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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Rangel Welcomes Bipartisan Tax Reform


January 20, 2011 6:29 PM
Congressman Looks Forward to Continuing the Debate He Started in 2007
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Charles Rangel called for bipartisan effort in improving the nation's corporate tax system during Thursday's meeting of the Ways and Means Committee, the first in a series of hearings on fundamental tax reform that are expected to take place throughout  the 112th Congress.

“I look forward to working with Chairman David Camp (R-Mich.), Ranking Member Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) and the rest of my Committee colleagues to simplify our tax system and develop a fair system," Rangel said.  "It has been 25 years since the last tax reform in 1986, and the tax code has clearly become too complicated and outdated.

"What we urgently need is a tax system that will help create jobs and help promote economic growth in our country. That starts with reducing corporate tax rate to keep American businesses competitive in the global economy,” the Congressman added.  

Rangel previously introduced the Tax Reduction and Reform Act of 2007, a wide-ranging tax bill that proposed to deliver tax cuts for millions of Americans, while reducing taxes for Americans businesses. It was the most comprehensive proposal for reform of the U.S. tax code since the Tax Reform Act of 1986.

Thursday’s hearing was a continuation of the conversation begun by Rangel with his tax reform proposal.

“Currently, one company’s loophole is another company’s incentive. In order to lower the corporate tax rates, we have to modify the deductions that are currently in the tax code,” Rangel said during the hearing. “We may find it difficult at times to work across the aisle, but we will work hard together to tackle this problem because when our companies thrive, it benefits the American people as well.”

Congressman Rangel plans to introduce legislation again that would further reduce the corporate tax rate to improve global competitiveness and make the tax code simpler and fairer.
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St. Jude settles kickback suit for $16 million


Company whistleblower will collect $2.64 million.
By JANET MOORE, Star Tribune
Last update: January 20, 2011 - 9:32 PM

St. Jude Medical Inc. said late Thursday that it has reached a $16 million agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle charges that it paid kickbacks to doctors who enrolled patients in post-market studies that were really a way to induce the doctors to use the company's products.
Post-market studies are routinely conducted by medical technology companies to see how products work after they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The government focused its investigation on three St. Jude studies, Aware, Assist and Housecall Plus, as well as its Act registry of patients.
Little Canada-based St. Jude allegedly paid participating doctors a fee that ranged up to $2,000 per patient as a way of encouraging use of the company's pacemakers and defibrillators.
"When companies pay kickbacks to health care providers in order to pad their bottom line, it taints the information patients rely onto make informed decisions about their health," said Tony West, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Division.
The government's action was spurred by a whistleblower lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts by Charles Donigian, a former St. Jude technical service specialist from Missouri who was hired in 2004.
When Donigian raised concerns about the legality of the payments, he was fired in 2007, according to court documents. Federal law mandates that whistleblowers like Donigian receive a portion of the settlement for stepping forward -- in this case, $2.64 million.
In a statement, St. Jude denied any wrongdoing and said its post-market studies and registries are "legitimate clinical studies designed to gather important scientific data." The company said it agreed to settle to avoid costly litigation.
Janet Moore • 612-673-7752
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Speaker Boehner Marks the 50th Anniversary of JFK's Inaugural Address

 
Washington (Jan 20)House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today participated in an event held in the Capitol Rotunda to mark the 50th anniversary of the inaugural address of President John F. Kennedy.  Following are Speaker Boehner’s remarks as prepared for delivery:


“Mr. Vice President, Leader Pelosi, Senator Reid, and Secretary Chao … thank you for being here today.  We’re honored to be joined by members of President Kennedy’s family.  Sadly, this is the first Congress to convene without a Kennedy in its ranks since Harry Truman was president.  Caroline … there’s still time.

“To all of you, welcome to the Capitol Rotunda.  To walk along these walls is to relive the American story – to be awed once again by the greatness of our nation and the values upon which it was built … economic freedom, individual liberty, and civic responsibility.  It was to these values President Kennedy looked when, in his inaugural address, he began by reminding his fellow countrymen that our rights are derived ‘not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.’ 

“Welcoming the awesome responsibility to serve, Kennedy summoned each of us to do our part to defend freedom – no matter the cost or burden.  He did so mindful of the blessings that had been passed on to his generation, which he described as ‘tempered by war’ and ‘proud of our ancient heritage.’  These were the words of a sailor who served … a man who lost his brother in the Second Great War.

