Senate Democrats Replace Volcker Rule, Confront High Risk Propietary Trading

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico / Talk Radio News Service

Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) announced Monday that they have created an amendment that will replace the Volcker Rule, a provision proposed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker aimed at requiring banks to limit their riskier financial activities, in the Wall Street reform bill.

According to Merkley, the Volcker rule served as a place holder that asked regulators to conduct studies in search of problems in the financial market and would then provide Congress with suggestions on how to fix them, but the Senators’ new amendment would effectively eliminate high-risk proprietary trading, an element included in the language of the Volcker Rule and that lay at the heart of the financial meltdown.

“We are declaring as a Congress that high-risk proprietary trading is inappropriate to have in the same house as a bank holding company and then having the normal partnership with regulators to implement that direction, that direction being carve this off and remove it separately,” Merkley said.

The Democratic duo said that this bill has as many as 17 co-sponsors and is supported by Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and by the Department of Treasury. Despite the fact that the amendment does not have a single Republican co-sponsor, both Senators are riding the support of Chairman Dodd and said there will be a vote on the Senate floor soon.

“We clearly do expect that that will be the case based on the support of Senator Dodd,” Levin said. “We are confident that this will be voted on and we’re confident that it will have not just Senator Dodd’s support, but with that support, have an extremely good chance of passing.”

Senate Must Extend Medicaid Assistance Within Jobs Bill, Say Democrats

By Benny Martinez
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The newly-unveiled jobs bill includes legislation that would extend funding of the states’ Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) by six months, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.).

FMAP legislation is next in line in a series of initiatives for the Senate jobs agenda. According to a press release, the legislation will help states with the cost of Medicaid programs to help preserve critical health care assistance for millions of Americans.

In a conference call with reporters on Friday, Rockefeller, along with Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (D), said that passing the FMAP extension is necessary to preserve jobs and it must be done quickly.

“We have to act swiftly to pass this because if we don’t, it’ll cost the economy up to 900 thousand jobs lost and we can’t have that,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Levin said that he doesn’t believe a filibuster will be able to stop the bill from passing.

“There was a lesson learned [with] Senator Bunning,” Levin said. “It was clear that the public outcry was strong [then], and I think that kind of outcry will also be strong here, so I will be optimistic that we’re going to be able to get this bill passed with its FMAP provisions.”

Rockefeller said the six-month extension of FMAP is the second of its kind. The first was included in the legislation of the original stimulus package in 2009.

McCain Calls For Surge In Afghanistan

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

John McCain (R-Ariz.) stated Wednesday that he agreed with General Stanley McChrystal’s assessment that the efforts in Afghanistan are deteriorating and called for an increase of U.S. forces in the country.

“There has to be a surge, there has to be a significant increase in troops on the ground and there has to be an overall strategy such as employed in Iraq, adaptive to Afghanistan,” McCain said during a press conference with Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich) on the contents of the National Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 conference report.

Both McCain and Levin went on to outline their views of the report.

“The conference report on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 reflects almost all of the decisions of the Secretary of Defense and the President to terminate troubled programs, delay programs for which requirements are not yet defined, and reorient programs and systems to deal with today’s threats and apply the lessons gained from more than seven years of war,” said Levin.

“I am happy to support the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 conference report which funds the needs and requirements of our brave men and women in uniform to succeed in their mission," McCain said. "I am disappointed that this year’s conference report includes hate crimes legislation, which I continue to oppose, and funding for continued development of the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter."

Senate Armed Forces Chairman Recommends Surge Of Afghan Forces

By Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) called Friday for a significant increase in the size of Afghanistan's security forces.

"We need a surge of Afghan security forces, we have not done enough to put that into motion," Levin said during a press conference.

Levin stated he would like to see least 240,000 Afghan security forces on the ground by 2012.

According to Levin, a series of steps to help the Afghan security forces will be made to ensure that sufficient man power, equipment and support will be there to help the Afghan forces with their efforts.

Levin added that the immediate goal in Afghanistan should be to reduce the American presence in the country.

Levin set out three major goals in regard to Afghan forces: Putting more trainers on the ground, a major effort to transfer equipment and supplies from Iraq to the Afghanistan army and police, and a concerted effort to separate the local Taliban from their leaders.

“If this plan can be put into place by reintegrating Taliban forces we can turn this thing around”, said Levin.

Levin commented on the halted nomination process for Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.) to be appointed as Secretary Of The Army by President Obama, stating that there were discussions within the administration. Levin said he was hopeful there would be a vote by next week.

When asked about the apparent lack of police coordination surrounding reports made from news organizations that misinterpreted a Friday morning coast guard training exercise, Levin remarked “I’m surprised ... That kind of coordination should exist”.

Debts and deadbeats

Over 1.6 million businesses owe more than $58 billion to Uncle Sam, according to Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.) at a hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on unpaid payroll tax abuse. A study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that more than half this debt is now uncollectible.

According to Levin, delinquent businesses not only stash away taxes they owe the government but also steal funds withheld from employee paychecks. Levin pointed out that this widespread failure to remit payroll taxes is a felony and a disgrace. Levin said that in 1998, the GAO found unpaid payroll taxes totalled $49 billion but now it has increased to $58 billion. Levin attributed the cause for this increased tax debt partyly to ineffective Internal Revenue Service (IRS) payroll collection efforts.

Levin focused on three of the hosts of problems identified by the GAO. Levin said that GAO’s report disclosed that 70% of all unpaid payroll taxes owed by businesses are due to repeat offenders. Levin also cited the IRS’ failure to make effective use of available enforcement tools and “deadtime in the queue” where cases are left unproductive until a revenue officer is assigned to them and enforcement action is taken.

Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, referred to those who fail to pay payroll taxes as “deadbeats” and said they are not only breaching their employees’ trust but shortchanging honest American taxpayers. Coleman said that the IRS estimated $44 billion has been transferred from general tax revenues to Social Security and Medicare. Coleman pointed out that the billions of dollars could have been invested in crucial areas such as healthcare, homeland security and education. Coleman also said that tax-cheats are shifting the tax burden onto honest Americans and are gaining an unfair advantage over honest businesses.