Cartoon of the Day

Obama Drama

Last year, President Barack Obama ran the closest thing to a perfect campaign ever seen in this country. There was no senior level turnover during the campaign. There was no public feuding from various factions within his campaign (unlike Hillary Clinton's). Even the transition was extraordinarily smooth.

So, I am dumbfounded by all the drama surrounding the early days of his presidency. Seems like Obama went from a serious drama to a sitcom in short order. When he made his announcement in Springfield, IL in 2007, it was All in the Family, with his wife and children. The media portrayed him as the ultimate Family Guy. He campaigned One Day At A Time with his cast of Friends.

He campaigned with a discipline unseen in presidential politics. With his upset victory in the Iowa caucuses, his supporters were feeling Good Times.

But with the unexpected loss in New Hampshire, they felt Bewitched and Lost.

But, he proved to be a Survivor heading into Super Tuesday.

He refused to take his campaign into the Weeds, even when Hillary's campaign went very negative on him. For that, he received Big Love from the voters.

The Obama campaign got hit with The Facts of Life of politics as the Clinton's showed their true Colors in South Carolina.

Bill Clinton basically said welcome to The Real World. Obama tried to knock Hillary out in Texas, but they went down to the Wire. But, he did ultimately destroy the Clinton's Dynasty. They never thought he could win The Office. Their explanation was definitely from Spin City.

The Democratic convention was one of the best run conventions ever. The huge crowds gave him loud Cheers, thereby making him an American Idol.

During the general election, Obama ran an Amazing Race, with John McCain being the Biggest Loser. His campaign made McCain's team look like a bunch of Scrubs and subsequently, they all disappeared Without a Trace.

Now that Obama made his Bones, it was time to move to the West Wing. He found that it was a Different World than he thought. He inherited an economy that was in the General Hospital, but is now in the ER.

There is no doubt that Obama has one of America's Toughest Jobs. But, with 20/20 hindsight, it's quite obvious that his budget will turn our country into a Supernanny state. As the World Turns and Obama searches for his Guiding Light, our country seems to see nothing but Dark Shadows.

Seems the Commander in Chief wants us to live on Fantasy Island-a place where the government is the answer to all that ails us.

But What's Happening is no one trusts the government. We know every president has Different Strokes once they get In the House. But Gimme a Break. Before you start expanding the government, you must reform it and make it functional. The government couldn't protect people from Bernard Madoff. The Securities and Exchange Commission couldn't protect us from Wall Street. If we are not careful, we are all going to end up in the House of Payne!

Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-based political consulting/government affairs firm. You can listen to his radio show every Saturday evening from 7-9:00 p.m. Go to www.ustalknetwork.com to register and then click on host, and then click on his photo to join his group.

Salter calls President 'Artfully Dishonest'

At his press conference Tuesday, President Obama was his usual assured and nimble self. He is one of the most graceful and appealing political communicators to appear on the national stage in my lifetime. He is, also, one of the more artfully dishonest ones.

He used a question about the uncertain prospects for a resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to emphasize his persistence. According to the President, he professes a “whole philosophy of persistence,” and he cited several of his initiatives in which he calmly adhered to that philosophy while impatient critics carped about their lack of immediate success. Among the examples, this:

“When it comes to Iran . . . we did a video, sending a message to the Iranian people and the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And some people said, well, they did not immediately say that they we’re eliminating nuclear weapons and stop funding terrorism.”

Now, there are certainly critics of the President’s approach to Iran who worry it is based more on wishful thinking than the hard headed realism he promised to restore to America’s foreign policy. And some of those might have seen his videotaped Nowruz greetings to Iran as evidence of his naiveté. But to the best of my knowledge not even his most outspoken and implacable detractors insisted it produce Iran’s immediate disarmament and a cessation of its support for terrorists.

Nor has anyone criticized the President because he has not “immediately eliminated the influence of lobbyists in Washington.” No one of adult judgment would believe such a Utopian achievement were possible in the near or long term without first suspending the First Amendment. The President was criticized for promising repeatedly that his administration would not permit officials who previously were lobbyists to work on issues they once lobbied on, and then immediately proceeded to allow several former lobbyists to do so. Nor has he been criticized because he has “not immediately eliminated wasteful pork projects.” He has been criticized because he accepted without resistance an omnibus spending bill that was loaded with earmarks.

