Economy & Budget

In less than two years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has enacted sensible, clear rules for safe mortgage loans and mortgage servicing, secured $425 million in consumer refunds and $70 million in fines for abusive financial practices, provided clear information for consumers, and established an effective consumer complaint system.



Despite CFPB’s record of swift, effective action, opponents — like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which sought to kill the agency before it even got started — continue to propose “fixes” to CFPB that will do anything but that.

Starting March 4, some of America's most important trading partners will meet in Singapore, to negotiate expanded trade across the Pacific. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement being negotiated between the United States and 10 other Pacific-rim countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

The TPP presents strong growth opportunities for the U.S. economy and its workers. As one of most important U.S. employers, the auto industry stands to benefit from this trade pact.

There is a huge story playing out right before our very eyes this year in agriculture that nearly everyone is missing: Despite the fact that this nation has faced two of the worst farming years in decades – with devastating drought in the Southern Plains and flooding in the Midwest in 2011, and widespread drought over major corn and soybean growing regions in 2012 – there has not been a single call for an ad hoc disaster bill from America’s crop farmers.
 
And why no calls for disaster assistance from crop farmers? Because 86 percent of planted farmland in 2012 was protected by crop insurance, the best risk management tool available to farmers. Before crop insurance was widely available, natural disasters like we have just experienced would have triggered a very costly, unbudgeted ad hoc disaster bill. Forty-two such emergency disaster bills in agriculture have cost taxpayers $70 billion since 1989, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Congress has just about run out of time to end sequestration possibly ensuring $85 million in cuts to vital services for the most vulnerable in America.
 
Congress sought to find an agreement today on how to achieve long-term deficit reductions, but a 51-49 vote failed to attract bipartisan support in the Senate. While the most critical services are on the chopping block the sequester means cuts may go into effect by midnight Friday.

One of the first complexities that students of computer science get to puzzle over is the concept of abstraction: the fact that small symbols or chunks of programming code serve as objects, or stand-ins for the more complex sections of code that drive the software. As those of us in education wrestle with the looming effects of sequestration on our budgets, our institutions, our programs and our people – students, parents, teachers and administrators -- we move quickly from the abstract concept of what sequester is to the very tangible struggle with the impact and timing of the looming budget cuts.

After years of constant bickering, could Washington finally be in agreement on something? This week, President Obama, Senator Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary nominee Jacob Lew all highlighted one issue to make the United States economy stronger and more competitive with overseas rivals – lowering the corporate tax rate. In the 2013 State of the Union and the Republican response, President Obama and Senator Rubio, each mentioned tax reform. In his nomination hearing, Lew voiced strong support for revenue neutral, comprehensive tax reform that would broaden the base and lower the overall rate by eliminating tax exemptions.

There is a reason behind such broad-based support: it has worked before.

At times like this, it is a miracle that Congress’s approval rating is not even lower than it is.
 
Tomorrow, a series of mandatory cuts to federal spending will kick in. These cuts are remarkable for two reasons. First, they are severe, destructive, and irresponsible. Second, they were purpose-built to be that way.
 
The brutal package of $1.2 trillion in arbitrary cuts to food safety inspectors, air traffic controllers, FBI agents, education, infrastructure and military readiness that will take effect Friday was specifically designed by Congress to be unbearable. And yet, almost two years after the legislation that created this budgetary doomsday device known as the “sequester,” Congress has no plans to avert our latest man-made crisis.

Every once in a while an idea gets broached in Washington that superficially appears to offer an easy way out of a difficult problem. Avoiding sequestration by raising taxes on America’s energy industry is one such idea.
 
This we know: Washington has a massive spending problem. But pushing for tax increases on energy companies as a quick fix for our country’s fiscal problems is about as nonsensical as it gets. In fact, such tax increases actually would slow economic growth even further.

What do robotic squirrels, Martian food and zombies have to do with the impending sequester? Everything.
 
The government spent $325,000 last year constructing a robot squirrel to replicate the interaction between rattle snakes and the small-sized rodent. Meanwhile, NASA spent $1 million taste-testing fine cuisine to be served on the planet Mars. And last, but certainly not least, the Department of Homeland Security spent taxpayer dollars preparing for the zombie apocalypse.

The economic, energy, and national security benefits associated with building the Keystone XL Pipeline are clear. Construction of the pipeline would produce thousands of jobs, and gas prices, which are currently hovering at $3.78 per gallon in Ohio, would begin to decline. What is keeping the president from approving this critical project?