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WASHINGTON -- Congress on Tuesday cleared for President Obama's signature a $410 billion measure to fund the government, a measure denounced by most Republicans as an example of reckless spending. The Senate approved the measure by voice after it cleared a key procedural hurdle by a 62-35 vote. Sixty votes were required to shut down debate. Obama will sign the measure Wednesday, the White House said, but he will also announce steps aimed at curbing lawmakers' penchant for pet projects. The $410 billion bill is chock-full of lawmakers' pet projects and significant increases in food aid for the poor, energy...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is sending President Barack Obama a massive bill funding domestic programs and awarding lawmakers their cherished pet projects after more than a week of partisan debate. Senators passed the measure by voice vote after voting 62-35 to shut down debate. The White House says Obama will sign the bill. It finishes up last year's budget business, which stalled as Democrats feuded with former President George W. Bush. The huge bill encountered unexpected difficulty in the wake of Obama's economic stimulus bill and a budget plan forecasting a $1.8 trillion deficit for the current budget year.

Making sense of the central political objective of organized labor.Whether the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)—known as “card check”—is introduced in the next hour or next year, it remains the central political objective of organized labor. It was also championed as a domestic priority by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats during the 2008 campaign. The EFCA would undercut the idea of a secret ballot in unionization drives and guarantee mandatory arbitration of many initial collective bargaining agreements. Canada’s experience with card check illustrates how it could further hobble the U.S. economy.

Spending Bill Tests Obama’s CredibilityPosted by Mark Knoller March 4, 2009 2:11 PM (CBS)At an event this morning, President Obama again demanded that the government he now heads “turn the tide on an era of fiscal irresponsibility.” But his credibility on the issue is at risk if he goes ahead with plans to sign the $410 billion spending bill now making its way to final passage in Congress. The measure is rife with earmarks – special spending provisions attached by members of Congress, usually to benefit a home district project. There are 8,570 earmarks on this bill that if enacted...

President Obama has dispatched his best and brightest, unleashed hundreds of billion of stimulus money, used his political clout and soaring but pragmatic speeches without getting the economic engine restarted. When he took office on January 20, the Dow was at 9625, and it closed today at 6546, down 32 percent in the last 50 days.

Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present Bush Derangement Syndrome taken to its ultimate extreme. President Obama has now blamed his socialist policies on the former President Bush. The background: a reporter asked Obama today if he was a socialist. Obama initially gave a flip answer but after thinking about it, later called reporters back from the Oval Office. “It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question,” the President stated. Then Obama said, ...

If you were grading Barack Obama on his performance as president, what would he get? He gets an A He gets a B He gets a C He gets a D He gets an F

See! I keep telling you people Obama does not care about the economy; he cares about getting votes and enacting radical socialism. It's all falling into place! No jobs for Americans in the CRAPulus! Newsmax reports: An estimated 300,000 construction jobs paid for by the stimulus plan will go to illegal workers after leading Democrats removed a provision requiring verification of citizenship, a leading immigration expert tells Newsmax. The House version of the $787 billion stimulus bill required verification of the legal residency of anyone put to work by its spending. But that provision was removed from the bill before...

Obama supporter, campaign economic adviser and super-rich guy Warren Buffett says he is against 'card-check'; "Let's make it a perfectly flat statement" Buffet said on CNBC this morning. Just last week at a posh hotel in Miami Florida both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden told the AFL-CIO that they were behind the 'card-check' bill, known officially as the Employee Free Choice Act. In July of last year, Obama touted Buffett as one of his "core economic advisors" in an interview with Tom Brokaw on NBC's Meet the Press. Card-check is legislation that makes it easier for employers...

If leadership is defined as recognizing a crisis, addressing its challenges, and setting new directions while remaining true to one's values, then Barack Obama is already demonstrating his strengths as a leader. He has inherited an economic crisis worse than any the nation has experienced since the Great Depression. Within fewer than 50 days in office he has signed a historic stimulus package to bolster demand and create 3.5 million jobs. Governors, business leaders and economists from both the left and the right have applauded the stimulus. Friday's distressing employment numbers indicate that much more may be needed.

