OutloudOpinion » US

Obama Budget Will Crash the U.S. Economy 3.16.10

Terence P. Jeffrey — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:36:03 +0000

One of the dullest documents the federal government ever published includes information every American needs to know. It is the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of President Barack Obama’s new fiscal 2011 budget proposal, and it predicts a massive escalation in government debt that could change our way of life forever.
“They literally crash the U.S. economy, if these kinds of deficits that he’s proposing persist,” Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, told me of the deficit numbers the CBO is now projecting as a result of Obama’s budget plan.

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Obama pledges to boost U.S. exports

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:27:11 +0000

President Obama on Thursday ordered an all-out effort by the U.S. government to increase exports to create more jobs amid record-high unemployment. “This morning, I signed an executive order instructing the federal government to use every available federal resource in support of that mission,” the president told the roughly 1,200 people attending the Export-Import Bank’s annual conference in Washington. As part of the president’s initiative, he also has created the Export Promotion Cabinet, which will include officials from the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Labor and State to execute his plan to double U.S. exports in five years. Mr. Obama said …

Greek leader seeks U.S. help

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

Top political leaders said on Tuesday that they were sympathetic to demands from Greece’s prime minister for a crackdown on speculators who have been plaguing European financial markets. But they stopped short of offering to intervene in the markets on Greece’s behalf to prevent the debt-laden country from paying higher interest rates than countries such as Germany with fewer debts. In a series of meetings with President Obama, top Cabinet officials and leaders of Congress, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou sought assistance fending off what he called speculative attacks that have sent the rates on Greece’s debt soaring. The leaders …

Poll: U.S. has lost global standing under Obama

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:00:09 +0000

A majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than two years ago and believe President Obama and other Democrats fall short of Republicans on the issue of national security, according to a poll by two left-leaning groups. The Democracy Corps-Third Way survey released Monday finds that by a 10-point margin — 51 percent to 41 percent — Americans think the standing of the United States has dropped during the first 13 months of Mr. Obama’s presidency. “This is surprising, given the global acclaim — and Nobel peace prize — that flowed to the new …

Complacency may jeopardize U.S. air safety

Joan Lowy ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:44:19 +0000

For the third time in seven months, the judgment of those who operate the U.S. air traffic control system has been called into question and concerns have been raised that complacency may be causing controllers and their supervisors to bend rules. While major air crashes have declined sharply over the last decade, thanks largely to improved technology, aviation safety experts say they are seeing signs that vigilance may have eroded. The latest incident was reported this week: A controller twice brought a child to work at the control tower at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, one of …

4 sentenced in plot to bomb U.S. targets

THE WASHINGTON TIMES — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:55:00 +0000

DUESSELDORF, Germany — Two German converts to Islam and two Turkish men were convicted Thursday in a foiled 2007 plot to attack U.S. targets in Germany and given prison sentences ranging up to 12 years. The four men, operating as a German cell of the radical Islamic Jihad Union, plotted bombing attacks against American citizens and facilities including the U.S. Air Force’s Ramstein base in Germany, the Duesseldorf state court found. The case “has shown with frightening clarity what acts young people who are filled with hatred, blinded and seduced by wrong-headed ideas of jihad are prepared and able to …

China holds more U.S. debt than indicated

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:00:06 +0000

Despite recent government reports that China’s holdings of U.S. Treasury debt declined during the second half of last year, the Asian economic giant almost certainly owns far more Treasury securities than official statistics indicate. After peaking at $801.5 billion, China’s holdings of U.S. Treasury securities declined to $755.4 billion at the year’s end, dropping the communist power into the position of second-largest holder of Treasury debt after Japan’s $768.8 billion, official government data reveal. But these numbers don’t tell the whole story. “The U.S. Treasury data almost certainly understate Chinese holdings of our government debt because [the U.S. figures] do …

Survey: 26% of U.S. gets news via phone

ASSOCIATED PRESS — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:23:42 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — Just over a quarter of American adults now read news on their cell phones, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. The survey results being released by the group Monday offer another sign of how people are changing they way they get information. Technology has been reshaping the news business and the way consumers relate to it for more than a decade. The latest shift is being driven by the exploding popularity of phones that can easily access the Internet. The new study found that 26 percent of Americans get news on their …

U.S., Afghan forces clear last parts of Taliban area

THE WASHINGTON TIMES — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:33:33 +0000

MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) — Marines and Afghan troops who fought through the center of Marjah linked up Saturday with American soldiers on the northern edge of the former Taliban stronghold, clearing the town’s last major pocket of resistance. The joint force encountered almost no hostile fire, indicating that the militants have either fled or blended in with the local population — perhaps to stage attacks later if the Afghan government fails to hold the town. Some Taliban operatives are believed to remain west of Marjah. Establishing a credible local government is a key component of NATO’s strategy for the 2-week-old …

Bernanke delivers blunt warning on U.S. debt

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:00:10 +0000

With uncharacteristic bluntness, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Congress on Wednesday that the United States could soon face a debt crisis like the one in Greece, and declared that the central bank will not help legislators by printing money to pay for the ballooning federal debt. Recent events in Europe, where Greece and other nations with large, unsustainable deficits like the United States are having increasing trouble selling their debt to investors, show that the U.S. is vulnerable to a sudden reversal of fortunes that would force taxpayers to pay higher interest rates on the debt, Mr. Bernanke …