Congress unlikely to extend hand to ailing states

Congress Unlikely to Extend Hand to Ailing States
Thursday, January 06, 2011 By Kevin Freking, Associated Press Washington (AP) - Cut spending, raise taxes and fees, and accept billions of dollars from Congress. That's been the formula for states trying to survive the worst economy since the 1930s. As Republicans prepare to take control of the House and exert more influence in the Senate, it's clear that option No. 3 will soon wither. States will continue to face substantial Deficits over the next few years, but they will have to get by wi...

Congress unlikely to extend hand to ailing states
Cut spending, raise taxes and fees, and accept billions of dollars from Congress. That's been the formula for states trying to survive the worst economy since the 1930s. As Republicans prepare to take control of the House and exert more influence in the Senate, it's clear that option No. 3 will soon wither. States will continue to face substantial Deficits over the next few years, but they will have to get by with the end of stimulus spending and less financial help from the Federal Government. ...

Congress Unlikely To Extend Hand To Ailing States
WASHINGTON — Cut spending, raise taxes and fees, and accept billions of dollars from Congress. That's been the formula for states trying to survive the worst economy since the 1930s. As Republicans prepare to take control of the House and exert more influence in the Senate, it's clear that option No. 3 will soon wither. States will continue to face substantial Deficits over the next few years, but they will have to get by with the end of stimulus spending and less financial help from the...

State Budget's Unlikely To Get Aid From Congress In 2011
WASHINGTON — Cut spending, raise taxes and fees, and accept billions of dollars from Congress. That's been the formula for states trying to survive the worst economy since the 1930s. As Republicans prepare to take control of the House and exert more influence in the Senate, it's clear that option No. 3 will soon wither. States will continue to face substantial Deficits over the next few years, but they will have to get by with the end of stimulus spending and less financial help from the...

Feds warm states: Dont come to us, the well is dry
Cut spending, raise taxes and fees, and accept billions of dollars from Congress. That’s been the formula for states trying to survive the worst economy since the 1930s. As Republicans prepare to take control of the House and exert more influence in the Senate, it’s clear that option No. 3 will soon wither. States will continue to face substantial Deficits over the next few years, but they will have to get by with the end of stimulus spending and less financial help from the federal ...

Watchdog: IRS tormenting struggling taxpayers
© Unknown A government Watchdog says the Internal Revenue Service is tormenting struggling Taxpayers in the midst of a slumping economy by increasing the number of liens the agency has filed against people who owe Back Taxes. The IRS filed nearly 1.1 million liens in the Budget year that ended in September, a 14 percent jump over the previous year . Liens punish Taxpayers and often hurt their ability to pay back taxes, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson said Wednesday in her annual...

Rules Are Made To Be Broken?
Republicans made a new Budget rule that all Legislation must be paid for, and one of the first things they did in the new session was break their own rule: House Republicans plan to use a special exception in their Budget rules to Repeal the Democrats’ Health Care overhaul without paying for it - technically, at least. The Congressional Budget Office said last year that the Health Care reform law and its accompanying Reconciliation law would reduce the Deficit by $143 billion through 2019. ...

Rush to implement Obama care causing local fallout for children
In the rush to pass the Obama care bill without an opportunity to learn what was in it until after it passed, a major New Mexico Health Insurer has stopped insuring Children. This has resulted in applications for Health Insurance for children to be denied. At issue, according to Presbyterian Health Plan President Dr. Dennis Batey, is that the new Health Care reform laws are so complex, that insurers have not had enough time to write plans that could be submitted to state Regulators for approval....

IRS's 'hard-core' collection tactics needlessly harm taxpayers, report says
© Washington Post The Internal Revenue Service's increasing use of "hard-core" collection tactics "is inflicting unnecessary harm on financially struggling Taxpayers," an in-house critic at the IRS said Wednesday. The IRS routinely imposes liens on delinquent Taxpayers, thereby damaging their Credit Scores and potentially jeopardizing their access to jobs, Insurance and even rental housing, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson said in an annual report to Congress. By making it harde...

John Petro: A New Year and a New Fare, but MTA Budget the Same Old Mess
The 30-day Metrocard went up by $15 on January 1st, and transit riders are wondering why, after last year's elimination of two subway lines and dozens of bus lines, they are being asked to pay more for less service. On top of $104 Metrocards, there's even more bad news for transit riders: the MTA is projecting that it will be $207 million in the hole by the end of 2012 despite the fare increase. And then there's the $9 billion gap in the MTA's capital Budget, which is for new trains and buses...

Illinois moves to tax online purchases, hits bloggers, small business
Internet Retailer today: Lawmakers in Illinois have voted for a 6.25% tax on online retail purchases. The levy, which still needs the Governor's approval, would apply to goods bought through affiliates of online Retailers that take in least $10,000 worth of annual sales in the state. Illinois Affiliate Tax Will Harm Small Businesses and Reduce Tax Revenue Tax Foundation here. Just got an email from Amazon:

House Speaker voices support for education
Funding for K-12 education in Georgia has a friend in House Speaker David Ralston. Ga. Politics news, helpful links PolitiFact Georgia » David Wyss: State Governments have little ability to stimulate job growth in the short run. Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said Thursday in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he will try at least to stave off further cuts to public education spending when the Legislature convenes  Monday. “I’m not sure education will be imm...

