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In February 2009, ABC News was first to report on the 10 letters from constituents that the president is given each day. Culled from the thousands the White House Correspondence Office receives each day from Americans who have taken the time to sit down and write to their president,” the letters “help him focus on the real problems people are facing,” said then-senior adviser David Axelrod. Some of these, maybe two or three each day, the President responds to in his own hand. Then-White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told us that before two different economic speeches, the President “pulled...

Alaskans get $1,174 checks from state's oil wealthThe Associated Press Oct 06, 2011 ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Most Alaskans will be getting $1,174 in Permanent Fund dividends on Thursday. **SNIP** Voters passed a constitutional amendment in 1976 to establish the Permanent Fund as a way to stretch out the state's oil wealth for future generations.

On Sat., Oct. 1, new regulations from the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul go into effect on debit cards. Specifically, they impose price controls on “interchange fees,” the fees that banks and credit unions charge to retailers on debit card transactions. The average interchange fee is about 44 cents. The new rules limit the fees to 21 to 24 cents. “The costs of processing debit card transactions doesn’t go away because you limit the price,” said John Berlau, director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute. “That shifts the costs to consumers.”

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Israel is urging the international community to continue aid to the Palestinians just as U.S. lawmakers are contemplating an aid cutoff if the Palestinians press for statehood at the United Nations. An Israeli government website on Thursday carried a report saying the Palestinian Authority already faced economic and fiscal woes, in part due to a decline in donor aid. "Israel calls for ongoing international support for the PA budget and development projects that will contribute to the growth of a vibrant private sector, which will provide the PA an expanded base for generating internal revenue,"...

Prev Previous Article Editorials Print Comments 3 Debt crisis punctures Social Security myth By: Examiner Editorial | 07/14/11 9:00 PM "I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on Aug. 3,” President Barack Obama warned “CBS Evening News” viewers about Social Security on Tuesday night. “There may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.” But how can that be? Haven’t Washington, D.C.’s professional politicians been telling us for decades that Social Security is in no danger of bankruptcy because of those trillions of dollars supposedly just sitting there in the Social Security Trust Fund? Why can’t...

Reid: No Social Security checks without debt dealAP – 10 minutes ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Echoing President Barack Obama's warning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says Social Security payments would stop if there is no deal to raise the government's borrowing limit by Aug. 2. Speaking on the Senate floor, the Nevada Democrat said flatly that payments for veterans benefits and the military, as well as Social Security, would cease if the government defaults on its obligations. His statement goes beyond Obama, who said earlier this week that he could not guarantee Social Security checks will be issued on Aug....

The European Union is warning Denmark its plans for customs checks may violate EU law and the Schengen free travel agreement. Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, telephoned Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen Friday morning, then followed up with a letter saying the commission had "grave concerns" that Denmark's plan would hinder the smooth functioning of Europe's single market. Member countries may not institute systematic border checks. They can sometimes institute spot checks, but Barroso wrote that the country must demonstrate that the measures are necessary. Denmark says the checks are needed to fight cross-border crime and...

Social Security Payments to Go Paperless Beginning May 1Published April 22, 2011 | FoxNews.com Social Security checks are going paperless beginning May 1, as the U.S. Treasury Department retires paper checks for electronic payments. The cost-saving measure, which won't be fully implemented until May 2013, is aimed at reducing government expenses by $1 billion over the next decade as millions of baby boomers and others apply for monthly federal benefits. Federal benefits will also be paid electronically to recipients of veterans and disability payments, the Treasury Department announced Friday. Eighteen million baby boomers are expected to go onto the retirement...

Federal fraud: Healthy workers took disability Investigation finds $25 billion misspent on payments from 2005 to 2009; thousands of federal workers received questionable checks February 18, 2011 By Sharyl Attkisson * Play CBS Video Video Fighting federal disability fraud According to government estimates, fraud and improper payments ate up $25 billion dollars in federal disability payments from 2005-2009. Sharyl Attkisson reports on the double-dipping that's slipping through the cracks. * 111 Charged in Medicare Scams Worth $225M * Taxpayer Funds Paid for Bonuses, Casino Trips (CBSNews) You have no doubt noticed it when you get your paycheck, the deduction for...

