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Republicans Set Course in Congress Budget Battle

WASHINGTON – Top Republicans charged President Barack Obama with driving the United States toward socialism on Friday, opening an ideological attack on his big spending plans.

While the tough rhetoric was certain to rev up hard-line Republicans -- many of whom regard "socialism" as anathema to American life -- it was unclear how much it would change the debate in the Democratic-led Congress, which begins hearings next week on Obama's $3.55 trillion budget proposal.

John Boehner, Republican leader in the House of Representatives, on Friday called Obama's new budget proposal and recently passed economic stimulus plan "one big down payment on a new American socialist experiment."

Obama's budget proposal increases taxes on the wealthiest Americans to pay for more government attention to healthcare, education, climate change and social programs along with efforts to jolt the economy out of a deepening recession.

The budget also forecasts the biggest U.S. deficit ever at $1.75 trillion, adding to widespread sticker shock in Congress where Democrats already pushed through Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package with just three Republicans votes in the in the 100-seat Senate.

"The problem for Obama is more a question of whether the increased government intervention actually works -- gets the economy moving, creates the sense, within the next year-plus, that we are turning the corner," said Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

"The second question is whether he can keep his own Democrats together behind his tax plan and his budget hopes," Ornstein said.

MODERATE REPUBLICANS WORRY

The three Senate Republicans who crossed the political aisle to back the Obama stimulus plan have said they had reservations about his budget proposal.

"The president's proposed budget outlines an aggressive domestic agenda that requires serious consideration, but also raises many questions, particularly about the enormous growth in the public debt," said Senator Susan Collins, who along with fellow Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter voted for the stimulus bill.

Democratic Senator Ben Nelson, who joined Collins in drafting a compromise on the stimulus package, also voiced concerns about the budget.

"While President Obama inherited much of the deficit he's battling, his budget has eye-popping numbers, and its size and scope concern me. In particular, I'm not sure raising taxes is the best way to go in these times," Nelson said.

Lawmakers are certain to make changes in the spending plan before it is brought up for passage in the House and the Senate, likely by early April.

Senate Republicans were able to force changes to the stimulus bill with procedural maneuvers. Budgets are not subject to such procedures, but Obama will likely need bipartisan support to win passage of the individual spending bills that implement the budget plan.

A group of 49 fiscally conservative House Democrats, whose commitment to deficit reduction has at times put some of them at odds with Obama's economic program, hailed Obama's budget for presenting what they called an honest fiscal picture.

"To begin to set our nation back on the right fiscal track, we must first understand and acknowledge how big of a hole we are in," said Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a leader of the Democratic "Blue Dog" Coalition.

By invoking "socialism" -- a term many Americans equate with a frightening government takeover of the economy -- some Republicans appeared ready to use the budget debate to burnish their conservative appeal after last November's election drubbing.

Senator Jim DeMint called Obama "the world's best salesman of socialism," while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Obama's proposals recalled the "big government mentality" of former Democratic President Jimmy Carter -- a favorite target for many in the conservative movement.

Ornstein said that while the Republican charges of socialism may play well in solidly Republican congressional districts as well as conservative radio and television talk shows, they might not get broader traction.

"I think that for most other Americans, it will either be ignored or will backfire," he wrote in an email to Reuters.

Senate OKs DeMint's Fairness Doctrine Ban

The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved an amendment banning reinstatement of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" that would threaten conservative talk radio.

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina attached the amendment, called the Broadcaster Freedom Act, to a bill giving the District of Columbia a voting representative in the House. It passed by a wide margin of 87-to-11.

But it's not clear if the amendment will survive as Congress debates the voting rights bill.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois also won approval for an alternate amendment ordering the Federal Communications Commission to encourage radio ownership "diversity." It passed by a vote of 57 to 41.

A DeMint aide said Durbin's measure will "impose the Fairness Doctrine through the back door by trying to break up radio ownership,” Fox News reported.

The Fairness Doctrine was originally instituted in 1949 by the FCC and required broadcasters using the public airwaves to give equal time to opposing political views. The FCC repealed the measure in 1987 during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

Since talk radio is overwhelmingly dominated by conservative hosts, and liberal talk radio draws few listeners, the “equal time” provision would likely force many radio stations to pull popular conservative hosts from the air rather than air low-rated liberal hosts.

A Barack Obama spokesman said recently that the president opposes reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine. But a number of congressional Democrats have expressed support for the measure, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Tom Harkin of Iowa.

DeMint said: "We need to make it a law that the FCC or this Congress cannot implement any aspect of the Fairness Doctrine."

Late Nite Jokes

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

George W. Bush is doing pretty well for a retiree. He will hit the lecture circuit next month for a reported 150,000 per speech. Actually it’s $150,000 per speech and an extra 25 grand if you want to throw shoes at him.

He’s not alone; he’s got a couple of guys with him. It’s called the 2009 Blue Collar Comedy Tour.

Things aren’t going so well for New York Gov. David Paterson. He’s had a shake-up in his staff. He’s had a tough time, and he’s hoping that a change in his staff will bring about a happy ending to his time in office. Though a happy ending is pretty much what brought down the last guy . . .

Coleman Wins Latest Round in Senate Recount

By: David A. Patten

A key witness in the Minnesota election contest, whose testimony on behalf of GOP Sen. Norm Coleman was thrown out, will now be allowed to testify, the three-judge panel hearing the case announced Thursday.

On Wednesday, the panel expunged poll worker Pamela Howell’s testimony when it learned she had provided a report on voting discrepancies to Coleman’s lawyers, but not to Democratic challenger Al Franken’s.

The judges reversed themselves on Thursday, ruling that Howell’s mistake was inadvertent and should keep her testimony from being entered into evidence.

Howell testified she had personal knowledge of errors at the polls that could have led to the double-counting of ballots. The Coleman camp has maintained throughout the recount process that Franken has benefited from votes that were counted twice.

Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg said Thursday that the case could have moved forward to challenge duplicate ballots without Howell’s testimony, but that having her story in the record helps to put a “human face” on the problem.

Coleman’s attorneys said earlier in the week that they hope to wrap up their side of the case by Monday or Tuesday. Franken’s lawyers will then move forward with their own case to demonstrate that more ballots should be added to Franken’s total. Franken’s attorneys have said their side of the case could take about two weeks.

In other news related to the recount, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is reporting that the court panel has accepted new ballots Thursday that swell Franken’s lead to 261 votes. That’s up from the 225-vote lead Franken enjoyed after the Canvassing Board concluded its statewide recount in early January.

Friday will mark Day 25 of the court battle contesting the recount results

Late Nite Jokes

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

President Obama gave his first State of the Union address. They say it was the best State of the Union address ever delivered by an African-American president.

He says we can overcome this crisis if we all work hard and make sacrifices — which means we are screwed.

The address is a very formal thing, but it’s really more like a boxing event. He comes into the room with little satin shorts and makes his way to the stage.

The president says he intends to expand healthcare, improve education, and decrease energy dependence — all while cutting the deficit in half. Then, he’s going to make the Washington Monument disappear

Obama Job Approval Dips Below 60 Percent

PRINCETON, NJ -- For the first time since Gallup began tracking Barack Obama's presidential job approval rating on Jan. 21, fewer than 60 percent of Americans approve of the job he is doing as president. In Feb. 21-23 polling, 59% of Americans give Obama a positive review, while 25% say they disapprove, and 16 percent have no opinion.

To date, Obama has averaged 64 percent approval, but, as the graph shows, there has been a slight but perceptible decline in his approval rating since he took office. This decline has largely occurred among Republicans.

The drop below 60 percent approval within the past week -- from 63 percent in Feb. 18-20 polling to 59 percent in Feb. 21-23 polling -- has mostly come among independents. Late last week, 62 percent of independents approved of Obama, compared with 54 percent in the last three days. His approval rating among Democrats has dipped slightly (but not to a statistically significant degree), while approval among Republicans has not changed.

While Obama's overall approval rating has fallen by four percentage points in recent days (from 63 percent in Feb. 18-20 polling to the current 59 percent), his disapproval rating has been steady (24 percent in Feb. 18-20 polling to the current 25 percent). Rather, the percentage of Americans without an opinion of his job performance has increased, from 13 percent to 16 percent. In essence, Americans in recent days are becoming increasingly unsure about how Obama is doing, rather than becoming more critical.

