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White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action. "Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement, there is not, at least that I know of,"...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action.

The trio of Republicans tasked with shaping GOP senators’ response if the Supreme Court voids many of the Obama health law’s tax credits have thrown their weight behind a short-term extension of financial assistance. [Snip] Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Orrin Hatch of Utah and John Barrasso of Wyoming gave their backing to such a plan in an op-ed published Sunday night in the Washington Post. “Republicans have a plan to create a bridge away from Obamacare,” wrote the men, who were tapped by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with devising a strategy for GOP senators.

To quickly secure our Southern Border, open the construction of the border fence to public and private sponsorship. Crowd source it. If individuals, private organizations, and state or local governments with jurisdiction were allowed to finance construction of one mile segments, build out would occur quickly, leaving only a subset for the Federal Government to finance. What do you think of this as a "power down" solution for a future Republican Administration?

* U.S. Stocks Close Higher *Nasdaq Composite Closes Above 5000 For First Time Since March 2000 *DJIA, S&P 500 End at Fresh Records The Nasdaq Composite climbed above the 5000-point level for the first time in almost 15 years on Monday, another milestone in the revival of an index that once was synonymous with dot-com excess but now reflects a broad swath of global technology, consumer, health-care and financial firms. The Nasdaq Composite, which tracks the prices of the 2,571 companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market, briefly topped 5000 at 10:30 a.m. EST. It was the first time the index...

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Monday that President Obama is "very interested" in the idea of raising taxes through unitlateral executive action. "The president certainly has not indicated any reticence in using his executive authority to try and advance an agenda that benefits middle class Americans," Earnest said in response to a question about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) calling on Obama to raise more than $100 billion in taxes through IRS executive action. "Now I don't want to leave you with the impression that there is some imminent announcement, there is not, at least that I know...

"....Claire Yunker, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services, said in a statement that Walker’s proposal is aimed at preventing fraud and abuse in the existing system and creating a more coordinated care regimen. But Daniel Idzikowski, executive director of Disability Rights — a group that advocates for people with disabilities — said his organization was not consulted about Walker’s plan that the Legislature will debate over the next three months. It would drastically restructure Family Care, which administers personal care and long-term care services to elderly, disabled and injured Wisconsinites through Medicaid, he said. “By and large that...

President Obama earned a double-barreled rebuke Monday from The Washington Post's fact-checker, for repeating a faulty claim that the Keystone XL pipeline "bypasses" the U.S. -- and for saying it would only carry "Canadian oil." The president made the claims in an interview last week with WDAY of Fargo, N.D. Obama continued to downplay the impact of the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline, just days after vetoing a bipartisan-backed bill that would approve the construction project. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has teed up a vote to override that veto later this week. In the local interview, Obama said: "I've already...

......UW officials say that Walker's proposal to end funding for the bioenergy program would cripple broader energy-development research that is receiving $25million annually from the federal Department of Energy."I can't honestly say how we would replace it at this point,"said Michael Corradini,director of the Wisconsin Energy Institute at UW-Madison,which derives 90% of its funding from the bioenergy program...In 2007,Wisconsin landed the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center—the first federal research center the state had attracted in decades. The center received an initial five-year,$125 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.It was part of a $375 million package by the administration...

MRIs cost about $4,000, but his patients pay $400 CT scans are $2,000 with insurance, he said, but are $300 through his practice X-rays are usually $500, but priced at $60 at Pinckney's clinic, the results of which he can check on his smartphone

Obama hates Netanyahu's upcoming address to Congress because, unlike the McConnell Boehner clown car, there will be one strong voice, drawing a national audience, declaring truth and the treachery of what Obama is up to. I wish Netanyahu could address Congress monthly. This is just upside down insaneville. The House passed a bill to fund Homeland Security, minus Obama's illegal amnesty. The Senate wants to pass the bill, but can't because Democrats are filibustering it. Senate Democrats are declaring loud and clear they'd sooner shut down DHS than keep it open without the amnesty program. It’s a classic standoff, and...

Last week I wrote an article for the Illinois Policy Institute on the hugely unfunded and deteriorating nature of numerous Illinois' pension systems. I will post the article on Monday. My article was on on state pension systems, not Chicago's, and was written well ahead of downgrades of Chicago's debt by Moody's on Friday. I was not surprised to see the downgrade.

