Free Republic 1st Qtr 2024 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $74,893
92%  
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 92%!! Thank you everyone!! God bless.

Keyword: payoff

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • Unions will dodge O's health tax

    01/15/2010 7:18:59 AM PST · by opentalk · 15 replies · 857+ views
    New York Post ^ | January 15, 2010 | CARL CAMPANILE
    Big Labor got some big love from President Obama and congressional Democrats yesterday after they agreed to exempt union workers from the whopping “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health-care plans until 2018. The sweetheart deal, hammered out behind closed doors, will save union employees at least $60 billion over the years involved, while others won't be as lucky -- they'll have to cough up almost $90 billion. The 40 percent excise tax on what have come to be called "Cadillac" health-care plans would exempt collective-bargaining contracts covering government employees and other union members until Jan. 1, 2018. In another major concession...
  • Sen. Reid plays down Nelson Medicaid buy off

    12/19/2009 2:28:33 PM PST · by paltz · 55 replies · 2,380+ views
    The Washington Times ^ | 12/19/09 | Kerry Picket
    The Washington Times reported last night Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) had told reporters no deal was agreed to after he emerged from a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and other Democratic leaders. He went on to say health care talks were ongoing. What he failed to mention, through all of his rhetoric about his concern for pro-life language in the bill, was the huge Medicaid pay off to Nebraska being slipped into the health care bill. Essentially, the federal government will pay for Nebraska's new Medicaid recipients. The provision is worth about $45 million for the first...
  • Did Barack Obama Reward Financially Reward ABC News For the OBAMACARE Prime-time Special?

    12/18/2009 8:05:01 AM PST · by Shellybenoit · 4 replies · 565+ views
    National Center/The Lid ^ | 12/18/09 | The Lid
    The health care debate began for real in June when ABC devoted an entire hour to Obamacare in a special edition of ABC's Prime time hosted anchor Charlie Gibson and (now incoming anchor) Diane Sawyer. Called "Questions for the President: Prescription for America" the special aired on June 24, 2009, from the East Room of the White House. Basically Obama was given solo airtime to pitch his health care agenda both in prime time and later that evening on Nightline. To make matters worse, Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR) a group that opposes Obamacare tried to air commercials giving the...
  • The Million-Dollar Man

    12/16/2009 3:47:19 AM PST · by steve-b · 6 replies · 552+ views
    New York Times ^ | 12/15/09
    First, Senator Joseph Lieberman -- the former Democrat, current independent from Connecticut -- rejected the so-called public health care option. Then he threatened to torpedo the entire health care reform bill if it allowed people over 55 to buy Medicare plans. The aim of that idea, like the public option, is to provide more choice for consumers and more competition for the private insurance industry. And that industry, you will not be surprised to hear, has been very, very good to Mr. Lieberman. What makes it all the more hypocritical is that Mr. Lieberman claims to want health care reform....
  • The fix is in, liberal media selling out for pot of government gold

    12/02/2009 12:36:43 PM PST · by FromLori · 8 replies · 577+ views
    Washington Examiner ^ | 12/2/09 | MARK TAPSCOTT
    Watching liberal journalists desperate for a government bailout as they prostrate themselves before Congress can be so confusing: Should we be embarrassed as these media representatives of the "best and brightest" beg for official handouts while proclaiming their devotion to independent journalism? Or should we laugh at the irony of what is left of a once-proud liberal media establishment choosing to become wards of the very state they so vigorously promoted for the past several decades? Speaking as somebody who has made his living reporting and analyzing the news for more than two decades, I tend towards the embarrassment option....
  • Sen. Mary Landrieu holds off on taking health care stand

    11/21/2009 2:44:51 PM PST · by docbnj · 43 replies · 2,029+ views
    Senator Landrieu's Official Website ^ | 20 Nov 2009 | anonymous
    Sen. Mary Landrieu holds off on taking health care stand, while pressing for aid for Louisiana WASHINGTON (Nov. 20) -- Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., remained mum Thursday on whether she will deliver a crucial vote Saturday night to enable the Senate to debate health-care reform when it returns from the Thanksgiving holiday. But Landrieu has already succeeded in adding a provision to the 2,074-page Senate version of the health care bill unveiled this week that would provide Louisiana between $100 million and $300 million in Medicaid funding in fiscal 2011. "Look," said [Louisiana secretary of health and hospitals] Alan Levine,...
  • Environmentalism Bought Off!

