Free Republic

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Ma) is in Egypt where he has been sucking up to the Muslim Brotherhood. With the US already $15 trillion in debt, Kerry wants the International Monetary Fund - for which the US provides the largest piece of the budget - to finance the Muslim Brotherhood's takeover of Egypt. In addition to praising the Brotherhood’s election as a model of transparency and integrity, Sen. Kerry also called for an infusion of cash from the International Monetary Fund to undergird Egypt’s new Islamist government.

For supercommittee, failure was an optionBy KEITH CHROSTOWSKI - The Kansas City Star Updated: 2011-11-22 Well, they’ve blown it. Failure was an option. The 12 supercommittee senators and representatives announced Monday they couldn’t come up with a spending, taxing and deficit reduction package. Thanks for wrecking everyone’s Thanksgiving. The stakes for the long-term health of the economy have just grown more dire. America’s reputation for leadership has just taken another hit. An agreement would have provided a bracing contrast to the struggles in Europe over the debt crisis there. It would prove to the world that the United States can...

For Immediate Release: Monday, November 21, 2011 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) today made the following statement after an announcement by co-chairs Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R- Texas) that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction was unable to reach an agreement on a plan to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion:“I'm deeply disappointed with this outcome. We all are. This was an historic moment to do something big, bold, and balanced that demanded shared sacrifice to put our country first. Everyone worked hard and everyone wanted success.“It’s too easy just to...

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) on Wednesday called for the redistribution of America's riches and hammered the wealthy for benefitting from a war effort fought by the poor and middle class. Citing statistics that show 1 percent of Americans now own 42 percent of the nation's wealth, the lawmaker representing Harlem said: "There is something wrong with that formula." Rangel offered no specific remedy for adjusting those figures during his comments on the House floor, but argued further that the wealthiest one percent have the added benefit of not needing to get involved in military service. "Why is it that we...

BOSTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) U.S. Sen. John Kerry said he has no time for lobbyists while on a congressional "supercommittee" tasked with cutting the federal budget deficit, a report said. The Massachusetts Democrat said he also will not do any campaign fundraising during his tenure on the deficit-reduction committee, which has until Thanksgiving to find a way to cut $1.5 billion from the deficit.The Boston Globe said Kerry is trying to address concerns about the committee's potential to be influenced by lobbyists while making major spending decisions."I'm not meeting with a lot of lobbyists; I'm meeting with people I choose...

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday that the media has the responsibility to ignore the Tea Party and not give any credence to their views. Here's what he said: SEN. JOHN KERRY: "And I have to tell you, I say this to you politely. The media in America has a bigger responsibility than it's exercising today. The media has got to to begin to not give equal time or equal balance to an absolutely absurd notion just because somebody asserts it or simply because somebody says something which everybody knows is not factual. "It doesn't deserve...

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told CNBC Monday that he is certain that congressional leaders will strike a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling prior to the Aug. 2 deadline to avoid default. "Each side has said definitively that default is not an option," he said, "They're not going to play around with this." "If the United States of America were to default it would be catastrophic for the American economy, for the American financial system, for the average American people, it would be a substantial unfair tax on all Americans and it would bring the world economy ... to...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is strongly criticizing a Republican proposal that would prioritize interest payments on the nation's debt and cut spending rather than raise the borrowing limit. Geithner says in a letter addressed to Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, that the idea is "a radical and deeply irresponsible departure" from previous practices by presidents of both parties. The letter was copied to 16 other Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

(CNSNews.com) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the House Small Business Committee on Wednesday that the Obama administration believes taxes on small business must increase so the administration does not have to “shrink the overall size of government programs.” The administration’s plan to raise the tax rate on small businesses is part of its plan to raise taxes on all Americans who make more than $250,000 per year—including businesses that file taxes the same way individuals and families do. [........] “We're not doing it because we want to do it, we're doing it because we see no alternative to a balanced approach to reduce our...

Focus: The Economic Development Administration, U.S. Commerce Dept....the Senate is currently seeking to increase EDA funding to $500 million a year from $300 million. Worse, this bill passed out of a Senate authorization committee with unanimous, bipartisan support. [snip] In April, the bureau reported that it gave a $2 million grant to build a "culinary amphitheater," wine tasting room, and gift shop at the Port of Benton and the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center in Richland, Wash. The same month, it gave $1.5 million to promote tourism in the Northern Mariana Islands. In January, it spent $1 million on...