We had an indication of how the President favors this kind of straw man during debate over the stimulus bill, when he denounced Republicans who balked at the price tag or felt it wasn’t sufficiently stimulative as advocates of doing nothing in the midst of a global recession. Yet, Republicans opposed to the bill offered an alternative that was different in size and kind, but was, arguably, more stimulative and responsible than the bill the President supported.

He also likes to dismiss his opposition as biters of the hand of bipartisanship he has generously offered them. Yet, he declined to pursue genuine bipartisan compromise on the stimulus bill because it was needed so urgently he couldn’t spare the time to negotiate seriously. He ignored Republican concerns about earmarks in the omnibus bill because it was last year’s unfinished business. And he threatens to circumvent the traditional supermajority needed to pass major legislation in the Senate, and the bipartisan negotiations it requires, by putting the most sweeping, expensive and controversial policies proposed in his budget submission into budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority of 51 votes to pass. His excuse: Republicans had similarly abused the process to pass the Bush tax cuts.

Perhaps, the President is a persistent man because, when it comes to this kind of disingenuousness at least, persistence pays off. Few in the press have been stirred to point out the many obvious discrepancies between the President’s declarations of his intentions and the reality of his actions anymore than they were inclined to do so during the campaign. He gets away with it. And it runs counter to the deepest instinct of most politicians to cease prevaricating when there is no penalty for continuing to do so.

When Ed Henry of CNN asked the President why he waited two days to express his outrage over the AIG bonuses, the President dismissively responded, “because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak.” I doubt there was a single reporter in the East Room that night who believed the President’s explanation for his delayed reaction. They knew the administration had been surprised by the fierceness of the public’s reaction, and belatedly raced to catch up to it.

But there was nary a hint of skepticism offered. They all laughed in appreciation of the surefooted artfulness of the President’s putdown, no doubt offering him further assurance that when it comes to employing straw men and red herrings and other deceptions to promote policies that might very well bankrupt the United States, he would be smart to remain a persistent man.

AIG Stands for "ALL I Get"

As if the American public wasn't horrified enough when a huge number of AIG employees jaunted off to a posh California resort on the taxpayer dime the very weekend after they got their hands on TARP funds, they are now more horrified than ever. AIG employees got their mani/pedis and hot rock massages along with fine bottles of wine and cuisine with your dollar. AIG was the same firm that whined it couldn't meet its capitalization and payroll obligations without bailout number two and then most recently bailout number three. It cried that its employees would be on the street in days if it didn't get bailout money. All together, AIG has received a total of $170 Billion in bailout funds from the American taxpayers. I'm even more horrified by the executives dragged before Congress who assured our representative that they weren't using "taxpayer dollars" for those expenses. WHAT??? They wouldn't be in business if it weren't for "taxpayer dollars" and until and unless "taxpayer dollars" are paid back in full, there should not be another boondoggle, perquisite or bonus doled out at any of these firms that these supposed financial gurus have run into the ground. There aren't separate accounts. Are these chief executives truly so stupid or think that the American public and their Congressmen and Senators are so stupid that they are going to buy this line? Yep! After all, Americans never bothered to understand what hedge funds really were, they just trusted these same people to invest them in the ones making money in the boom market. Neither shareholders nor regulators nor Congressmen, nor Senators, nor taxpayers were asking questions in the good times, they took at face value whatever the financial gurus pedaled their way. Those days are over and the executives at AIG and other financial establishments on Wall Street have the dubious distinction of having run some of the oldest and finest financial institutions into the ground because they bilked them as their personal piggy bank for years all the while deceiving regulators, shareholders, and the American public. Congratulations! Now, are you ready to Speak Out and Speak On America?

So, now AIG declares that it has "contractual obligations" in the amount of $165 million to pay out enormous supposed "performance based" bonuses to the very personnel in the firm in the credit-default swaps department who are responsible for its ruination??? When you don't perform well, you don't get paid. What you haven't read is that this is in addition to $121 million in previously scheduled bonuses for the company's senior executives and another 6,400 employees across the organization. What's wrong with this picture? Run a firm into the ground and lose money and there is no way that you should get anything more than your salary. Before AIG employees go to bed each night, they should thank the GOD in whom we trust on our currency that pays them, along with the American taxpayer and ther future generations who provide that paycheck to them. Yet, we still hear from the bastions of AIG, "Is that All I Get?" They are so used to taking whatever they want at the expense of the firm that they just have continued it, even though the American taxpayers had to re-capitalize the firm.

