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By Tanya Dawkins
YES! Magazine

So here we are. It’s as if the whole world is channeling the scene from the movie, Jerry Maguire, when Cuba Gooding Jr. jumps up and down shouting, “Show me the money!” Fund universal health care and climate policy, extend unemployment benefits, and rebuild crumbling infrastructure.

By David Swanson
Free Speech for People

The damage from the Supreme Court's decision in "Citizens United v. FEC" continues to spread as feared. Newly emboldened corporations are suing to overturn state laws that restrict corporate spending on politics:

"A pro-natural resource development group [how's that for spin?] and a Bozeman painting company asked a Helena District Court on Monday to strike down Montana’s 1912 ban on corporate donations and expenditures to political campaigns to comply with a January U.S. Supreme Court ruling."

By Sahil Kapur
RAW Story

WASHINGTON -- An ostensible bipartisan agreement on a jobs bill yesterday lasted just a few hours before Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) tossed it in favor of a scaled-down version. The new proposal is considerably less costly and scraps a series of corporate giveaways that appeared unlikely to create jobs.

Finance Committee chair Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) struck a deal Thursday with the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), on a $85 billion jobs bill.

By MATT JOYCE
The Associated Press

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- A proposal in Wyoming to impose the nation's first state excise tax on wind energy production is generating debate over how the state should handle the arrival of massive wind farms to its wind-swept plains and plateaus.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal made the wind energy tax a centerpiece of his legislative agenda, drawing surprise and alarm from some in the state's fledgling wind industry. The proposal cleared its first hurdle Thursday when the state House voted to introduce the bill.

Think Progress

As Ben Furnas pointed out last month in a report highlighting the extreme inequity present in America’s tax system, “America’s wealthiest celebrities save millions every year because of Bush’s lower tax rates for the very richest Americans.” In a speech yesterday, President Barack Obama once again laid out how he plans to address this problem:

Think Progress

There has been a lot of consternation recently regarding the Obama administration’s continuing commitment to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for the wealthiest American households. House Democrats are pushing to leave “well-enough alone for now” — with Rep. Mike McMahon (D-NY) even saying that those making $250,000 per year are “barely making ends meet” — while Republicans are trying to convince the President to “back off the marginal rate tax hikes.”

By Jay Heflin
The Hill

House Democrats say leadership has their work cut out in convincing the public to support a tax increase on those making more than $250,000.

Centrists and liberal Democrats told The Hill they support allowing President Bush’s tax cuts on those making more than $250,000 to expire, but said leaders must win public support by portraying the tax increase as reducing the nation’s record budget deficit.

The fight over taxes -- in Massachusetts and across the country -- is as furious as ever. But what is the battle really about?

By Charles P. Pierce
Boston Globe

Congresswoman Donna Edwards has just introduced a Constitutional amendment, together with Congressman John Conyers.

HTTP://FREESPEECHFORPEOPLE.ORG

Watch this brand new video:
http://freespeechforpeople.org/edwardsvideo

PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS APPLAUD REP. DONNA EDWARDS FOR FILING CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BILL TO OVERTURN US SUPREME COURT RULING ON CORPORATE MONEY IN ELECTIONS

HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIR JOHN CONYERS, JR JOINS FILING

"Free Speech Rights Are For People, Not Corporations"

By Steven Thomma
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Fighting wars and lingering effects from a deep recession, President Barack Obama will run up a record $1.56 trillion budget deficit this year and is proposing a 2011 federal budget that would spend $1.27 trillion more than the government takes in next year.

Even with plans to scale back after that, his budget proposal Monday calls for deficits of more than $700 billion a year for at least a decade and relies on outside help from an as-yet un-appointed commission to bring them down more.

DemocracyNow! - President Obama has unveiled a record $3.8 trillion budget that boosts money for war while cutting domestic spending.

President Obama: “I’ve proposed a freeze in government spending for three years. This won’t apply to the benefits folks get through Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare, and and it won’t apply to our national security, including benefits for veterans. But it will apply to all other discretionary government programs.”

Under Obama’s proposal, the Pentagon budget would grow over three percent in addition to separate funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for a total of over $741 billion. The new budget contains no major weapons cancellations as opposed to last year’s gutting of the F-22 fighter jet. Obama is also seeking a $7 billion increase in nuclear spending despite a pledge to cut the US arsenal and seek a nuclear weapons-free world. The Labor Department would see a 32 percent cut, most from declining unemployment benefits and stimulus spending.

By Michael McKee
Bloomberg

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Evidence of a self-sustaining U.S. recovery is emerging on the factory floors of Texas Instruments Inc. The second-largest U.S. chipmaker will spend almost $1 billion this year to expand three factories and open a fourth to fill orders.

Obama Budget Seeks $1.9 Trillion Tax Rise on Richest, Business; proposes $143.4 billion in new tax cuts for individuals who earn under $200,000

By Ryan J. Donmoyer
Bloomberg

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration seeks a $970 billion tax increase over the next decade on Americans earning more than $200,000 and wants to take in an additional $400 billion from businesses even as it retools a proposed crackdown on international tax-avoidance techniques.

By Ben Geman
The Hill

The White House calls for the end of nearly $40 billion in tax beaks for oil, gas and coal companies in its budget proposal released on Monday.

The tax effort is sure to prompt outcry from industry groups, which have long argued that ending the subsidies will stymie investments in domestic energy production.

The fiscal year 2011 budget plan calls for repealing $38.8 billion worth of tax breaks for oil, natural gas and coal companies over a decade, according to the White House.