Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalSenate GOP Ponders Ceding Power To President Obama
By MANU RAJU and DAVID ROGERS | 2/26/13 8:36 PM EST Updated: 2/27/13 11:37 AM EST
Days before the March 1 deadline, Senate Republicans are circulating a draft bill that would cancel $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts and instead turn over authority to President Barack Obama to achieve the same level of savings under a plan to be filed by March 8.
The five- page document, which has the tacit support of Senate GOP leaders, represents a remarkable shift for the party. Having railed against Senate Democrats for not passing a budget, Republicans are now proposing that Congress surrender an important piece of its Constitutional “power of the purse” for the last seven months of this fiscal year.
As proposed, lawmakers would retain the power to overturn the president’s spending plan by March 22, but only under a resolution of disapproval that would demand two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate to prevail over an Obama veto.
The proposal would require — like the sequester — that no more than $42.6 billion of the cuts come at the expense of defense programs. But the elaborate, almost Rube Goldberg construct is already provoking sharp criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike and reflects a political scramble to escape the fallout from the sequester.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/senate-gop-ponders-shifting-power-to-obama-88149.html#ixzz2M7aC2LLP
Michigan Gov. Snyder’s Expected Move To Name ‘Emergency Manager’ Of Detroit Draws Charges Of Racism
By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, February 27, 2013 4:41 EST
Residents of Detroit, a US city which has long been a poster child for urban decay, may lose the ability to govern themselves if their city council is replaced by a state-appointed technocrat.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is expected to name an emergency manager in the coming days in an effort to stave off the bankruptcy of the Motor City.
The move by a white, Republican governor to take control of a predominantly black and Democratic city has drawn intense criticism and charges of racism.
“Has Michigan become the new Mississippi of our day?” said Reverend Wendell Anthony, invoking the history of attacks on black voting rights in the South.
Detroit needs a partner, not an “overseer,” Anthony, head the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told a press conference Tuesday.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/27/gov-rick-snyders-expected-move-to-name-emergency-manager-of-detroit-draws-charges-of-racism/
Want To Limit The Influence Of Money In Politics? Tax Legislators Who Become Lobbyists
By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 15:12 EST
To those who would argue that the notion of a perpetual motion machine is impossible, we give you the revolving door — that ever-spinning entrance and exit between public service in government and the hugely profitable private sector. It never stops.
Yes, we’ve talked about the revolving door until we’re red or blue in the face (the door is bipartisan and spins across party lines) but this mantra bears its own perpetual repetition, a powerful reason for our distrust of the people who make and enforce our laws and regulations.
Jesse Eisinger, writing at The New York Times, reports that on January 25, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid announced the appointment of Cathy Koch as his chief advisor on tax and economic policy. According to the Times, “The news release lists Ms. Koch’s admirable and formidable experience in the public sector. ‘Prior to joining Senator Reid’s office,’ the release says, ‘Koch served as tax chief at the Senate Finance Committee.’”
But, Eisinger notes, the press statement fails to mention Ms. Koch’s actual last job — as a registered lobbyist for GE. “Yes, General Electric,” he writes, “the company that paid almost no taxes in 2010. Just as the tax reform debate is heating up, Mr. Reid has put in place a person who is extraordinarily positioned to torpedo any tax reform that might draw a dollar out of GE — and, by extension, any big corporation.”
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/26/want-to-limit-the-influence-of-money-in-politics-tax-legislators-who-become-lobbyists/
After Talks End, Netanyahu Calls For ‘Military Sanctions’ On Iran
Prime minister says credible threat needed after world powers unable to reach agreement with Tehran; John Kerry calls talks usefulThe international community should threaten Iran with “military sanctions” if the regime doesn’t stop pursuing its nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, after another round of talks between six world super powers and Tehran ended without tangible progress.
“We have the problem of Iran that is continuing to defy the international community, doesn’t seem to seek an end to its military nuclear program,” he said during a meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris in Jerusalem. “Like North Korea, it continues to defy all the international standards and I believe that this requires the international community to ratchet up its sanctions and make clear that if this continues there will be also a credible military sanction. I think no other means will make Iran obey the wishes of the international community.”
Earlier on Wednesday, a fourth round of negotiations between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany ended in Kazakhstan. The so-called P5+1 offered Tehran a “revised proposal, which we believe is balanced and a fair basis for constructive talks,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said after the talks.
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http://www.timesofisrael.com/after-talks-end-netanyahu-calls-for-military-sanctions-on-iran/
Obama’s SEC Pick Wary of Zealous Wall Street Prosecutions
By Dave Michaels - Feb 27, 2013
As Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor during the 1990s, Mary Jo White could have sought the corporate equivalent of the death penalty: indicting Prudential Securities Inc. for fraudulently marketing $8 billion in ruinous energy partnerships to small investors.
Instead, Prudential’s attorneys pressed White, who had earned notice as an aggressive litigator in terrorism and organized crime cases, to consider something less punitive. She ultimately accepted, agreeing to a $330 million fine and placing Prudential on probation, allowing it to avoid criminal charges.
“We persuaded them there was an unacceptably high risk that charging Prudential Securities would lead to significant losses for the innocent shareholders,” said Scott Muller, a New York defense attorney who represented Prudential. “What she avoided was inappropriate collateral damage.”
