| Oil, gas taxes vary widely by state Posted: 19 Mar 2012 12:50 PM PDT 
By Dan Gearino, Dispatch.com Several states have used taxes on oil and natural-gas production to reduce the burden on everyone else, a club that Gov. John Kasich would like Ohio to join. He lists Texas, Michigan, West Virginia and North Dakota as examples of places that have higher taxes on oil and natural gas than Ohio. At the same time, oil-industry advocates say that the absence of such a tax — as is the case in Pennsylvania — serves to encourage investment. Legislative leaders have said they sympathize with this view, setting up a fight with the governor. As the debate unfolds, both sides will use examples from other states. Researchers warn that there are big challenges to comparing the vastly different approaches, and many reasons to proceed with caution in deciding how to structure a tax. "It's a bag of snakes more than a can of worms," said David Passmore, director of the Institute for Research in Training & Development at Penn State University. Most of the debate is about "severance" taxes, a tax on natural resources that are being "severed" from the earth. Nearly all the money collected comes from oil and natural-gas production. To read more: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2012/03/19/oil-gas-taxes-vary-widely-by-state.html |
| Bernanke Seen Not Knowing Jobless Rate Below Fed Forecasts Posted: 19 Mar 2012 12:41 PM PDT 
By Caroline Salas Gage and Steve Matthews, Bloomberg.com David Waldrop, 59, says he considers himself retired after searching unsuccessfully for work comparable to the job he lost in July 2007 at the U.S. Department of Energy in Atlanta. "There was certainly nothing in my area at my level," he said. While the right opening might pull him back to employment, for now he sees his exit from the U.S. labor force as permanent. "I don't see it happening," he said. "I don't see anything offering opportunities." Waldrop is one of millions who have dropped out of the labor market in the aftermath of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, causing the employment-to-population ratio to fall to 58.6 percent from 62.7 percent at the end of 2007. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke says the decline reflects weakness in the economy that's causing discouraged Americans to leave the workforce, bolstering his decision to add to his record monetary stimulus in January. Economists at Barclays Capital, UBS AG and Moody's Corp. disagree. They say the percentage of people aged 16 and older with jobs is shrinking permanently because of a structural shift as baby boomers like Waldrop retire. This will contribute to the jobless rate falling to 7.8 percent by December, below the Fed's prediction of 8.2 percent to 8.5 percent, according to Drew Matus, senior U.S. economist at UBS and Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays. Tighten Sooner That may force Bernanke and his colleagues to tighten monetary policy sooner than their plan to keep the benchmark federal funds rate near zero until at least late 2014, or risk a surge in inflation, Matus and Maki predict. The policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee said after its March 13 meeting that "elevated" joblessness will "decline gradually," in support of its rate pledge. "Unemployment will come down faster, and the participation rate will be lower — that is what they have been missing," Matus said in a telephone interview from his Stamford, Connecticut, office. "Every month that goes by, and the labor market performs differently than they expect, they are going to have to ask themselves: Are they using the right models?" Joblessness was 8.3 percent in February, the lowest in three years, after the most robust six-month period of employment growth since 2006. It had risen as high as 10 percent in October 2009. The Fed lowered its forecast in January, after predicting in November that unemployment would be 8.5 percent to 8.7 percent at the end of this year. To read more, visit: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-19/bernanke-seen-not-knowing-jobless-rate-less-than-fed-predictions.html |
| Father’s outrage as TSA subjects his wheelchair-bound three-year-old son to humiliating search… on his way to Disney Posted: 19 Mar 2012 12:30 PM PDT 
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER A vacation in the Magic Kingdom should be enough to make a child giddy with excitement, but one young boy was left trembling with fear after he was subjected to an invasive TSA pat-down. The three-year-old, confined to a wheelchair due to a recently broken leg, was with his family at O’Hare Airport in Chicago, on their way to board a flight to Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Despite constant assurances from his father that ‘everything is OK’, he physically trembles with fear and asks his parents to hold his hand. The terrified boy was swabbed on his hands and under his shirt for explosive residue. While the boy’s father grew increasingly incensed by the treatment his son was getting, he tried to remain calm, for the boy’s sake. He filmed the entire process and later posted it on YouTube. Despite such strict security for this toddler, the TSA is offering background-checked travellers the chance to use special lines and keep their shoes, belt and jacket on, leave laptops and liquids in carry-on bags and avoid a full-body scan – for a price. The TSA’s new fast track ‘Precheck’ screening, now at two airlines and nine airports, is similar to security checks before 9/11, reports the Wall Street Journal. To read more, visit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116881/TSA-subject-child-wheelchair-invasive-airport-security-tests-Chicago.html |
| ‘The Road We’ve Traveled:’ A misleading account of Obama’s mother and her insurance dispute Posted: 19 Mar 2012 12:26 PM PDT 
By Glenn Kessler, WashingtonPost.com "The Road We've Traveled" is a very slick and impressively produced campaign film—sheer catnip for Obama fans. There are a number of facts and figures that could be challenged, but for now we are going to focus on this sequence. The series of words and images is an excellent example of how such films can create a misleading impression, while skirting as close as possible to the edge of falsehood. The sequence, in fact, evokes a famous story that candidate Obama told during the 2008 campaign—that his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, fought with her insurer over whether her cancer was a pre-existing condition that disqualified her from coverage. But the story was later called into question by Dunham's biographer. The fact that Obama's initial claim is not directly repeated suggests the filmmakers knew there was a problem with the campaign story, but they clearly wanted to keep some version of it in the film. The Facts During the 2008 campaign, Obama frequently suggested his mother had to fight with her health-insurance company for treatment of her cancer because it considered her disease to be a pre-existing condition. In one of the presidential debates with GOP rival John McCain, Obama said: "For my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they're saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don't have to pay her treatment, there's something fundamentally wrong about that."
