Dairy Farmers Warn Milk Prices Could Skyrocket To $6 A Gallon

How much would you pay for a gallon for milk? Dairy farmers warn that there could be a jump in price at the grocery store by year’s end.

Ken Nobis is with the Michigan Milk Producers Association and notes that Congress has its plate full of very pressing issues and fears the Farm Bill may be on the back burner:

“Probably, talking in the neighborhood of $5-6 a gallon for milk,” said Nobis. “The consequences are consumers aren’t going to buy the product at that cost.”

The U.S. House voted down a farm bill back in June — after the Senate approved a different version. There have been disagreements over food stamp funding tied to the measure. Read more >>

NRA claims NSA starting 'gun registry'

The National Rifle Association joined the American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit on Wednesday to end the government's massive phone record collection program.

In a brief filed in federal court, the NRA argues that the National Security Agency's database of phone records amounts to a "national gun registry."

 "It would be absurd to think that the Congress would adopt and maintain a web of statutes intended to protect against the creation of a national gun registry, while simultaneously authorizing the FBI and the NSA to gather records that could effectively create just such a registry," the group writes.

After leaks by Edward Snowden, the NSA acknowledged that it collects records on virtually all U.S. phone calls. The data include phone numbers, call times and call durations, but not the contents of the conversations. The NSA says it only "queries" the database a limited number of times for specific national security reasons.

The NSA argues that Congress authorized the phone data surveillance with Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows for the collection of business records "relevant" to terrorism. Read more >>

Taxpayers to foot bill for congressional health care

The White House has approved a deal that will exempt members of Congress and their staff from some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, Politico reported late Thursday.

Under the law, popularly referred to as Obamacare, lawmakers and their aides were required to source health insurance "created" by the law or offered through one of its exchanges, and without the subsidies they currently enjoy, the members of Congress would have faced thousands of dollars in additional premium payments each year, the report said.

However, the Office of Personnel Management now plans to rule that the government can continue to make a contribution to the health-care premiums of the lawmakers and their staff, it said, citing unnamed congressional sources and a White House official. Read more >>

Obama To Detroit: No Bailout

While in the past President Obama has been more that willing to throw good money after bad and "refuse to let Detroit go bankrupt," it seems when push comes to shove - under the intense scrutiny of a nation awash in scandal, a drastically bifurcated congress - that despite the imploring from local congressmen for "moar" already - that the savior of the city will not this time ride to the rescue on his white horse.

In a statement, the White House said they "are monitoring the situation in Detroit closely," with no hint - just as they have made clear for months - of any sort of Federal bailout. As USA Today notes, the federal government provided federal loans to prevent New York City from declaring bankruptcy during the 1970s. But times have changed; the federal government has debt and financial problems of its own, and a Detroit bailout could run into significant opposition in Congress and cause serious damage in the Muni market.

While the GM debacle put pensioners ahead of creditors, it would be unprecedentedly bad for the massive Muni bond market should Obama acquiesce and change the law once again to put pensioners ahead of GOs... Read more >>

Gallup: Americans' Confidence in Newspapers Continues to Erode

Couple this with NSA and Obama's plummeting approval ratings, and we have a major shift in the collective attitude toward the status quo underway.  

Americans' confidence in newspapers fell slightly to 23% this year, from 25% in 2012 and 28% in 2011. The percentage of Americans saying they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers has been generally trending downward since 1979, when it reached a high of 51%.

Newspapers rank near the bottom on a list of 16 societal institutions Gallup measured in a June 1-4 survey. Television news is tied with newspapers on the list, with 23% of Americans also expressing confidence in it. That is up slightly from the all-time low of 21% found last year. The only institutions television news and newspapers beat out this year are big business, organized labor, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), and Congress.

Americans' confidence in television news was highest, at 46%, in 1993, when Gallup first asked about it. The question does not indicate the specific type of television news, meaning respondents could be thinking about anything ranging from cable news channels to local news when answering the survey. Read more >>

Nine in 10 Americans have no confidence in Congress

Nine in 10 Americans say they have no confidence in Congress, ranking it last on a list of 16 institutions for the fourth straight year, Gallup said Thursday. The 10 percent confidence level is the lowest level registered for any institution since Gallup began this poll in 1973, Gallup said.

