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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (65182)	5/15/2009 9:19:15 PM
From: lorne	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224729

Just how stupid can this guy get...says his own policy cant work....blame President Bush? Obama says own policy 'unsustainable' Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’ By Roger Runningen and Hans Nichols bloomberg.com May 14 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries. “We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.” Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.” Earlier this week, the Obama administration revised its own budget estimates and raised the projected deficit for this year to a record $1.84 trillion, up 5 percent from the February estimate. The revision for the 2010 fiscal year estimated the deficit at $1.26 trillion, up 7.4 percent from the February figure. The White House Office of Management and Budget also projected next year’s budget will end up at $3.59 trillion, compared with the $3.55 trillion it estimated previously. Two weeks ago, the president proposed $17 billion in budget cuts, with plans to eliminate or reduce 121 federal programs. Republicans ridiculed the amount, saying that it represented one-half of 1 percent of the entire budget. They noted that Obama is seeking an $81 billion increase in other spending. Entitlement Programs In his New Mexico appearance, the president pledged to work with Congress to shore up entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. He also said he was confident that the House and Senate would pass health-care overhaul bills by August. “Most of what is driving us into debt is health care, so we have to drive down costs,” he said. Obama prodded Congress to pass restrictions on credit-card issuers, saying consumers need “strong and reliable” protection from unfair practices and hidden fees. “It’s time for reform that’s built on transparency, accountability, and mutual responsibility, values fundamental to the new foundation we seek to build for our economy,” the president said. Obama called on Congress to send to him by May 25 a bill that would clamp down on what he says are sudden rate increases, unfair penalties and hidden fees. He also wants the measure to strengthen monitoring of credit-card companies. House Bill The U.S. House of Representatives passed the credit-card bill last month after adding a provision requiring banks to apply consumers’ payments to balances with the highest interest rates first. The bill also imposes limits on card interest rates and fees. The Senate continued debating its version of the bill today. It would require credit-card companies to give 45 days’ notice before increasing an interest rate. It would prohibit retroactive rate increases on existing balances unless a consumer was 60 days late with a payment. The president said Americans have been hooked on their credit cards and share some blame for the current system. “We have been complicit in these problems,” he said. “We have to change how we operate. These practices have only grown worse in the midst of this recession.” The American Bankers Association, which represents card issuers, has warned lawmakers and the Obama administration against taking punitive action or setting requirements that are too stringent. Doing so, the lobby group says, would limit consumer credit and worsen a credit crunch. Obama said that restrictions “shouldn’t diminish consumers’ access to credit.” Uncollectible Debt Uncollectible credit-card debt rose to 8.82 percent in February, the most in the 20 years that Moody’s Investors Service Inc. has kept records. Lawmakers have said they’re under increasing pressure from constituents to respond to rising interest rates and abrupt changes to consumers’ accounts. Obama held a White House meeting last month with executives from the credit-card industry, including representatives from Bank of America Corp. and American Express Co. Afterward, he told reporters that credit-card issuers should be prohibited from imposing “unfair” rate increases on consumers and should offer the public credit terms that are easier to understand. “The days of any time, any increase, anything goes -- rate hike, late fees -- that must end,” Obama said today at Rio Rancho High School. We’re going to require clarity and transparency from now on.” He also said the steps he has taken to stimulate the economy and start the debate on overhauling the health-care system are beginning to take effect. ‘Beginning to Turn’ “We’ve got a long way to go before we put this recession behind us,” Obama said. “But we do know that the gears of our economy, our economic engine, are slowly beginning to turn.” Taking questions from the audience, Obama repeated his stance that he wants legislation to overhaul the health-care system finished before the end of the year, saying it is vital to the economy. Health-care costs are driving up the nation’s debt and burdening entitlement programs such as Medicare, the government- run insurance program for those 65 and older and the disabled. The programs’ trustees reported May 13 that the Social Security trust fund will run out of assets in 2037, four years sooner than forecast, and Medicare’s hospital fund will run dry by 2017, two years earlier than predicted a year ago.

To: TideGlider who wrote (65182)	5/16/2009 8:02:35 AM
From: lorne	3 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224729

CIA Chief Rebuts Pelosi on Briefings By SIOBHAN GORMAN and NAFTALI BENDAVID MAY 16, 2009 online.wsj.com WASHINGTON -- The Central Intelligence Agency's chief fought back Friday against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's assertion that the CIA "was misleading" Congress, issuing a memo defending the integrity of its employees and contradicting her assertion that she wasn't told about the agency's use of waterboarding to interrogate suspected terrorists. Later in the day, Ms. Pelosi tried to defuse what has turned into an unusual open feud between Congress and the spy agency, with a statement praising the work of intelligence officers and redirecting her rhetorical fire toward the Bush administration. Apart from the institutional contretemps, the matter has put Ms. Pelosi in conflict with CIA director Leon Panetta, a former colleague when both belonged to California's Democratic congressional delegation. "CIA officers briefed truthfully on the interrogation of al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, describing 'the enhanced techniques that had been employed,'" Mr. Panetta wrote in a memo to agency employees. He was referring to an alleged senior al Qaeda detainee in CIA custody in September 2002, when Ms. Pelosi attended a briefing in her capacity as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress," he wrote. "That is against our laws and our values." Other intelligence officials also contradicted Ms. Pelosi's account of the briefing, saying her assertion that she wasn't told waterboarding was in use at the time is wrong. "That's 180 degrees different from what the CIA's records show," an intelligence official said. During the month before Ms. Pelosi's briefing in September 2002, Mr. Zubaydah was subjected to 83 instances of waterboarding. The procedure, which critics say is torture, entails dousing a captive's face to simulate drowning. Ms. Pelosi didn't back down Friday from her insistence that she wasn't informed -- though her statement changed her tone toward the CIA. "My criticism of the manner in which the Bush Administration did not appropriately inform Congress is separate from my respect for those in the intelligence community," she said. But behind the scenes her aides mounted an aggressive defense, pointing to comments by former Sen. Bob Graham (D., Fla.), who was briefed three weeks after Ms. Pelosi and also said this week that CIA officials didn't tell him that any waterboarding had taken place. House and Senate Republicans briefed that September have said they weren't misled, but haven't stated whether they were told interrogators were using waterboarding at the time. "The focus on the Speaker, and not the other people saying the same thing, including the person who was briefed on the same subject around the same time, doesn't do service to the story," said Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami. The controversy has intensified in recent weeks, following Ms. Pelosi's criticism of interrogation techniques authorized by President George W. Bush, and Republicans have responded by asserting that she was aware of the practices years ago and didn't raise objections at the time. Ms. Pelosi has repeatedly said she wasn't told until 2003 about their use. The CIA in a report last week suggested she was told at the 2002 briefing, an assertion she angrily denied Thursday. Mr. Panetta's email to CIA employees Friday attributed Ms. Pelosi's version of events to politics. "There is a long tradition in Washington of making political hay out of our business," he wrote. "But the political debates about interrogation reached a new decibel level yesterday when the CIA was accused of misleading Congress." Mr. Panetta was hired to run the CIA in part for his political skills, and he and Ms. Pelosi have known each other for years. When she first came to Congress in 1987, she became close with a group of House members who shared a home, including Mr. Panetta, according to Marc Sandalow, author of "Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi's Life, Times and Rise to Power." The group had dinner every Tuesday. "They've known each other a long, long time, and they are close," Mr. Sandalow said. "They're not close personal friends. ... She was always to his political left. He was the moderate and she was the San Francisco liberal. But they worked together perfectly well."