As the table suggests, most of the movement among independents in recent days has been from the approval to the no opinion category. And his disapproval rating has dropped among Republicans, with a concomitant increase in no opinion. Thus, Americans' assessments of Obama are in a period of flux.

Given that Obama is addressing the nation tonight, he has a tremendous opportunity to convert Americans who are now on the fence -- in addition to those who now disapprove of him -- into supporters. The latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows Americans are most interested in hearing about economic matters, particularly how Obama will address unemployment, the mortgage crisis, and how the economic stimulus package will be administered.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,553 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Feb. 21-23, 2009, as part of Gallup Poll Daily tracking. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Obama Pledges Decrease in Deficit — After Increase

WASHINGTON – Urging strict future restraint even as current spending soars, President Barack Obama pledged on Monday to dramatically slash the skyrocketing annual budget deficit as he started to dole out the record $787 billion economic stimulus package he signed last week.

"If we confront this crisis without also confronting the deficits that helped cause it, we risk sinking into another crisis down the road," the president warned, promising to cut the yearly deficit in half by the end of his four-year term. "We cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences."

He said he would reinstitute a pay-as-you-go rule that calls for spending reductions to match increases and would shun what he said were the past few years' "casual dishonesty of hiding irresponsible spending with clever accounting tricks." He called the long-term solvency of Social Security "the single most pressing fiscal challenge we face by far" and said reforming health care, including burgeoning entitlement programs, was a huge priority.

Wall Street seemed unimpressed by all the talk. The Dow Jones industrials dropped 251 points for the day.

Obama goes before Congress and the nation Tuesday night to make the case for his agenda and his budget plans, which the White House is to release in more detail on Thursday.

On Monday, he sought to prepare people for tough choices ahead.

He summoned allies, adversaries and outside experts to what the White House characterized as a summit on the nation's future financial health one week after triumphantly putting his signature on the gargantuan spending-and-tax-cut measure designed to stop the country's economic free fall and, ultimately, reverse the recession now months into its second year.

At the same time, federal regulators announced a revamped program to shore up the nation's banks that could give the government increasing ownership. It was the administration's latest attempt to bolster the severely weakened banking system without nationalizing any institutions, which the White House has said it does not intend to do.

Obama said there would be another summit next week on health care reform. "It's not that I've got summititis here," he added wryly.

By the president's account, the administration inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit for the current fiscal year from the Bush administration — that's the figure Obama says he'll cut in half — and the stimulus law, coupled with rescue efforts for ailing automakers, the financial industry and beleaguered homeowners will raise this year's red ink to $1.5 trillion.

The administration hopes to trim the deficit by scaling back Iraq war spending, raising taxes on the wealthiest and streamlining government.

"We are paying the price for these deficits right now," Obama said, estimating the country spends $250 billion — one in every ten dollars of taxpayer money — in interest on the national debt. "I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay."

As an example of a purchasing process "gone amok," the president said he had ordered a thorough review of his new fleet of Marine One helicopters, now far over budget. He was asked about the fleet by former presidential rival John McCain at the end of the White House meeting.

"The helicopter I have now seems perfectly adequate to me," Obama said, to laughter. "Of course, I've never had a helicopter before. So, you know, maybe I've been deprived and I didn't know it."

Earlier, Obama met with Republican and Democratic governors who are poised to benefit from his unprecedented emergency economic package. He told the chief executives, attending a three-day National Governors Association meeting in Washington, that he would begin distributing $15 billion to their states within two days to help them with Medicaid payments to the poor.

The recession has strapped state budgets, in particular in regard to the Medicaid program that is jointly underwritten by states and the federal government. In total, states will eventually receive $90 billion for Medicaid from the new law.

One month into office as the economy continues its downward spiral, Obama is seeking to balance twin priorities: turning around dismal conditions with a huge injection of spending while lowering huge budget deficits. With his re-election race just a few years away, he also has an interest in avoiding being labeled as a big-government, big-spending Democrat.

The White House meetings opened a jam-packed White House week that includes a State-of-the-Union-style address to Congress Tuesday night and the president's first budget proposal on Thursday. A common thread: addressing current economic turmoil while controlling the country's long-term costs.

"This will not be easy," Obama told his White House audience, which included congressional leaders, 2008 GOP presidential nominee McCain, and Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who recently backed out as Obama's commerce secretary.

After Obama spoke, attendees broke into five groups to brainstorm how to address costly areas including military weapons, Social Security, health care and tax reform.

During one, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said, "Our deficit really cannot be controlled until we figure out how to deal with health care costs." At another, House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio proposed raising the Social Security retirement age to 70 over a number of years.

Afterward, Obama emphasized areas where he said there was agreement and consensus on moving forward in a bipartisan way, including that the country must ensure people have retirement security, that the tax process must be simplified and that the existing budgeting process isn't working. He also directed his team to pull together a final report from the sessions in 30 days.

Late Nite Jokes

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

There were a lot of parties for the Oscars last night. The biggest was the annual Vanity Fair event. US Airways pilot Sully Sullenberger showed up with his wife who wore an unusual dress. It had a goose strapped to it.

He was supposed to attend the governor’s ball, but at the last second he veered into the fountain outside the hotel.

Oprah held her annual Oscars show. She had all the big winners on. Not only is it an annual tradition, it’s also Oprah’s way of letting the big stars know that she still owns them

Too Many Strings Attached to Stimulus Cash

WASHINGTON – Republicans governors were split on Sunday over whether to accept all of the money their states stand to receive from a $787 billion economic stimulus plan which President Barack Obama signed last week.

Three governors of southern states have come out against taking part of the money designated to extend unemployment benefits and perhaps for other programs. A handful of others are considering follow suit.

With the global economy in crisis and unemployment at record levels, Obama made a top priority for his first month in office the package of tax cuts and spending for infrastructure projects and social services including unemployment aid. Only three Republicans in Congress backed its passage, charging Obama and his Democratic party had loaded it up with unnecessary spending and failed to cut taxes enough.

"There is some (stimulus money) we will not take in Mississippi. If we were to take the unemployment insurance reform package that they have, it would cause us to raise taxes on employment when the money runs out, and the money will run out in a couple of years," said Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour on CNN's "State of the Union."

"Then we'll have to raise the unemployment insurance tax, which is literally a tax on employment. I mean, we want more jobs. You don't get more jobs by putting an extra tax on creating jobs," Barbour said.

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, who has often been mentioned as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2012, have also said they would reject the unemployment funds, which make up a small proportion of the overall package.

Sanford, on "Fox News Sunday" said some of the stimulus money came with strings attached.

"What we would be required to do would be, for the first time, increase the level of benefit for part-time workers. Right now, it's full-time workers -- increase it to part-time workers," he said.

"We can't pay for the benefits already in the program, but to get the stimulus money, we've got to increase the program's size and scale."

Later, speaking to reporters at a National Governors' Association meeting in Washington, Sanford listed some other monies he did not want, possibly including $42 million for retrofitting state buildings to be more energy efficient.

"We're looking at other things from a scale standpoint that are frankly irrelevant," he said.

CALIFORNIA HAPPY FOR MONEY

But California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, also a Republican, said on ABC's "This Week" he would gladly take all the money.

"Governor Sanford says that he does not want to take the federal stimulus package money. And I want to say to him: I'll take it. I'm more than happy to take his money or any other governor in this country that doesn't want to take this money, I take it, because we in California need it," he said.

Republican Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, seen as a prominent conservative voice and possible future presidential candidate, said he would take the money even though he did not agree with the philosophy behind the package.

"We are a major net subsidizer of the federal government ... For every dollar we send in, we only get 72 cents back. So we're paying the bill either way. We're going to take our share of the money," he said on Fox.

Pawlenty said Minnesota already covered part-time workers who lose their jobs so taking the money would not entail changing the program.

The economic recovery bill provides increases in federal backing for states' social services, infrastructure and education funding.

Cops Seize Man's 'Abort Obama' Sign

Oklahoma City police officers seized a sign saying "Abort Obama not the unborn" from a driver's pickup truck, but later returned it after supervisors decided the officers had been "overzealous."

Construction worker Hal Harrison said Thursday that U.S. Secret Service agents interviewed him at his home and walked through his house after police stopped him last week.

