The Congressional Budget Office on Friday released its analysis of President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal and found it does less to rein in deficits and the debt than the administration had estimated.
CBO estimates Obama's plan would produce 10 years of deficits totaling $9.5 trillion. By 2021, it would increase the debt held by the public to 87 percent of gross domestic product.
The administration, using different methods, estimated budget deficits would total $7.2 trillion over the next 10 years under the 2012 budget. It forecast that total debt in 2021 would be 77 percent of GDP.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Oil prices tumble as Libya declares cease-fire
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices plunged Friday after Libya’s foreign minister declared a cease-fire and said the government would stop military operations against rebels.
Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa announced the cease-fire Friday, shortly after the U.N. voted to authorize a no-fly zone and “all necessary measures,” including airstrikes, to protect Libyan citizens from forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.
Koussa said the cease-fire “will take the country back to safety” and ensure security for all Libyans.
Benchmark crude swiftly dropped afterward on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with the price plunging about $3 in 15 minutes, or nearly 3 percent. West Texas Intermediate oil for April delivery fell 57 cents to $101.85 in morning trading on the Nymex.
Oil prices surged as much as 27 percent in the past month as pro-reform uprisings swept through North Africa and the Middle East, ousting leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. The region is home to OPEC leaders Saudi Arabia and Iran, and it produces 27 percent of the world’s oil. Prices rose on concerns unrest could disrupt global oil supplies.
The rise in oil prices was felt at gasoline stations across the U.S., where pump prices jumped and remain at the highest levels ever for this time of year at $3.54 per gallon.
Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa announced the cease-fire Friday, shortly after the U.N. voted to authorize a no-fly zone and “all necessary measures,” including airstrikes, to protect Libyan citizens from forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.
Koussa said the cease-fire “will take the country back to safety” and ensure security for all Libyans.
Benchmark crude swiftly dropped afterward on the New York Mercantile Exchange, with the price plunging about $3 in 15 minutes, or nearly 3 percent. West Texas Intermediate oil for April delivery fell 57 cents to $101.85 in morning trading on the Nymex.
Oil prices surged as much as 27 percent in the past month as pro-reform uprisings swept through North Africa and the Middle East, ousting leaders in Tunisia and Egypt. The region is home to OPEC leaders Saudi Arabia and Iran, and it produces 27 percent of the world’s oil. Prices rose on concerns unrest could disrupt global oil supplies.
The rise in oil prices was felt at gasoline stations across the U.S., where pump prices jumped and remain at the highest levels ever for this time of year at $3.54 per gallon.
Time to tackle regulatory reform
On the classic TV show “Star Trek,” space was the “final frontier.” In the political world, it’s the byzantine world of the federal regulatory agencies that is the final frontier. While we struggle with health care reform, energy reform and entitlement reform, no reform may be more critical to the health of our country than regulatory reform.
The truth is that we will never be able to successfully reform our health care system — or our energy and environmental policy, or entitlements, or education or, quite frankly, to tackle any other challenge facing this country — until we begin the difficult process of regulatory reform.
When it comes to health care reform, patients, providers, insurance companies and employers all face a tangled web of new and ever-changing regulations as a result of the passage of Obamacare. Some business owners, confused and frustrated, are openly talking about just paying the fines for noncompliance. They are making the business decision that noncompliance might be easier than trying to comply with the new regulations.
While the health care regulations have left the relevant players confused, regulations in the energy and environmental arena have not just created confusion; they have become a bureaucratic dead end. Thousands of jobs have been lost, and energy prices have increased dramatically, as a result of inaction by regulatory agencies charged with overseeing energy exploration.
The truth is that, intertwined in almost every major challenge we face is a complex bureaucracy — a bureaucracy that often undermines well-intended efforts to reform whatever sector that agency oversees.
This is an important first step. Few know more about the unintended, and too often job-killing, consequences of the regulatory bureaucracy than the folks who deal with these agencies every day.
Read More
The truth is that we will never be able to successfully reform our health care system — or our energy and environmental policy, or entitlements, or education or, quite frankly, to tackle any other challenge facing this country — until we begin the difficult process of regulatory reform.
When it comes to health care reform, patients, providers, insurance companies and employers all face a tangled web of new and ever-changing regulations as a result of the passage of Obamacare. Some business owners, confused and frustrated, are openly talking about just paying the fines for noncompliance. They are making the business decision that noncompliance might be easier than trying to comply with the new regulations.
While the health care regulations have left the relevant players confused, regulations in the energy and environmental arena have not just created confusion; they have become a bureaucratic dead end. Thousands of jobs have been lost, and energy prices have increased dramatically, as a result of inaction by regulatory agencies charged with overseeing energy exploration.
The truth is that, intertwined in almost every major challenge we face is a complex bureaucracy — a bureaucracy that often undermines well-intended efforts to reform whatever sector that agency oversees.
This is an important first step. Few know more about the unintended, and too often job-killing, consequences of the regulatory bureaucracy than the folks who deal with these agencies every day.
Read More
Behind Administration Spin: Bailout Still $123 Billion in the Red
The administration has been on a PR offensive in recent months to tell the good news about the TARP. As the Treasury Department official in charge of the TARP said at a congressional hearing yesterday, the bailout won't cost anywhere near the full $700 billion Congress authorized. In fact, many of its investments have turned a profit, and some of its most infamous bailouts -- such as the rescue of AIG -- won't end up being the tax dollar black holes [3] they once seemed sure to be.
But the true picture isn't so rosy.
ProPublica has provided a comprehensive bailout database since TARP's launch. It shows not only how much money has gone to each recipient, but how much each has paid in interest and dividend payments. With all this data, they are able to clearly show how deep in the hole the program remains. And the answer as of today is $123 billion.
Add that to the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which the site also tracks and is separate from the TARP -- and taxpayers are $257 billion in the hole.
But the true picture isn't so rosy.
ProPublica has provided a comprehensive bailout database since TARP's launch. It shows not only how much money has gone to each recipient, but how much each has paid in interest and dividend payments. With all this data, they are able to clearly show how deep in the hole the program remains. And the answer as of today is $123 billion.
Add that to the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which the site also tracks and is separate from the TARP -- and taxpayers are $257 billion in the hole.
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