Free Republic

In 2008 Michael B. Froman, then Citigroup executive, sends John Podesta a list of cabinet members. The email is dated Oct. 6, 2008 and bears the subject line “Lists.” It went to Podesta a month before he was named chairman of President-Elect Obama’s transition team. Froman’s list proved remarkably prescient. As it proposed, Robert Gates, a Bush holdover, became secretary of Defense; Eric Holder became attorney general; Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security; Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff; Susan Rice, United Nations ambassador; Arne Duncan, secretary of Education; Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services; Peter Orszag,...

Retirement Will Kill You Teddy Roosevelt once said “the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” Recent research suggests he may have been more right than he knew: Life’s “best prize” might actually extend life itself. Our common perception is that retirement is a time when we can relax and take better care of ourselves after stressful careers. But what if work itself is beneficial to our health, as several recent studies suggest? One of them, by Jennifer Montez of Harvard University and Anna Zajacova of the University of Wyoming,...

The National Association of Manufacturers asked its members last month how the National Labor Relations Board's decision against Boeing's Sourth Carolina plant case is affecting their decision-making. Some 60% said the government's case already has—or could—hurt hiring. Sixty-nine percent said the case would damage job growth. And 49% said capital expenditure plans "have been or may be impacted by the NLRB's complaint." Around 1,000 of the association's 11,000 members contributed to the survey. That's a lot of lost jobs. When CEOs or entrepreneurs fear political intervention that might impose higher costs, they are more reluctant to invest or to hire...

When Congress was debating the Obamacare law last year, I raised many concerns about the size and scope of the law and the outrageous amount of new federal taxes and spending it created. Like many people, I also have grown concerned about the law’s impact on Americans’ personal freedoms. My concern stems not only from its controversial mandate that every American buy health insurance, but also from other federal mandates that could follow. In challenging Obamacare’s individual mandate, the law’s critics have pointed out that if Congress can force Americans to buy health insurance, federal power would be nearly unlimited....

President Obama’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, has reared his head again, this time writing his first column for the New York Times. In his September 7 column, Orszag appears to take a surprising position, at least for an economist on the Left, as he argues in favor of extending the Bush tax cuts for two years. Contrasting Orszag’s ideas in his column with President Obama’s proposal yesterday for another $50 billion spending program, complete with a federally run “infrastructure bank,” it’s clear that the Obama administration and its satellites are still clueless on...

Here is video of outgoing Obama Budget Director – Peter Orszag – being heckled (serenaded) by a member of the audience who was supposed to be asking a question after Orszag gave a speech at the Brookings Institution. The man took the microphone, and told Orszag he had written a song inspired by Orszag. He then began singing the song which called Orszag a “fascist pig.”

No more budget gimmicks? That’s what outgoing White House budget director Peter Orszag promised as the Obama team prepared to take control of the White House. “The president prefers to tell the truth, rather than make the numbers look better by pretending,” he told The New York Times. But numbers games turned out to be Orszag’s specialty. He’s set to step down at the end of July, but for the last 18 months, he’s presided over a wave of fiscal trickery. This year’s White House budget, which Orszag played a key role in preparing, is a prime example. When fiscal...

A week ago, President Obama's budget director, Peter Orszag, suddenly announced he was leaving the administration in July. Orszag was nicknamed "Propeller Head" by Obama for being a spreadsheet whiz. So why did is he leaving? The Federal Budget outlook for 2011 looks bleak. Peter Orszag is a deficit foe, but without draconian spending cuts or large tax increases on the middle-class, there is no way to resolve the deficits. Reportedly, Orszag has been advocating President Obama throw off the last tattered remains of his "raise no taxes" pledge. The Financial Times reported: In particular, he has collided with the...

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TARP: The OMB director is grilled over the misuse of bank bailout funds for purposes other than intended by Congress. This taxpayer money wasn't intended to be the administration's perpetual slush fund. When the specifically targeted and named Troubled Asset Relief Program was enacted, we were told it was a necessary and wise investment. It would stabilize the financial system and keep credit and money moving. We would even get our money back and then some. Many banks didn't want the money or need it. Some were told to take it or they'd be audited. So they took it. The...

