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President Obama's proposed 2013 budget contains a decade-long surge of tax hikes that, if approved, would affect everything from income to investment to inheritance. The budget blueprint contains roughly $2 trillion in new taxes and fees. When other tax cuts and credits are counted, the net impact from the proposals is still about $1.5 trillion. Though Republicans already are mounting a vigorous campaign against the proposal, many of the tax provisions still could become law unless Congress takes action to stop them. ,,,, But the budget also imposes various fees, such as a hike in the airline "security fee," as...

Geithner: Tax hikes must be part of budgetBy Peter Schroeder - 02/14/12 01:18 PM ET Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told skeptical Republican senators Tuesday that it is simply not possible to correct the nation’s fiscal problems without raising taxes. Geithner defended President Obama’s 2013 budget proposal before the Senate Finance Committee and said the plan is the only option he sees for helping the economy and addressing the deficit without hurting the middle class. "I do not see how you get there if you are unable ... to contemplate and to embrace modest increases in revenue through tax reform," Geithner...

A west Georgia business owner’s sign that he is not hiring until President Obama leaves office is going viral, according to a local Georgia television station. "New Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone," read the company’s signs on the side of its trucks, according to the station, 11Alive. "Can't afford it," explained the employer, Bill Looman. "I've got people that I want to hire now, but I just can't afford it. And I don't foresee that I'll be able to afford it unless some things change in D.C." Looman's company is U.S. Cranes, LLC. He said...

For supercommittee, failure was an optionBy KEITH CHROSTOWSKI - The Kansas City Star Updated: 2011-11-22 Well, they’ve blown it. Failure was an option. The 12 supercommittee senators and representatives announced Monday they couldn’t come up with a spending, taxing and deficit reduction package. Thanks for wrecking everyone’s Thanksgiving. The stakes for the long-term health of the economy have just grown more dire. America’s reputation for leadership has just taken another hit. An agreement would have provided a bracing contrast to the struggles in Europe over the debt crisis there. It would prove to the world that the United States can...

For Immediate Release: Monday, November 21, 2011 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) today made the following statement after an announcement by co-chairs Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R- Texas) that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction was unable to reach an agreement on a plan to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion:“I'm deeply disappointed with this outcome. We all are. This was an historic moment to do something big, bold, and balanced that demanded shared sacrifice to put our country first. Everyone worked hard and everyone wanted success.“It’s too easy just to...

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) on Wednesday called for the redistribution of America's riches and hammered the wealthy for benefitting from a war effort fought by the poor and middle class. Citing statistics that show 1 percent of Americans now own 42 percent of the nation's wealth, the lawmaker representing Harlem said: "There is something wrong with that formula." Rangel offered no specific remedy for adjusting those figures during his comments on the House floor, but argued further that the wealthiest one percent have the added benefit of not needing to get involved in military service. "Why is it that we...

Censure briefly forgotten as House leaders honor Rep. Charles RangelBy Russell Berman - 09/22/11 07:24 PM ET House leaders honored Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y) with an official Capitol portrait Thursday, sweeping aside two years of scandal and a formal rebuke to recognize a man who rose from humble beginnings to become a congressional pioneer. As a packed committee room full of hometown supporters and congressional allies serenaded Rangel with chants of “Charlie, Charlie,” it seemed as though the ethical firestorm that led to a House censure had been briefly forgotten. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) lauded his “long and highly decorated...

Awkward: House leaders to honor Rangel nine months after censureBy Russell Berman - 09/21/11 04:43 PM ET It may be one of the more awkward honorary ceremonies in recent memory. On Thursday, House leaders will pay tribute to Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), less than a year after the House formally censured the former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will speak at a ceremony to unveil Rangel’s official portrait as chairman of the storied committee, which the longtime New York Democrat led from 2007 until March 2010, when party leaders pressured him to give up...

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told CNBC Monday that he is certain that congressional leaders will strike a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling prior to the Aug. 2 deadline to avoid default. "Each side has said definitively that default is not an option," he said, "They're not going to play around with this." "If the United States of America were to default it would be catastrophic for the American economy, for the American financial system, for the average American people, it would be a substantial unfair tax on all Americans and it would bring the world economy ... to...

