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The Talk Shows October 20th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew; Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Mark Warner, D-Va. THIS WEEK (ABC): Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla.STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Cruz; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The Washington Monument syndrome is describe the tendency of government agencies in the United States to cut the most visible or appreciated services provided by the government when faced with budget cuts. And protect massive waste (since no one would miss the massive waste if it was cut). Such as closing National Parks and Monuments. What are government agencies hiding? The fact that agencies have large concentrations of non-essential personnel. Even Time.com recognizes that most of Federal government in non-essential. The interest payments on Federal debt is a small percentage of Federal current expenditures (11.5% at the end of Q2)....

Journalism icon Bob Woodward wrote in a new Washington Post op-ed first that the sequester was the "brain child" of the White House...

Bob Woodward said that sequestration was Obama's & Lew's idea. Why now is Obama againt it? Why was he for it before he was against it? Why does he flip-flop on his CORE beliefs (raising the debt ceiling, the individual mandate, sequestration, etc)? Not secondary or tertiary beliefs...core beliefs. And why is Lew fearmongering over the debt ceiling? What he has said about it recently has been debunked by Moody's.

Debt Talks: When Treasury Secretary Jack Lew repeatedly says the government has no choice in paying its bills if the debt ceiling is breached, he must surely know it's not true. So why say it? In a word, politics. As the nation's chief financial officer, the Treasury secretary has an enormous responsibility to shoot straight with the American public about the state of our finances. So does President Obama, for that matter. But when it comes to the political dispute over raising the debt ceiling from its current $16.7 trillion, Lew unfortunately has not leveled with us. Opting for political...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, delivered a blistering statement directly to the face of Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in a committee hearing this morning addressing the legal limit on the federal government’s debt. Hatch told Lew that statements and arguments Lew has been making in defense of the administration’s position that it will not negotiate with Congress over the terms of increasing the debt limit were “not true” and “simply false.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew warned Congress that “uncertainty” over the debt limit is starting to stress financial markets and trying to time an increase to the last minute “could be very dangerous.” Lew was speaking in testimony prepared for a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee today. debtceilgst But not the growth rate in debt or entitlements? Obamacare and other entitlements will lead to even more explosive debt growth in the US. debtprojection7 The US and much of the world has already been experiencing explosive debt in both the public and private sectors. See this link for a...

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Thursday denounced "irresponsible and reckless" arguments against boosting the $16.7 trillion debt limit. In testimony before Congress, the president's top economic adviser took aim at Republican "deniers" who contend that the nation need not default if the debt limit is not raised. Lew argued such an approach risks "irrevocable damage" to the nation's reputation on the global stage and in financial markets. Everything from military pay to Social Security payments could be put at risk without a debt limit boost, he warned. "It is irresponsible and reckless to insist that we experience a forced default...

Here is an interesting idea from UBS interest rate strategists Mike Schumacher and Boris Rjavinski. It is called “super premium Treasuries.” Here is how it works. 1. The U.S. government takes in $277 billion in tax revenues each month, and spends $452 billion each month, for a monthly deficit of around $175 billion. 2. It also has, on average, call it $100 billion of Treasury notes coming due each month. Instead of just rolling those Treasuries — paying them off at 100 cents on the dollar by issuing new Treasuries at 100 cents on the dollar — it should pay...

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subpoenaed Obama Treasury Secretary Jack Lew for withholding documentation from Congress in the ongoing IRS Tea Party Scandal investigation. The Oversight Committee accuses the Obama Administration of impeding and obstructing the investigation. “During the past two weeks, President Obama and you have repeatedly labeled the IRS’s strategy of targeting Americans for their political beliefs as a ‘phony’ scandal. While the Obama Administration has so publicly deflected responsibility for the targeting, it simultaneously has attempted to thwart congressional oversight into the matter… the IRS has engaged in a systematic effort to delay, frustrate,...

As long as the interest payment - around $475 billion dollars over 12 months - of the federal debt outstanding (around $17 trillion dollars) is made, then a default can be averted; Hence, no need for a shutdown if the current revenues are allocated to make the interest payment(s) first. After that, current revenues would then cover Social Security payments, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP benefits, unemployment benefits, and the rest would cover around half of the $580 billion dollars currently being called for, for military spending. And thus, we would need to borrow absolutely no more than $400 billion - and...