Whether you are Republican or Democrat, you should be echoing the cries of House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank to put a moratorium on Wall Street bonuses period until taxpayer money is completely paid back and maybe even thereafter. In fact, Senator Christopher Dodd HAD submitted legislation that would have blocked this occurance but it was ignored at the time. Are you kidding me? Contractual obligations? Legalities? Bonuses? There would be no value whatsoever to these supposed bonus contracts with the collapse of the firm without taxpayer bailout money. No taxpayer money, no firm, no bonuses. The other issue here is that it is de riguer for employees of financial services firms to sign "employment at will" paperwork upon employment. While contracts are common in other industries, they are RARE on Wall Street. We can only hope that our representative will be smart enough to truly investigate the validity of these supposed pre-existing contracts. President Obama ordered the Treasury Department to "pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses," when he sensed the rage of the American voters. SOMEONE on Capital Hill or in the Treasury Department ought to be smart enough to foresee these types of shenanigans when drawing up paperwork to dispense these bailouts. The only enforcement that we've seen so far is the New York State Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, who wants to issue subpoenas for AIG employee names, job descriptions and evaluations of employees receiving bonuses. AIG's Mr. Liddy defended these payments as contractual obligations and further added that this is what's needed to have the talented financial employees to run the business. I highly doubt it. I think some of the 10% of unemployed Americans have a whole lot more common and uncommon sense to run a business than the group that is continuing to rape and pillage AIG now. I hope that investigators continue to look at the fraud that was perpetrated on the AIG shareholders, policyholders and the American people and spare these derivative products "gurus" no mercy.

Gee, makes you wonder who controls AIG, especially in light of the fact that the majority shareholder now, with a whopping 80% of outstanding shares, is the U.S. Federal Government -ie the American people. The answer to this hoopla is found in one simple financial equation that I suggest all executives of investment banks use for 2008 year end Wall Street bonuses: nothing form nothing yields nothing...period.

Kimberly Wilcox

Cartoon of the Day: A Change in Tone

All that negativity was bringing everybody down.

Cartoon of the Day

In light of the recent stock market bounce, we can see that Obama is sure trying hard... if only that was enough.

Three Shocking Scenarios

Submitted by ASO member: Kimberly Wilcox

I recently became more aware of three shocking tax scenarios. The first starts as Union Bank of Switzerland, A.G., more commonly know as UBS, is being lightly raked over the coals by the U.S. Justice Department. As part of a deal last month UBS was supposed to be forthcoming with the names and numbers of accounts of Americans who have evaded Uncle Sam's tax tables by keeping their wealth in Swiss Bank Accounts in exchange for not having UBS officers subjected to criminal prosecution. This has resulted in UBS executives "confessing" last July 2008 to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that there were 19,000 American accounts at its bank that were evading American income taxes. This past week, Mark Branson, a UBS executive, now confirms that there are "around" 47,000 accounts in their Swiss bank of Americans not paying taxes on income. Last month UBS formally accepted responsibility for helping Americans hide assets from the U.S. government and agreed to pay $780 million in restitution & fines based on the prior disclosure. The bank also turned over the names of ONLY 300 or so American clients of the 19,000 it declared then. The rest of the 46,700 names have yet to be turned over to the IRS or the the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee. So, the question is, will these tax evaders eventually have to pay their income taxes like every other American? Should the company face penalties and fines in this country for fronting this operation on an even greater scale than they originally said? Only problem with this is that UBS isn't even the tip of the iceberg in terms of tax evasion and the Swiss may not even be the best at it. American banks and brokerages hold billions of dollars of foreign money for citizens of Latin America, Arab countries, Israel and other nations, not only assisting in tax evasion on the income, but avoiding the asset tax that many countries have on the principal, among other financial scams. Yes, US banks earn hefty fees on these transactions every year. In addition, Luxembourg, the Canary Islands and the Caribbean Islands are well known tax havens. Is anyone going to evenly prosecute all these offenders?

The second scenario is the upper 1% of Americans who don't seem to have to conform to the tax code until they get nominated to serve in high public office, such as Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, who recently ponied up $34,000, Former Senator Tom Daschle, who ultimately declined the nomination to the office of Health & Human Services Secretary because of back taxes owed in the amount of $128,203 and finally Ron Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas who, if confirmed will be the White House chief trade representative, owes over $10,000 in back taxes. Should the well-heeled only have to pay taxes when they're caught not paying them after being nominated for offices of the Federal Government by President Obama? Hardly seems fair to the average tax payer.

