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You know a city is in deep trouble when its mayor invites Wall Street but not the press and not private citizens to a closed meeting to discuss the future, including a sell-off of city assets. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, whose municipality has the lowest credit rating of the five most-populous U.S. cities, did just that. My translation: Philadelphia is bankrupt. However, that easily discernible fact will of course be denied until it officially happens. Please consider Philadelphia Holds Closed Meeting With Wall StreetPhiladelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, whose municipality has the lowest credit rating of the five most-populous U.S. cities,...

An extra €11.2 billion ($14.4 billion) is needed to cover unpaid bills from the EU budget, the European Commission said on Wednesday (March 27). Budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski said he tabled the amending budget in a bid to plug gaps in the 2012 and 2013 spending plans. The request for cash “cannot come as a surprise,” he said, adding that earlier postponement of payments had created a “snowballing effect of unpaid claims transferred onto the following year.” …

The first budget from Senate Democrats in four years includes nearly $1 trillion in new taxes but would not balance the budget. The blueprint unveiled by Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Tuesday to her Democratic colleagues would also turn off the next nine years of the sequester and replace those spending cuts with a 50-50 mix of tax increases and spending cuts. The budget would dedicate $100 billion to economic stimulus in the form of infrastructure spending and job training. Murray argues that her budget cuts $1.85 trillion from deficits over 10 years. But once the sequester...

The first budget from Senate Democrats in four years includes nearly $1 trillion in new taxes but would not balance the budget. The blueprint unveiled by Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Tuesday to her Democratic colleagues would also turn off the next nine years of the sequester and replace those spending cuts with a 50-50 mix of tax increases and spending cuts. The budget would dedicate $100 billion to economic stimulus in the form of infrastructure spending and job training.

The Obama administration denied an appeal for flexibility in lessening the sequester’s effects, with an email this week appearing to show officials in Washington that because they already had promised the cuts would be devastating, they now have to follow through on that. In the email sent Monday by Charles Brown, an official with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in Raleigh, N.C., Mr. Brown asked “if there was any latitude” in how to spread the sequester cuts across the region to lessen the impacts on fish inspections. He said he was discouraged by officials in Washington, who...

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) urged her colleagues to reach a compromise to prevent spending cuts through sequestration, arguing that government programs are already as lean as they can be. "We're at the bone almost, and sequester, that is across-the-board cuts, will literally destroy us and put us in a recession," she said on the House floor Wednesday. She called on Republicans to meet Democrats at the negotiating table and rejected the idea that President Obama delivered a partisan State of the Union address Tuesday night. "May I ask them to take some cotton out of their ears, because in...

p>BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, right here on this program, we had a sound bite for you. It was Nancy Pelosi saying, "We don't have a spending problem." She said we have a budget deficit problem. I intended to make a point about this yesterday. As we do almost every day on this program, I had a call or I brought the subject up myself about my optimism, about how, at some point all of this is gonna bottom out and we're gonna rebound. And I've been honest with you about that optimism. I don't know what or...

Gov. Mark Dayton wants to tax the sale of food, clothing, and just about everything else you buy in the worst possible way. His budget proposes a $2.1 billion, or 20.7 percent, sales tax increase. Since everyone pays sales tax, everyone will pay Dayton's sales tax increase. But it's worse than that. Dayton's tax plan violates the basic principles of tax reform. It intensifies the pain of taxation by imposing hidden taxes on intermediate business purchases. This causes "tax pyramiding," which is a big mistake. According to non-partisan legislative researchers, "Standard tax policy principles argue that intermediate business purchases should...

Illinois’ credit rating has taken another hit. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service downgraded the state from an “A” rating to “A-minus”, making it the worst in the country.

Suddenly a handshake from David Cameron probably seems an awful lot more inviting. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy could become the next wealthy Frenchman to flee to Britain over his country’s looming tax hikes on the rich. Mr Sarkozy – who famously snubbed the Prime Minister’s attempt to shake his hand after Mr Cameron vetoed changes to the EU treaty in 2011 – is reportedly planning to move to London to set up a £800million investment fund. The 57-year-old, who was ousted from office last June, has amassed a fortune from £150,000-an-hour public speaking engagements and is now said to be...

