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House Financial Services Committee chairwoman Maxine Waters was brought up short Wednesday after she targeted banking chiefs over the student loan crisis, even though the federal government took over student lending in 2010. At a hearing featuring a panel of seven bank CEOs, Ms. Waters ticked off figures on student loan debt and defaults, then asked, “What are you guys doing to help us with this student loan debt? Who would like to answer first? Mr. Monahan, big bank.” Bank of America chairman and CEO Brian Monahan replied, “We stopped making student loans in 2007 or so.” Ms. Waters replied,...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is slated to join the committee leading the House's oversight of U.S banks, lenders and financial markets. Ocasio-Cortez has been recommended by Democratic leaders for a spot on the House Financial Services Committee, a Democratic source told The Hill on Tuesday. The full roster of Democrats joining the committee is expected to be released as soon as Tuesday night. Ocasio-Cortez told Hill.TV in November that she has expressed interest in the Financial Services panel to the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which doles out seats on House committees. Politico reported last week that Ocasio-Cortez was "poised...

Judicial Watch Sues for Documents on Obama DOJ Effort to Shut Down Clinton Foundation Investigation Judicial Watch Files Supreme Court Brief against Government Abuse Judicial Watch Fights for Rule of Law in Battle with Anti-Trump Politicians Not Forgotten – Judicial Watch Sues for Vietnam POW-MIA Docs Is Maxine Waters Fit to Chair House Financial Services Committee? Judicial Watch Sues for Documents on Obama DOJ Effort to Shut Down Clinton Foundation Investigation A major scandal, largely uninvestigated, is the Obama Justice Department’s protection of Hillary Clinton. As per usual, Judicial Watch is taking the lead on this issue. We just...

Senate Republicans took an extraordinary step Wednesday to move forward with two of President Donald Trump's top Cabinet nominees after confronting a boycott from Democrats across the aisle. Republican lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee -- the panel that oversees the nomination of Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary and Rep. Tom Price to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services -- gathered for the second day in a row with Democrats on the committee refusing to show up. Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, pointing to the "extraordinary circumstances" of the meeting, allowed the Republicans...

It seemed to be a classic case of “firemen first,” a theory first put forth in 1976 by legendary Washington, D.C., journalist Charles Peters. Any bureaucrat, when asked to list what services or jobs would be cut because of a looming budget crisis, identifies the most painful losses in public services – firemen, police officers, EMTs, workers who fill potholes, etc. Bureaucrats use it to try and pressure elected officials, afraid of voter backlash, to soften the budget cuts. It played out in the Capitol on March 3, when state Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb was asked what major state highways...

When Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew testified in the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday, urging Congress to enact a new law allowing the administration to increase the federal debt, his description of how the Treasury handles that debt mirrored the Securities and Exchange Commission’s definition of a Ponzi Scheme. “A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors,” says the Securities and Exchange Commission. … On Thursday, Lew candidly told the Finance Committee that the U.S. Treasury will not be able to pay off current government debt-holders...

When Republicans take control of the House next month, few committees will undergo a more drastic transformation in style, tempo and possibly legislative action than the Financial Services one.Gone as chairman will be Democrat Rep. Barney Frank, the bombastic, quick-witted Massachusetts bulldog who helped broker the Obama administration's push for Wall Street reforms, the most sweeping financial regulatory overhaul since the New Deal.Instead, say hello to incoming Chairman Spencer Bachus, a soft-spoken, reserved Alabama Republican with few — if any — enemies on Capitol Hill or Wall Street."He's one of the nicest guys in the world — and that's...

Senate Republicans Tuesday took aim at President Obama's choice to oversee a key component of his health care overhaul plan, complaining about the way the choice was made and the lack of time given to lawmakers to question him. The Senate Finance Committee hearing was the first Capitol Hill public appearance by Donald M. Berwick, the Harvard Medical School professor who now heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A lightning-rod for criticism for some of his past comments on health care rationing and economics, Mr. Berwick was named to the post this summer by Mr. Obama as a...

Surprise, Surprise: 16 Financial Lobbyists Formerly Worked For Dodd And Shelby Talking Points Memo Jun. 11, 2010, 4:07 PM Dozens of financial industry lobbyists have ties to lawmakers serving on the conference committee negotiating financial reform legislation, according to data reported by Public Citizen. Among them are seven former chiefs of staff and a total of 16 former employees of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL). In addition to the lobbyists with direct ties to the conference committee members, Public Citizen's investigation found 59 lobbyists who have previously worked on either the Senate or...

Just weeks after overwhelming votes in the House and Senate to protect tax payers by barring federal funding to ACORN, Democrats have found a way to throw a life-line to their de facto campaign organization. Democrats on the House Committee on Financial Services adopted an amendment by Maxine Waters that will allow ACORN and other activists groups to share a regulatory role over our financial institutions.

