A spending bill as enormous as the current stimulus package is going to include its fair share of expenditures that have nothing to do with stimulating the economy. Our representatives can’t help themselves. They’ll use any spending bill as an excuse to fund pet projects. The AP details some of the non-stimulus related projects lurking [...]

In a last-ditch effort to influence the stimulus package, Republicans have proposed an alternate bill focused predominately on tax cuts. “If government spending was going to get us out of this mess, we’d have been out a long time ago, because that’s all we’ve been doing,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “This is not going [...]

We all knew there would be a stimulus package coming out of Congress. The question wasn’t “if” but “how much.” Now that there are specifics, we can add another question: is it worth it? Republicans are crying that the bill is pork-laden and advances liberal interests over the national interest. But the Wall Street Journal [...]

Call it TARP Part Deux. Today, Congress authorized the release of the second $350 billion intended to prop up the American credit markets. While some hoped to thwart the release of monies for the controversial plan, the Democratic Leadership succeeded in rustling up the necessary votes, buoyed by President-elect Barack Obama’s explicit request for quick [...]

Apparently, Congress isn’t just going to pass whatever economic stimulus ideas President-elect Obama requests. Already, there’s opposition brewing from both sides of the aisle. Republicans, in a sudden burst of fiscal responsibility, are worried about tacking on even more spending to what is projected to be a $1.2 trillion dollar deficit in 2009. Some Democrats [...]

Four Senate vacancies. In one, literally a staffer is appointed to keep the seat warm for the Senator’s son. In another, it’s an ongoing battle of which high-profile election surrogate to reward for their loyalty. In the third, the trumping consideration was apparently in favor of the guy most connected to big money, at the expense of qualifications or experience. And in the fourth, the guy nominated was an unimpeachable public servant undeniably qualified for the job.

Do you know where your $700 billion is? Or at least the part that’s already been handed out to financial institutions? No? Well, according to a new AP report, we may never know. The AP contacted 21 banks that received bailout funds. Not a single one agreed to provide specific answers as to where the [...]

Hi, this is Danielle Ivory from the American News Project. My colleague, Lagan Sebert, and I just published a new video on the bailout and a lack of serious oversight. Today, Henry Paulson urged Congress to release the second half of the $700 billion of the bailout money. But no one seems know what banks [...]

Hello Donklephants! I’m Mark, and I regularly blog at (and run) the site Publius Endures. Ostensibly I self-identify as a libertarian, although I’m not terribly dogmatic and tend not to write much on the more common libertarian themes, focusing instead on taking a sober look at the relationships between interest groups (which I define broadly) [...]

As everyone knows, Congress and the White House have promised a lot of money over the last few months. Currently, taxpayers are on the hook for $8.7 trillion in loans, guarantees and other payouts. While some of the loans will be repaid, $8.7 trillion is a number that really needs to be put into context: [...]

If Ford declines the taxpayer money, Ford deserves the support of American car buyers. If GM and Chrysler take taxpayer money, they do not deserve the support of American car buyers. Polls show that a majority of Americans oppose taxpayer dollars being used to support the Detroit 3 bailout. Perhaps the right idea is to boycott any company that takes taxpayer funds against the wishes of the majority of American taxpayers.

After the Senate put a halt to the automaker bailout yesterday, the White House has announced today it may bailout the automakers itself with the money approved for the financial bailout. Nice to see that all the debate in Congress was just a pageant and the Bush Administration will, once again, do whatever it wants, [...]

There has been plenty of talk about how the federal government can save the American auto industry by pumping in billions of dollars in loans and requiring the Big Three to conform to new government mandates. What hasn’t been as fully discussed is how current government regulations are affecting the industry. In The Wall Street [...]

Looks like Ford Motor Co. is now willing to make some concessions should they receive a government bailout. CEO Alan Mulally said he’ll work for $1 per year if the automaker has to take any government loan money. The plans Ford submitted to Congress on Tuesday also say the company will cancel all management employees’ [...]

Hi, this is Danielle Ivory from ANP. My colleague, Lagan Sebert, and I have recently been covering the economic crisis and found ourselves thoroughly intrigued by the bank mergers happening all over the country. We looked into it, connected the dots, and this is what we discovered.. With newfound bailout money in their wallets, big [...]

Yesterday, the Democratic House Caucus removed the House’s longest serving member, John Dingell of Michigan, from the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee. He was replaced by Henry Waxman of California. In an editorial, the Wall Street Journal explains what this means for the Democrats. Of significance, Dingell represents Detroit and has been an [...]

Democratic Party insiders now say Joe Lieberman will be allowed to remain in the Democratic Caucus and he’ll likely retain his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee. His only punishment for supporting Republican John McCain and speaking at the Republican Convention will reportedly be the loss of his chairmanship of the not-exactly prestigious Environment and [...]

Divided government will be restored in 2012, either through the Republicans winning the presidency or (more likely) a majority in the Senate. If the latter, we will be in the interesting situation that we have a divided congress, and regardless of which party wins the presidency – a divided government.

Time Magazine looks into whether GM is worth saving or not, and what the costs of action versus inaction would be. Basically, GM has us over a barrel. Either tax dollars pay to keep it alive or tax dollars pay to handle the disaster of its failure. But that doesn’t mean we have to hold [...]

He talks about the tragic fact that he was molested by a priest when he was a child, but I still don’t understand why is he’s bringing it up now. After all, he already talked about this back in 2006. Watch it for yoursef… Ultimately he may want to get back into politics in whatever [...]