"The officer said, 'Do you know why I pulled you over?'" said Harrison, 53. "I said I had no idea, and he said that the sign could be construed by the Secret Service as a threat to the president.

"I thought, 'This is something from Nazi Germany, not in Oklahoma.'" He said he's no fan of Obama but that his homemade sign is a political statement opposing abortion, not a threat to the president.

While the officer went too far in confiscating the sign, pulling the man over and reporting his name to the Secret Service was not wrong, said Capt. Steve McCool, a spokesman for Oklahoma City Police Department.

"The officer was a little overzealous in terms of what the sign meant," McCool said. "He made a decision based on his determination, and once the supervisor got involved, we returned the sign."

Adrian Andrews, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Oklahoma City office, said agents determined Harrison was not a threat.

"He was a little agitated that the Oklahoma City Police Department took his sign," Andrews said. "But he understood we have an obligation to check these things out."

"There are better ways to make a political statement than to say 'Abort Obama,'" Andrews said. "That's going to get our attention every time. We'd rather be safe than sorry."

The sign's back on his truck, Harrison said, and he's considering bringing a civil case against the police for what he considers a violation of free speech rights.

"I've always been kind of a loudmouth," Harrison said. "If I can find a lawyer who will take the case, I probably would."

Catholic Group Petitions Pope to Banish Pelosi

A Catholic pro-life group is pressing Pope Benedict XVI to excommunicate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the Catholic Church because she supports abortion.

Human Life International, which is based in Front Royal, Va., petitioned the Pope this week to excommunicate Pelosi, CNSNews.com reported Friday.

The pro-life group’s petition, which the organization’s Rome office delivered to the Vatican, came as the California Democrat met with the Pope Wednesday. The pontiff told her during their 15-minute private session that Catholic politicians have a responsibility to protect life "at all stages of its development," according to a Vatican news release.

After the meeting, Pelosi's office issued a statement expressing her delight at meeting with the Pope but not mentioning the abortion issue.

Speculation for days before the session was that the Pope would not meet with Pelosi because of her strong support for abortion, but the Vatican eventually announced that they would meet privately. But after the audience, speculation took another tack, with observers saying the Vatican didn’t allow the usual photo op of the Pope with a visiting dignitary signaled disapproval of her abortion support.

The controversy over Pelosi’s abortion position and her standing as a Catholic is a continuation of a spirited debate that has polarized Catholics for decades. One side argues that politicians who vote for laws allowing abortion should be excommunicated because they are, in effect, participating in abortions. The other contends that politicians should be able to oppose abortion on private, religious grounds but still vote to allow it as a matter of conscience.

This week, the lack of the papal photo with Pelosi generated discussion over whether Pope Benedict still might excommunicate her. Last year, when the Pope was asked whether Catholic politicians who had legalized abortion in Mexico City should be considered excommunicated, the pontiff said yes.

A Vatican spokesman said later that the Pope did not intend to excommunicate politicians formally but said politicians who vote in favor of abortion should not receive Holy Communion.

On Friday, CNSNews.com quoted the Rev. Thomas Euteneur, president of Human Life International, as explaining his group’s petition by saying, “The reason we called for the Pope is because so many people have called on the bishops in the jurisdictions she lives in, who could possibly do it — and they won’t.”

Pelosi has a home in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, where Archbishop George Niederauer presides, and she works in Washington, D.C., the jurisdiction of Archbishop Donald Wuerl.

In August, Wuerl chastised Pelosi for saying during a “Meet the Press” interview that the moment of conception has been a matter of controversy within the church. Wuerl issued a statement saying the church has made it clear for centuries that abortion is “gravely contrary to the moral law.”

Wuerl also said Pelosi “misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion."

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

The Academy Awards are Sunday. This is a special time for Hollywood — celebrities take a break from worshipping Barack Obama to worship themselves.

They’re scaling back this year, due to the economy. To give you an idea of just how they are scaling back, Joan Rivers is being assembled in Mexico.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in China. She met with a group of children today. She told them, “You kids are doing a great job making those pantsuits.”

The new chairman of the Republican Party, Michael Steele, says that he wants to bring a greater Republican presence to the urban setting. There’s already a Republican presence in the urban setting — it’s called the landlord.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Signs Your Film Is Not Going To Win An Academy Award

10. It stars Brad Pitt . . . but not the famous one

9. To save money on sound effects, gunfights have actors running around yelling, "Kapow!"

8. World premiere was on a Greyhound bus from Reno to Topeka

7. It's titled "The Curious Case of Benjamin Bernanke"

6. It's got any of the following words in the title: "Paul," "Blart," "mall," or "cop"

5. Half of $70 million budget was spent on craft service meatballs

4. No one wants to see your all-raccoon remake of "The Wizard of Oz"

3. It's rated "P" for "Piece of crap"

2. Only person who made a profit from your film is Bernie Madoff

1. It's two hours of Christian Bale swearing at the crew

David Letterman

Everybody’s going bankrupt. The latest? Muzak. So the next time you’re in a crowded elevator, try to organize a sing-along.

Academy Awards on Sunday. You know who won’t watch them? John McCain. He doesn’t like the talkies.

It takes a lot of nerve for a four-and-a half hour TV show to give out an award for editing.

The show seems like it lasts forever. This year’s nominated songs will be put together in a medley. It’s part of President Obama’s pledge to end torture.

Craig Ferguson

Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking time off as the governor of California to shoot a new movie. The movie’s about a terrible disaster — it’s called, “Arnold Schwarzenegger is the Governor of California.”

It’s the countdown to the Oscars. In less than 48 hours the Motion Picture Academy will bestow its highest honor on a movie that you’ve never seen.

My money is on “Frost/Nixon.” Because it’s the only one I’ve seen.

I think “WALL-E” should have gotten a Best Picture nomination. It’s an amazing story about a robotic creature dealing with over-polluted air. It’s based on the life of Al Gore.

Biden Says Bush Helped al-Qaida Recruiting

Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that the Bush administration’s detention and interrogation policies “gave al-Qaida a powerful recruiting tool,” according to a report in the New York Times.

Biden made the statement while visiting the Central Intelligence Agency to swear in Leon E. Panetta as the agency’s new director.

At the venue, Biden noted that under the new leadership of President Barack Obama, the C.I.A. was now required to use only the same non-coercive interrogation methods as the military.

Biden added that the latest Obama executive orders “reverse the policies that in my view and the view of many in this agency caused America to fall short of its founding principles and which gave al-Qaida a powerful recruiting tool.”

Speaking to a warm and cheering crowd of CIA employees and officers, Biden lauded the work of the nation’s premier intelligence gatherer.

“This agency remains America’s premier national security agency, and we deeply appreciate the risks and the sacrifices that so many in the past and in the present continue to take for this country,” Biden said.

Panetta, a former White House chief of staff and intelligence community novice, made an oblique reference to the Saddam Hussein-Iraq WMD debacle – saying the agency would “provide the very best intelligence, independent judgments, not influenced by the politics of the situation but truly real, objective information that can be presented to the president and the policy makers of this country.”

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Japan this week. There was an awkward moment when at one point she saw some sumo wrestlers and she said to the prime minister, "Oh, you have interns here too."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi met with the Pope this week, and after the meeting, she asked for the Pope's blessing. Another embarrassing moment . . . when he asked her to close her eyes, she said, "I can't . . ." Botox and all . . .

California finally passed a budget. The impasse was finally overcome when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threatened to make a sequel to "Kindergarten Cop."

Now Californians can go back to doing what they do best — buying homes they can't afford and letting murderers go free

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Things Overheard at Kim Jong Il's Campaign Headquarters

10. "How do we improve perfection?"

9. "Maybe it would help your likability if you stopped killing people"

8. "Remind voters there have been no Godzilla attacks on my watch"

7. "After promising nuclear Armegeddon, throw in a folksy, 'You betcha!'"

6. "Remind people you come from Pyongyang just like Kim Jong-Lincoln"

5. "Korean food again?"

4. "Maybe we should hire a new chairman and move Kim to 10pm"

3. "Get a load of that bodacious booty!" (Sorry, that was overheard at Kim Kardashian's house)

2. "With 0% of the precincts reporting, you've won in a landslide"

1. "Hillary's running against me?"

David Letterman

The economy is bad. I didn’t think it would last this long. I thought a week, tops.

Here's how bad it is: Now when you go to the airport and you have to put all your change in that pan to pass through the metal detectors? They’re not giving it back.