Candy, soda, tobacco, and bottles of water and sports drinks are all in Gov. Deval Patrick's crosshairs as he announced another $2 billion tax wish list in his $34.8 billion proposed fiscal 2014 budget at the State House this afternoon. Among the tax highlights: The cigarette excise tax would be hiked by $1 to $3.51 per pack. Taxes on cigars and smokeless tobacco would also increase. The state would essentially expand the bottle bill to include water bottles and sports drinks on deposits. Candy and soda would no longer be exempt from the state sales tax. Patrick last week proposed...

Byron York Chief Political Correspondent The Washington Examiner @ByronYork Popular in PoliticsUtah sheriffs warn Obama of deadly war over guns Newsweek: Obama is 'The Second Coming' Top Dem promises to pass budget — but only to raise taxes Lupe Fiasco gets booted from inaugural event after rapping anti-Obama song Chuck Schumer: GOP has to back tax increases to get a budget In recent days Republicans have had some success pointing out that it will soon be four years since Senate Democrats have allowed Congress to pass a budget — something the Congressional Budget Act requires lawmakers to do each year....

Word is, Phil Mickelson is mad as hell about rising tax rates, and he’s not going to take it anymore. What follows is a brief portion of an interview Mickelson gave earlier today after carding a final-round 66 at the Palmer Course at PGA West in La Quinta – which I assure you, is not associated with the La Quinta next door to your local Denny’s – in which the golfer hinted that he is considering drastic career changes because of a combined tax rate nearing “62, 63 percent:”

(Reuters) - Americans are beginning to feel the pinch from Washington's decision to embrace austerity measures aimed at bringing down the nation's budget deficit. Paychecks across the country have shrunk over the last week due to higher federal tax rates, and workers are already cutting back on spending, which will drag on the economy this year.

Gabriella Hoffman’s paycheck is a little lighter today, thanks to a payroll tax increase that is forcing millions of Americans to make the kind of tough budget cuts their representatives in Washington lawmakers seem unwilling to tackle. Hoffman, a 21-year-old Virginian who works at a nonprofit, estimates her paycheck will be roughly $30 less this biweekly pay period, or about $780 annually, thanks to the end of a two-year cut on payroll taxes, which fund Social Security. The tax has risen back up to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent, costing someone making $50,000 annually about $1,000 per year and a...

Ouch! Nothing hurts quite as much as kicking yourself in the shin. It looks like low information voters across America are waking up from the personality party they’ve been at for the past few years to discover that not only do their shiny Obama-bucks not go as far as they use to, butt now they’re taking fewer of those bucks home. Man, who could have seen that coming? I mean, shoot(am I still allowed to say that?), read Big Guy’s lips. He promised, remember?(snip)READ MY LIPS: NO MORE TAXES! And yet people across the country – not just wealthy Republicans –...

Democrat voters received a dose of economic reality after their New Year’s hangovers wore off, when they looked down at their 2013 paystubs and saw not Obama bucks, but higher federal taxes. How misplaced was their trust in re-electing defender of the middle class tax-raiser President Obama? Workers making $30,000 will take a bigger hit on their pay than those earning $500,000 under the fiscal cliff deal. And Democrats are seeking $1 trillion more in tax “revenue” by the end of this year. Now, it’s not nice to laugh at other people’s shock and surprise, but this is about as...

Middle-class workers will take a bigger hit to their income proportionately than those earning between $200,000 and $500,000 under the new fiscal cliff deal, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Earners in the latter group will pay an average 1.3 percent more - or an additional $2,711 - in taxes this year, while workers making between $30,000 and $200,000 will see their paychecks shrink by as much as 1.7 percent - or up to $1,784 - the D.C.-based think tank reported. Overall, nearly 80 percent of households will pay more money to the federal government as a result of...

President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden. According to disclosure forms, Biden made a cool $225,521 last year. After the pay increase, he'll now make $231,900 per year. Members of Congress, from the House and Senate, also will receive a little bump, as their annual salary will go from $174,000 to 174,900. Leadership in Congress, including the speaker of the House, will likewise get an increase.