“Kennedy embraced America’s destiny to not simply be part of the free world – but to lead it, and to serve as a shining beacon of freedom and liberty.  ‘On the strength of our free economy rests the hope of all free nations,’ President Kennedy declared on December 14, 1962.  Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, he called for reducing ‘deterrents to private initiative’ – by which he meant cutting taxes and encouraging ‘new interest in taking risks.’  For just as freedom built this country, it also sustains our economy, and instills in us the drive to take what we have been given, make the most of it, and do better for ourselves and our children. 

“That is, of course, the American story, in which John F. Kennedy continues to play a critical part.  His inaugural address, with its call to honor our past and commit to our future, sets an example of service for every American, young and old, to follow.”
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Statement by Speaker Boehner on Meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao


Washington (Jan 20)
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers today met with President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao. Boehner released the following statement:
“I want to thank President Hu of China for meeting with me and a bipartisan group of lawmakers today to discuss some of the issues and concerns impacting our two countries.
“In recent decades our deep economic ties have helped create new American jobs and expand both of our economies. China is now our second largest trading partner and will undoubtedly be a critical economic partner in the future. That’s why I believe it is important that we continue to resolve our differences in ways that benefit both of our countries and our people.
“In our meeting we addressed some of those challenges, including the need for stronger intellectual property protections in China and curtailing the aggressive behavior of North Korea.
“And finally, we raised our strong, ongoing concerns with reports of human rights violations in China, including the denial of religious freedom, and the use of coercive abortion as a consequence of the ‘one child’ policy. When it comes to guaranteeing the freedom and dignity of all her citizens, including and especially the unborn, Chinese leaders have a responsibility to do better, and the United States has a responsibility to hold them to account.”
NOTE: A high-resolution photograph of the bipartisan meeting can be found here.
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The politics of repeal


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GOP takes credit for improving economy


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More death panels in Arizona


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Right winged blogs demand Gifford's resignation

Hmmmm..Do not get me started on this subject with the right because I am libel to call them what I can't because I would be called a left wing rhetorical boob.....



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Raw Video: Satellite Launches Into Orbit




AssociatedPress | January 20, 2011 |
A classified defense satellite was lofted into orbit Thursday by the largest rocket ever launched from the West Coast, the Air Force said. (Jan. 20)
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Photo shows Giffords outside at University Medical Center

Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Thursday, January 20, 2011 7:00 pm 



Photo courtesy of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' office
Mark Kelly stands with his wife, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords as she looks from her bed at the Santa Catalina Mountains on Thursday from an outdoor deck at University Medical Center. Giffords is scheduled to be flown to Houston on Friday to begin her rehabilitation.U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords felt the sunshine on her face for the first time since she was shot, her family said.

Giffords who was shot in the head Jan. 8 outside a northwest side grocery story, in a shooting spree that left 6 people dead and 13 wounded, spent some time on a deck at University Medical Center Thursday.
Giffords is set to travel to Houston Friday for rehab.
Her office released a photo of the outing. It shows her astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, standing over Giffords in her hospital bed. Giffords cannot be seen in the photo that shows a view of Tucson and the Catalina Foothills.
At a news conference earlier in the day, Kelly told reports that he's hoping for a full recovery and called his wife "a fighter like nobody else that I know."

Copyright 2011 Arizona Daily Star. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Pueblo Politics: Giffords releases travel details

The office of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords released the route she will take Friday to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for people who want to wish her well on her journey to Houston.
A group of VFW motorcycle riders will escort the ambulance to the base from University Medical Center at about 9:15 a.m.
She is expected to land in Houston at 1:15 p.m. after a 2 hour, 15-minute flight, and will be taken by helicopter to TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital.
The route to the base will be:
Cherry Avenue to Helen Street, east on Helen Street to Campbell Avenue, south on Campbell Avenue and Kino Boulevard to Aviation Parkway, southeast on Aviation Parkway to Golf Links Road, and east on Golf Links Road to the base’s Swan Road gate.
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House Energy panel to take aim at Obama climate change regulations

Committee on Energy and Commerce


By Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman - 01/19/11 03:39 PM ET
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) plans to take dead aim at the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate change regulations this year, according to a document obtained by The Hill laying out the panel’s 2011 agenda.

“We believe it critical that the Obama administration ‘stop’ imposing its new global warming regulatory regime, which will undermine economic growth and U.S. competitiveness for no significant benefit,” says the document, which lays out a suite of “key issues” that will come before the committee.