Roadmap to SolvencyCongressman Paul Ryan responds to OMB director Peter Orszag.  Congressman Paul Ryan recently put forward “A Roadmap for America’s Future 2.0,” a comprehensive entitlement-reform proposal. The CBO has certified that Ryan’s plan solves the long-term fiscal crisis. Ryan’s proposal has attracted the attention of the president and Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag. The Roadmap has proven attractive in light of the debt-exploding budget the administration has submitted to Congress. In a recent conference call with reporters, Orszag said the following: Now, with regard to Representative Ryan — I have a lot of respect for Mr....

MEN OF HONOR Apparently, if you want to cheat on your wife or spurn the mother of your unborn child, cover up and easily settle your institution's criminal efforts to help Americans avoid paying their federal income taxes, or just avoid paying your own fair share, the place to be is on President Barack Obama's economic-recovery advisory board. Because that's where Robert Wolf, chief executive of UBS Group Americas, the U.S. arm of one of Switzerland's largest banks, UBS AG, sits, as do Charles E. Phillips, President of Oracle Corporation, Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management of...

A big reason why the government is inefficient and ineffective is because Washington has outdated technology, with federal workers having better computers at home than in the office. This startling admission came Thursday from Peter Orszag, who manages the federal bureaucracy for President Barack Obama. The public is getting a bad return on its tax dollars because government workers are operating with outdated technologies, Orszag said in a statement that kicked off a summit between Obama and dozens of corporate CEOs. “Twenty years ago, people who came to work in the federal government had better technology at work than at...

Entitlements: While a massive health care entitlement is fashioned in secret, another one, Social Security, is running deficits decades earlier than expected. We've been kicking the can down the road. We're out of road. As Bernie Madoff found out, any Ponzi scheme depends on a continuous inflow of new cash and new customers or the ever-expanding pyramid will totter and collapse. Social Security, dependent as it was on new workers paying the expanding benefits of retirees, is about to, much sooner than expected. As Ed Morrissey over at HotAir.com reminds us, Peter Orszag, now director of the Office of Management...

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag released a statement Wednesday about the birth of a daughter out-of-wedlock. The mother of Tatiana Zoe is Orszag's former girlfriend, Claire Milonas. She gave birth on Nov. 17, months after she and Orszag broke off their relationship. Orszag has since become engaged to ABC News reporter Bianna Golodryga, whom he met in April at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington. The joint statement from Orszag and Milonas said the two were in a committed relationship until the spring of 2009. “In November, Claire gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Although we...

President Obama's geeky budget guru has a secret love child -- with the Greek shipping heiress he jilted before hooking up with his hot new ABC News fiancée, The Post has learned. White House Budget Director Peter Orszag's ex, Claire Milonas, gave birth to daughter Tatiana Zoe in New York on Nov. 17, sources said. The baby was born just six weeks before Orszag and ABC financial correspondent Bianna Golodryga gleefully announced their Dec. 28 engagement on national TV and in the press. Sources close to Milonas said her family and close friends were stunned by Orszag's boorish behavior. SNIP...

AP: "It will be years to decades" before the nation has a properly working health care system that rewards quality over quantity, Peter Orszag told reporters. He said improving the quality of health care "is more like a lifelong nutrition or diet, not studying for an exam," but he added that continuous progress is a crucial goal.

While Congress wrestles with various ways to strip ACORN of any remaining federal funding, the White House has somewhat quietly begun to disconnect itself from the community-organizing group. OMB director Peter Orszag yesterday sent the following compliance memo to “all Executive Branch agencies” to meet the requirements of the continuing resolutions that Congress have already passed to keep the government funded in the absence of a budget. Orszag basically says to cut ACORN off immediately:

Just where exactly is the tipping point with the American people? Anyone remember when the left used to say to Bush "It happened on your watch".....At least Chris Wallace calls out Peter Orszag on not knowing how bad the economy was....(Video)

The Bush administration yesterday released a highly selective analysis on the cost to families of rolling back scheduled tax cuts, an early sign of the White House plan to brand Democrats as tax raisers throughout their race for the presidential nomination. In addition to using the issue to inject himself into the Democratic campaign, President Bush plans to make the extension and preservation of tax cuts a centerpiece of his general election campaign, senior Republican officials said.