Including their deficit: This month the state’s part-time legislature goes back into session, and the state is starting at potentially a $25 billion deficit on a two-year budget of around $95 billion. That’s enormous. And there’s not much fat to cut. The whole budget is basically education and healthcare spending. Cutting everything else wouldn’t do […]
This is another sign of the times: Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it’s simply somebody else’s problem. About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions […]
There has been a lot of speculation about what might have lead to the mysterious death of U.S. Census worker Bill Sparkman. Some reports were indicating a death that could be indicative of suicide, but that no longer seems the case: A part-time census worker found hanging in a rural Kentucky cemetery was naked, gagged […]
That is how much a new healthcare proposal would cost – one that would cover 97% of the country: The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and […]
The new jobless numbers are out, and they are worse than expected: Unemployment rate: 7.6% Jobs Lost In January: 598,000 (the most since 1974) Jobs Lost Last 12 Months: 3.5 Million Unemployed Workers: 11.6 million* A note about unemployed workers – this number does not include the so-called “underemployed” number (nor does the unemployment rate). […]
Bush’s legacy keeps on building: The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to 7.2 percent in December, the highest level in 16 years, as nervous employers slashed 524,000 jobs, capping one of the worst years in modern history for American workers. But those are just the unemployed. Let’s not forget those who are still working, but have […]
Nothing like a good scandal coming out of the Bush ran government to kick off our election season: Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties improperly engaged in sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday. The alleged transgressions involve 13 […]