While the individual items included in the document are not surprising, the agenda, taken as a whole, illustrates the breadth of GOP opposition to the White House energy and environment agenda.
The backgrounder says EPA has been regulating “too much too fast without fully analyzing the feasibility and economic and job impacts of the new rules.”

The committee will focus much of its attention this year on EPA’s regulatory “chokehold,” as the document calls it. And the document underscores the extent to which Upton will argue that EPA's agenda collides with economic recovery.

“The stakes could not be higher,” the document says. “ If the Obama administration succeeds in imposing unaffordable and unworkable permitting and other rules through EPA, it will severely impede the domestic manufacturing and industrial growth necessary for this nation to create jobs and emerge from a devastating recession."

The Obama EPA is at the early stages of developing its climate regulations. New greenhouse gas permitting rules for new and modified facilities began phasing in at the beginning of the year and the administration has outlined a timeline for issuing broader standards for power plants and refineries.

Republicans, led by Upton and others, have called for legislation to permanently block or delay EPA’s efforts to issue climate regulations.

The committee will also focus much of its attention on rising gas prices, which are at a two-year high. Republicans on the committee plan to use rising gas prices as justification to bash "artificial" burdens on U.S. drilling, the document indicates.

“In the face of $4 gasoline, calls for increased supply will be stronger than ever,” the document says. “We will respond by promoting affordable, abundant and secure sources of energy by preventing the administration’s regulatory overreach and expanding access in an environmentally responsible way.”

The committee backgrounder also makes it clear that Republicans on the committee will work to oppose efforts to pass a renewable energy standard, which would require that a certain portion of the country’s electricity come from renewable sources like wind and solar.

“Although governments have an important role to play in facilitating development of alternative energy, we oppose energy technology mandates that must be met regardless of cost,” the document says.

Committee Republicans will also focus on reducing “regulatory red tape” at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and exposing waste in the energy programs in the econmic recovery act.
Elsewhere, the listing of “key issues” on the agenda includes planned EPA rules to toughen regulation of waste products from coal-fired power plants, which have drawn opposition from coal-state lawmakers in both parties.

It also criticizes potential Interior Department rules to increase regulation of a natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, alleging they could “frustrate” domestic development.

The document also criticizes the Obama administration decision to abandon plans for the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository, noting that U.S. power consumers have paid billions of dollars to build and manage the waste, but have “little to show for it.”

Other items on the agenda include: Chemical plant security standards and oversight of the Toxic Substances Control Act. The document notes that a range of interests are seeking revisions to the toxics statute but “vigorously disagree” on what the problems and solutions are.

“Robust oversight to understand these existing authorities should precede major legislation,” the document states.
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Is Bachmann beginning her presidential campaign


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Big Media Gets Bigger as FCC and Justice Department Approve Comcast/NBC Merger

John Nichols

January 18, 2011 

As brutal ironies go, it will be tough to beat this one.
On the same day that President Obama launched a drive to identify what he referred to as "excessive" regulation of business, the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice—both of which are defined by his appointments—effectively abandoned more than a century of antitrust principles and approved one of the biggest corporate mergers in American history.
Instead of regulating the telecommunications industry, the FCC's vote to approve Comcast's proposed acquisition of a majority stake in NBC Universal—creating a conglomerate that will be the largest cable provider, the largest Internet provider and one of the largest producers of content in the United States—represents the ultimate surrender to the demands of corporate America.
"Once we allow companies to become this powerful, the FCC does not regulate them," says Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. "They regulate the FCC," says the senator.
No reasonable regulator would debate Sanders's point—or the threat to democracy posed when traditional protections against media monopoly are abandoned.
Unfortunately, there was only one reasonable regulator on the FCC, Commissioner Michael Copps.
Copps, a stalwart defender of media diversity and the public interest, cast a lonely vote against the Comcast/NBCU merger.
"Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal is a transaction like no other that has come before this Commission—ever," argued Copps, the one Democrat on the commission who was not appointed by Obama. "It reaches into virtually every corner of our media and digital landscapes and will affect every citizen in the land. It is new media as well as old; it is news and information as well as sports and entertainment; it is distribution as well as content. And it confers too much power in one company's hands."
FCC chair Julius Genachowski, an Obama appointee, backed the merger, as did the other Democrat appointed by the president, Mignon Clyburn. They joined the two Republican members of the commission on the pro-merger side of a 4-1 vote.
By any measure, it was the wrong vote—as was the Justice Department's dismissal of antitrust concerns raised by the deal.
Copps says: "The Comcast-NBCU joint venture opens the door to the cable-ization of the open Internet. The potential for walled gardens, tollbooths, content prioritization, access fees to reach end-users and a stake in the heart of independent content production is now very real."
Parallel objections came from the savviest observers of media issues on Capitol Hill.
"Big media just got a lot bigger," declared Congressman Maurice Hinchey, the New York Democrat who chairs the congressional Future of Media Caucus. "The FCC's decision to allow Comcast to acquire NBC Universal will burden the American people with more media consolidation, fewer independent sources of information and higher cable bills. I have no doubt that today's decision will lead to more mega media mergers in the near future. That is certainly not in the public interest."
Senator Al Franken, D-Minnesota, was equally adamant, "The FCC's action today is a tremendous disappointment. The commission is supposed to protect the public interest, not corporate interests. But what we see today is an effort by the FCC to appease the very companies it's charged with regulating," said Franken. "With approval of this merger, the FCC has given a single media conglomerate unprecedented control over the flow of information in America. This will ultimately mean higher cable and Internet bills, fewer independent voices in the media and less freedom of choice for all American consumers."
Franken vows to fight "any further media consolidation of this kind."
Unfortunately, while Franken and others fight that battle, President Obama will be busy battling a fantasy: the illusion that business is excessively regulated. If Tuesday's decisions by the FCC and the Justice Department confirm anything, it is that business has little to fear from regulators.