But then earlier this year, journalist Janny Scott cast serious doubt on this version of events in her excellent biography, "A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's mother." Scott reviewed letters from Dunham to the CIGNA insurance company, and revealed the dispute was over disability coverage, not health insurance coverage (see pages 335-339). Disability coverage will help replace wages lost to an illness. (Dunham received a base pay of $82,500, plus a housing allowance and a car, to work in Indonesia for Development Alternatives Inc. of Bethesda, according to Scott.) But that is different than health insurance coverage denied because of a pre-existing condition, which was a major part of the president's health care law. To read more, visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/the-road-weve-traveled-a-misleading-account-of-obamas-mother-and-her-insurance-dispute/2012/03/18/gIQAdDd4KS_blog.html |
| NY Tea Party Activist Throws Hat Into Congressional Race Posted: 19 Mar 2012 12:22 PM PDT 
By MAURY THOMPSON, PostStar.com A tea party activist from Jefferson County said she will challenge Matt Doheny in a primary for the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh. "I basically say that I'm going from my sofa to politics," said Kellie Greene, an international business consultant and seminary student from Sackets Harbor. Greene and Doheny are running in a proposed new congressional district that would include Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties
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Greene said in a telephone interview Friday she is more conservative than Doheny on issues such as abortion and border security. "Mr. Doheny, I believe, is more moderate than I am. … I am a pro-life conservative. … On top of that, I believe we should be more tight on our (international) borders," she said. On her campaign website, Greene states she has a unique perspective on border issues, having lived along both the northern and southern U.S. borders. She grew up in Oswego, and she lived for eight years in Arizona, before recently moving back to New York. Dohney, an investment fund manager from Watertown, is already building support from the tea party movement. To read more, visit: http://poststar.com/news/local/tea-party-activist-throws-hat-into-congressional-race/article_7cc9f988-7093-11e1-aad1-0019bb2963f4.html |
| Tea Party still rules GOP Posted: 19 Mar 2012 12:12 PM PDT 
By: Paul Bedard, WashingtonExaminer.com The surprise primary defeat of Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, by Tea Party challenger Brad Wenstrup, is sending a strong signal to the GOP that the fiscally conservative group is still in charge. Not only did her Super Tuesday defeat send a warning to squishy Republican incumbents, but conservatives said it will impact House GOP budget talks, likely steering them in the direction of more cuts. Wenstrup's victory, said Michael Franc, Heritage Foundation vice president of government studies, "has lent a sense of urgency to these discussions." Each week, Franc provides Washington Secrets with the hot tip to watch. "One litmus test has emerged: How many years until the budget balances? Dozens of House conservatives have conveyed to House leaders they want to see balance within a decade, or less. Or else," added Franc. He said buzz is building around a budget plan that includes bold Medicare reforms suggested by Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., and welfare program overhauls pushed by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the Republican Study Committee. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., plans to release his GOP alternative budget this week. Eliminating today's trillion-dollar plus budget deficit within a decade, of course, will require lawmakers to entertain major structural reforms to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and to begin those reforms almost immediately, said Franc. "Some believe the needle can be threaded if these reforms are included in the budget blueprint," he added. To read more, visit: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/washington-secrets/2012/03/tea-party-still-rules-gop/386046 |