At 76 percent, Americans said they were most confident in the military. Small business and the police also ranked high, at 65 percent and 57 percent, with Americans expressing "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in these institutions, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Also at the bottom of the list were health maintenance organizations, at 19 percent, and organized labor, at 21 percent. Confidence in Congress has been at its lowest points for several years, Gallup said. The high point was in 1973, when 42 percent of Americans said they had confidence in Congress.

Results are based on nationwide phone interviews with 1,529 adults conducted June 1-4. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.

Source

Lindsey Graham Isn't Sure If Bloggers Deserve 'First Amendment Protection'

Whether bloggers count as journalists has mostly been a matter of esoterics for reporter types. But as Congress weighs a media shield law in response to the Associated Press/Justice Department subpoena scandal, the question is gaining an urgency that lawmakers are finding hard to ignore as they turn to writing the bill.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., took on the issue—and stumbled.

"Who is a journalist is a question we need to ask ourselves," he said. "Is any blogger out there saying anything—do they deserve First Amendment protection? These are the issues of our times."

The verbal slipup aside (of course bloggers are covered under the Bill of Rights!), Graham's riffing on constitutional law exposes one of the age-old tensions between journalism as a product and journalism as an activity. What Graham really meant to ask was whether bloggers deserve the specific protections of the First Amendment that are granted to the press.  Read more >>

Postal Service backs down on cutting Saturday mail

The beleaguered U.S. Postal Service backed down from its cost-saving plan to eliminate Saturday mail delivery, acknowledging that Congress barred a move that supporters said was essential to addressing the agency's dire financial condition.

Despite the retreat, the governing board said Wednesday that it's not possible for the Postal Service to meet its goals for reduced spending without altering the delivery schedule. Delaying "responsible changes," the board said, only makes it more likely that the Postal Service "may become a burden" to taxpayers.

The Postal Service said in February that it planned to switch to five-day-a-week deliveries beginning in August for everything except packages as a way to hold down losses.

But that announcement was a gamble. The agency essentially was asking Congress to drop from spending legislation the longtime ban on five-day-only delivery. Congress did not do that when it passed a spending measure last month. Read more >>

Sequester cuts are here to stay

Lawmakers and aides say they do not expect Congress to turn off budget sequestration before April and that negotiations to freeze the automatic spending cuts could drag into May or beyond.

Over the last few weeks, there has been increased speculation that the sequester would go into effect Friday but be addressed in a March deal to keep the government funded.
Don’t bet on it.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), a member of the Finance Committee, predicted sequestration would last through the end of the year.

“Are we going to roll back the size of the cuts? No. I can promise you that,” said Burr.
President Obama has invited congressional leaders to meet at the White House on Friday, the same day $85 billion in automatic cuts are due to begin.

However, congressional sources do not anticipate a deal at that gathering or any time soon. Read more >>

Pentagon informs Congress of plans to furlough 800K civilian workers

The Pentagon notified Congress on Wednesday it will be furloughing its civilian workforce of 800,000 employees if sequestration goes into effect March 1.

Defense officials have warned lawmakers that sequestration will devastate the military and lead to a hollow force, but the civilian furloughs will be one of the first major impacts felt by the across-the-board cuts.

The Pentagon furloughs will affect civilians across the country. Pentagon officials have said that civilians could face up to 22 days of furloughs, one per week, through the end of the fiscal year in September. The employees would receive 30 days' notice before being furloughed.

“We are doing everything possible to limit the worst effects on DOD personnel — but I regret that our flexibility within the law is extremely limited,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wrote in a message to the department. “The president has used his legal authority to exempt military personnel funding from sequestration, but we have no legal authority to exempt civilian personnel funding from reductions.”
Read more >>

Food Stamp Rolls in America Now Surpass the Population of Spain

Since taking office in 2009, food stamp rolls under President Barack Obama have risen to more than 47 million people in America, exceeding the population of Spain.

“Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity,” said Obama during his first joint session address to Congress on Feb. 24, 2009.

Since then, the number of participants enrolled in food stamps, known as the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP), has risen substantially.

When Obama entered office in January 2009 there were 31,939,110 Americans receiving food stamps.  As of November 2012—the most recent data available—there were 47,692,896 Americans enrolled, an increase of 49.3 percent. Read more >>

Some families to be priced out of health overhaul

English: A member of the audience holds a "Thank You" sign during President Barack Obama's speech on medicare fraud and health care insurance reform at St. Charles High School in St. Charles, Mo., March 10, 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some families could get priced out of health insurance due to what's being called a glitch in President Barack Obama's overhaul law. IRS regulations issued Wednesday failed to fix the problem as liberal backers of the president's plan had hoped.

As a result, some families that can't afford the employer coverage that they are offered on the job will not be able to get financial assistance from the government to buy private health insurance on their own. How many people will be affected is unclear.

The Obama administration says its hands were tied by the way Congress wrote the law. Officials said the administration tried to mitigate the impact. Families that can't get coverage because of the glitch will not face a tax penalty for remaining uninsured, the IRS rules said.

"This is a very significant problem, and we have urged that it be fixed," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, an advocacy group that supported the overhaul from its early days. "It is clear that the only way this can be fixed is through legislation and not the regulatory process."

But there's not much hope for an immediate fix from Congress, since the House is controlled by Republicans who would still like to see the whole law repealed. Read more >>

US debt headed toward 200 percent of GDP even after 'fiscal cliff' deal

The nation's long-term fiscal outlook hasn't significantly improved following the recent agreement between Congress and the White House over tax and spending issues, according to a new analysis.

The "fiscal cliff" deal, combined with the debt-limit agreement of August 2011, only slightly delays the United States reaching debt-to-gross domestic product levels that would damage the economy and risk another fiscal crisis, according to a report from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation released on Tuesday.

The agreement "may have prevented the immediate threats that the fiscal cliff posed to our fragile economic recovery, but we haven’t remotely fixed the nation’s debt problem," said Michael A. Peterson, president and COO of the Peterson Foundation.

"The primary goal of any sustainable fiscal policy is to stabilize the debt as a share of the economy and put it on a downward path, and yet our nation is still heading toward debt levels of 200 percent of GDP and beyond," he said. Read more >>

GOP Moves to Suspend Debt Ceiling Until May

Alan Simpson - Caricature (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

House Speaker John Boehner indicated Tuesday that Republicans will vote on an extension of the federal debt ceiling to allow Treasury to borrow money until mid-May. The move would reverse the order of a series of expected debt and spending fights in Washington, an effort designed to put the GOP on more sound political footing.

The Speaker said the measure would be tied to a provision that would suspend the pay of lawmakers if they do not agree to a budget by April 15th. A vote is expected Wednesday.

"I think the American people understand that you can't continue to spend money that you don't have," Boehner said.

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney indicated the president would likely sign the measure if the Congress passes it. "The House Republicans made a decision to back away from the kind of brinksmanship that was very concerning to the markets, very concerning to business, very concerning to the American people," Carney said. Read more >>

'Marriage penalty' could cost couples more than $2,000 in higher taxes

The return of the so-called marriage penalty could cost many couples more than $2,000 in higher 2013 taxes if Congress doesn't get its act together and fix the fiscal cliff.

As a result of the Bush tax cuts, married couples get a standard deduction that's exactly twice that of individuals. And the income ranges for the 10% and 15% tax brackets are also doubled. Prior to 2001, many married couples had paid a "penalty" because their standard deduction and income tax brackets were less than twice those of singles.

Next year the imbalance could return. While the standard deduction for single filers should rise to $6,100, married couples would receive a deduction of only $10,150 if lawmakers don't extend the provision, according to estimates by the Tax Foundation. To erase the marriage penalty, it would have to be $12,200.

