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Top Conservatives Are Blown Away By John Boehner’s Fiscal Cliff Offer

“The conservative group Club For Growth derided Speaker John Boehner Monday over his latest fiscal cliff offer, attacking the House Republican leader for offering concessions on raising tax rates and the debt ceiling. 

“First Speaker Boehner offered to raise tax rates after promising not to, and now he’s offering to raise the debt ceiling. Raising tax rates is anti-growth and raising the debt ceiling is pro-government growth – and this is the Republican position?” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in a statement.

Chocola’s reaction reflects a growing criticism of Boehner among grassroots Republican activists who feel that the Speaker has abandoned conservative principles in his negotiations with President Barack Obama over the fiscal cliff.

The complaints, which began with Boehner’s decision to “purge” four conservative congressmen from top House committees, reached a new level of panic this weekend with the news that Boehner has offered to let tax rates rise for millionaires.

But what really pushed Club for Growth over the edge was last night’s Washington Post report that said Boehner is willing to take the debt ceiling off the table…”

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Obama JOBS Act Helped Big Companies Avoid Transparency

“Legislation that was supposed to help smaller companies go public has aided larger firms to keep financial data out of the hands of investors.

The “Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act” (or JOBS Act) was promoted by President Barack Obama as a way to assist small businesses in their efforts to raise money through IPOs (stock market launches).

The same legislation, though, made it possible for larger companies (those earning less than $1 billion a year) to dodge reporting details about executive compensation and financial histories to the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

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Speaker John Boehner Itches Millionaire Tax Hike

 

“Speaker John Boehner has proposed allowing tax rates to rise for the wealthiest Americans if President Barack Obama agrees to major entitlement cuts, according to several sources close to the talks.

It is the first time Boehner has offered any boost in marginal tax rates for any income group, and it would represent a major concession for the Ohio Republican. Boehner suggested hiking the Bush-era tax rates for top wage earners, including those with annual incomes of $1 million or more annually, beginning Jan. 1, two sources said.”

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Military Judge Orders Guantánamo Prisoners Not to Talk in Court About Being Tortured

“The Obama administration has won a critical ruling in the upcoming military trial of the September 11, 2001, plotters that will keep the defendants from testifying about being tortured.

The Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked the military judge, Colonel James Pohl, to censor any statements from the detainees going on trial that reveal how they were tortured or abused by the U.S.

 

Pohl agreed with the agencies that classified information should not be disclosed during the proceedings, including any details about the use of interrogation techniques on the defendants.”

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Republicans Deemed Too Pro-Rich, 57% in Poll Want Change

“A majority of Americans say the Republican Party needs a major overhaul after electoral losses revealed demographic, messaging and technological shortfalls compared with Democrats, a Bloomberg National Poll shows.

Even among Republicans, just 16 percent say their party is fine and doesn’t need to change. The survey also shows the party is viewed as too protective of the wealthy and that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has a slight edge among high-profile Republicans who may lead the party.

The party is reassessing its positions and tactics after losing the presidential race, failing to make gains in the U.S. Senateand seeing their House majority shrink after the 2012 elections. The Republican National Committee this week created a study group to examine how it can improve the party’s performance ahead of the 2014 congressional elections and 2016 race for the White House…”

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The EU Puts the ECB in Charge Over All EU Lenders

“European Union finance ministers agreed to put the European Central Bank in charge of all euro- area lenders in a deal that paves the way for the currency bloc’s firewall fund to provide direct bailouts to banks.

The accord marks a step toward tightening integration of the monetary union to stem the financial crisis that emerged in Greece in 2009. The policy makers’ goal was to break a vicious circle that undermined confidence in Europe’s banks.

While the agreement marks a breakthrough, “there are still some thorny issues,” Julian Callow, London-based chief international economist at Barclays Plc, said today on Bloomberg Television. “What about the financing, bank resolution, what about deposit insurance,” he said.