In cubicles, factories and stores these days, anxious workers are trying to ease each other's economic fears with something akin to, "Well, at least we still have a job." Yet for many, that's becoming small comfort as more employers cut hours or hire only part-timers. People paid on commission, meanwhile, are suffering as sales dry up. And state workers around the country have been put on unpaid leaves. These workers aren't counted in the unemployment rate, which hit 8.1 percent in February. They're not eligible for federal benefits that provide a safety net for the jobless. Yet their pain is...

Booming preparedness industry says Americans are stockpiling To some, the term "survivalist" conjures images of camouflage-clad men stockpiling freeze-dried food in a mountain cabin, but in the current economic crisis, the people quietly preparing to survive catastrophe may just be your next-door neighbors. In his column in last month's Financial Times, business and technology expert Ade McCormack writes, "The world is in crisis and with it the world of business. Many of us have two plans. Plan A involves President Barack Obama performing some economic magic. Plan B involves a revolver, a vegetable patch and a subscription to Survivalist Monthly."...

Funding the good fight is getting harder. With more people out-of-work and less money to spend, this tough economy is forcing charities to take a hit. A new plan from the Obama Administration, aimed at evening out the playing field, could drastically reduce donations even further. The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has a mission: to help kids deal with a serious disease. But funding the cause is getting a whole lot tougher. "It's very challenging right now," Katherine Cintron, of the JDRF's Westchester chapter, says. "You know, you keep plugging away – but it's bad." Cintron says many donors have...

One of Europe's solution to the perceived global warming threat is trying to regulate carbon emissions through Carbon Credits The way it works is the government sets a or cap on the total amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of credits. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed....

The White House's top budget official declared on Sunday that "fundamentally, the economy is weak" while saying the administration's own financial predictions could need a revision by midyear. Peter Orszag, President Barack Obama's Office of Management and Budget director, said in television interviews that the economic downturn has been years in the making but cautioned that the new administration wasn't yet looking at a second economic stimulus package. Orszag said the already-in-place $787 billion stimulus should have a chance to work before officials ask Congress to consider a sequel.

The U.S. will press world leaders to boost emergency government spending to lift the global economy, risking a rift with European nations more concerned with revamping financial regulation. In President Barack Obama's first foray into economic diplomacy, Washington will urge the shift at a summit next month in London, U.S. officials say, as markets look for a unified plan of action from the world's most economically powerful nations. Washington's focus is at odds with France, Germany and other European nations that want the Group of 20 summit on April 2 to focus on rewriting rules governing financial markets. These nations...

If leadership is defined as recognizing a crisis, addressing its challenges, and setting new directions while remaining true to one's values, then Barack Obama is already demonstrating his strengths as a leader. He has inherited an economic crisis worse than any the nation has experienced since the Great Depression. Within fewer than 50 days in office he has signed a historic stimulus package to bolster demand and create 3.5 million jobs. Governors, business leaders and economists from both the left and the right have applauded the stimulus. Friday's distressing employment numbers indicate that much more may be needed. President Obama...

Stung by the apparent apostasy of a member of the main stream media, a testy President Barack Obama strenuously rejected the contention that he had broken his pledge that there would be no earmarks in his stimulus bill. The heretical charge of hypocrisy came from the formerly tingly-legged MSNBC pundit, Chris Matthews, after it was disclosed that there are over 8,000 earmarks in the recently passed stimulus bill. “Did anyone see me put any earmarks in the bill?” asked a visibly angry Obama. “No one can prove that I had anything to do with any of the earmarks that turned...

PITTSFIELD — The economic stimulus package that is designed to create jobs and transform the economy also contains several provisions to help small business owners, representatives of the U.S. Small Business Association said on Thursday. (VIDEO AT LINK) Robert Nelson, the state district director of the federal SBA, said the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that President Obama signed into law last week contains $730 million for his agency, and makes changes to the SBA's lending and investment programs so that they can reach small businesses that are in need of help. Nelson appeared with local and regional...

RUSH: Did you vote for this? There are people starting to have doubts. One of them is no less than Whoopi Goldberg, who went into a rant this morning on The View, talking to her co-host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck. GOLDBERG: You remember that movie Network? If you are just fed up, at some point, just lean out your window (laughter) and scream, "I'm mad as hell," 'cause that's what's happening to me. I'm losing my mind, because I don't understand why -- like they -- one of the things that I saw recently, they have this whole thing about taxing "the...