A plan by the Senate's two top leaders to allow President Obama to raise the debt limit without congressional approval is emerging as the most likely strategy to avoid a looming federal default. The plan being drafted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada would lock in roughly $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years — a figure considerably smaller than Republican leaders or President Obama had been seeking. Administration officials have said they still would prefer a more sweeping deal on the deficit, but they signaled the idea...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday said that time is running out for a deal to raise the debt limit, and wants a broad agreement with Congress in place by the end of next week at the latest.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is strongly criticizing a Republican proposal that would prioritize interest payments on the nation's debt and cut spending rather than raise the borrowing limit. Geithner says in a letter addressed to Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, that the idea is "a radical and deeply irresponsible departure" from previous practices by presidents of both parties. The letter was copied to 16 other Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

(CNSNews.com) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the House Small Business Committee on Wednesday that the Obama administration believes taxes on small business must increase so the administration does not have to “shrink the overall size of government programs.” The administration’s plan to raise the tax rate on small businesses is part of its plan to raise taxes on all Americans who make more than $250,000 per year—including businesses that file taxes the same way individuals and families do. [........] “We're not doing it because we want to do it, we're doing it because we see no alternative to a balanced approach to reduce our...

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, everybody. Please have a seat, have a seat. It is wonderful to see all of you. I've got a lot of friends in the room here. People who knew me before anybody could pronounce my name. (Laughter.) People who knew me before I had gray hair. (Laughter.) It is wonderful to see those of you who’ve been friends for a long time, and it’s wonderful to see new friends here as well. What I'd like to do is to make some very brief remarks at the top and...

Focus: The Economic Development Administration, U.S. Commerce Dept....the Senate is currently seeking to increase EDA funding to $500 million a year from $300 million. Worse, this bill passed out of a Senate authorization committee with unanimous, bipartisan support. [snip] In April, the bureau reported that it gave a $2 million grant to build a "culinary amphitheater," wine tasting room, and gift shop at the Port of Benton and the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center in Richland, Wash. The same month, it gave $1.5 million to promote tourism in the Northern Mariana Islands. In January, it spent $1 million on...

With data showing that the housing market has gone into reverse, another of Obama’s blue ribbon panels is about to report to the president on ways to get the U.S. economy going. Heading up the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness is corporate welfare queen GE’s Jeffery Immelt.Expect, then, Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness headed by Immelt to recommend more of the top-down central planning where Big Business, Big Labor and Big Government connive to divide up the jobs pie at the expense of the rest of us, the little guys. The program will kind of be like Obamacare,...

The one thing we can’t say with certitude is that Anthony Weiner has been registering his vehicles with the DMV. The New York Daily News did a little investigating after seeing expired tags on his Nissan Pathfinder, and discovered that not only has the car not been registered, but the plates on them belong to a different car (via JWF): When Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn) was photographed by the Daily News fleeing the Capitol in his Nissan Pathfinder, it was clear the July 2007 registration sticker in his window was expired, and there was no inspection sticker to be seen. Weiner,...

Jefferson County resident Jonathan Stewart said he laughed in shock after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) claimed the house his family lost in the deadly April 27 twister was ‘not unsafe to live in’. Displaced families in tornado-ravaged Alabama are outraged after being denied federal aide to rebuild their flattened homes – due to ‘insufficient damage’. The devastating reality is the house is now a concrete slab surrounded by rubble. Mr Stewart told AL.com a FEMA inspector saw first-hand the Pleasant Grove residence he shared with his wife, Lisa, and their two children was ripped from the ground. Three...

Is it possible to remain a sitting member of Congress after a photo of your (ahem) “standing member” has been released on the Internet? We’re about to find out. Because Anthony Weiner isn’t going anywhere. Despite all the texts and pics and personal humiliations, Rep. Weiner will not resign. Period. And if you don’t believe me, ask Bill Clinton — which, by the way, is what Weiner’s doing right now. “Rep. Anthony Weiner explained himself and apologized for his conduct to Bill Clinton,” Politico.com reported yesterday. What did he apologize to Clinton for? Perhaps Weiner feels bad about undermining Clinton’s...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is hopeful that his bill to create a National Infrastructure Bank will move through the Senate this year. The bill could be the best shot for those seeking to boost transportation, energy and water infrastructure investment in a Congress focused on “rapacious” spending cuts, Kerry said. The Kerry bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), would create an independent, nonprofit bank that would leverage private investment into infrastructure projects. The bill was introduced in March.