A family in Brooklyn found a boa constrictor in their couch. They were beginning to get suspicious because they were the only apartment in New York that didn’t have rats.

A boa constrictor is a snake that squeezes the life out of you . . . no, wait a minute — that's a mortgage company.

Conan O'Brien

This is the 16th season of "Late Night with Conan O’Brien." That's five more than "MASH," five more than "Cheers," and 10 more than anybody wanted.

All week, I've been receiving a lot of calls from other TV hosts. Jay Leno called to wish me good luck, and Larry King called to ask me what time he’s supposed to take his pills.

Craig Ferguson

A new study says that in America rich people are ruder than poor people. I didn't think anyone hadn't figured that out.

But I don't think there are any rich people left.

Rich people are rude because of what's happening in Switzerland. One of the largest Swiss banks is revealing their secret client list to the IRS, according to The New York Times. The Times wrote about it so it must be partially true.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

President Obama made his first trip abroad today. He went to Canada. I guess it’s tradition for new presidents to go there first. It was a brief trip. He got off the plane, greeted, then turned around and got right back on. Who could blame him?

Bad news for the octuplet mom, Nadya Suleman. The house where she lives with her mom is in foreclosure. If she loses the house, Nadya will be forced to get pregnant again so she can live in the hospital for another three months.

It might be time to sell one of those kids to Jennifer Aniston . . . or one of her friends.

More Than 6 Million Illegals Hold Jobs

From 6 million to 7 million illegal immigrants currently hold jobs in the U.S. — jobs that could be taken by the millions of less-educated native Americans who are now unemployed.

A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) discloses that 12.8 million native-born high school dropouts and young American natives with only a high school education are unemployed.

Among all native-born adults with a high school diploma or less, 24.3 million are unemployed.

The unemployment rate among native-born high school dropouts is 17 percent. But the rate among legal and illegal immigrants without a high school diploma is only 10.6 percent.

The CIS, an independent research organization, notes that illegal immigrants are “overwhelmingly employed in lower-skilled and lower-paying jobs,” but adds that “it is difficult to find any evidence of a shortage of less-educated workers…

“If the United States chose to more vigorously enforce immigration laws over the next year, and this resulted in 1 to 2 million illegal workers deciding to leave, it could significantly improve the employment prospects for less-educated natives.

“An economic downturn would seem to be the ideal time to step up enforcement because such efforts would be buttresses by the economic situation, and a recession is the time when Americans, especially the poorest and least educated, are most in need of jobs.”

The CIS points out that an average of 138,000 new foreign workers were authorized each month in 2008, and one-third of adult immigrants have not completed high school.

The CIS observes: “This raises the serious question of whether such a high level of immigration makes sense, given the current concern about joblessness.”

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

California is in the hole for $42 billion, so a budget has been proposed. I’m no financial expert, but when you have no money, and no prospects of making money, and you owe $42 billion, you’re way beyond putting yourself on a budget.

I think you’re looking at faking your own death.

People say the problem with the budget is that they don’t understand what’s in it. Well of course they don’t. Look who’s explaining it to them — Arnold Schwarzenegger!

President Obama signed the stimulus bill in Denver, Colo. He picked Denver because our debt is now a mile high. It’s symbolic.

David Letterman

I spoke to a friend who runs the U.S. Department of Global Warming and Climate Change . . . he says New York will be under water in two years. Two years! So much for long-term parking.

But I like to look on the bright side: City under water? Well, more room to land airplanes.

Terrible economy. Terrible. If you have any money left, do what I do: Invest in foreclosure signs.

Even Donald Trump has said he would like to reduce his debt. I say, How about reducing the size of that thing on your head?

Conan O'Brien

Only two more shows left until we move to our new slot. It’s going to be tough to leave New York City. I’ll miss my favorite restaurant . . . then I found out the Olive Garden is a national chain.

We’re going to L.A. I’ll miss New York, but both New York and California have their downsides. California has earthquakes, mudslides, and brush fires; New York has the Knicks, the Mets and the Jets.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has presented us with a key to the city . . . at least that’s what I thought it was a key to . . . yeah . . . then I found out it was a key to the Port Authority bus terminal men’s room.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

President Obama was in Arizona speaking about the housing crisis. Arizona seems like a strange place to be speaking about the crisis because most of the homes there are owned by John McCain.

Obama has addressed two of the three problems he said he would to avert a financial crisis . . . the first was to get the stimulus package passed, the second was the housing crisis, and the third is to get all of us to eat our pets.

Things are bad in California. Gov. Schwarzenegger has done everything he can to get fellow Republicans to back his plan because it involves a tax increase. He told them he’d be back; he’s said, “Hasta la vista, baby”; he even threatened to terminate them.

EPA Nears Costly Regulations for Greenhouse Gases

WASHINGTON – EPA administrator Lisa Jackson says the agency is moving toward regulating the gases blamed for global warming.

In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, Jackson said the agency will decide whether greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and welfare, the legal trigger for regulation under federal law.

Jackson said the Environmental Protection Agency owes the American people an opinion, after years of the Bush administration not taking a position on the matter — a track record that she referred to as a deafening silence.

"We are going to be making a fairly significant finding about what these gases mean for public health and the welfare of our country," Jackson said.

Recent EPA decisions have hinted that the agency was leaning toward using the Clean Air Act to regulate the gases, a step the Bush administration refused to take despite prodding from the Supreme Court.

In his first week in office, President Barack Obama directed the agency to review a decision by the Bush administration denying California and other states the right to control greenhouse gases from automobiles.

On Tuesday, the EPA announced that it was reviewing a Bush policy that prohibits using the federal permit process to require new coal-fired power plants to install equipment to reduce carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas.

Jackson said Tuesday that the agency was now turning its attention to the broader question of regulation under the Clean Air Act as part of a series of steps it was taking to move toward what she called a carbon-constrained future. The federal law has been used since 1970 to curb emissions that cause acid rain, smog and soot.

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that it could be used to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but the Bush administration refused to use the law, saying it was the wrong tool.

Jackson took a different position Tuesday during one of her first interviews since winning Senate confirmation Jan. 23.

"It is clear that the Clean Air Act has a mechanism in it for other pollutants to be addressed," she said.

"If EPA is going to talk and speak in this game, the first thing it should speak about is whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare," she said. "It is a very fundamental question."

Another question the EPA is hoping to answer soon is whether it will regulate coal ash as either a solid or hazardous waste, Jackson said. The EPA chief vowed to look at the issue after a spill at a Tennessee power plant covered 300 acres with up to 9 feet of toxic muck.

Eight years ago the agency said it wanted to set a national standard for ponds or landfills used to dispose of wastes produced from burning coal, but it has so far not taken any action.

Jackson said a decision would occur by the end of the year.

"I think EPA, rightly so, should be looked to to say once and for all whether this material needs to be regulated as a solid or hazardous waste," Jackson said. "It can't be years, it has to be months."

But when it comes to global warming, Jackson was careful to say the EPA was not acting alone. Any regulation at the federal level would not prevent states from taking their own steps or preclude Congress from passing legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions, something Democratic leaders on the Hill are already working on.

The United States is under pressure to take some action on global warming in advance of negotiations scheduled for later this year in Copenhagen on a new international treaty.

The Bush administration pulled out of the last treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, citing a lack of participation by developing countries and harm to the U.S. economy. In the late 1990s, during the Clinton administration, the Senate balked at ratifying the agreement.

Jackson, a Princeton University-educated chemical engineer, helped spearhead regulation of greenhouse gases in New Jersey, where she headed up the Department of Environmental Protection from 2006 until 2008. While there, she unveiled a plan to reduce the state's carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Yesterday was Presidents Day. Congress commemorated George Washington’s throwing a dollar across the Potomac by throwing $780 billion down a rat hole.

In Denver, President Obama signed the stimulus package into law. Anyone feel stimulated?

Fewer people are getting plastic surgery, the industry reports. How ironic. The one time you need a smile on your face and you can’t even afford to get it.