The one thing we can’t say with certitude is that Anthony Weiner has been registering his vehicles with the DMV. The New York Daily News did a little investigating after seeing expired tags on his Nissan Pathfinder, and discovered that not only has the car not been registered, but the plates on them belong to a different car (via JWF): When Weiner (D-Queens, Brooklyn) was photographed by the Daily News fleeing the Capitol in his Nissan Pathfinder, it was clear the July 2007 registration sticker in his window was expired, and there was no inspection sticker to be seen. Weiner,...

Jefferson County resident Jonathan Stewart said he laughed in shock after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) claimed the house his family lost in the deadly April 27 twister was ‘not unsafe to live in’. Displaced families in tornado-ravaged Alabama are outraged after being denied federal aide to rebuild their flattened homes – due to ‘insufficient damage’. The devastating reality is the house is now a concrete slab surrounded by rubble. Mr Stewart told AL.com a FEMA inspector saw first-hand the Pleasant Grove residence he shared with his wife, Lisa, and their two children was ripped from the ground. Three...

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is hopeful that his bill to create a National Infrastructure Bank will move through the Senate this year. The bill could be the best shot for those seeking to boost transportation, energy and water infrastructure investment in a Congress focused on “rapacious” spending cuts, Kerry said. The Kerry bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), would create an independent, nonprofit bank that would leverage private investment into infrastructure projects. The bill was introduced in March.

"All I know is, whenever you have any type of a problem and the problem is one that you spend more than you are actually bringing in then you have to bring in more and spend less. It just makes so much sense, Judge, it's all we have to do," Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) told FOX Business this evening

Audit Report: Obama Administration Handed Out $24 Billion in Stimulus Money to Tax Cheats Wednesday, May 25, 2011 By Fred Lucas (CNSNews.com) - Lawmakers from both parties are calling for a fix to prevent tax cheating companies from getting federal contracts in light of a government investigation that found $24 billion in stimulus act funds went to companies owing $757 million in unpaid taxes. “Average Americans are likely wondering why we gave such a huge amount of federal money to tax cheats when our national debt is more than $14 trillion,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said in a statement. “That...

Seven publicly traded U.S. corporations represented on President Barack Obama's advisory council for jobs and competitiveness -- including General Electric Co. (GE) and Intel Corp. (INTC) -- have devoted a growing pool of their non-U.S. earnings to investments in other countries. As a group, multinational companies with current or former chief executive officers on Obama's jobs council have, over the past four years, almost doubled the cumulative amounts they've reinvested overseas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By doing so, companies may be able to take advantage of faster-growing markets or lower production costs, and they can defer U.S. income...

Holder's 4G tax lax By ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN Last Updated: 7:24 AM, April 17, 2011 Posted: 3:18 AM, April 17, 2011 US Attorney General Eric Holder and his brother failed to pay the property taxes on their childhood home in Queens, which they inherited last August after their mother died, The Post has learned. And because their ailing mom, Miriam, was already behind on two quarterly tax bills when she succumbed to illness on Aug. 13, the charges went unpaid for more than a year -- growing to $4,146. It wasn't until The Post confronted Holder last week...

In a conference call with reporters, Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill just disclosed that she failed to pay $287,000 in property taxes related to her co-ownership of a private aircraft. This scandal comes quickly on the heels of recent revelations that McCaskill improperly billed taxpayers for use of the same private aircraft, for which McCaskill reimbursed the Treasury $88,000:

Rangel Still Giving out Tax AdviceBy Paul Bedard Posted: February 18, 2011 Rep. Charlie Rangel, Congress' former chief tax writer who last year was censured for financial misconduct and dubbed a tax scofflaw, isn't running away from the issue as some critics think he should. Instead, he doing what comes natural: Giving out tax advice to his friends and constituents. [See a slide show of 10 Reasons Rangel Is in Trouble.] Refusing to be silenced, Rangel has stepped up his annual practice of providing tax tips through his office and congressional website. Just today, for example, he issued his latest...

Sen. Jeff Sessions: “…Under your budget, the interest increases each year. It was $187 billion in 2009, under your proposal it increases to $844 billion” Treasury Tim Geithner: “Senator, absolutely, it is an excessively high interest burden, it’s unsustainable”