The new supervisor should be ready by March 1, 2014, with about 200 banks automatically qualifying for direct ECB oversight, EU Financial Services Commissioner Michel Barniersaid at 4:30 a.m. today in Brussels after 14 hours of talks. In the interim, the 500 billion-euro ($654 billion) European Stability Mechanism could aid banks directly using its own procedures and asking ECB supervisors to step in, he said.

EU leaders sought common bank oversight to rejuvenate their crisis-management effort. The heads of state and government, who gather in Brussels today for a regular summit, will be looking beyond ECB supervision to other measures needed to break the links between banking woes and sovereign-debt struggles, such as who should pay to stabilize failing banks.”

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Conservatives Are Threatening To ‘Systematically Replace’ Republicans Who Agree To A Deal On The Fiscal Cliff

“Driven by growing concerns that House GOP leaders will give in to raising tax rates, grassroots conservatives are ramping up pressure on Republicans to block any deal on the fiscal cliff.

More than 100 conservative leaders — including Santorum megadonor Foster Friess, RedState editor Erick Erickson, Phyllis Schlafly, longtime GOP activist Morton Blackwell, and others — banded together Wednesday to send an open letter warning Republican members of Congress against voting for any compromise on the fiscal cliff.

“The thrust of the letter is to remind Republicans in the Congress that this is a time of testing,” said Morton Blackwell, a veteran Republican Party activist who hosts the exclusive Weyrich Lunch conservative strategy sessions. “The pressure is on to cave into the demands of president Obama and the left….They need to understand or be reminded that to cave in would be very bad and very much damage the credibility of the GOP…”

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Corporate Taxes on Table in Cliff Talks

“The White House has told Republicans it would include an overhaul of the corporate-tax code as part of any deal to reduce the deficit, people familiar with the talks said, a move to court business groups as budget negotiations intensify.

Corporate taxes hadn’t until now been part of budget talks aimed at averting spending cuts and tax increases set for January. Much of the focus has instead been on the expiring individual income-tax rates.

The offer from the White House came amid a fresh round of proposals from both sides, as President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner exchanged counteroffers to address the so-called fiscal cliff. Big gaps remain between Democratic and Republican negotiators, and while talks are continuing, there is no guarantee a deal will be struck, with or without a corporate-tax revamp.

The White House’s corporate-tax suggestion wasn’t specific, according to officials familiar with the offer, other than committing to overhaul the corporate tax code in 2013. White House officials, in making the suggestion, cited a corporate-tax plan the administration unveiled in February but said they weren’t wedded to any specifics….”

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White House: Too Big to Fail Will Also Be Known as Too Big to Jail…No Really!

“One of the great things about being too big to fail is that you’re also too big to jail, apparently.

So saith the Obama administration, via the New York Times, in its front-page story on Tuesday about HSBC’s settlement with the government over money-laundering charges. Though the British banking giant had to pay a wrist-stinging $1.9 billion, the settlement helped it avoid formal criminal charges. The NYT quotes anonymous government officials who say they were skittish about indicting HSBC because formal charges would amount to a “death penalty” for the bank, potentially roiling the financial system.

This is at least three very specific flavors of bullshit.

For one thing, according to University of Notre Dame law professor Jimmy Gurulé, a former assistant U.S. Attorney General and former Undersecretary for Enforcement for the U.S. Treasury Department, the government could have formally charged Europe’s biggest bank in such a way as to help it avoid death. The bank’s U.S. business may have been disrupted for some time, but the bank could have survived. The punishment that was meted out — taking about half a quarter’s profit — was so far removed from a “death penalty” that it can’t possibly be a deterrent for any other big bank.”

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Anti-Union Law Ignites Mass Protests in Michigan

“Thousands of protesters took to the streets Tuesday as Michigan legislators quickly debated whether or not to pass right-to-work legislation and voted for the measure despite the opposition from angry crowds outside the Capitol.

More than 12,000 workers gathered around the state Capitol in Lansing, marching in freezing temperatures to show their opposition to the legislation that passed despite their efforts. In a 58-41 vote by the Republican-dominated House to approve a Senate version of the law, Michigan became the 24thstate to take a strike against organized labor with the right-to-work law.