    10/22/2009 2:36:43 PM PDT · by szweig · 3 replies · 459+ views
    Schwartzenegger sells out to NFL.
  • Dodd, Conrad Cleared in Ethics Probe on Countrywide Loans (Friday pm news dump)

    08/07/2009 2:35:32 PM PDT · by khnyny · 28 replies · 1,694+ views
    Market Watch ^ | August 7, 2009
    WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Two key Democrat senators were cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee on Friday from year-long investigations about whether mortgages they obtained from Countrywide Financial Corp. violated the senate's rules on gifts. The bipartisan committee, which supported the decision unanimously, did scold the senior lawmakers, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., for not being more careful in their dealings. "While the committee finds no substantial credible evidence as required by committee rules that your Countrywide mortgage violated Senate ethics rules, the committee does believe that you should have exercised...
  • Cap and Trade is Another Big Payoff to Obama’s Supporters

    07/15/2009 10:35:59 AM PDT · by Starman417 · 1 replies · 242+ views
    Flopping Aces ^ | 07-14-09 | Mike's America
    Al Gore and Wall Street traders will rake in millions of OUR MONEY while the cap and trade plan won't do a thing to help the environment!Obama's cap and tax scam isn't just a payoff to the environmental lobby, or the big government liberals salivating over the gold mine of new tax revenue they can use to buy more votes. Nope! The cap and trade scam will be a huge financial payoff to the rich Wall Street traders who overwhelmingly backed Obama in the presidential election. It's no secret that the security and investment community gave the majority of their...
  • U.S. to Forgive Indonesian Debt in Exchange for Conservation Plan ($30M-for-nature swap)

    06/29/2009 10:12:21 PM PDT · by fight_truth_decay · 14 replies · 612+ views
    ASIA NEWS ^ | JUNE 30, 2009, 12:23 A.M. ET | TOM WRIGHT
    JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The United States will sign an agreement Tuesday to forgive nearly $30 million in Indonesian debt in return for the large Southeast Asian country agreeing to protect forests on Sumatra Island, which is home to endangered tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutan. The deal is the largest so-called debt-for-nature swap the U.S. government has organized so far under the U.S. Tropical Forest Conservation Act and its first such pact with Indonesia, which has one of the fastest deforestation rates in the world, losing an area of forest the size of Switzerland annually. Under the deal, Indonesia will pay...
  • Two charged in sex for debt payoff case in Oakland

    05/02/2009 11:56:41 AM PDT · by csvset · 24 replies · 1,574+ views
    Oakland Tribune ^ | 05/02/2009 | Harry Harris
    OAKLAND — Russell Bileci owed Maurice Williams $100. How police said they decided to settle the debt could cost both men long prison terms. Investigators said Friday that Bileci said he would repay the debt by allowing Williams to have sex with his 46-year-old girlfriend in the downtown residential hotel where they all lived. The woman, who was asleep when the deal was made, knew nothing about the agreement, and investigators said Bileci sat silently in their room while she was sexually assaulted for at least a half-hour before she was rescued by police who arrested the two men. Bileci,...
  • Dems thank teachers unions with 'stimulus' money

    02/18/2009 10:10:29 AM PST · by Jim Robinson · 8 replies · 923+ views
    OneNewsNow ^ | 2/18/2009 | Pete Chagnon
    The managing editor of Budget & Tax News says no money for education should have been included in the recently signed economic "stimulus" bill. In a recent press conference, Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned that if the economic stimulus bill did not pass, up to 600,000 education workers could lose their jobs as states face enormous budget shortfalls. But Steve Stanek of The Heartland Institute argues that the bill should not have included the allotted $87 billion for education. Stanek argues that the stimulus basically amounts to a payoff for teachers and teachers unions who supported Obama. "The teachers unions...
  • Wal-Mart agrees to pay workers up to $640 million