Back in 2012, I shared some superb analysis from InvestorÂ’s Business Daily showing that the United States never would have suffered $1 trillion-plus deficits during ObamaÂ’s first term if lawmakers had simply exercised a modest bit of spending restraint beginning back in 1998. And the IBD research didnÂ’t assume anything onerous. Indeed, the author specifically showed what would have happened if spending grew by an average of 3.3 percent, equal to the combined growth of inflation plus population.Remarkably, we would now have a budget surplus of about $300 billion if that level of spending restraint continued to the current fiscal...

Suppose there were a banquet for 100 people and at the end of the night it was time to split the bill of $50 per person. If that bill were paid for the way we pay our income taxes, here is how it would work. Those in the top half of income would pay roughly $97 each and those in the bottom half of the income would pay an average of $3 each. Almost 40 people would pay nothing. And the single richest person in the room would cough up $1,750. Liberals would complain that the cheap skate rich guy...

RENOWNED Bucks County portrait artist Nelson Shanks has painted everyone from Princess Diana to President Bill Clinton and from Pope John Paul II to Marisa Tomei. He and his wife, Leona, are the founders of Studio Incamminati, an art school on 12th Street near Callowhill. On a recent Friday, as the north light of a chilly afternoon flooded his Andalusia studio, Shanks, 77, chain smoked cigarettes and drank Diet Cokes while painting Gabrielle, a beautiful young belly dancer, on a 7-by-5-foot canvas. Following his 7-hour session with Gabrielle, Shanks spoke with Stephanie Farr about a hidden secret in his portrait...

When Alison Norris couldn’t find work in Detroit, she searched past the city limits, ending up with a part-time restaurant job that’s 20 miles away but takes at least two hours to get to via separate city and suburban bus systems. For many city residents with limited skills and education, Detroit is an employment desert, having lost tens of thousands of blue-collar jobs in manufacturing cutbacks and service jobs as the population dwindled. What’s available to those without cars—about 40 percent of Detroit’s population, according to federal figures—often are low-paying retail or sales positions far outside the city. […] The...

While Vladimir Putin remains firmly entrenched in power in the Kremlin, opposition forces marched in the tens of thousands in the streets of Moscow according to journalists. The marchers chanted demanding an end to Putin’s power in Russia after the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. Nemtsov was gun down on the streets of Moscow.The suspicion is that Nemtsov, who was planning a rally in Moscow against Putin and the prosecution of the Ukraine war, was killed to silence and inconvenient critic.“Tens of thousands of Russians marched through central Moscow on Sunday, carrying banners declaring ‘I am not afraid’ and...

President Barack Obama last week vetoed legislation that would have greenlighted the Keystone XL pipeline, linking Canadian oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The Senate lacks the votes to override Obama's veto. Yet Keystone isn't dead. Both Democrats and Republicans have an interest in keeping this political football in play. Someday, we hope, the pipeline will be built. But that day won't come any time soon — and perhaps never during Obama's dwindling presidency. In his veto message, Obama asserted that he hasn't decided whether Keystone should be built or not. Obama said he was using his veto pen...

As robots increasingly adopt human qualities, including those that allow them to replace actual human labor, economists are starting to worry.  As the Wall Street Journal reported last week, some “wonder if automation technology is near a tipping point, when machines finally master traits that have kept human workers irreplaceable.”The fears of economists, politicians and workers themselves are way overdone.  They should embrace the rise of robots precisely because they love job creation.  As my upcoming book Popular Economics points out with regularity, abundant job creation is always and everywhere the happy result of technological advances that tautologically lead to job destruction.Robots...

A German investment firm has predicted Apple Inc’s downfall as it sets a stock price target of $60 per share. Berenberg Bank believes the financial model of the Cupertino-based company relies too much on the iPhone. Berenberg has forecasted a more than 50 percent decline of Apple shares. According to Apple Insider, the German firm’s price target is so “extreme” that it doesn’t appear to be plausible prediction but more of a statement. In a note to investors, Berenberg issued the extremely bearish forecast on Apple stock. Even a few investment firms who remain bearish on Apple have maintained price...