Things are so bad, three stockbrokers tried to kill themselves by eating peanuts.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Things Hillary Clinton Wants To Accomplish On Her Trip Overseas

10. Exchange U.S. dollars for currency that's worth something

9. Win respect defeating Japan's top-ranked sumo wrestler

8. Shift world's perception of America from "hated" to "extremely disliked"

7. Personally thank all of her illegal campaign donors

6. Three words: stylish Indonesian pantsuits

5. Visit burial site of revered Chinese military leader, General Tso

4. Get drunk with that Japanese finance minister guy

3. Convince China to switch from lead-tainted products to mercury-tainted products

2. Catch Chinese screening of Benjamin Button entitled "The Strange Adventures of Freaky Grandpa Baby"

1. Pick up carton of duty-free smokes for Obama

David Letterman

A new study finds that people who are chipper and happy live longer. Which is surprising because people who are not chipper and happy want to kill people who are always chipper and happy.

It’s Fashion Week in New York City. Even Mayor Bloomberg is excited. Instead of phone books, he was standing on a stack of Vogue magazines.

California is bankrupt. Here’s how bad it is: They’ve canceled the next three mudslides.

It’s so bad that that woman who had octuplets? She said next time she’s only going to have twins.

Craig Ferguson

There’s a new study that says the bad economy can lower men’s testosterone levels. I really don’t think I can lose anymore.

Scientists are saying that by the end of the decade, Ann Coulter could be a woman.

Reports say that President Obama is moving towards the Swedish models of banking. A president moving towards Swedish models? That hasn’t happened since the Clinton administration.

Even Trump is losing money. His casino in Atlantic City is going bankrupt. I am worried about Atlantic City. With casinos going bankrupt, I'm worried things there could get a little seedy.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Obama’s spending package passed through Congress with almost no Republican support, but Obama says he’s still focused on bringing real bipartisanship to government. He even went so far as to send every Republican in Congress a jar of peanuts.

Even when peanuts are salmonella free, some people are allergic to them. Some people, like one CNN anchor, can’t even say the word peanuts: “Northwest Airlines began serving peenus this month. Travelers with allergies are flooding the carrier with complaints.”

Someone had a hell of a Valentine’s Day.

Axelrod Insists White House Controls Census

White House political advisor David Axelrod says the Obama administration’s plan to take over the U.S. Census Bureau by placing it directly under the control of top White House officials will, nonetheless, remain in the hands of experts to run the program

Axelrod, appearing on "FOX News Sunday With Chris Wallace," said despite the move by the West Wing to manage the bureau, the census would continue to “be in the charge of the professionals who conduct it."

Republicans, who oppose the move on the grounds that it will politicize the upcoming 2010 census, say supervision of it by the Democratic Party will taint the results and skew new congressional representative district lines for the 2012 elections.

Earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., weighed in on the move by telling Newsmax TV she and her fellow Commerce Dept. committee members are "terribly disappointed and very concerned" that Obama wants to end the traditional autonomy of the bureau by placing it directly under the control of the White House.

“This is a very dangerous move,” Blackburn said about politics once again entering back into the process.

Blackburn and her GOP colleagues, including Rep. Jason Chafitz, R-Utah, who calls the move nothing more than a political land grab by the Democrats, fear the takeover of the census is nothing more than a not-so-disguised effort by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to pad the number of Democrats in the House.

“I think we all are concerned about that," Blackburn said, "because if you’re going to statistically alter or adjust the numbers, then you’ll have districts or states that may end up with more members of congress as opposed to areas that have seen a lot of growth that would have fewer members of congress.”

Axelrod, who was Obama's chief campaign strategist in the 2008 presidential election, told “FOX News Sunday” there are “great professionals” in the bureau. “We intend to bring in additional, impeccable people. The White House needs to ensure that the census is fair and accurate, and that's what we're going to do. But the way to do that is put professionals in those slots to run the census in the most advanced way they can."

Asked whether he or Emanuel, who served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, intend to directly supervise the census, Axelrod said: "I am not an expert on the census, and neither is Rahm. We want the experts to run this program; we want to make sure that every American is counted."

Blackburn is calling on Commerce Dept. Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., to hold committee hearings to look into the decision to hand control of the census over to the Obama administration instead of the department of commerce.

“I just find that so very unfortunate,” Blackburn said, “and I’m tremendously disappointed and very, very concerned about this happening. We are terribly disturbed about the politics coming back into the census process.”

Blackburn is not alone in her criticism of the egregious move by the administration. Joining her in a letter sent to Waxman earlier this week calling for hearings were several other prominent Republicans.

"Any attempt by the Obama administration to circumvent the census process for their political benefit will be met with fierce opposition,” U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wrote in a letter to Obama. The letter, co-signed by North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry, refers to the move by the administration as “an ill-conceived proposal [that] undermines a constitutionally obligated process that speaks to the very heart of our democracy."

The letter also directly targeted Emanuel, Newsmax reports, stating: “Requiring the Census Director to report directly to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a shamefully transparent attempt by your Administration to politicize the Census Bureau and manipulate the 2010 Census.”

Blackburn says the bureau has come a long way to rid itself of politics infiltrating the ranks. “They have worked diligently to make certain that they have good people that are well-trained, and that they produce an honest count that we can work from."

Blackburn assures that she and other critics of the move "will continue to push forward and see what else we can do to make certain that the American people are fully aware that this is taking place. It is not being brought forward as a vote from congress, it is being done just as an executive action."

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Happy Presidents Day. As you know, the banks were all closed today. I understand that a few are expected to reopen tomorrow.

Presidents Day is the day we honor Presidents Washington and Lincoln. And of course Saturday was Valentine’s Day, the day we celebrate President Clinton.

In a new ranking of U.S. presidents by 65 historians, President George W. Bush came in fifth from the bottom. Of course Bush was thrilled; that’s better than he did in high school.

Sen. Judd Greg, who wanted to be in Obama’s Cabinet as commerce secretary but changed his mind, said that after withdrawing his name he hoped he was just embarrassing himself and not President Obama. To which Joe Biden said, “Don’t worry about it — I do it all the time.”

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Things Abraham Lincoln Would Say If He Were Alive Today

10. "Sup?"

9. "I see Madonna's still a slut"

8. "Who's that handsome sumbitch on the five?"

7. "Is that free Grand Slam deal still going on at Denny's?"

6. "I just changed my Facebook status update to 'The 'ol rail splitter is chillaxing'"

5. "How do I get on 'Dancing with the Stars'?"

4. "OK, Obama, you're from Illinois, too. We get it!"

3. "Hey Phelps, don't Bogart the weed!"

2. "What's the deal with Joaquin Phoenix?"

1. "A Broadway play? Uhhh, no thanks . . . I'm good"

David Letterman

It’s Barbie’s 50th anniversary. She was featured at Fashion Week in New York. They had Preppy Barbie; they had Wedding Barbie; they had Republican Running-Mate Barbie . . .

Happy Presidents Day. The stock market is closed for Presidents Day. The good news is, it was the first time I didn’t lose any money since it was closed for Columbus Day.

Hillary Clinton, our new secretary of state, is visiting Asia, including a stop in China. She’s trying to do something about those leaky take-out food cartons.

Hillary is in Asia . . . Bill is in heaven.

Conan O'Brien

A new poll has come out that names George W. Bush one of the 10 worst presidents of all time. On the bright side, Bush was named second best president named George Bush.

Martha Stewart celebrated Presidents Day by having Bill Clinton on her show. Meanwhile, on “The View,” Barbara Walters marked the holiday by telling about her passionate night with Rutherford B. Hayes.

Yesterday, one of Obama’s top advisers said that choosing Cabinet members is not like picking American Idol. Yeah, mainly because “American Idol” contestants have paid their taxes.

Craig Ferguson

Happy Presidents Day! A solemn day in America, where we celebrate presidents past by getting a great deal on mattresses and big screen TVs.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has issued a stern warning to Kim Jong Il: “Stop wearing my pantsuits.”

It’s International Flirting Week. I guess we’re supposed to know how to flirt. Like if a woman scratches her head, she’s flirting . . . or she has fleas.

Stimulus Verdict: A $3.27 Trillion Porker

The gargantuan stimulus bill Congress has rubber-stamped with virtually no Republican support contains tens of billions of the very spending projects that made the legislation a lightning rod for criticism.

And although the bill is generally described as costing $787 billion, the Congressional Budget Office reports the actual figure is now closer to $3.27 trillion.

That stems from the $744 billion it will take to pay for the additional debt the legislation will create, and $2.527 trillion in increased spending from the new and expanded programs the bill will spawn over the next decade.