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Do People Know What Powers The President Has?



I’ve seen a lot made of the fact that Peter Baker’s long article on Obama and the economy doesn’t talk about housing, foreclosures, or HAMP. But that’s not all it doesn’t talk about! It doesn’t talk about the Federal Reserve, and the President’s powers to appoint its Chairman and Board of Governors.
But this crew—the Federal Reserve System in all its agencies—is the arm of the federal government that has primary responsibility for fighting recessions. The greatest power the president has to influence short-term economic performance is his ability to staff the Fed. Obama acted swiftly to reappoint Ben Bernanke as Chairman and acted very slowly to nominate anyone to serve on the Board of Governors. This has to be part of any discussion of the President’s efforts to deal with the economy. Did nobody ever bring it to his attention that he should fill these vacancies?


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  • The most obvious way that Obama, personally, could make it cheaper for employers to create jobs is, citing his own election, to declare victory in the War on Employment Discrimination call the federal troops in the EEOC and Department of Justice home from harassing employers over "disparate impact" in hiring.

    That would be Obama's Nixon Goes to China moment, and assure his re-election.
  • But aren't' minorities disproportionately unemployed?
  • A ridiculous comment from a ridiculous person. Steve, do you get how ridiculous you are? It's not even the substance of your racial views. I don't share them, but I could tolerate them if we were actually discussing race. But you feel compelled literally to analyze every single issue in racial terms. When I see someone bending over backward to inject racial issues into every subject, it's impossible not to conclude that you're simply motivated by racism.
  • Well, I don't think he has any problem admitting he is motivated by racism.

    This post was silly because of the lack of self awareness. People in general should refrain from making the argument that they embody the "center" and that by hewing to their personal viewpoints, politicians can ensure their reelection. If you hold uncommon or idiosyncratic beliefs you really need to stay away from that.

    Every now and then Andrew Sullivan makes an unintentionally hilarious post about how if Obama legalizes gay marriage and marijuana in exchange for eliminating Social Security he'll be politically unstoppable and all the free-thinking independents will rally behind him.

    If Obama really scrapped the EEOC, no one besides Steve Sailer and pissed off members of the Democratic base would even hear about it.

    And it wouldn't produce a significant economic boost that could help his political prospects. There's no evidence that discrimination lawsuits are holding back hiring.

    If you listen to the business community they don't express any concern at all about racial discrimination suits. The Chamber of Commerce hasn't chimed in on this. What they're horrified about is a wave of boomers like Steve Sailer filing age discrimination suits after getting laid off.
  • "halfkidding" and his ilk - confused hard-money anarchists - often accuses Yglesias of being "obsessed" with the Fed and pushing "asset inflater's" agenda at the expense of the working person.

    I responded that Matt's doing a service by focusing on an important institution that is often ignored. "halfkididng" dismissed me, but this article is just one example of many on how the Fed is written out of the narrative. It's too bad Peter Baker doesn't read Matt's blog.

