In one of those “every silver lining has a cloud” kind of situations, state and federal government road maintenance funds are dwindling as people drive less and use less gasoline per mile as they buy more fuel efficient cars. The federal government had to put $8 billion into the Highway Trust Fund because plummeting gas [...]

Looks like they’ve finally come to an agreement, but at the expensive of the poor and elderly.
From LA Times:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders announced Monday that they had reached a deal to close California’s $26.3-billion deficit and begin paying all of the state’s bills again, potentially ending months of partisan wrangling and a cash [...]

Politico did some digging and the results reveal a Governor that is even more at odds with his public persona.
Long story short, he definitely used taxpayer funds to go visit his mistress.
More at True/Slant.

Now this is true free market capitalism if I’ve ever seen it.
Apparently the American Conservative Union offered FedEx their support if they’d sign off on a costly outreach campaign. FedEx said no and the organization backed UPS.
More at True/Slant.

We all know that universal health care has been incredibly hard to achieve, but budget neutral universal health care? Well, that seems nearly impossible. Well, nearly impossibly politically. So if Obama can pull it off it’ll be a feat indeed.
Here’s what he said recently at the G8 Summit, from CQ Politics:
Obama indicated he would continue [...]

Well, most economists the Wall Street Journal asked, so if that’s not your brand of whiskey, take it for what it’s worth.
But as I’ve said recently, there’s really no will for a second stimulus, and only 10% of the first stimulus has been spent so far so why everybody is getting so damned excited is [...]

Whenever Warren talks, people listen, but my gut tells me that a second stimulus is still politically impossible right now. Especially since nearly 90% of the original $787B is left to spend (which Dems are bemoaning)
Still, he has some entertaining euphemisms for the first round…
“I think that a second one may well be called for,” [...]

Talked about this recently when Biden admitted that there might be need for a second stimulus package at some point, but that the administration wanted to see how the first round would suss out.
Still, looks like Dems need to get their stories straight because they aren’t saying the same things.
Read more at True/Slant.

After I read Matt Taibbi’s piece about Goldman Sachs gaming the oil/gas marketplace and wrote my own response, I started to think about the massive $24.3 billion budget deficit in California, and I wondered, “How could they get that far in the hole?”
Sure, the global economy has tanked the past couple years and revenues aren’t [...]

Why?
Because wages are going down, down, down…

Basically, people won’t be spending more if they’re earning less.
So don’t worry about inflation…yet.
(h/t: NY Times)

“We always knew we were not going to get all that much fiscal impact during the first five to six months. The big impact starts to hit from about now onwards.”
- Obama economic adviser Christina Romer on when the economy will pick back up
And this is true. From the CBO’s projections back in January, the [...]

Something has to give, and it isn’t going to be the CBO’s numbers.
From Politico:
“They are shaking people down, and it’s fair to say that includes a broad range of health care stakeholders,” said a health care industry insider, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly without fear of retribution. “They’re playing hardball, and they’re serious [...]

They’re seeing red in the Golden state.
From Reuters:
California’s controller said on Wednesday that he would have to issue IOUs in a week if lawmakers can’t quickly solve a $24 billion budget deficit, and the state’s treasurer plans to tap a reserve fund to meet debt service costs.
The measures came as a budget crisis deepened in [...]

First, the numbers…
. Last year, after the recession had begun, the number of applications rose by 12 percent to more than 16 million, according to the Education Department. Detailed estimates are not yet available for last year, but of all full-time college undergraduates in 2007, 58 percent applied for aid, and 47 percent received it.
Still, [...]

Congressional Republicans have been telling voters that the cap and trade energy policy that’s set for a vote on Friday will cost each household about $3,100.
CBO puts the lie to those numbers and shows that they’re nearly 20 times the actual costs…in 2020.
From Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Climate change legislation pending in Congress would cost U.S. [...]

Even though he’s only been in office for 5 months, this has still be a long time coming.
And there are some important measures being introduced for home loans and consumer protection.
From Wash Post:
Many of the specific proposals will require legislation, and today’s announcement will drop the plan into an already heated debate on Capitol Hill [...]

This nifty little video provides a good breakdown of what went down and why.

Basically, it boils down to what we all suspected: grossly irresponsible lending brought about by deregulation.
It seems so obvious in retrospect.
(h/t: The Crisis of Credit)

Because we overreached so much during the past eight years, the practice of stop-loss was an unfortunate and common reality for many soldiers who would have otherwise left the military.
Now we’re honoring their forced service with more than a pat on the back.
From AP:
WASHINGTON -The House and Senate reached a compromise Thursday to give a [...]

A couple of days ago, I read a piece in Politico about the Republican’s strategy in 2010. Long story short, it’s all about blaming Obama for the current deficits.
In fact, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas actually said this (I’m presuming with a straight face) …
“This was not an inherited situation. This was a matter entirely [...]

Looks like the Dems are going to have to fight the largest physician’s organization in the world.
Yikes.
From NY Times:
[...] in comments submitted to the Senate Finance Committee, the American Medical Association said: “The A.M.A. does not believe that creating a public health insurance option for non-disabled individuals under age 65 is the best way to [...]