    12/24/2008 6:39:19 AM PST · by rightinthemiddle · 22 replies · 1,877+ views
    PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said Tuesday it will pay as much as $640 million to settle 63 lawsuits over wage-and-hour violations, ending years of dispute. (read more at link...excerpted AP article)
  • Ill. Gov. Blagojevich pledges to fight, won't quit

    12/19/2008 12:28:52 PM PST · by NormsRevenge · 46 replies · 2,441+ views
    AP on Yahoo ^ | 12/19/08 | Jim Suhr - ap
    CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing and plans to stay on the job. In his first official statement since his arrest on corruption charges last week, Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-Uh-vich) says he will fight until he takes his "last breath." ... The Democratic governor says he intends to "answer every allegation in a court of law."
  • The Hawaiian Payoff

    12/18/2008 9:23:46 PM PST · by ckilmer · 8 replies · 821+ views
    Pajamasmedia ^ | March 22, 2008 | Andrew Walden
    Price of Apology: Clinton, Obama, and the Hawaiian Quid Pro Quo The bill to create a Hawaiian Indian reservation is a financial boondoggle. But state bigwigs hope contributions will persuade Obama or Clinton to sign it if elected. March 22, 2008 - by Andrew Walden Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers With Tony Rezko on trial, the national media is beginning to skim the surface of the dirty deals paving the rapid ascent of Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama. But Chicago, Syria, and Iraq are not the only places to look. There is also a $9-billion story in Hawaii...
  • GM = Groveling Men

    It is true that the management of the auto industry has made many mistakes but it sickens me to see them groveling before Congress, perhaps the only other people on the planet that squander more money than the auto industry
  • Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel ducks reporters' questions - Refuses to answer

    12/11/2008 6:35:21 PM PST · by XR7 · 73 replies · 4,600+ views
    Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 12/11/2007 | FRAN SPIELMAN AND ABDON M. PALLASCH
    <p>President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.</p> <p>The complaint states Blagojevich wanted a promise of a high-level appointment or some other reward for Blagojevich in exchange for Blagojevich naming Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett to replace him in the U.S. Senate.</p>
  • Source: Feds take [Illinois] Gov. Blagojevich into custody

    12/09/2008 6:14:19 AM PST · by KeyLargo · 974 replies · 25,721+ views
    <p>A source said today that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was taken into federal custody at his North Side home this morning. The U.S. attorney's office would not confirm the information, and a spokesman for the governor did not immediately return a phone call for comment.</p>
  • Dems sweating over street $ from Obama

    10/22/2008 7:08:37 AM PDT · by Prov1322 · 41 replies · 1,890+ views
    Philadelphia Daily News ^ | 10.21.08 | Dave Davies
    When the Philadelphia Democratic Party's faithful gathered for their pre-election fundraiser last night, conversation among many anxious ward leaders kept coming back to the same question: Would Barack Obama come up with street money? Street money, typically between $100 and $300 per voting division, is used to pay expenses such as meals and transportation and sometimes pay election workers for their day's work. Many thought Obama had changed his mind and would provide street money for the general election, but ward leaders said last night that they still hadn't heard of a commitment from the campaign. "Honestly, they'd be crazy...
  • Edwards' Ally Explains $14,000 Payment To Mistress

    08/15/2008 2:11:58 AM PDT · by edpc · 26 replies · 180+ views
    Yahoo News ^ | 15 Aug 2008 | PETE YOST and DAVID SCOTT
    WASHINGTON - John Edwards' political action committee paid his mistress $14,000 after she stopped working for it to obtain 100 hours of unused videotape she had shot for his unsuccessful presidential campaign, an associate told The Associated Press on Thursday. The woman, Rielle Hunter, already had been paid $100,000 for the programs. The explanation — which Edwards' advisers declined to discuss on the record — is the first effort to justify the payment in April 2007 to Hunter. That payment came months before Edwards' chief fundraiser quietly began sending money himself to the pregnant woman. Edwards last week acknowledged he...