To view the letter to Nancy Pelosi, go here.

The bill now spans more than 1,000 pages. While Democrats removed some provisions that fiscal conservatives objected to, most of the pork remains. Among them:

The plan has more than $3 billion in “neighborhood stabilization” and Community Development Block Grant funding, much of which may go to benefit ACORN, a low-income housing and voter registration “community” organization that is under federal investigation for its suspicious voter registration practices.

$1.3 billion to bailout AMTRAK, the perennial money-loser railroad.

$1 billion for educational programs, including courses on sexually transmitted diseases.

$30 million for restoration of wetlands to be spent in the San Francisco Bay Area – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district. The money will go in part to protect the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.

$200 million for a low-pollution, coal-fired power plant in President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois.

$45 million for ATV four-wheeler trails, and government office renovations, according to RNC Chairman Michael Steele.

$200 million to provide computers to community colleges.

$50 million for the National Endowment of the Arts.

Over $650 million in coupons to help consumers buy digital TV converter-box coupons.

A reported $300 million for hybrid vehicles and electric-powered cars. According to the Washington Times, this item will include buying golf carts for federal workers.

GOP Sen. John McCain summed up his view of the bill: “This measure is not bipartisan. It contains much that is not stimulative.”

Some of the criticisms of the bill, however, center on policy rather than cost.

The Heritage Foundation, for example, reports the bill reverses the bipartisan welfare reforms achieved during the Clinton administration.

Also, opponents have slammed the bill for being “anti-religious,” because it expressly prohibits the use of stimulus funds for faith-based schools, schools of divinity, facilities used for “sectarian worship,” or places of religious worship.

Bill Clinton Says Talk Radio Needs More Balance

By: Rick Pedraza

Former President Bill Clinton, interviewed on radio talk show host Mario Solis Marich’s syndicated program, “The Mario Solis Marich Show,” says the U.S. should consider bringing back the Fairness Doctrine.

"Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or you ought to have more balance on the other side," Clinton said, "because essentially there has always been a lot of big money to support the right-wing talk shows."

Clinton noted that conservative talk radio kept up a "blatant drumbeat" against President Barack Obama's stimulus program.

Clinton said when the Fairness Doctrine was done away with during the deregulation sweep of the Reagan administration, he was not in favor of seeing it go. The doctrine, originally instituted in 1949 by the Federal Communications Commission, required broadcasters over the public airwaves to give equal time to opposing political views.

“At the time, frankly, most people thought that there were more liberal than conservative voices [on the airwaves],” Clinton said.

“I never minded having somebody be heard who disagreed with me,” he said, “but if you only have one side, like this blatant drumbeat against the stimulus program, this doesn't reflect the economic reality we're facing — and it’s an example of why we need more, not less. If you only hear one side on the radio, that’s pretty tough.”

Clinton, however, would like to see "more balance in the programs or have some opportunity for people to offer countervailing opinions" on controversial issues of public importance.

“I think the American people know now that we are in a very serious time where we all need to be questioned,” Clinton said. “The president, I’m sure, would be the first to admit that none of us are right all the time and everything should be debated. But basically, with the future of the country hanging in the balance, we shouldn’t be playing petty politics or just going for entertainment.”

During this past week, Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., have spoken out about the need to bring the Fairness Doctrine back, even as some of their Democratic colleagues are quietly backing off the idea. Both would like to see congressional hearings held on radio accountability, noting that liberal views are being out-represented on the air by conservative views.

“Essentially, there's always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows,” Clinton pointed out. “And let's face it … Rush Limbaugh is fairly entertaining, even when he is saying things that I think are ridiculous."

Stabenow told WorldNewsDaily.com earlier this week: "I think it's absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it's called the Fairness Standard, or whether it's called something else, I absolutely think it's time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves."

Conservative critics note that while pushing for the Fairness Doctrine, Stabenow has not been noting a significant conflict of interest.

Her husband, Tom Athans, is a former executive of the liberal Air America radio network that went into bankruptcy. In 2006, he formed another liberal network, called TalkUsaRadio. A return of the Fairness Doctrine could be a boon for liberal talk networks, as local stations would be forced to include their shows even if they have proven to be money losers.

Will Stimulus Bill Work?

WASHINGTON -- The compromise economic stimulus plan agreed to by negotiators from the House of Representatives and the Senate is short on incentives to get consumers spending again and long on social goals that won't stimulate economic activity, according to a range of respected economists.

"I think (doing) nothing would have been better," said Ed Yardeni, an investment analyst who's usually an optimist, in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers. He argued that the plan fails to provide the right incentives to spur spending.

"It's unfocused. That is my problem. It is a lot of money for a lot of nickel-and-dime programs. I would have rather had a lot of money for (promoting purchase of) housing and autos. ... Most of this plan is really, I think, aimed at stabilizing the situation and helping people get through the recession, rather than getting us out of the recession. They are actually providing less short-term stimulus by cutting back, from what I understand, some of the tax credits."

House and Senate negotiators this week narrowed the differences between their competing stimulus plans. In doing so, they scrapped a large tax credit for buying automobiles that would have caused positive ripple effects across the manufacturing sector. They settled instead on letting purchasers of new vehicles deduct from their federal taxes the state and local sales taxes on the cars they bought.

The exception to this is for buyers of plug-in hybrids, cars that run off a battery that can be charged at home or in the office. Buyers of these vehicles, available in very limited supply, could get a tax credit of up to $9,100.

A Republican-backed proposal that would have provided a $15,000 tax credit to first-time homebuyers also was scaled back dramatically. Instead, the compromise provides first-time homebuyers a tax credit of up to $8,000, and it doesn't have to be repaid over the life of the mortgage. Incentives already in place offer buyers a $7,500 credit that must be repaid, so the bill is an improvement, but short of what many economists think is necessary.

Another reason that some analysts frown on the stimulus is the social spending it includes on things such as the Head Start program for disadvantaged children and aid to NASA for climate-change research. Both may be worthy efforts, but they aren't aimed at delivering short-term boosts to economic activity.

"All this is 25 years of government expansion jammed into one bill and sold as stimulus," said Brian Riedl, the director of budget analysis for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy research group.

Others shared a similarly dim view. In a brief on the stimulus compromise, William Galston, a senior fellow at the center-left Brookings Institution and a former Clinton White House adviser, warned Thursday that a bank-rescue plan being finalized will make the $789 billion look like "pocket change."

"While the stimulus bill is a necessary condition for economic stabilization and recovery, it is hardly sufficient," Galston wrote. "As the lesson of Japan in the 1990s shows, fiscal stimulus without financial rescue yields stagnation - at best."

Galston further wrote: " ... Serious observers believe that recovery cannot begin until we acknowledge that losses in the financial system amount to some trillions of dollars, rendering many institutions insolvent. The temptation will be to muddle along, hoping that these institutions can gradually regain strength without putting massive amounts of taxpayers' money at risk. If we go down that road, we are likely to end up with zombie banks whose balance sheets are riddled with near-worthless investments - banks that cannot lend to credit-worthy customers and who cannot trust one another."

With the economy in a tailspin, doing nothing isn't an option, however.

"Something is better than nothing, and bigger was better than smaller in terms of the stimulus needed," said Chris Varvares, president of prominent forecaster Macroeconomic Advisers in St. Louis. "The economy needs a fiscal jolt."

Even some proponents of a stimulus are disappointed, however. Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein, a former adviser to President Ronald Reagan, was an early supporter. He said that government is now the only engine left to spark economic activity, but he said that the compromise falls short of what's needed.

"If the choice is between the current bill and an improved bill, I would say wait and improve the bill," Feldstein told CNBC on Wednesday after the compromise was announced. "I am disappointed with the structure of this bill."

Like Yardeni and other analysts, Feldstein wanted more incentives for consumers to make big purchases that have ripple effects across the economy. When a car is purchased, it helps not only the carmaker, but its suppliers, the trucking companies and railroads that transport cars, the states that issue license plates and so on.

Still, could this stimulus get the U.S. economy back on its feet?

By itself, probably not. The stimulus plan, however, is supposed to work in tandem with new efforts by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to rid banks of distressed assets that are poisoning their balance sheets, and with other federal efforts to halt mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures. Much will depend on the details of both federal attack plans, which the Obama administration promises are coming soon.