Which brings me to the third scenario. Many Americans have family, neighbors, and friends currently without jobs due to the financial shams in our country. Many were unaware that their unemployment checks that they received in 2008 are indeed subject to Federal and in some cases State tax. And, there is no automatic withholding or notification with your check that you might want to institute withholding so that you don't have a big tax bill in 2009 to pay on that money that you already spent.

So, we have the REALLY well-heeled protected by the Swiss and other foreign tax havens' secrecy, the SORT OF well-heeled with their assets in America only getting caught, and the Average Joe who got laid off last year completely exposed with regard to his income and tax obligations. Where's the IRS in this picture? Why isn't the audit process hitting the big timers who with one audit will make up for 1,000's of little guys? Well, right now, the IRS has asked the Justice Department to have UBS respond to its John Doe summons for the names of the rest of their clients. We'll see how this saga plays out.

Congresswoman Bachmann Responds to Big Government Spend-a-thon

Since the inauguration of President Obama, our country has embarked on a big money, big government spend-a-thon. After passing a $1.1-trillion-plus economic “stimulus” package and a $275-billion plan to address perhaps 9 million American mortgages, Washington’s recent big dollar accomplishment was an appropriations omnibus that represents the largest discretionary spending increase, aside from legislation after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, since the Carter Administration. And yet President Obama has repeatedly expressed a desire to pass fiscally responsible legislation and significantly reduce the deficit.

He can’t have it both ways.

If we look back on the last 19 months, you’ll find that the U.S.
government has pledged more than $11.6 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers to dig our nation out of our economic woes – and that’s not counting the $410-billion omnibus the Senate is sorting out right now.

And now, the President has released his budget for fiscal year 2010 that not only raises taxes, but grows government to new and unheard of heights. President Obama's budget includes nearly $1 trillion just in new health care spending and proposes to pay for it with an economy-crippling energy tax that will cost the average family about $4000 more a year. Our government is like a runaway train that’s speeding down the tracks, barreling through any supposed notion of fiscal responsibility.

Washington is asking Americans to bear down and make sacrifices as our country finds its way out of our economic rut, and Washington would be wise to heed that advice and do the same. If you've cut back your spending, it's only fair that we cut back ours. Taxpayers are struggling enough in this weakened economy and it is time Congress started to show respect for the American people and stop increasing the weight of their financial burdens. The spending spree has to stop.

Submitted by ASO member: Congresswoman Bachmann

Obama’s Clean Energy Myth

President Obama has spent the last two years talking about his commitment to clean energy but he has not signaled any desire to expand nuclear power generation. Why? Because the environmental community has spent the past 30 years hyping concerns over the safety of nuclear power – to the extent that no nuclear power plant ordered after 1977 has been completed and brought on line in the United States. Nuclear power is emission-free energy generation. Something the President declares as critical to our future, but yet he is quietly making every move possible to ensure that not a single plant gets built during his Administration, and therefore for the decade to follow his departure. This despite him staring directly into the camera during one of the Presidential debates and conveniently declaring his support for nuclear power.

Nuclear power constitutes 20 percent of the electricity used in the United States. That’s right, one fifth of all electricity consumed. In order to keep pace with the growing demand for electricity in the United States we must continue to expand our energy generation, not shrink it. While the benefits of renewable energy are many, the reality is solar and wind power constitute two percent of all domestic energy production, and to increase it to even eight percent will require massive transmission improvements. All the while the President and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plan to stand by and let 40 of the current 104 nuclear plants in the U.S. potentially become decommissioned over the next 30 years. That’s a potential decrease in electrical power generation of eight percent.

Nuclear-waste management remains an issue at the forefront of the nuclear expansion debate. There is significant debate as to the responsibility of the Government in the management and storing of nuclear waste. The Federal government has proposed a single deep geological storage reserve for spent fuel in Nevada at Yucca Mountain as a substitute to the national security threat posed by storage onsite at nuclear facilities.