    I'm a supporter of Obama but Matt's right that he failed by not making appointments to the Fed a priority.

    In the article, Romer is correct when she says that they should have gone back for more stimulus sooner.

    Bernanke has gone above and beyond these past few years as evidenced by Republicans actually turning their aim on the often-ignored Fed, but ultimately he has failed and it may cost Obama the election.
    (Edited by author 3 hours ago)
  • What are you talking about? Bernanke has been a failure. His stupidity has cost this country dearly.
  • PeterK said he failed...
  • BobRoddis Today 04:47 PM
    But this crew—the Federal Reserve System in all its agencies—is the arm of the federal government that has primary responsibility for fighting recessions.

    No, this crew is the arm of the federal government that has primary responsibility for igniting unsustainable booms with diluted funny money leading to painful and unnecessary depressions, recessions and busts.
  • What little Matty doesn't understand is that the Keynesian funny money is the cause of the business cycle. But no one here has shown the slightest familiarity with the Austrian School, despite the fact that the Depression of 1920 showed that...




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  • kafkania Today 05:03 PM
    "The greatest power the president has to influence short-term economic performance is his ability to staff the Fed."

    Complete horseshit.

    "Did nobody ever bring it to his attention that he should fill these vacancies"

    You mean somebody has to tell him? Of course it's possible (to give Obama credit he may not deserve) that he, unlike MattY, realizes the Fed has already played its trump cards, and is now stuck in a classic liguidity trap that 2 decades of assinine easy money policy created in the first place.

  • halfkidding Today 05:42 PM
    The current makeup of the Board or policy committee has had zero effect upon policy. While for the last year there have been a couple of questioning voices and traditionally the board is always unanimous that has made no difference. Think about this too. Where else is unanimity the rule? That is it at the Fed with all it's many errors demonstrates dysfunction.

    Every single history of the crisis sees the fat finger of the history of the Greenspan-Bernake Fed. Not a single one suggesting being too 'tight' as the root cause of the problems. The place where unanimity ruled. Let's get a grip on this nonsense then. The makeup makes no difference and the demand for unanimity reveals a desire that is anti democratic to the core.

    The Feds role and actions during the Greenspan Bernanke era became more and more overtly that of the director of a command economy. It is absolutely no coincidence that wealth and power accrued to the banks and financial sphere during the era because that is what the commanders focused upon. At every crisis their health and well being seen as more crucial to the general good. Until in fact their health became an existential necessity for the Republic itself.

    It makes me sick.
    (Edited by author 1 hour ago)
  • It has always been thus. It has always been socialism for the rich and harsh free markets for everyone else. Only in some utopia is it not that way. In Germany and some other countries it is less so, but not much.

    I don't see the argument that the Fed was too loose after the dot com bubble in the naughties. Only conservatives make that argument and their sympathies do not lie with the working man. Their paymasters are big money. More plausible is Bernanke and Krugman's theory of the Global Savings Glut.

    The Fed is part of the Command Economy as you say, and what they are consciously engineering is high unemployment which is absolutely killing the middle class. Obama/ Bernanke have done more Big Government intervention in the private sector than anyone since FDR because the private sector froze up and crashed spectacularly. They haven't been doing it to enrich bankers, many of whom went out of business after the crack up. But go ahead and make things up and emote away.

    Fact of the matter is that Bernanke prevented 16% unemployment.
  • I always looked at it this way: The people who should tell him to fill the vacancies had a list of four hundred some appointments that the Senate couldn't even debate.

    So they were a bit busy.
  • I hit like by mistake. The list of yes men is exceedingly small. The upside of being a member is almost zero so why take the post? Looks nice in the obit? Well maybe it will and maybe it won't.
  • ellidc 48 minutes ago
    I really think what is lost in the loose money criticism that the fed did not do enough is that the Fed did a breathtakingly enormous amount.
    http://www.clevelandfed.org/re...
    This balance sheet activity is on top of pushing interest rates down to zero. The fact that this did not have a magical result on the economy was not due to some kind depression era monetary stinginess. They had just about reached the limits of their authority and put their toe over the line a little with the Maiden Lane facilities.

    Aside from the trivial idea of ceasing the payment of interest on reserves and the illegal idea of buying socks for people, it is actually kind of hard to see what form this more more ism would take. Anything would be completely unconventional and beyond what any traditional economist or potential left leaning appointee would normally be expected to advocate.
  • technically the Fed is not part of the federal government, although the distinction is mostly nominal.
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