“This is being done politically, rushed through with very little debate – I don’t think many legislators have seen the law,” Ronald Zullo, a research scientist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Labor and Industrial relations, told the Los Angeles Times hours before the GOP-dominated legislature voted for the right-to-work legislation.

The Michigan House and Senate within hours on Thursday introduced and approved bills prohibiting “closed shops”, which require workers to join a union or pay fees equivalent to union dues as a condition of employment. Legislators debated and passed the law quickly on Tuesday.”

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U.S. Fiscal Dispute Shows Sign of Thaw Before Deadline

“Lawmakers returned to Washington today amid a potential thaw in the U.S. fiscal policy dispute, as President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner attempt to make a deal to prevent spending cuts and tax increases from taking effect.

Obama sounded conciliatory notes at a Daimler AG plant in Michigan yesterday. In his first comments since meeting with Boehner Dec. 9 at the White House, the president didn’t repeat frequent complaints about Republicans holding tax cuts for most Americans “hostage” because they oppose higher rates for wealthiest, and said he was ready to come to an agreement. Since Boehner complained Dec. 7 that Obama had wasted a week, statements from the speaker’s office have been milder, too.

“There is a change in tone, obviously,” Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey, said in an interview. After building public support for higher tax rates for the highest earners, he said, Obama is negotiating and “preparing his own party for a possible deal” by sending signals about his willingness to cut entitlement programs including Medicare and Medicaid.”

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FDIC and BoE Agree to Let Shareholders Take Losses in Failing Banks in Order to Protect Tax Payers

“U.S. and U.K. regulators unveiled a plan for dealing with failing global banks that will allow them to fire senior executives as well as force losses on shareholders to protect taxpayers.

“A resolution strategy for a failed or failing globally active, systemically important, financial institution should assign losses to shareholders and unsecured creditors, and hold management responsible,” according to a paper jointly released by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Bank of England in London today.

Global regulators are working on ways to handle the failure of large international banks to avoid another crisis like the one inflamed by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy in 2008 that led to taxpayer bailouts. BOE Deputy Governor Paul Tucker said the joint paper is a “significant step” toward solving the issue…”

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Consumer Spending Begins to Weaken

“U.S. consumer spending, a rare pillar of economic strength in recent months, is showing signs of weakening.

American consumers helped carry the economy through a spring slowdown and appeared to power a summer resurgence in growth. But in recent weeks government data have shown spending was slower over the summer than previously believed, and it has started off the final three months of the year on an even weaker footing.

Now a range of factors, from high unemployment to the prospect of increased taxes due to the approaching “fiscal cliff,” are threatening to sap consumers’ spending power at a time when other sectors of the economy likely are too weak to pick up the slack.

President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met for one-on-one talks Sunday at the White House in a bid to hasten a resolution of the budget impasse, and the president’s aides have left his schedule largely open this week so he has the flexibility to hold more meetings and events. Neither side would discuss the content of Sunday’s conversation…..”

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Republicans Want to Move Beyond Tax Rate Fight on the Wealthy

“…..Rank and file Republicans are eager to move beyond that fight to overhauling Social Security and Medicare, which are both on track to start running out money without major reforms.

“A lot of people are putting forth a theory – and I think it has merit – where you go ahead and give the president the … rate increase on the top 2 percent, and all of a sudden the shift goes back to entitlements,” Corker said….”

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Italy’s Monti Ready to Quit Over Political Crisis

“Premier Mario Monti told the Italian president Saturday he is resigning soon, saying he can no longer govern after Silvio Berlusconi’s party withdrew crucial support. It paves the way for early elections a year after the unelected economist helped pull the country back from the brink of financial disaster.”

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MI May Lead the Way to Drive a Final Nail in the Coffin of Unions

 

“Michigan is on the verge of passing a “right to work” law that experts say would be a massive symbolic blow to the nation’s labor movement and could set the stage for further such legislative fights.

The law would allow workers at unionized companies to not pay dues to the union, severely cutting the funds that give unions their strength. The legislation, which won key votes in the legislature Thursday, could be signed into law next week.”

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