U.S. Public-Pension Shortfall $4.6 Trillion, Group Says

U.S. public pensions are $4.6 trillion short of the amount of assets needed to cover projected liabilities, an advocacy group said. That’s more than twice what Moody’s Investors Service estimated this month. ✧ The average plan is 41 percent funded, State Budget Solutions said in a report today. The Alexandria, Virginia, group’s partners include the American Legislative Exchange Council, which advocates “conservative public policy solutions,” the Freedom Foundation and the State Policy Network, which is composed of “free-market think tanks.” Read more at Bloomberg... Read More......

Republicans Dig In Against Obama's War on Wall Street

NEWSMAX, 4/18/2010 - WASHINGTON – Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell vowed Sunday to oppose Barack Obama's finance industry reforms even if the president abandons plans to set up a $50 billion liquidation fund for failed banks. Read more at Newsmax... Read More......

Pentagon: Congressional Jets Hurt Defense

NEWSMAX, 8/7/2009 - The Pentagon is criticizing the House of Representative's request to upgrade Congress' air fleet -- and charge the cost to the Defense Department.

"It forces us to take money from things we do need to fund and redirect it for things we don't need," Geoff Morrell, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, told the Wall Street Journal. "And in a time of war, we just can't afford that. The bottom line is, for everything that they appropriate for us above and beyond what we've asked for, it will, at some point require us to find money from programs we do need." Read more at Newsmax... Read More......

Supreme Court asked to block Chrysler sale to Fiat

BREITBART, 6/7/2009 - WASHINGTON (AP) ∴ An appeals court in New York approved the sale Friday, but gave objectors until Monday afternoon to try to get the Supreme Court to intervene. Chrysler LLC wants to sell the bulk of its assets to a group led by Italy's Fiat Group SpA as part of its plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection. ∴ The emergency request went first to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who handles such matters from New York. She can act on her own or refer it to the entire court. ∴ The Indiana State Police Pension Fund, the Indiana Teacher's Retirement Fund and the state's Major Moves Construction Fund claim the deal unfairly favors the interests of Chrysler's unsecured stakeholders ahead of those of secured debtholders such as the funds. Read more at Breitbart... Read More......