March 13, 2013 — WASHINGTON (AP) — Applying for benefits under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul could be as daunting as doing your taxes. The government’s draft application runs 15 pages for a three-person family. An outline of the online version has 21 steps, some with additional questions. Seven months before the Oct. 1 start […]
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Mar 7, 10:52 AM EST — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, a move that sparked a furious Pyongyang to threaten a nuclear strike against the United States. The vote by the U.N.‘s most powerful body on […]
Mar 2, 10:44 AM EST — Automatic spending cuts that took effect Friday are expected to touch a vast range of government services. Some examples: DEFENSE One of the Navy’s premier warships, the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, sits pier-side in Norfolk, Va., its deployment to the Persian Gulf delayed. The carrier and its […]
The government spends about $164 a day to keep an illegal immigrant facing deportation jailed. WASHINGTON — A week before mandatory budget cuts go into effect across the government, the Department of Homeland Security has started releasing illegal immigrants being held in immigration jails across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday. Gillian Christensen, an […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — 2.27.13 — President Barack Obama will meet Friday with the top leaders in the House and Senate, several hours past the deadline for averting automatic budget cuts, to discuss how to proceed on divisive tax-and-spend issues. Because the meeting is set to take place well after Friday’s deadline for the so-called sequester […]
2.25.13 – Four days and counting. But who’s counting? President Barack Obama for one. That’s how long before government-wide budget cuts begin to hit home that will slash spending by roughly $85 billion over the next seven months. And more are on the way if Congress and the president can’t figure out how to replace Friday’s […]
2.22.13 — WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and other fiscal conservatives keep insisting on more federal austerity and a smaller government. Without much fanfare or acknowledgement, they’ve already gotten much of both. Spending by federal, state and local governments on payrolls, equipment, buildings, teachers, emergency workers, defense programs and other core governmental functions has been shrinking steadily […]
2.20.13 — WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Wednesday that if automatic government spending cuts kick in on March 1 he may be compelled to furlough the “vast majority” of the Defense Department’s 800,000 civilian workers. He also said the across-the-board spending reductions would “put us on a path toward a […]