Economy & Budget

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) posted this Halloween web ad to its homepage today criticizing the Rangel tax bill.

The NRCC rates the film "T" for "Scary tax film."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel's (D-N.Y.) tax bill, unveiled Oct. 18, eliminates the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) but contains offsets that have caused an uproar among Republicans.

The witnesses at today’s Budget Committee hearing on the Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action Act agree that now is the time to address our nation’s long-term fiscal challenges and entitlement spending. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Comptroller General David Walker, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Co-Chairman Leon Panetta, AARP CEO William Novelli, and Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby each contributed to a constructive dialogue on the Task Force and offered some thoughtful suggestions. I look forward to working with both sides of the aisle to advance this important legislation that is so critical to the economic well-being of future generations.

Blackwater is hiding behind the Bush Administration to explain why they bilked the taxpayers out of millions of dollars. The SBA letter makes clear the size determination provides no basis for tax decisions. I intend to get to the bottom of this. I'm asking Blackwater to provide documentation for their decision and I am asking the Finance Committee to investigate this matter further.

Archived under: Economy & Budget, Politics

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Although I’m made to understand that a combination of weather and land management policies caused the wildfires, I think it’s important to observe the role that California’s broken insurance system has played in making the damage worse than it would have been.

Since 1988, a misguided populist system established under the state’s Proposition 103 has governed California’s insurance companies. If they wish to change the rates being charged for ordinary homeowners’ insurance, California insurance companies must file reams of paperwork with the state and wait months or more for approval. This obviously discourages any sort of rate changes (both upward and downward) and, several studies have shown, actually results in higher insurance rates for most people in the state. Read more...

House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) says the Democratic leadership's insistence on sticking to paygo's "onerous requirements" has been a "pleasant surprise."

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) yanks a student's ethernet cable out of its wall socket and makes him pay her before he continues researching a term paper in the National Republican Senatorial Committee's (NRSC) latest web ad.

The NRSC has targeted Landrieu for an objection to Sen. John Sununu's (R-N.H.) bill to make permanent the moratorim on Internet taxes.

Landrieu has since denied that she supports Internet taxes. In a letter to supporters, Landrieu said this week that she voiced the objection on behalf of an absent member (Delaware Democrat Tom Carper) while holding the floor in an attempt to save funding for a Louisiana children's mental health program.

Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Melissa Bean (D-Ill.), along with Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), said Wednesday the U.S. insurance regulation system isn't working. The European Union is considering sanctions on the U.S. insurance industry.

The lawmakers addressed attendees of a Hill Policy Briefing Breakfast co-hosted with the American Council of Life Insurers, making their case for giving insurers an option to be overseen by a federal regulator.

Insurance companies are currently overseen by elected state insurance regulators; Sununu and Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) in the Senate, and Bean and Royce in the House, have introduced bills to reform the system and lead to what they call a more unified, streamlined regulatory system.

We need to recognize illegal work for exactly what it is – illegal.  Identity theft is rewarded under current Social Security policies, but my amendment changes that.  Stories about victims of identity theft are all too common in the United States, and we should not be encouraging people to steal the identity of hard-working Americans.  As it stands today, that’s what we’re doing.  Many Southwest states have experienced a crime spree involving people who are here illegally using the stolen identities of children.  In one case in Utah, a child apparently owns a cleaning company and works as a prep cook at two restaurants in Salt Lake City.  That’s a lot of responsibility -- especially for an eight-year-old boy.

After logging nearly 800 miles on the road since last Wednesday, a caravan of long-term caregivers and senior advocates arrived on Capitol Hill yesterday with a message: Private equity firms -- the ones that buy public companies, take them private, and make dramatic changes before re-selling the companies for a profit -- have a responsibility equal to their size; these buyout firms should be held accountable for the impact of their actions on seniors, taxpayers, and workers.

After meeting with the workers, Chairmen John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) announced the first congressional hearings on private equity ownership of nursing homes. The announcement comes on the eve of the biggest private equity nursing home takeover in history, the $6.3 billion buyout of HCR Manor Care by The Carlyle Group.

It’s been a landmark month for families, workers, and advocates concerned about what happens when decisions about nursing home care delivery are placed in the hands of buyout kings accountable only to their investors. A recent New York Times investigation depicted these concerns all too vividly. Read more...