NJ legislature gets through major efforts to boost economy
As reported on yesterday, Democrats in the statehouse in Trenton were urging their Republican colleagues to join them and work on passing a 30 bill package outlined back in November. Thursday was the first of two days for the state Senate and Assembly to take up roughly a dozen of the 30 bills aimed at giving the state's economy a bit of boost and put it on track to promote higher job growth and create an atmosphere for businesses to operate in order to hire employees and not become a foil to st...

Proposition 13 in Browns sights
In the ‘60s and ‘70s property values were constantly being re-evaluated upwards every year.  The taxes became higher that older Senior Citizens had paid as the purchase price of the houses.  For example, a neighbor bought her here in Fresno for 4000 in 1965.  She paid the house off in ten years. Prices like this are almost unheard of now.  But when Minimum Wage was .50 cents an hour it is easy to understand how a house could sell for 4000.00.  By 1979, this h...

Pentagon announces reductions for Army, Marines, blames economy
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that the nation's "extreme fiscal duress" required him to call for the first cuts in the size of The Army and Marine Corps, reversing the significant growth in Military Spending that followed the Terrorist Attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The White House has told the Pentagon to squeeze that growth over the next five years, Gates said, reducing by $78 billion the amount available for the Pentagon, not counting the costs of its combat oper...

Republicans won't be able to satisfy Tea Party
   With this week's revelation of a $3.7 billion shortfall in North Carolina's state Budget, the Tea Party acquired previously-unimaginable clout in Raleigh - especially when the Republican Party now controls both houses of the State Legislature for the first time in over a century.  Unfortunately, the Republicans won't be able to satisfy the Tea Party when it comes to State Government - and they won't be able to avoid alienating a lot of this state's people no matter what they do...

First South Carolina. Then New York?
Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded. Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Fernando Wood, New York City, the civil war In the wake of South Carolina’s vote to Secession in late December 1860, Americans both North and South anxiously wondered which state would be next to leave the Union. Little did they realize that the next call for Secession would come not from a Southern state, but from a Northern city — New York City. Library of Congress Mayor Fernando Wood On Jan. 7...

The NY Times Explains the Constitution
Posted by John at 6:04 PM It is fascinating to see the liberal response to House Republicans reading the Constitution in the House chamber. At the New York Times, reporter Kate Zernike offers an "annotated guide" to the Constitution that purports to explain the main Battlegrounds between, as the Times frames the dispute, the Tea Party and Progressives: The following is an annotated guide to the clauses most revered, and disputed, by advocates on either side of the political spectrum. The Times'...

After Four Years of Kid Gloves for Dems, AP Can't Even Wait a Day to Take Ill-Informed Shots at the GOP House
Well, that didn't take long. AP reporters Calvin Woodward and Andrew Taylor answered the bell and came out swinging at the Republican House within hours after John Boehner was sworn in as Speaker, accusing the GOP of supposedly breaking a number of core promises. As usual when the wire service covers Republicans, there's no shortage of inconsistency bordering on hypocrisy coming from AP's alleged Journalists. Republicans have already violated some of the vows they made in taking stew...

House Republicans challenge Obama on debt limit
(01-06) 15:20 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- In power scarcely a day, House Republicans bluntly told the White House on Thursday its request to raise the nation's $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit will require federal Spending Cuts to win their approval, laying down an early marker in a new era of divided government. Speaker John Boehner made the challenge as the new GOP majority voted to cut funding for House members' own offices and committee operations by $35 million. Rank and File Republicans described th...

GOP Governors Target Medicaid Rolls
Republican governors are pressing the Obama Administration to make it easier for states to cut Medicaid enrollment, setting up a fight over one of states' costliest programs. On Friday, 33 Republican governors and governors-elect plan to send a letter to the White House and congressional leaders asking them to remove a part of the health-care overhaul law. Under the rule, states that drop enrollees from the program would lose the federal money that accounts for the bulk of Medicaid funding, an u...

Time to grab the third rail, Madame Governor
Soon, Governor Martinez sends the 2011 Legislature her Budget for fiscal 2012. At last count, she is looking to plug a $400 million gap. She campaigned on the promise that she would not make Spending Cuts to education or Medicaid. Read my lips: ‘Where are you going to find $400 million to plug the gap, Madame Governor?’ The “Third Rail” of politics refers to extremely Controversial issues in which it is observed that, when acting unilaterally, “touch it, and you die...

U.S. House Republican leadership/Leader Cantor set-up social media / web accounts
From the Republican leader’s press office: For the 112th Congress, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and his office can now be found on Twitter as @GOPLeader. In addition, the Office of the Majority Leader presents a new Facebook page - House Chamber - to provide updates on the House of Representatives’ floor schedule in real-time. Here’s a full run-down of where you can connect with Cantor on the web: Twitter: Leader Cantor will take over the account once held by Speake...

Leadership in the House of Representatives
Majority The speaker: John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is second in line for the presidency, behind the vice president. His most important daily roles will be setting the floor agenda, keeping parliamentary order, and appointing lawmakers to committee and subcommittee chairmanships, as well as to conference committees that craft final Legislation. The Majority Leader: Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) will have responsibilities including daily, weekly and monthly House floor scheduling; urging the rank and f...

The new Congress's new leaders
HOUSE majority The speaker: John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is second in line for the presidency, behind the vice president. His most important daily roles will be setting the floor agenda, keeping parliamentary order, and appointing lawmakers to committee and subcommittee chairmanships, as well as to conference committees that craft final Legislation. The Majority Leader: Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) will have responsibilities including daily, weekly and monthly House floor scheduling; urging the rank...