How White handled the Prudential case belies her notoriety as a brass-knuckle prosecutor -- a reputation stoked by President Barack Obama last month when he nominated her to be chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-27/obama-s-sec-pick-wary-of-zealous-wall-street-prosecutions.html
Congressional Leaders to Meet With Obama as Cuts Take Effect
By Kathleen Hunter - Feb 27, 2013
President Barack Obama summoned top congressional leaders to a March 1 meeting at the White House that coincides with the start of $85 billion in automatic spending cuts leaders of both parties say they want to avoid.
Republicans John Boehner, the House speaker, and Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and Democrats Harry Reid, the Senate majority Leader, and Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, will attend the meeting, McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said.
The two parties are still far apart on how to replace the automatic cuts, known as sequestration, which total $1.2 trillion over nine years and will begin March 1. The first tranche of $85 billion will occur over the remaining seven months of the fiscal year. Democrats insist revenue needs to be part of any replacement plan, an approach that Republican leaders oppose.
The upcoming White House session follows a meeting there yesterday between Obama and with Senator John McCain and Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. McCain and Graham, two Republicans who have said they could be open to a long-term sequester-replacement plan that includes revenue paired with entitlement cuts, said sequester-replacement was a topic at the meeting. Neither would offer details.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-27/congressional-leaders-to-meet-with-obama-as-cuts-take-effect.html
Pending Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Rise More Than Forecast
By Shobhana Chandra - Feb 27, 2013
Contracts to purchase previously owned U.S. homes climbed more than forecast in January, a sign the industry will keep strengthening this year.
The index of pending home resales increased 4.5 percent to 105.9, the highest level since April 2010, after a revised 1.9 percent drop the prior month, a report from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 1.9 percent advance.
Home buying is coming within reach of more Americans as mortgage rates close to a record low and gains in employment bring more people into the market. Faster hiring and fewer foreclosures would ensure a more sustained rebound in housing, boosting its contribution to the world’s largest economy.
“Things are getting better in housing,” Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said before the report. JPMorgan was the second-best forecaster of pending home sales over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “Low mortgage rates, an improving economy and an improving job market are helping demand. With home prices rising, most people who’d waited for prices to bottom will want to buy now.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-27/pending-sales-of-u-s-existing-homes-increase-more-than-forecast.html
Orders for U.S. Non-Transportation Goods Jump Most in a Year
By Alex Kowalski - Feb 27, 2013
Orders for U.S. durable goods excluding transportation equipment climbed in January by the most in a year, indicating business investment is holding up.
Bookings for equipment meant to last at least three years minus demand for things such as aircraft, which is often volatile, climbed 1.9 percent, exceeding the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg and the most since December 2011, Commerce Department data showed today in Washington. Total orders dropped more than projected, reflecting the biggest slump in defense bookings in a decade.
Healing overseas markets, sustained demand for automobiles and leaner inventories are combining to stabilize manufacturing. Last month’s gain may reflect relief that the U.S. skirted most of the tax increases and spending cuts associated with the so- called fiscal cliff, even as further progress on a budget compromise alludes lawmakers in Washington.
“Manufacturing is one of the relative bright spots in the economy,” said Guy LeBas, the chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia, whose estimate for non-transportation orders was the highest in the Bloomberg survey. “The avoidance of the fiscal cliff issues triggered some increased demand from businesses.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-27/orders-for-u-s-non-transport-durable-goods-jump-most-in-a-year.html
Israelis To Press Obama To Free Convicted Spy Jonathan Pollard
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s Nobel-laureate president, backed by thousands of followers, is leading an effort to press President Barack Obama during his upcoming visit to free convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, ending one of the most painful episodes between the two allies.
Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for passing classified material to Israel.
Pollard is said to be in poor health, and his case has become a rallying cry in Israel. Leaders routinely call for his release and say his 28 years in prison are excessive punishment. But stiff opposition from the American military and intelligence community has deterred a string of American presidents from releasing him.
Next month’s visit by Obama, coupled with a perceived softening of the American stance, is raising hopes that Pollard, 58, may finally get his freedom.
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/israel-obama-jonathan-pollard.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tpm-news+(TPMNews)
Report: Chris Christie Will Support Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion
Republican opposition to the Medicaid expansion appears to be fading fast.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will announce his support for the expansion this afternoon, according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger, following a similar statement from Florida Gov. Rick Scott last week. He followed early February announcements from governors in Ohio and Michigan.
Taken together, these eight states will extend Obamacare’s coverage expansion to 3.2 million Americans, according to this analysis from the Urban Institute. They will take in a cumulative $90 billion in federal funds to do so.
The quick succession of governors to come out in favor of this part of the Affordable Care Act suggests that, when it comes to the Medicaid expansion, the lure of federal dollars may trump anti-Obamacare politics.
When you look at the deal that the states are getting, it’s pretty easy to see why. The federal government will spend an additional $800 billion on Medicaid under the health-care law to cover all those earning less than 133 percent of the federal poverty line (about $15,000 for an individual).
MORE...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/26/report-chris-christie-will-support-obamacares-medicaid-expansion/
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