Pop quiz. What's the biggest single job the federal government undertakes? National defense? Nope. Homeland security? Wrong. Transportation? Not even close. Law enforcement? No way. Education? Getting colder. Foreign aid? Are you kidding? Nope, the biggest single thing the federal government does these days is ... cut checks. Lots and lots and lots and lots of checks that go to individual citizens -- $2.3 trillion worth last year alone. In fact, according to a table buried deep inside the little-noticed Historical Tables volume of the White House's 2012 budget, these "direct payments to individuals" accounted for more than two-thirds...

PASSENGERS and other people entering Shanghai's two airports will no longer be searched for flammable materials, after aviation authorities removed a layer of checks following the conclusion of the World Expo. However, East China Civil Aviation Administration officials insist that security has not been downgraded as passengers will still be screened before boarding flights. Authorities said they are trying to find a balance between the level of security during the Expo and the standard one, as passenger volume this year will reach a record high. The city's two airports beefed up security in April, in anticipation of the Expo, which...

CORBIN — LEXINGTON (AP) — Kentucky Senate President David Williams told a group of law students that state legislators, not voters, should choose members of the U.S. Senate — comments that drew a negative reaction from Kentucky’s two senators. Declaring himself “a tea partier,” Williams on Wednesday called for repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides for popular election of U.S. senators, the Lexington-Herald Leader reported. Williams is seeking the Republican nomination for governor next year.

<p>Once a month, just after midnight, the beeping checkout scanners at a Wal-Mart just off Interstate 95 come alive in a chorus of financial desperation.</p> <p>Here in Fredricksburg, Va., and at grocery stores across the country, the chimes come just after food stamps and other monthly government benefits drop into the accounts of shoppers who have been rationing things like milk, ground beef and toilet paper and can finally stock up again.</p>

Otter shifts stand on 17th Amendment repeal; The Spokesman-Review Idaho Gov. Butch Otter declared during a political debate today that he doesn’t favor repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - though he’s been sharply critical of the amendment for the past year, including in his keynote speech at a Tea Party rally in Spokane in April. The amendment shifted selection of U.S. senators from state Legislatures to a vote of the people, and repealing it is a plank in Idaho’s Republican Party platform. The governor’s comments came as he and Democratic challenger Keith Allred sparred over everything...

Hundreds of federal employees may have improperly reaped millions in Social Security disability benefits, according to a government watchdog that caught workers at several major agencies pocketing fraudulent payments. The Government Accountability Office issued a report that showed at least 1,500 federal employees may have wrongly received benefits. The group's investigation, which focused on two Social Security programs for people who have limited incomes due to disabilities, found several specific cases in which beneficiaries were earning well above the income cap while still receiving benefits. In one case, a Transportation Security Administration screener was overpaid $108,000, according to the report.

Congress Fails to Act as Thousands Collect Their Last Unemployment Checks'We're Dying Out Here' While Congress Stalls By BETSY STARK and SADIE BASS Oct. 9, 2009 The House of Representatives voted on an extension of unemployment benefits 17 days ago, but today the Senate failed to pass a bill of its own. In those two weeks the Senate has failed to act, an estimated 200,000 Americans have lost a lifeline. Many who contacted ABCNews.com said lawmakers are missing the emergency. "I wonder if the senators of this great country ever wake up worrying about how to pay their electric bill...

Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce. ~~~ Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government. *** Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035 *** FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with...

Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce. Washington, D.C. - Update: Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley is pushing the bill. Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America's small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction...

Sen Johnny Isakson Says Checks Would Entice People To Buy He would know. As a longtime realtor in Cobb County, Sen. Johnny Isakson has seen housing downturns before. "We had recessions in 1968, 1974, 1982, and 1991, by every measurement, this is going to be a deeper and bigger recession in residential housing. It's a significant event." Isakson is pitching an idea to his colleagues in Congress: a $15,000 tax rebate check to anyone who agrees to buy a home. Congressional budget analysts project the program would cost $14 billion over the next few years. But Isakson said the rebate...

Streisand pitches in as leaders write checks to defense fundsBy Susan Crabtree Posted: 02/04/08 06:38 PM [ET] For lawmakers faced with mounting legal bills, itÂ’s good to have friends in high places with deep pockets. Members of the leadership on both sides of the aisle cut checks to legally embattled House colleagues, and even Barbra Streisand contributed $1,000 to Rep. Jim McDermottÂ’s (D-Wash.) legal expense fund. Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), who will face trial late this month on an array of bribery and corruption charges, has collected a total of $166,550 since 2005 to help defray legal costs. Members of...