There's also the problem of time. Much of the stimulus is to be spread over a two-year period or longer - and 2009 looks increasingly bleak.

A Wall Street Journal survey of 52 mainstream economic forecasters published Thursday found that while most forecasters still think there could be slow growth by the second half of the year, that won't offset steeper-than-projected declines in the first half of 2009.

That means this is essentially a lost year for the economy. Most scenarios envision the economy picking back up again next year.

The president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in a speech in Detroit Thursday, tried to put a brave face on the tough year ahead. Thomas Donohue acknowledged that big business didn't get in the stimulus bill some of the tax-relief measures it most wanted, but promised the Chamber's support.

"The bottom line is that at the end of the day, we're going to support the legislation. Why? Because with the markets functioning so poorly, the government is the only game in town capable of jump-starting the economy," Donohue said.

Sen. Gregg Withdraws as Commerce Sec. Nominee

WASHINGTON – Saying, "I made a mistake," Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire abruptly withdrew as commerce secretary nominee on Thursday and drew a testy reaction from the White House, suddenly coping with the third Cabinet withdrawal of Barack Obama's young presidency.

Gregg cited "irresolvable conflicts" with Obama's handling of the economic stimulus and 2010 census in a statement released without warning by his Senate office.

Later, at a news conference in the Capitol, he sounded more contrite.

"The president asked me to do it," he said of the job offer. "I said, 'Yes.' That was my mistake."

Obama offered a somewhat different account from Gregg.

"It comes as something of a surprise, because the truth, you know, Mr. Gregg approached us with interest and seemed enthusiastic," Obama said in an interview with the Springfield (Ill.) Journal-Register. "But ultimately, I think, we're going to just keep on making efforts to build the kind of bipartisan consensus around important issues that I think the American people are looking for."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said once it became clear Gregg was not going to support some of Obama's top economic priorities, it became necessary for Gregg and the administration "to part ways," Gibbs said. "We regret that he has had a change of heart."

Gregg said he'd always been a strong fiscal conservative. "It really wasn't a good pick." When the Senate voted on the president's massive stimulus plan earlier this week, Gregg did not vote. The bill passed with all Democratic votes and just three Republican votes.

The unexpected withdrawal marked the latest setback for Obama in his attempt to build a Cabinet. It came as the new president expended political capital in Washington — and around the country — for his economic package.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was confirmed despite revelations that he had not paid some of his taxes on time, and former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle withdrew as nominee as health and human services secretary in a tax controversy.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico was Obama's first choice as Commerce Secretary. He withdrew several weeks ago following disclosure that a grand jury is investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts in his state. Richardson has not been implicated personally.

Gregg was one of three Republicans Obama had put in his Cabinet to emphasize his campaign pledge that he would be an agent of bipartisan change.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Obama and Gregg met in the Oval Office on Wednesday and there were no hard feelings.

"It's better we figured this out now than later," Emanuel said. "It's unfortunate. ... There's a disappointment."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Gregg said, "For 30 years, I've been my own person in charge of my own views, and I guess I hadn't really focused on the job of working for somebody else and carrying their views, and so this is basically where it came out."

Gregg, 61, said he informed the White House "fairly early in the week" about his decision. He said he changed his mind after realizing he wasn't ready to "trim my sails" to be a part of Obama's team.

"I just sensed that I was not going to be good at being anything other than myself," he said.

The New Hampshire senator also said he would probably not run for a new term in 2010.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he wished Gregg "had thought through the implications of his nomination more thoroughly before accepting this post."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Gregg a friend and said, "I respect his decision."

In his statement, Gregg said his withdrawal had nothing to do with the vetting into his past that Cabinet officials routinely undergo.

Gregg's reference to the stimulus underscored the partisan divide over the centerpiece of Obama's economic recovery plan. Conservatives in both houses have been relentless critics of the plan, arguing it is filled with wasteful spending and won't create enough jobs. Gregg has refrained from voting on the bill — and on all other matters — while his nomination was pending.

The Commerce Department has jurisdiction over the Census Bureau, and the administration recently took steps to assert greater control. Republicans have harshly criticized the decision, saying it was an attempt to politicize the once-in-a-decade event.

The outcome of the census has deep political implications, since congressional districts are drawn based on population. Many federal funds are distributed on the basis of population, as well.

Both of those factors mean there is a premium on counting as many residents as possible. Historically, the groups believed to be most undercounted are inner-city minorities, who tend to vote Democratic.

Gregg's announcement also undid a carefully constructed chain of events.

The New Hampshire senator had agreed to join the Cabinet only if his departure from the Senate did not allow Democrats to take control of his seat.

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, in turn, pledged to appointed Bonnie Newman, a former interim president of the University of New Hampshire.

She, in turn, had agreed not to run for a full term in 2010, creating an open seat for Democrats to try and claim.

In a statement, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Gregg "made a principled decision to return and we're glad to have him."

Lynch, who spoke to Gregg several hours before the announcement, said he respected Gregg's decision to withdraw and remain in the Senate. He thanked Newman for her willingness to serve.

A day after Gregg's nomination had been announced, the AP reported that a former staffer was under criminal investigation for allegedly taking baseball and hockey tickets from a lobbyist in exchange for legislative favors while working for Gregg.

The former staffer, Kevin Koonce, has been identified in court papers only as "Staffer F" in the sprawling corruption probe stemming from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Gregg said at the time that he had been told he was neither a subject nor target of the investigation, and would cooperate fully.

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

It’s Thursday . . . you know what that means — another Obama Cabinet nominee has quit.

Just a few days after being nominated, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg withdrew as the nominee for commerce secretary. In a statement explaining why he turned it down, he cited “irresolvable conflicts.” So apparently he must have paid his taxes. He just wouldn’t fit in.

This week, Michigan Congressman John Dingell set an all-time record as the longest serving member ever of the U.S. House of Representatives. He’s been there 19,421 days. That’s the longest a member of Congress has ever been in one place if you don’t count federal prison.

The economy is in bad shape. So bad, I saw a Walmart executive shopping at Walmart.

Late Show Top Ten

Top Ten Surprising Facts About the Jonas Brothers

10. Nick: Our new 3-D concert film puts you right in the middle of a six-hour tour bus ride from Pittsburgh to Albany

9. Joe: Often we are astonished by how adorable we are

8. Kevin: Sometimes we lather, rinse, repeat and then repeat again!

7. Nick: Last Sunday night, I won a Grammy for “Best New Jonas”

6. Joe: Osama said he’d come out of hiding if we’d meet his 15-year-old niece

5. Kevin: One time when we were on the road, things got really crazy and we stayed up until 10:30

4. Nick: We’ve seen “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” 27 times

3. Joe: Once a week we get mail for Dr. Joyce Brothers

2. Kevin: We have no idea who that old dude behind the desk is

1. Nick, Joe, Kevin: A couple years back, Angelina Jolie tried to adopt us

David Letterman

Windy outside today. So windy, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s hair actually moved.

Bernie Madoff’s wife, two days before he was busted, withdrew $15 million. Either something was going on or she is shrewd. Maybe we should get rid of that Geithner guy as Treasury secretary and replace him with her.

She now has enough money to be swindled by her husband.

Happy birthday to Abraham Lincoln — 200 years old today. To mark the occasion, former Vice President Dick Cheney went into a theater and shot a guy.

Conan O'Brien

A new survey reported that 40 percent of people think it’s a good idea to get engaged on Valentine’s Day. The other 60 percent were men.

Sen. John McCain sent out an e-mail announcing he will seek re-election in 2010. That’s incredible — John McCain knows how to use e-mail.

Dunkin’ Donuts has started selling a waffle, bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. They say they wanted to offer customers a choice. The choice is to die in five minutes or die right now. Your heart explodes instantly after eating.

Craig Ferguson

Another Obama Cabinet pick has withdrawn his name from contention. Obama’s nominees are dropping faster than babies out of that octuplet mother.

People are saying that the octuplet mother is imitating Angelina Jolie. Where? I don’t see it! Angelina Jolie takes kids out of poverty. She doesn’t put them into it!

Another season of “Survivor.” This year’s contestants: banks.

Only one will survive.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Happy birthday to Abraham Lincoln. He would have been 200 years old today. I might be naïve, but I like to think that somewhere up in heaven, he is proud that this country named a town car after him.

