Free Republic

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who reportedly will leave office at the end of this month, is already responsible for spending and borrowing more money than any of his predecessors as secretary of the Treasury. The U.S. Senate confirmed Geithner on Jan. 26, 2009. Between February 2009, the first full month of Geithner’s tenure, and the end of November 2012, the last full month for which federal spending records are available, the U.S. Treasury dispensed approximately $13.582319 trillion. …

Warren Buffett says he’s optimistic the nation’s debt problems will be solved, despite the political fighting that’s threatening to put the country over the “fiscal cliff.” … “The United States is richer than it’s ever been. We have $50,000 or so of GDP per person. But we’ve overpromised and we’ve also under taxed to some extent, so we find ourselves with this great fiscal imbalance. But it was man made. We’re a rich country. It can be solved. … We’ll be able to overcome this problem. America has faced a lot tougher problems than this one. We’ll get it solved.”...

John Boehner is a bloodied House speaker following the startling setback that his own fractious Republican troops dealt him in their “fiscal cliff” struggle against President Barack Obama. There’s plenty of internal grumbling about the Ohio Republican, especially among conservatives, and lots of buzzing about whether his leadership post is in jeopardy. But it’s uncertain whether any other House Republican has the broad appeal to seize the job from Boehner or whether his embarrassing inability to pass his own bill preventing tax increases on everyone but millionaires is enough to topple him. “No one will be challenging John Boehner as...

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) does not think it is “logical” to achieve a balanced federal budget “from the standpoint of a whole economy” because the relationship between budget and government is different from that of budget and individual. At the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, CNSNews.com asked Frank about the “fiscal cliff” talks between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio): “During these ongoing negotiations would you like to see an attempt to balance the federal budget? And if so,in what year?” …

A new and extensive analysis of 2.4 million loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration in recent years shows a pattern of risky lending that could generate $20 billion in losses and harm thousands of the nation’s most vulnerable borrowers. By ignoring risks in loans it insured in 2009 and 2010, the study concludes, the F.H.A. is imperiling both borrowers and taxpayers who stand behind the agency. The analysis emerged less than a month after the F.H.A.’s auditor submitted a troubling report on the financial soundness of its insurance fund. In mid-November, the auditor estimated that the fund, which backs...

President Barack Obama is not ready to accept a new offer from the Republican leader of the U.S. House of Representatives to raise taxes on top earners in exchange for major cuts in entitlement programs, a source said late on Saturday. The shape and details of Boehner’s offer were uncertain Saturday night, as was the exact reason the president was prepared to reject it. … Tax rates and entitlements are the two most difficult issues in the so-far unproductive negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff” of steep tax hikes and spending cuts set for the new year unless Congress and...

Former presidential hopeful, Steve Forbes said he believes Republicans would be best served postponing “everything” before passing any laws to avoid the looming fiscal cliff. “Just say everything stays the same for another three months, six months because early next year it will be apparent that doing harm to this economy is not going to be a smart thing to do,” Forbes said in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV. “The president hopes to ram this through before the shakiness of the economy becomes evident to the voters.” …

The failure of Democrats and Republicans to break the impasse over the “fiscal cliff” is raising the possibility of Congress going beyond the year-end deadline to complete the work necessary to avert steep tax hikes and budget cuts that experts fear could push the nation into another recession. A top Democrat in the House of Representatives said if the two sides agreed in principle on a deal but ran out of time to draft and pass the legislation implementing it, Congress could pass a temporary measure and work out the details in the following weeks. Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland,...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said what she views as optimistic market data is a sign that investors believe an agreement to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” will be reached, that the markets “trust that we would not be so stupid as to go over the cliff.” At a Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday, Pelosi said, “If we agree that we will have a solution and that we will avoid the cliff—I think we all should agree to that—then what are the steps we need to take and how quickly can we take them, so that we at...

Contrary to popular opinion, U.S. tax rates aren’t low, says Edward Prescott, a Nobel laureate economist at Arizona State University. “Tax rates are already high, much higher than is commonly understood, and increasing them will likely further depress the economy, especially by affecting the number of hours Americans work,” Prescott and Lee Ohanian, a UCLA economist, write in The Wall Street Journal. …

During a press conference to unveil some 160,000 individual petitions asking Congress not to raise taxes on any Americans, organizers were asked if House Speaker John Boehner was invited to attend. “Speaker Boehner was invited. Other members of leadership were invited,” said Dustin Stockton, chief strategist with TheTeaParty.net, the group that organized the petition drive. … “But then he (Boehner) didn’t want to attend this?” CNSNews.com asked. “No,” Stockton said. …

House conservatives believe there is no good proposal put forth by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) or President Obama to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” and blame for the current Republican position “rests squarely” on Boehner’s shoulders. “Let’s do something that’s real unusual in this town. Let’s talk about accountability. I don’t care whoever you are. The position the speaker’s in right now—if there’s any blame to be placed, it’s squarely on his shoulders,” said Rep. Jeff Landry (R-La.). … “There’s no deal on the table from either side that is a good deal for the American people. Not one...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Budget Committee, tells Newsmax he will refuse to approve an increase in the debt ceiling unless a deal is reached on major entitlement reform—and he is convinced House Speaker John Boehner will refuse as well. The South Carolina Republican also says President Obama should “man up” and create a lasting legacy by saving Medicare and Social Security with those reforms. And he insists defense spending should not suffer significant new cuts because “there is no Social Security without national security.” …

There are limits to how much aid the Federal Reserve can provide to the U.S. economy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke warned on Wednesday as he urged politicians to tackle a year-end fiscal cliff that could derail the country’s gradual recovery. … The U.S. central bank announced it would keep buying $85 billion of Treasury and mortgage-backed bonds a month until it saw a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market. Its balance sheet would increase to almost $4 trillion by the end of next year if it kept up that pace of purchases. … Critics of the central...

Bob Corker says he — and probably many other GOP senators — would consider raising the top tax rate paid by the wealthiest Americans if it meant reforming big entitlement programs such as Medicare.

The United States needs a balanced, comprehensive approach to tackle its fiscal woes that should include a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Sunday. “My view, personally, is that the best way to go forward is to have a balanced approach that takes into account both increasing the revenue, which means, you know, either raising taxes or creating new sources of revenue, and cutting spending,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said in a pre-taped interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” which aired on Sunday. …

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he would have to have a “real serious conversation” with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke before he considers bringing the Federal Reserve Transparency Act to the Senate Floor. On July 25, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2012 (HR 459), also commonly known as the “Audit the Fed” bill sponsored by retiring Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), in a 327-98 vote and has been received in the Senate. The Senate version of the bill, S.202, is stuck in the Senate. … As CNSNews.com previously reported, Reid was once a...

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) said no progress has been made with the White House in talks to avert the so-called fiscal cliff: across-the-board tax-rate hikes and automatic spending cuts (sequestration) at the beginning of the new year. “This isn’t a progress report because there’s no progress to report,” Boehner said during a Capitol Hill press conference on Friday. “When it comes to the fiscal cliff that is threatening our economy and threatening jobs, the White House has wasted another week.” …

Hillary Clinton is among the most popular politicians nationwide and is the clear choice for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, according to recent polling data. A new poll released by Public Policy Polling found 51 percent of respondents have a favorable view of Hillary Clinton, while 29 percent view her unfavorably. On the Republican side, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie received a 48 percent favorability rating, with 26 percent of respondents viewing him unfavorably. …