Obama’s crony capitalism

Obama’s crony capitalism

Friends of the president are given billions in government largesse

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A worker leaves with a moving box Wednesday at Solyndra in Fremont, Calif. The solar-panel manufacturer, which received a $535 million loan from the U.S. government, has announced layoffs of 1,100 workers and plans to file for bankruptcy. A weak economy and strong overseas competition have proved insurmountable. (Associated Press)

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Obama’s next bailout

Proposed settlement hides payoff to banks worth hundreds of billions

By Rebel A. Cole

Illustration by Alexander Hunter for The Washington Times

On Jan. 23, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun L.S. Donovan met in Chicago with several Democratic state attorneys general (AGs) in an attempt to strong-arm them into signing up for an administration-backed agreement to settle the “robo-signing” scandal. Wall Street would pay what sounds like a large fine ($25 billion), and in exchange, the state AGs would relieve the bankers of all legal liabilities related to the fraudulent mortgage-lending practices that led directly to the 2008 financial meltdown and a 30 percent drop in U.S. home prices.

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Tax the ‘rich’

Capital-gains tax misses the opportunity to spur the economy

By Emily Miller

Illustration: Warren Buffett by Alexander Hunter for The Washington Times

Each presidential candidate’s position on investment tax rates is a critical issue. The current rates, set by President George W. Bush, will expire at the end of this year, so whoever sits behind the desk in the Oval Office next January will have the power to stop the capital-gains tax rate from jumping to 20 percent and qualified dividends rising to 39.6 percent.

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Panetta cites key intelligence on bin Laden raid. By Robert Burns

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is acknowledging publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor provided key information to the U.S. in advance of the successful Navy SEAL assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound last May.

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The Political Cowardice of Barack Obama

Soaring rhetoric won't fix the economy.

Steven Greenhut |

Now, a return to the American values of fair play and shared responsibility will help protect our people and our economy. But it should also guide us as we look to pay down our debt and invest in our future.—President Barack Obama, State of the Union, January 24, 2012

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night was the latest reminder that the state of political discourse in America is shockingly low. I’m not singling out Obama for special condemnation, given that these addresses always are a potpourri of banalities, regardless of which president is offering them. Yet Tuesday’s address was a vivid reminder of the shoddy thinking so common at the highest level of the federal and state governments and why we are—in the more precise, but less lofty words of a former president—in deep doo doo.

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