Free Republic

The House has passed a sweeping overhaul of financial regulations that would govern Wall Street and reconfigure the power of the agencies overseeing the nation's banking system. The vote was 223-202. The legislation is a priority of President Barack Obama's. It is designed to address the shortfalls that led to last year's calamitous financial meltdown. New powers would give the federal government the right to break up big risky companies. It also would create a consumer agency to police lenders.

The Obama administration's pay czar is limiting the cash compensation for executives at companies that received the largest taxpayer bailouts to $500,000. The 25th through the 100th top earners at Citigroup, GMAC, American International Group and General Motors also must take more than half their compensation in stock, and at least half must be delayed for three or more years, said Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury Department's Special Master for Executive Compensation.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday moved to extend the government's $700 billion bailout fund into October 2010 and pledged to deploy no more than $550 billion of it. Geithner, in letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said the extension of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) until Oct 3, 2010, would allow the Obama administration to use bailout funds to fight home foreclosures and boost small business lending.

Nearly $6 million in stimulus money was paid to two firms run by Mark Penn, who was Hillary Rodham Clinton's pollster in the 2008 presidential election. Federal records show that $5.97 million from the $787 billion stimulus helped preserve three jobs at Burson'Marsteller, the global public'relations and communications firm headed by Penn.

The hordes of Black Friday shoppers weren't enough to save retailers from dispiriting November sales, according to company data released Thursday. About 30 national chains reported monthly sales at established stores on Thursday, a key measure of the industry's health. Several chains, including Costco and J.C. Penney, performed worse than analysts expected. Retailers said that unseasonably warm weather dampened sales at the beginning of the month. In addition, shoppers saved their cash for post-Thanksgiving deals. "It was a month that disappointed us and, I think, the industry," said Michael Niemira, chief economist for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a...

The House votes 224-199 to cancel a one-year repeal of the estate tax, set to begin next month, and instead permanently extends the current tax, with a top rate of 45 percent on estates larger than $3.5 million.

Saying it’s time for Republicans to do more than “take pot shots at ACORN,” freshman Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz will call on President Barack Obama on Monday to bring U.S. troops home from Afghanistan. Chaffetz’s push for a troop withdrawal — to be unveiled in a speech at the Hinckley Institute of Politics in Salt Lake City — runs counter to the position of House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and other leading Republicans in Congress. But it also reflects the divisions within the conference about the question of Afghanistan. Chaffetz told POLITICO the issue “has been probably the...

Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson announced today that he is going to vote with his party to move the debate forward. *snip* “It is only to begin debate and an opportunity to make improvements. If you don't like a bill, why block your own opportunity to amend it? “As we have seen before, obstructionists are inviting a move toward reconciliation by opposing this first procedural vote. Let's be clear. That route shrinks debate and amendments, eliminates bipartisanship and needs only 50 votes to pass a bill.

This is significant: Senate Democrats have abandoned plans to use a fast-track parliamentary strategy to avert a threatened Republican filibuster and pass a health care overhaul -- a signal that they are considering major policy concessions to moderates.The most significant of these could be restructuring or dropping altogether a proposed government-run insurance plan -- the so-called public option -- that many liberals consider a necessary part of the overhaul.One possible fallback is a proposal by Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., to create a government-sanctioned insurance plan that would be available only in states deemed to lack affordable private insurance plans. Under...

President Barack Obama's job approval rating is 48 - 42 percent, the first time he has slipped below the 50 percent threshold nationally, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Support for the war in Afghanistan and approval of President Obama's handling of the war also is down in the last month, and Republican support for the war is more than twice as strong as Democratic support. American voters say 48 - 41 percent that fighting the war in Afghanistan is the right thing to do, down from 52 - 37 percent in an October 7 survey by the...

Sarah Palin may be mum about her presidential ambitions, but the former GOP vice presidential candidate is opening up about her campaign experiences and has some harsh words for President Obama. In an interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters, Palin, whose book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," lands on bookshelves Tuesday, said she would give the president a mere four for his job performance on a scale of one to 10. "There are a lot of decisions being made that I -- and probably the majority of Americans -- are not impressed with right now," said Palin, the former governor...

The Obama administration, under fire for inflating job growth from the $787 billion stimulus plan, slashed over 60,000 jobs from its most recent report on the program because the reporting outlets had submitted "unrealistic data," according to a document obtained by ABC News. The Office of Management and Budget document shows that before an Oct. 30 progress report on the program the administration asked the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board to remove information from 12 stimulus recipients that contained "unrealistic data," including "unrealistic job data." One recipient, Talladega County of Alabama, claimed that 5,000 jobs had been saved or created...

For the first time, Republican Rob Portman is inching ahead of the two Democrats in the 2010 race for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Also for the first time, Ohio voters disapprove 50 – 45 percent of the job President Barack Obama is doing, down from his 53 – 42 percent approval September 16 and 49 – 44 percent approval July 7. In still another first, voters are split 40 – 40 percent on who is doing a better job handling health care, the President or Congressional Republicans, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh- pe-ack)...

A top House Democrat said Monday she's "confident" that a conference committee will strip language in the House health bill on taxpayer funding for abortion. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the Democrats' chief deputy whip in the House, said that she and other pro-choice lawmakers would work to strip the amendment included in the House health bill that bars federal funding from going to subsidize abortions. "I am confident that when it comes back from the conference committee that that language won't be there," Wasserman Schultz said during an appearance on MSNBC. "And I think we're all going to be...

Just days before selecting their next governor, New Jersey voters are clearly divided. The only sure bet from the latest Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll is that the winner will be either a Republican or a Democrat. As of Friday night, challenger Chris Christie held an insignificant one point lead over incumbent Jon Corzine among likely voters, 43% to 42%. Two weeks ago, the race was tied at 39% each. Independent Chris Daggett has faded to 8%, after reaching 14% in the previous poll. Republican voters give 86% support to their party’s nominee, compared to 6% for Corzine and 5%...

If Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell wins Tuesday, it will almost certainly be with the help of legions of independent voters whose support of Virginia Democrats in recent elections has been integral to their success. (snip) Sixty-one percent of self-described independents in a recent Washington Post poll of likely voters responded that they will cast their ballots for McDonnell, helping him secure a comfortable 11-point advantage over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds. Those unaffiliated voters make up more than one-third of McDonnell's supporters, and in Northern Virginia such voters have responded well to his message about taxes, jobs and the...

In response to the NY-23 news, Rush Limbaugh tells me: “Hmmm... I thought the Era of Reagan was over? Who was it that said that? Oh yeah, the smart people on our side who told us the only way we could win was with moderate/liberal candidates like Scozzafava. Hmmm...”

House Democrats blocked the public from attending the unveiling ceremony of their health-care bill Thursday morning, allowing only pre-approved visitors whose names appeared on lists to enter the event at the West side of the Capitol. The audience at the crowded press conference included Hill staffers, union workers, health care providers and students, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who thanked them for attending.

This is the official pdf from the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled by Nancy Pelosi today. It is 1,990 pages.

OBAMA: Sometimes Democrats can be their own worst enemies. Democrats are an opinionated bunch. You know the other side, they just kind of do what they’re told. Democrats, ya’ll thinkin’ for yourselves. I like that in you, but it’s time for us to make sure that we finish the job here, we are this close and we’ve got to be unified.