But bottom line, the involvement of Nevada equals Harry Reid equals no Yucca Mountain storage equals no new plants for the next two decades equals dozens of plants will be decommissioned equals an eight percent reduction in clean and safe energy equals another loss for the country. And why? Because of the environmental special interest. The same type of special interests that the President pledged to transcend.
ASO member Ken Nahigian

Rush Limbaugh Invites President Obama To Debate Him

A transcript of Rush's show today:

"But I have an idea. If these guys are so impressed with themselves, and if they are so sure of their correctness, why doesn't President Obama come on my show? ... So let's have the debate! I am offering President Obama to come on this program -- without staffers, without a TelePrompTer, without note cards -- to debate me on the issues. Let's talk about free markets versus government control. Let's talk about nationalizing health care and raising taxes on small business."

--

"Just come on this program. Let's have a little debate. You tell me how wrong I am and you can convince the rest of the American that don't agree with you how wrong we all are. You're a smart guy, Mr. President. You don't need these hacks to front for you. You've debated the best! You've debated Hillary Clinton. You've debated John Edwards. You've debated Joe Biden. You've debated Dennis Kucinich. You've debated the best out there. You are one of the most gifted public speakers of our age. I would think, Mr. President, you would jump at this opportunity. Don't send lightweights like Begala and Carville to do your bidding -- and forget about the ballerina, Emanuel. He's got things to do in his office. These people, compared to you, Mr. President, are rhetorical chum.

I would rather have an intelligent, open discussion with you where you lay out your philosophy and policies and I lay out mine -- and we can question each other, in a real debate. Any time here at the EIB Network studios. If you're too busy partying or flying around giving speeches and so forth, then send Vice President Biden. I'm sure he would be very capable of articulating your vision for America -- and if he won't work, send Geithner, and we can talk about the tax code. And if that won't work, go get Bob Rubin. I don't care. Send whoever you want if you can't make it. You don't need to be leaking stories to Politico like this thing that's published today. You don't need to have your allies writing op-eds and all the rest. If you can win at this, then come here and beat me at my own game, and get rid of me once and for all, and show all the people of America that I am wrong."

--

"I'm calling. I'm ready. I'll do everything I can to facilitate it. You're a very courageous man, Mr. President. I am, after all, just the Last Man Standing. If you take me out, if you can wipe me out in a debate and prove to the rest of America that what I say is senseless and wrong, do you realize you will own the United States of America? You will have no opposition. You have America's media in your back pocket. It's amazing. In 1972, Richard Nixon had an enemies list, and the media was outraged by this. They were outraged. At the same time, those who weren't on it were a little jealous. But they were outraged that a president would engage in this kind of behavior toward the media. Now they go after a private citizen."

Obama Nominates Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius To Head HHS

President Obama will today nominate Kathleen Sebelius to be his Health and Human Services Secretary.

According to the New York Times, Ms. Seabelius and Mr. Obama plan the largest expansion of taxpayer subsidized health insurance in more than four decades.

ASO will be tracking health care developments closely over the coming months. Stay tuned.

Obama: "We Must Add To The Debt In The Short Term"

Obama lays out his budget this morning, which suffers from a $1.75 trillion dollar deficit.

Tonight Obama Addresses Joint Session Of Congress

Politico has a preview of what to look for in Obama's speech at 9 pm ET tonight.

Nancy Pelosi Blocking Obama's Plans For Entitlement Reform

According to the New York Times, Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is trying to stop President Obama's plans for Social Security reform.

The article may be found here.

Matt Drudge Highlighting CNBC Clip Of Chicago Traders' Disgust With Obama Mortgage Plan

The video clip may be found here.

Fairly incredible footage.

The Intolerance of Ideas and Bipartisanship

Because of near unanimous opposition to the poorly planned and poorly developed economic stimulus bill many Republicans are facing the ire of the Democrats and some in the media who have decided that their opposition equates wanting America to fail. Editorials to this affect suggest that believing the economic stimulus bill is wrong, is un-American. Instead, the ridiculous expectation that some Americans must concede their beliefs and support this bill is not bipartisan; it is intolerant of our principles.

Instead, the real news should be the ridiculous notion that if this Administration reheats and rehashes the archaic and misguided policies of the FDR and Carter presidencies the results will be different this time around. And while this Administration, like FDR’s, was not responsible for the economic mess it inherited, they will be held responsible for prolonging an economic crisis through poor policy. Remember, this is not the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and those comparisons amount to nothing more than fear-mongering for the purpose of passing a bill.

Furthermore, the idea that Republicans should not oppose the stimulus because of the fiscal irresponsibility on their watch is preposterous. Someone, anyone, especially an elected public official who is salaried by the American taxpayer has the duty to stand in the way of fiscal irresponsibility. And while it may be the case that W. and the Republicans turned left in a crisis, the logic of following fiscal irresponsibility with more fiscal irresponsibility is incoherent.