Married couples would also be moved into higher tax brackets more quickly. Individual taxpayers would be in the 15% tax bracket until they hit $36,250 in taxable income, but married filers could be pushed above it after only $60,550 in income, as opposed to $72,500. Read more >>

Fiscal cliff negotiations reviving debate about screwing Retirees out of Social Security

Yes, we can fix Social Security (but it won't be pretty)
The fiscal cliff negotiations are reviving the debate about that other financial elephant in the room: Social Security. Under current government estimates, Social Security could face funding shortfalls in about two decades if nothing changes. That’s because the U.S. population is aging -- and generally living longer.

That sounds like a disheartening scenario for workers who are currently paying into Social Security and worry that they won’t get as much out of it once they retire.  About half of the Americans polled by Pew Research Center earlier this year believe it’s not likely there will be enough money in Social Security and Medicare to maintain current benefit levels into the future.

But experts say there are ways to fix Social Security. Politicians just may not like trying to sell those changes to the American people.

It has happened before, though. In the mid-1980s, none other than President Ronald Reagan, working with Democrats in Congress, oversaw a major overhaul of the nation’s retirement safety net.

That’s something many say seems less likely these days.

“There are politicians – and especially in the Senate but also in the House as well – who could work together and come to an agreement,” said Alan Auerbach, a professor of law and economics at the University of California, Berkeley. “But they’re not the majority of Congress.” Read more >>

With Farm Bill Stalled, Consumers May Face Soaring Milk Prices

Forget the fiscal crisis and the automatic budget cuts. Come Jan. 1, there is a threat that milk prices could rise to $6 to $8 a gallon if Congress does not pass a new farm bill that amends farm policy dating back to the Truman presidency.

Lost in the political standoff between the Obama administration and Congressional Republicans over the budget is a virtually forgotten impasse over a farm bill that covers billions of dollars in agriculture programs. Without last-minute Congressional action, the government would have to follow an antiquated 1949 farm law that would force Washington to buy milk at wildly inflated prices, creating higher prices in the dairy case. Milk now costs an average of $3.65 a gallon.

Higher prices would be based on what dairy farm production costs were in 1949, when milk production was almost all done by hand. Because of adjustments for inflation and other technical formulas, the government would be forced by law to buy milk at roughly twice the current market prices to maintain a stable milk market. Read more >>

Unemployment Benefits May Expire After Fiscal Cliff

After a 30-year career, managing housekeeping staff at a retirement community, Duckett was laid off last year. Despite looking for a job every day, she hasn't been able to find work. Duckett says if her unemployment benefits run out, she and her 14-year-old grandson, who lives with her, won't have enough money to eat.

"It's been a very difficult year," Duckett said. "The check keeps a roof over our head. ... I can't even imagine what we're going to do without that check."

She is among 2.1 million Americans who will no longer be able to apply for unemployment benefits in the New Year. Another 1 million people who don't have jobs will also exhaust their state benefits in early 2013 and lose their benefits, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group. Read more >>

Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans' text messages

State and local law enforcement groups want wireless providers to store detailed information about your SMS messages for at least two years -- in case they're needed for future criminal investigations.

AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and other wireless providers would be required to record and store information about Americans' private text messages for at least two years, according to a proposal that police have submitted to the U.S. Congress.

CNET has learned a constellation of law enforcement groups has asked the U.S. Senate to require that wireless companies retain that information, warning that the lack of a current federal requirement "can hinder law enforcement investigations." Read more >>

Many jobless in U.S. don't collect unemployment

About 2 million jobless Americans fear they'll lose their extended unemployment benefits, which are slated to end next month unless Congress votes to renew them.

Their concerns make a new finding all the more puzzling: Many people eligible for unemployment don't even bother to collect it.

In the depths of the recession in 2008 and 2009, only half of those who qualified for benefits applied, a study by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank shows.

The portion filing for benefits shot up to 95% in 2010 and 2011, the study says, but that still means about 200,000 people didn't claim money to which they were entitled.

"They're throwing the money out the window," says David Fuller, an economics professor at Concordia University in Montreal and co-author of the report, which analyzed Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Read more >>