US Senate // Current

Treasury Draws Fire for Shift in Rescue - WSJ.com

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers sharply criticized the Treasury Department on Thursday for saying in recent weeks it intended to buy distressed assets despite having already decided to move away from the concept.

"Does anyone else feel as though the whole crisis and the subsequent bailout of the companies involved was staged?" - Psychedelic

WASHINGTON --Instead, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he intends to focus on investing Treasury funds directly into banks and other financial institutions, and on unclogging markets that fund consumer debt.

"That means buying preferred stock {preferred stock defined- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_stock in a corporation using "tax payer" money.- Psychedelic

Deficit spending is when the amount spent exceeds income over a particular period of time.
Our government gets that money by borrowing it from other countries. {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deficit So they're not really spending tax payer dollars at all. They're borrowing tax dollars at interest through debt bonds and promising we'll pay them back ! They're making billions of dollars available to these corporations by purchasing their stock. Taking money borrowed in your name and giving it to corporations! The corporations are using the money to party, purchase other corporations, and pay billions in bonuses and wages to their employees. Using money borrowed in your name! -Psychedelic

The United States total public debt, commonly called the national debt, or U.S. government debt, is the amount of money owed by the United States federal government to holders of U.S. debt instruments. Debt held by the public is all federal debt held by states, corporations, individuals, and foreign governments, but does not include intragovernmental debt obligations or debt held in the Social Security Trust Fund. Types of securities held by the public include, but are not limited to, Treasury Bills, Notes, Bonds, TIPS, United States Savings Bonds, and State and Local Government Series securities.

On 30 September 2008, the total U.S. federal debt passed the $10 trillion mark for the first time, with about $32,895 per capita (that is, per U.S. resident). Of this amount, debt held by the public was roughly $5.3 trillion. Adding unfunded Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, veterans' pensions, and similar obligations, this figure rises to a total of $59.1 trillion, or $516,348 per household {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

The move renders moot the plan to purchase troubled assets, which was conceived during two weeks of negotiations between Congress and Treasury in September. And listen to their analogy--Mr. Paulson "has his hand on the tiller and has to do what he think is right, but it would've been good to communicate to the markets and Congress his thinking," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R., Fla.), adding that he was "honestly surprised" by the way the government's $700 billion rescue plan has evolved.

Hello? DING DING DING goes the bell of reason in my head! Is anyone awake in Washington? What do you think?

Join the conversation by commenting belowWASHINGTON -- Lawmakers sharply criticized the Treasury Department on Thursday for saying in recent weeks it intended to buy... more

Psychedelic
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4 days ago

Obama resigns Senate seat effective Sunday

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Democrats to White House: Preserve your records

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Iraq vet, Tammy Duckworth, possible Senate replacement for Obama

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Conspiracy Theories: The Handy Bilderberg/Obama Conspiracy Theory Widget

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14 days ago

Senators want more NFL games on TV

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Upset on horizon? Franken surging ahead in Minnesota senate race

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1 month ago

Says Chambliss: 'Enough about Wall Street. Let's talk about the gas shortage'

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1 month ago

Senate ethics panel cites Cranston in Keating Five case -- chicagotribune.com

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1 month ago

Senate Lifts Offshore Drilling Ban In Huge Spending Bill

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1 month ago

Senate passes $600 billion spending bill

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1 month ago

Senate unanimously passes RIAA-backed bill

The U.S. Senate on Friday unanimously passed a bipartisan bill backed by groups like the recording industry and the labor movement that would increase federal protections over intellectual property.

Introduced in July by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act now moves to the House of Representatives, where it will be taken up either Friday or Saturday, before Congress adjourns.

The bill was stripped of a controversial measure that would have given federal prosecutors the power to file civil lawsuits against peer-to-peer users who violate copyright laws. The Commerce Department and Justice Department voiced their opposition to the provision in a letter this week, saying it would create "unnecessary bureaucracy."