So what amounted was a stimulus bill that was not bipartisan, and President Obama’s efforts in that regard were a failure. But to hold Republicans responsible for the lack of bipartisanship on this bill reminds me of a good quote from The Audacity of Hope:

"Genuine bipartisanship assumes an honest process of give-and-take, and that the quality of the compromise is measured by how well it serves some agreed-upon goal, whether better schools or lower deficits. This in turn assumes that the majority will be constrained – by an exacting press corps and ultimately an informed electorate -- to negotiate in good faith.

"If these conditions do not hold -- if nobody outside Washington is really paying attention to the substance of the bill, if the true costs . . . are buried in phony accounting and understated by a trillion dollars or so -- the majority party can begin every negotiation by asking for 100% of what it wants, go on to concede 10%, and then accuse any member of the minority party who fails to support this 'compromise' of being 'obstructionist.'

"For the minority party in such circumstances, 'bipartisanship' comes to mean getting chronically steamrolled, although individual senators may enjoy certain political rewards by consistently going along with the majority and hence gaining a reputation for being 'moderate' or 'centrist.'"

Thanks to the WSJ for drawing attention to this, it is shocking that this is not a quote from a bitter Republican complaining about the stimulus bill, it is President Obama, suggesting that he understands bipartisanship and would understand why his stimulus was nowhere close to being bipartisan.

And so, in all likelihood, the rest of this Administration will follow suit: blame for the promise and failure of bipartisanship does not belong to Republicans, the past few weeks are evidence that for all their noise they have no power, but to Democrats. It is misguided to believe a genuine hand of bipartisanship was extended only to be met with a clenched Republican fist; instead, the Republicans were offered an accomplice’s role to which most, finally, displayed some principles. The Democrats responded not with tolerance, but with claims of a mandate from the American people.

The idea that the American people gave the Democrats authorization to repeat the failures of past administrations neglects the reality that over 46 percent of Americans did not vote for Obama, none of us voted for the Stimulus (none of us even had the chance to read it), and, for perspective, only .15 percent of American voters voted for Nancy Pelosi, hardly a mandate. For Congressional Leaders to feel empowered by the American people is a crime, the Congressional approval rating recently skyrocketed from 19 percent to a whopping 31 percent (from historically poor, to a mere pathetically low), meaning, of course, that 7 of ten Americans don’t believe they gave Pelosi and her cronies any type of mandate. And while this is the reality of the American Republic, it illustrates the illusions of grandeur with which some politicians are dealing. Someone should send Pelosi and the President the writings of John Stuart Mills, because this is the tyranny of the majority in a very vulgar form.

Obama's Silver Lining

For all the criticism of the early Administration, President Obama should be commended on one thing, his opposition to the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. If only his own party would listen to him as Democratic leaders and figures have supported reinstatement of the FD. The list so far includes: Speaker Pelosi, Sen. Schumer, Sen. Stabenow, Sen. Harkin, and former President Clinton.

Obama's War On Terror Is Starting To Look A Bit Like Bush's War On Terror

The more things change, the more things stay the same?

Obama Administration To Host Fiscal Responsibility Summit

The summit will be next week at the White House.

The New York Times has the preliminary details:

The White House is finishing plans for what it is calling a “fiscal responsibility summit,” a three-hour bipartisan wonk-fest. Invitations are going out this week to 90 people: 30 members of the House, 30 senators and 30 scholars and representatives of advocacy groups such as AARP, according to a person familiar with the plans.

The afternoon session is not expected to yield any policy decisions, but to “underscore how big the problems are” and to air potential solutions, this person said. Administration officials have put out the word that the summit will not be the occasion to announce a task force on keeping Social Security solvent for the long-term, as they had considered, though such a panel may be formed eventually.

After Mr. Obama opens the summit, the assemblage will break into six groups. Each will discuss separate topics that encompass the range of fiscal challenges that would exist even without the current recession and will endure once the economy recovers. The topics include health-care costs, Social Security, tax reform, defense procurement and the federal budget process.

From Congress, invitees include House and Senate leaders of both parties, the Democratic chairmen and senior Republicans on several committees, and representatives of some caucuses, including the fiscally conservative Democratic “Blue Dogs” in the House.

Recovery.gov Goes Live

The Obama Administration's website for tracking stimulus dollars has gone live.