On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace went after Treasury Secretary Jack Lew over the investigation—or lack thereof, in Wallace’s estimation—of alleged targeting by the IRS of conservative 501(c)(4) groups. The IRS scandal—which had receded in recent weeks after an audit by the Inspector General revealed progressive groups were scrutinized in addition to conservative organizations, and produced no evidence linking the behavior to a political appointee—was revived this week when President Barack Obama’s invoked “phony scandals” in his speech in Galesburg, Illinois. Lew was directed by Obama to follow up on the Inspector General’s report

US Treasury is considering letting China cut in front of other investors and buy Treasury debt direct from … Treasury. That is, bypass Primary Dealers. The relationship means the People’s Bank of China can buy United States debt using a different method from any other central bank. (Reuters) – China can now bypass Wall Street when buying U.S. government debt and go straight to the U.S. Treasury, in what is the Treasury’s first-ever direct relationship with a foreign government, according to documents viewed by Reuters. Its not the first time Treasury has schmoozed China. In 2009, when Treasury officials found...

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Friday urged congressional leaders to raise the debt limit and insisted that the White House is not going to negotiate over the increase because lawmakers have "no choice." "We will not negotiate over the debt limit," Lew wrote. "The creditworthiness of the United States is non-negotiable. The question of whether the country must pay obligations it has already incurred is not open to debate." Lew said that while President Obama is willing to discuss plans to reduce the nation's deficit with Congress, those talks must be kept separate from any effort to raise the nation's...

Update: The first head rolls: O announces that Steve Miller, acting commissioner of the IRS and a man who’s known for a year about the agency’s targeting of conservatives, is out. Worth noting, though: Miller wasn’t commissioner when most of the targeting occurred. That was Doug Shulman, who left in November. Update: So the Miller resignation effectively meant nothing. "‘Lew took the first step by requesting and accepting the resignation of the acting director of the IRS,’ Obama said. ‘It’s important,’ he added, ‘to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward.’ But in an email to IRS...

Top GOP oversight official Rep. Darrell Issa said in a May 9 letter that if a top Obama aide again declines to testify on a draft executive order requiring political disclosure from government contractors, Issa will be “required to consider the use of compulsory process” – a congressional subpoena.If Issa subpoenas OMB director Jacob Lew to testify about the draft order, which Republicans warn could allow the administration to politicize the government contracting process, it would be the first time the GOP has subpoenaed the Obama White House since they obtained the authority in taking over the House in January.A...

<p>President Obama says Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has requested and received the resignation of acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller, after critical report on targeting of conservative groups.</p>

Jack Lew, who has been nominated as the next treasury secretary, oversaw up as many as a hundred Cayman Island investments when he worked at Citi Bank as chief operating officer of the alternative investment services unit, SEC disclosures reveal. It has previously been reported that Lew himself had been invested in a fund that was based in the Cayman Islands. "To meet your complex hedge fund, fund of hedge funds and private equity fund needs, Citi is your single provider with market-leading experience, global reachand state-of-the-art technology. Our unmatched worldwide presence, economies of scale and comprehensive portfolio of solutions...

President Obama’s budget will be released tomorrow and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is visiting Europe to preview President Obama’s budget: increase in debt of $7.3 trillion and removal of spending controls. Lew is advising Europe to borrow and spend more. Washington Post’s Zach Goldfarb reports Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, “quickly embracing his role as the leading US diplomat on the economy, pushed his counterparts in Europe on Monday to do more to drive economic growth and enact stronger and more unified defenses against financial panics.” In Brussels on Monday morning, Lew met with “a series of officials that included European...

During my remarks today I have exhaustively documented the case against the confirmation of Mr. Lew. I have detailed his disastrous budget plans, rebuked by editorial boards across the country and unanimously rejected by Congress. I have discussed his repeated, knowing, and deliberately false statements about those budget plans—most notoriously his claim that “Our budget will get us, over the next several years, to the point where we can look the American people in the eye and say we’re not adding to the debt anymore; we’re spending money that we have each year, and then we can work on bringing...