Free Republic

Under the headline "Costly Bill Seen as Saving Money," the San Francisco Chronicle last week began a front-page story with these words: "Many people find it hard to understand how the health-care legislation heading for a decisive vote Sunday can cost $940 billion and cut the horrendous federal deficit at the same time." It's not hard to understand at all. It is a lie. What makes this particular lie pass muster with many people, who might otherwise use their common sense, is that the Congressional Budget Office vouched for the consistency of the budget numbers that say you can add...

NEW YORK — As if investors needed more bad news, the greatest corporate confession of all time is about to begin.Dozens of once-hyper-acquisitive companies are expected to admit publicly in coming days that they gambled and lost billions on big deals executed at the height of the bull market.The final price tag could exceed $1 trillion."We are going to get confirmation that hundreds of billions of dollars in shareholder capital has been wasted or destroyed," says David Tice, manager of the Prudent Bear fund, which makes bets that certain stocks will fall."Wall Street will say don't worry about it,...