Cyra Master

Sen. John McCain takes President Obama and Congress to task on the "pork-barrel" earmarks in a $410 billion spending bill. More »

Banks are protesting a provision tucked into the omnibus appropriations bill that would allow the FTC to issue rules on cracking down on predatory mortgages and allow state attorneys general to enforce the language and all consumer lending covered under the Truth In Lending Act. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., inserted the language into the $787 billion spending bill because he believed that the country needs "more cops on the beat" to track predatory lending,… More »

Top advisers for President Obama Sunday said he will sign an omnibus spending bill still percolating on Capitol Hill despite its inclusion of billions in earmarks. White House Chief of Staff Emanuel and OMB Director Orszag appearing separately on Sunday morning shows said the FY09 omnibus spending bill is "last year's business," and that Obama will sign what is sent him. "We just want to move on," Orszag said on ABC's This Week. Republicans say the bill's 9,000… More »

Moderate House New Democrats showed their influence Thursday after they forced changes and later stalled consideration of legislation allowing bankruptcy judges to modify home mortgages, including reducing the principal of a loan. It signals a potential problem as the House considers measures that divide Democrats, such as health care, climate change and financial services overhaul, among others. Senior Democratic sources said that whether the bankruptcy bill… More »

CNBC's Rick Santelli is back, saying it was unusual for the White House Press Secretary single him out in a presser last week. More »

The House Wednesday approved a $410 billion omnibus spending package that would wrap up appropriations for FY09, which began Oct. 1. The bill passed 245-178, with 16 Republicans voting in favor and 20 Democrats voting against the omnibus, which consists of nine of the FY09 appropriations bills that Congress has not approved. Three of the annual spending bills -- Defense, Military Construction-VA and Homeland Security -- were cleared in late September with the… More »

Pres. Obama addresses a joint session of Congress and the nation in a speech focusing on the economy, promising that we will "rebuild stronger than before." More »

President Obama said Tuesday night that the economic crisis that has shaken the confidence of the country will not define it. "We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," Obama said in his first address to a joint session of Congress. He laid out a broad, aggressive agenda, focusing on investing in what he called "three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future -- energy, health care… More »

During the Fiscal Responsibility Summit, Pres. Obama asks Sen. John McCain for his thoughts, and the two agree that the new WH helicopter is an "example of the procurement process gone amok." More »

Judging from all the Republican governors in D.C.'s media spotlight this weekend, a casual observer might have wondered if any Democratic chief executives were joining them for the annual National Governors Association meeting. They were, of course, but with reporters focused on the GOP's intraparty debate on the wisdom of the stimulus package, the Democrats were largely an afterthought. Indeed, as one reporter interviewed Indiana Republican Mitch Daniels on his… More »

Only seven days after winning a bruising battle over his stimulus plan, President Obama will use his first address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday to stress the urgency of further action to regulate financial markets, stem the wave of foreclosures and prepare for a painful effort to gain control over deficit spending. But the televised address will be only one part of a week of bad news for the nation. The worst of that news will be the deficit numbers to… More »

WH Press Secretary Gibbs hits back at CNBC's Santelli, telling him to read the plan and offering to buy him a cup of coffee -- decaf. Gibbs also says: "I think we left a few months ago the adage that if it was good for a derivatives trader it was good for main street." More »

CNBC's Rick Santelli gets the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade fired up with his rant on Obama's housing rescue plan. More »

The relentlessly bad economic news in recent days raises an important political question: How long does former President Bush keep ownership of this recession? At this stage, voters have no doubt that the recession started on his watch. Yet plenty of blame deserves to be laid at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and that blame extends to administrations of both parties, not to mention government-supported enterprises and mortgage companies. In political terms,… More »

Megan and Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research debate whether the central bankers realistically could have prevented our current situation. More »

A single word buried on Page 465 of the stimulus conference report has at least one Republican senator up in arms and some independent-government overseers scratching their heads. Senate Finance ranking member Charles Grassley is objecting to language in a heavily amended oversight section of the bill that would permit a yet-to-be named Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board to order any federal inspector general to "conduct or refrain from conducting… More »

Highlights from Pres. Obama's $75 billion mortgage relief plan. Obama says the series of measures will keep 9 million people from losing their homes. More »

General Motors today asked for up to $30 billion in federal aid through 2011, while Chrysler LLC asked for an additional $2 billion beyond what has already been committed to it as the automakers submitted interim plans for turning their operations around. Both companies submitted their reports to the Treasury Department detailing how they intend to spend the money authorized late last year and additional aid to avoid having to file for bankruptcy. General Motors… More »

Are you an economy with performance issues? If you find it hard to achieve and maintain growth, maybe Stimulis is right for you. More »

After the trials and triumphs of his tumultuous first weeks, President Obama appears increasingly focused on ends, not means. In a conversation early Friday evening with a small group of columnists, Obama was flexible about tactics and unwavering in his goals. He signaled that he's open to consultation, compromise and readjusting his course to build inclusive coalitions, but fixed on the results he intends to produce. "My bottom line is not how pretty the process… More »