<p>The Congressional Budget Office numbers are in, and America's politicians and self-defined experts in the media will be either extolling its accuracies or deriding its fantasies, to validate their own positions on the Baucus health plan. But beyond the CBO numbers themselves, many of which the CBO admits are either impossible to predict or likely to be proven untrue, Americans need to look more closely at the plan itself. Despite the repeated refrain by President Obama that "no one will lose their current insurance" and that benefits will not be cut, the fact is that the Baucus plan does precisely that, and more.</p>

WASHINGTON - Nobody knew for sure what Senator Olympia J. Snowe would do yesterday when the Finance Committee gathered to vote on its health care bill - not even Snowe. Chairman Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, had been courting her vote for months, investing long hours in closed-door negotiations with her and the other members of the “Gang of Six.’’ In the late summer and early fall, President Obama spoke with her on the phone and invited her to the White House to address her concerns.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine said Tuesday that she'd support a sweeping Senate Finance Committee bill overhauling the U.S. health-care industry, giving Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., a sought-after Republican vote on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. In highly anticipated comments on the $829 billion, 10-year bill, Snowe said the bill wasn't all she wanted. "Far from it," she told fellow senators during what is likely to be the committee's last work session on Baucus's bill. "But when history calls, history calls, and I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress...

Yeah, it's a sure thing that the controlling Democrats will pass this phase of ObamaDON'Tcare, but we still have the protection of the First Amendment to discuss it, FOR NOW, right? Grab some popcorn and let's listen to the Democrats demean and revile those EVVVIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLL health insurance companies, who have just thrown a monkey wrench in the 'easy' passage of this big gubmint garbage! Will some of the Democrats actually vote according to their conscience (yeah, I know, oxymoron)?? Will the Republicans hold rank and vote no across the board in protest? Will Olympia, our favorite "moderate" Republican (bwahahahahahahaha!) team...

WASHINGTON -- Senate leaders on Thursday announced a climactic Finance Committee vote next week on health care legislation, even as Democrats and Republicans kept feuding over its cost and breadth of coverage. Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Finance Committee will vote Tuesday on a 10-year, $829-billion proposal that would expand coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans-while reducing the federal deficit. A positive cost report on the legislation Wednesday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office marked a turning point for its main author, Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.

On September 16, 2009, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) offered some of the details of the healthcare reform proposal that will be presented for debate. The Senator's 223-page summary of the proposal, "America's Healthy Future Act," provided additional details for his committee members. During the press conference, Senator Baucus called the proposal "one of the largest pieces of social legislation since the Depression." He described the mandate that would be imposed on every American: buy health insurance or face an IRS-enforced penalty of up to $3,800 per family. Annual tax returns would be used to "ensure compliance" (Subtitle...

Yesterday morning, eight doctors, lawyers and other activists stood up to Senator Max Baucus. And the private health insurance industry. And the corporate liberals in Congress. The eight activists demanded that single payer - everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital - be put on the table. And as a result they were arrested. And charged with a so-called "disruption of Congress." The Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Politico, Democracy Now and National Public Radio all carried stories about the protest. C-Span carried it live. And it was widely disseminated on the Internet. Baucus crafted a hearing...

I'm really getting tired of saying this, but the situation surrounding Barack Obama's presidency would be funny, if it wasn't so sad. If you haven't heard the latest, supposed financial genius, Timothy Geithner, was confirmed by the Senate Finance Committee by a vote of 18 - 5 on Thursday morning. Geithner was nominated by Obama to be the new Secretary of the Treasury. This all sounds well and good so far, doesn't it? However, there is a little problem of Geithner being a tax scofflaw. Indeed, if it weren't for the fact Geithner was nominated by Obama for the Treasury...

In an interview with the Taylor Daily Press, State Sen. Steve Ogden revealed a possible new course for the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor. Instead of building superhighways across the state, Ogden said, the state may opt to augment the Texas Trunk System, a web of rural highways that includes U.S. 79. The plan would expand those highways to four-lane divided highways, while expanding urban infrastructure with toll roads. “We need to limit that concept to existing highways,” Ogden said of the proposed network of superhighways and tiered rail systems. “I passed a bill last session that did that, but [Gov. Rick...

Chicago dog owners who tether their pets for hours on end without food or water would be reined in -- with a two-hour limit -- under a crackdown proposed Wednesday by the City Council's most powerful alderman. "If dogs are tethered in this way, it makes them more likely to bite humans and makes them mean," said Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th). "It's a question of cruelty to the animals. It's a question of responsible care of animals. If people own pets, they ought to treat them responsibly." The Burke-championed ordinance introduced at Wednesday's City Council meeting would...