A Bold Defense of Sin City Stimulus

The notorious Amity Shlaes, the Bloomberg scribe  who drives liberals around the bend with her thinly sourced argument that the New Deal was a failure, has come out boldly in favor of at least one form government stimulus spending. In a jaunty column today, “Sin More…

Updated: Beware of This Cap and Trade Study

Watch out for simplistic reporting on a new study on the impact of climate change legislation on the Midwest.

So far, reports on the study are highlighting claims that cap-and-trade, an idea that would monetize the cost of emitting carbon, would cause huge More…

Reconciliation Watch: Cap-and-Trade Lives

The prospects for congressional approval of climate change legislation this year have dimmed but not disappeared. Yesterday the Senate voted against using the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to consider climate change legislation by a 67-31 vote and the House-approved budget did not include cap-and-trade in its budget reconciliation provisions.

‘The Era of Banking Secrecy is Over’

That’s perhaps the boldest declaration in the joint statement from G-20 world leaders meeting today in London.

The communiqué, which pledges $1.1 trillion in global stimulus spending and tighter supervision and regulation of the global economy, did not commit the leaders to another round of stimulus More…

The Coming Test for Health Care Reform

Robert Pear’s story in today’s New York Times on Democratic health care plans exposes the beating heart of the congressional debate over President Obama’s reform proposals. Overall, the administration’s campaign to overhaul the health care system is going well, Pear reports, with the White House “displaying a More…

Reconciliation Watch: GOP Getting Worried

All 41 Republican senators have signed an open letter asking Democratic leadership not to use the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to pass health care reform, a sure sign that the threat of reconciliation, which would allow the Senate to pass a health care reform bill with 51 votes instead More…

TARP’s $78 Billion Overpayment Still Unexplained

Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner’s credibility problems aren’t going away.

Elizabeth Warren, chief of congressional oversight panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), testified today that she still had not received any explanation of what TWI’s Mike Lillis called “Treasury’s $80 billion mistake” back on More…

Labor Wins ‘Prevailing Wages’ in Stimulus

Though stymied on the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to form unions, organized labor is about to claim a big consolation prize: the massive application of a law guaranteeing “prevailing wages” for hundreds of thousands of construction workers hired under President More…

How Much Does Obama Like Clean Coal?

With President Obama playing a cameo role in a recurring TV ad sponsored by American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCE), you may be wondering just what the administration’s priorities are for energy innovation. Rest assured, under the stimulus bill passed by Congress, “clean coal” research More…

Reconciliation Watch: White House Keeps Up Pressure (on Democrats)

Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag kept up the pressure on Senate Republicans over the weekend by continuing to raise the possibility that the White House may use the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process to pass comprehensive health care reform if the Republicans don’t show more flexibility. More…