several government agencies next fiscal year. The House approved the conference committee report on a 221-202 vote, over GOP concerns about spending increases. Senate Democrats and Republicans were at odds over when to vote on the conference report that combines six of the seven remaining 2010 appropriations bills.

Sacramento - -- California's spending boomed in recent years - from $38.9 billion in 1993 to $102.9 billion in 2008 - as lawmakers poured increasing amounts of money into state services. But a crash in revenue collection that began 19 months ago forced lawmakers in the past two years to make the deepest cuts to the state's discretionary fund in the history of the Golden State. Today, general fund spending stands at $84.5 billion and the state's per capita spending is $2,301 - down to what the state was spending per person 11 years ago, when adjusted for inflation, a...

Holding signs reading "Stimulate Business, Not Government," "Families Against Porkulus" and "Say No To Generational Theft," protesters opposed to the $787 billion stimulus package have been mobilizing across the country. It started last Monday in Seattle, then moved Tuesday to Denver, where President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law. That was followed by another one in Mesa, Ariz., where Obama unveiled a mortgage rescue plan. Another protest was planned for Saturday outside the office of Rep. Dennis Moore in Overland Park, Kan. The Democrat voted for the stimulus. His office didn't return calls seeking comment. A New Populism? As...

A Dobson High School Advanced Placement government class with strong opinions about Barack Obama watched the president's speech Wednesday on a small, grainy TV in the corner of their classroom. Some of the students attentively watched the speech, giving questioning looks and comments, shaking their heads and laughing at some of Obama's words. Other students listened, occasion ally glancing up to watch, while texting on their cell phones, reading a book or finishing school work. The gymnasium's events were shown simultaneously in rooms throughout the Mesa school, and teachers were given discretion on whether to show the speech, the students...

A Dobson High School Advanced Placement government class with strong opinions about Barack Obama watched the president's speech Wednesday on a small, grainy TV in the corner of their classroom. Principal, student talk hoops with Obama Obama lays out plan amid hundreds at Dobson Some of the students attentively watched the speech, giving questioning looks and comments, shaking their heads and laughing at some of Obama's words. Other students listened, occasionally glancing up to watch, while texting on their cell phones, reading a book or finishing school work. The gymnasium's events were shown simultaneously in rooms throughout the Mesa school,...

WASHINGTON - "Fore!" The federal government is preparing to spend millions to purchase a fleet of small electric vehicles that critics compare to golf carts. The $838 billion economic stimulus bill that passed the Senate yesterday contains $300 million for the government to purchase a fleet of "green" cars. But the money won't just go to buy fuel-efficient hybrids such as the Ford Escape or Chevy Volt. The cash also can be used to purchase "neighborhood electric vehicles." The NEVs, which resemble streamlined golf carts, scoot at up to 25 mph, operate on battery power and can be plugged into...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says Caterpillar's chief executive has told him the company will rehire some laid-off workers if the stimulus bill passes. The heavy equipment maker announced more than 22,000 job cuts last month as it scales back production amid the economic slowdown. During a visit to a transportation construction site just outside Washington in Springfield, Va., on Wednesday, Obama urged Congress to pass the bill. The House and Senate are

In what many see as a foreboding sign about what Congress and President Barack Obama will try to do with the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," Democrats are continuing their attacks on talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh over his opposition to what he has described as "Obama's Porkulus Bill." Radio and television ads are being launched by MoveOn.org and other organizations condemning Limbaugh's opinion that such government spending is wrong, and then linking Republican lawmakers to Limbaugh through their opposition to Obama's massive $1 trillion "stimulus" plan.

The Obama administration backed off Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s statement last week that China is “manipulating” its currency. In an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said the administration has made “no judgment” on whether the Chinese have manipulated their currency, an accusation that would have international legal ramifications. “The policy of this administration is going to be to say to China, which occasionally the last administration was reluctant to do. `You're a major player on the world scene economically, and you've got to play by the rules that

I’ve been doing a lot of B.O. (Barack Obama/Bend Over) Republican-bashing the past few weeks. Watching the Republicans crumble on the Geithner and Holder nominations, swoon over The One’s congeniality, and display indecision over the stimulus hasn’t been easy on the stomach or the head. But credit must be given where it is due. Today was a very good day for conservatism — and a good day for the party whose logo I’ve had to run upside-down for too long. Thank you, GOP. It’s a sad state of affairs when I can tally the number of notably good days for...

There's a serious debate in this country as to how best to end the recession. The average recession will last five to 11 months; the average recovery will last six years. Recessions will end on their own if they're left alone. What can make the recession worse is the wrong kind of government intervention. I believe the wrong kind is precisely what President Barack Obama has proposed. I don't believe his is a "stimulus plan" at all -- I don't think it stimulates anything but the Democratic Party. This "porkulus" bill is designed to repair the Democratic Party's power losses...

I suppose that mocking Republican candidates is an essential element of a Washington Post editorial writer's job description. Even so, it was jarring to hear the snide comments of WaPo editorialist Jonathan Capehart [seen right in file photo] about Sarah Palin read on the air today. Not merely did he mock her shopping habits, Capehart came very close to accusing Palin of . . . "child abuse." Mika Brzezinski, at the Morning Joe helm with Joe Scarborough off on assignment today, led the show with the Politico report that the Republican National Committee has spent more than $150 thousand on...

The U.S.- Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement ...an agreement signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004 that would funnel billions of U.S. Social Security funds to Mexican citizens. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has already warned that as a result of this agreement, the number of unauthorized Mexican workers and family members eligible for social benefits will likely increase. The Social Security Administration itself warns that Social Security is within decades of bankruptcy - yet they seem to have no problem making agreements that hasten its demise...

WASHINGTON -- As a result of lawsuits, the U.S. government released this week the actual U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement, an understanding signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004 that would funnel billions of U.S. Social Security funds to Mexican citizens. TREA Senior Citizens League, a Washington-based nonpartisan seniors group, announced this week that after Freedom of Information Act lawsuits it filed against the government, it had received the secret agreement document. Brad Phillips, a spokesperson for TREA, told NewsMax that the language in the agreement "raises more questions than it answers — such as what...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After numerous refusals over three and a half years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has released the first known public copy of the U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement. The government was forced to make the disclosure in response to lawsuits filed under the Freedom of Information Act by TREA Senior Citizens League, a 1.2 million-member nonpartisan seniors advocacy group. The Totalization Agreement could allow millions of illegal Mexican workers to draw billions of dollars from the U.S. Social Security Trust Fund. The agreement between the U.S. and Mexico was signed in June 2004, and is...

Federal spending in fiscal year 2006 increased by a whopping 9 percent — the largest rise since 1990 — and has risen more than 40 percent since President Bush took office. The most recent rise far outpaces inflation — the Consumer Price Index is up only 1.3 percent in the past 12 months. "The greatest scandal in Washington, D.C., is runaway federal spending,” Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said after the midterm elections. In recent years, he points out, the GOP majority "voted to expand the federal government’s role in education, [added new] entitlements, and pursued spending policies that created deficits...