The legislation still provides increased resources for the Justice Department to combat intellectual property theft and provide coordination for federal and state efforts against counterfeiting and piracy. It also increases penalties for intellectual property infringements.

Not all of the Bush administration's objections with the legislation were addressed, however. The bill replaces the body that currently enforces intellectual property law with a White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator. The new coordinator will chair an inter-agency committee to combat counterfeiting and piracy. In its letter, the administration said the establishment of a White House IP coordinator was "objectionable on constitutional grounds."

The Commerce Department said it is still reviewing the legislation as it was passed.

The Recording Industry of America gave resounding praise for the bill.

"At a critical economic juncture, this bipartisan legislation provides enhanced protection for an important asset that helps lead our global competitiveness," RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol said. "Additional tools for intellectual-property enforcement are not just good for the copyright community but for consumers who will enjoy a wider array of legitimate offerings."

Rick Cotton, executive vice president and general counsel of NBC Universal, said concerns that the bill goes too far are unfounded.

"Over the last 20 years, the flood of physical counterfeit projects and the scale of digital theft (have) gone off the chart," he said. "What drives (the U.S. economy are) precisely technical invention, innovation, and creativity--if we don't protect that, we dramatically undermine our economic future."

Along with the recording industry, the bill is backed by the Chamber of Commerce, and labor groups like the AFL-CIO and Change to Win.

The U.S. Senate on Friday unanimously passed a bipartisan bill backed by groups like the recording industry and the labor movement... more

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1 month ago

Dodd says White House Meeting was a Disaster

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1 month ago

Senate Support Builds for Comprehensive, Bipartisan Energy Legislation

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1 month ago

US Senator Ken Salazar

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1 month ago

Do Text Messages Cost Too Much?

A key lawmaker and a consumer group are pressuring wireless carriers to explain why prices for text messages have doubled in the last three years as the technology has surged in popularity over the same period.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee, sent a letter earlier this week to the largest wireless carriers demanding answers for why they've raised their prices for individual text messages outside of flat-rate monthly data plans to 20 cents from 10 cents since 2005. The increases aren't justified, he said, given the lower operational costs to the carrier to send the short code messages.

"It appears that each of (the) companies has changed the price for text messaging at nearly the same time, with identical price increases," Kohl wrote in the letter. "This conduct is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace."

He asked the Chief Executives of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile to report by Oct. 6 how much its costs them to send text messages compared to how much they've charged their customers over the last three years.

Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said the company is reviewing Kohl's letter and plans to respond to him directly.

He said that the cost of text messages is declining, however, because of monthly flat-rate plans that allow, for example, unlimited text messages.

"A teenager can easily send and receive hundreds of text a day - with our $20 unlimited plan (per month) that's fractions of a penny per message," Nelson said.

Consumers Union sent letters to heads of the Senate Commerce Committee and Judiciary Subcommittee to investigate the texting price increases and whether they are the result of a consolidating industry and less competition.

The group said that 600 text messages contain less data than a 1 minute phone call. It said that at 20 cents a text message, wireless carriers would collect $120 for 600 messages.

"Does $120 for the equivalent of one minute of voice seem reasonable?" the group wrote in the letters. "Or do these usurious rates evidence an extraordinary amount of market power?"

The two largest wireless carriers - AT&T and Verizon Wireless - have a combined subscriber base that is two times as large as the number of subscribers for T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel. Their leads in the wireless industry was strengthened earlier this year after they bought up the most spectrum in an auction by the Federal Communications Commission. The auction was for valuable wireless airwaves that can penetrate walls and other obstructions. Verizon also announced its purchase of regional carrier Alltel for $28 billion, which is under regulatory review by the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission.

Just how popular has texting become? CTIA released a study this week that showed the number of texts sent in June rose 10-fold to 75 billion messages from the same month three years ago.A key lawmaker and a consumer group are pressuring wireless carriers to explain why prices for text messages have doubled in the... more