“American Idol” judges have narrowed down the field to 36. “American Idol” isn’t doing as well in the ratings this season. But if you compare the ratings to how boring the show is, it’s doing amazing.

They had to eliminate one of the contestants because of a relationship to someone who works with the show, so they had to bring back a contestant they previously let go. So, good luck to William Hung.

Sharpton Slams Democrats' Stimulus Bill

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Rev. Al Sharpton criticized Democrats on Wednesday for "diluting" education portions of the economic stimulus bill in order to get re-elected. In a speech at Middlebury College, the civil rights leader also encouraged collegians to become vocal advocates for change.

"I am a civil rights activist and advocate," he told a packed house of 675 people. "I do not seek, as many who seek political office, to be appreciated or liked. I do not seek approval as opposed to clarity, unlike some politicians. I was concerned to see that some of the Democratic members of the Senate took out the portions that gave real vision and strength to president Obama's stimulus plan and diluted educational funding. It seems they were more concerned about midterm elections than vision."

In addition to those who got into the campus chapel to hear him, another 700 students crowded satellite venues on campus to watch him speak on a closed-circuit video feed.

Jeanine Busily, 21, who helped organize the event, said Sharpton was invited to the exclusive private college to speak because of growing student interest in activism.

"People wanted to hear from a sort of political figure that also dealt with issues of social justice," Busily said. "We wanted to be able to speak with someone about how Obama being elected changes the fight for social justice."

She wouldn't say how much he was paid for the appearance, but that the fee and production costs combined were about $20,000.

Sharpton said that despite the election of President Barack Obama, the civil rights fight isn't over.

"Many feel because we made this huge, historical step forward, we no longer need advocacy," Sharpton said. "We won the right to change, but we did not win the change. There is work yet to be done," he said, citing equality gaps in health care, the justice system and the economy.

Stressing the need for advocacy, he used the analogy of a thermostat — which changes or pushes temperature — and a thermometer, which merely records it. One student asked him which applied to Obama.

"I think he's a politician that has been a thermostat and has a thermometer agenda," Sharpton said. "And he had to have that kind of agenda to get elected. I've known President Obama for many years, we don't agree on everything. But I think if he at least holds to what he said, probably he can still make a dramatic difference."

Of newly appointed Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, the first black to hold the position, Sharpton said: "He's a likable guy.

"I think he will try to bring some people — particularly from the black church — over to the Republican side, with his right-to-life and anti-gay messages. And I will resist. Is he a nice man? Yes. Will I smile while I fight him on those issues? Yes, but fight I will."

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to send former Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry to jail for failing to file tax returns for eighth time in nine years. He hasn’t paid taxes for eight years straight. So it’s either jail or a Cabinet position in the Obama administration. Take your pick.

Walmart announced this week they're laying off 800 people at their headquarters. And of course there’s a ripple effect here — for every Walmart employee that's laid off, 200 kids in China lose their jobs.

Happy birthday Gov. Sarah Palin — 45years old today. I thought this was nice. She got a lovely card with $5 in it from John McCain.

Afterwards, I guess she did some shots. Two moose and a caribou.

David Letterman

The winning dog at the Westminster Dog Show in New York was the oldest dog ever to win — 70 years old in dog years. Here’s the good news: He’s now dating bitches half his age.

On this date in 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney shot his buddy in the face. Why isn’t he in jail again? I forgot.

Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska — today is her birthday. I’m not saying how old she is, but from her house, she can see 50.

She’s actually 45. She’s the first vice presidential candidate I have pictured naked . . . well, since Lloyd Bentsen.

Conan O'Brien

Valentine’s Day is this weekend, and White Castle is offering candlelight dinners to its customers. It’s perfect for the guy who has trouble saying, “I hate you.”

Michael Phelps says that after his marijuana controversy, he tried to call his sponsor, Kellogg’s, but they wouldn’t return his calls. Then Phelps realized that he’d been calling them on a banana.

Earlier today, Brett Favre announced that he is walking away from professional football. In other words, Favre will be back with the Jets next year.

When Yankee Slugger Alex Rodriguez admitted he used steroids, he said, “I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day.” And that was just with Madonna.

Craig Ferguson

Jennifer Aniston is 40 years old today. It’s also Burt Reynolds’ birthday. Both very different, of course, one’s a grizzled Hollywood veteran who’s got a sexy mustache, the other one’s Burt Reynolds.

In Egypt, they discovered a tomb packed with mummies. Not one — it was packed. In the future when they dig up Los Angeles, all they will find is thousands of silicone implants.

They’ll say that people of ancient times all came with airbags.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The president has been busy selling his stimulus plan. He was in Florida at a town hall event taking questions. One guy who was a working student, asked if Obama had any plans for extending benefits at McDonalds . . . Security!

Somebody had too many McFlurrys for breakfast.

You gotta hand it to the president; he stayed with the topic and actually had follow-up questions: “You say you are in school . . . what are you studying?” The guy answered, “Communications.” Obama then said, “You sound like you’ve got good communication skills.” Isn’t that cute? Obama’s first public lie.

Stimulus Hides Socialized Healthcare Plan

Buried in the bowels of the stimulus plan the Senate passed Tuesday are key healthcare provisions that will set America on the road to socialized medicine, involve the government in your choice of a doctor, and inevitably trigger another funding crisis that will be used to justify still greater federal intervention in America’s healthcare industry, experts tell Newsmax.

Among the most controversial parts of the bill are new federal guidelines that will require the government, rather than a doctor, to decide whether a patient should get medical care.

Ironically, the stimulus bill that will cost more than $1 trillion will lay the groundwork for a massive healthcare funding crisis in the future, according to senior healthcare fellow Dennis G. Smith of the Heritage Foundation.

According to Smith, the stimulus bill contains over $100 billion of temporary Medicaid money. In an unprecedented use of Medicaid, that money will go to provide medical coverage for 1.2 million unemployed workers. What happens to those people in two years, when most of the temporary federal funding ends, is a major question. It will eventually lead to huge budget shortfalls when the federal spigot shuts off.

“It’s going to be very serious,” Smith says. “The GAO, the watchdog agency that works for Congress, has already said the current Medicaid program is unsustainable, and that states for the current program have to either cut spending or raise taxes by 7.6 percent every year to stay in balance.”

After the federal money is gone, Smith says, states will have to either drop millions of people from the rolls or face massive shortfalls. That probably means they’ll soon be back at the federal trough pleading for more money.

“Medicaid is being asked to do too much,” Smith tells Newsmax. “You can’t keep putting more and more on the program. It’s already in danger of collapse, and all you're doing is hastening that day. And that’s not a good thing.”

Smith says many who join the Medicaid rolls will lose the right to see their own doctors. He describes the stimulus bill as “a freight train moving at top speed,” and suggests that urgent demands for its approval are duplicitous.

“Good ideas are being shut out of the process, and so the American people are sort of being presented with false choice: It’s either this way or nothing at all,” Smith says. “Well that’s not true.”

Betsy McCaughey, the former New York lieutenant governor who has made healthcare reform her life’s work, sees even more serious consequences to the plan.

She says new healthcare stipulations have intentionally been hidden in the stimulus bill to evade a public debate.

Writing on Bloomberg.com, McCaughey describes the bill’s provisions as “tragic,” adding, “Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health.”

Her concerns:

It creates a new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, to “guide” decisions your doctor makes about your healthcare. She writes “enforcing uniformity goes too far.”

The bill gives the secretary of Health and Human Services the right to punish hospitals and doctors who are not “meaningful users” of the new healthcare system. The HHS secretary, authorized in the bill to exact “more stringent measures of meaningful over time,” has sole discretion to define which doctors and hospitals are in compliance. She says the provision is intended to slow use of new technologies and medicines that drive up the cost of healthcare.

Hardest hit, she says, will be the elderly. The stimulus takes away the old standards – a treatment must be “safe and effective,” and adds a cost-effectiveness standard. That means treatments could be accepted or rejected based on cost, and the elderly would be disproportionately affected. Elderly would suffer healthcare rationing, she warns.

The bill’s healthcare regulations would impact every American. “The stimulus bill will affect every part of healthcare, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined,” she writes in Bloomberg.

McCaughey notes that former Health and Human Services secretary nominee Tom Daschle authored the bill’s key health provisions.

Warnings that the stimulus bill could alter American healthcare forever also have erupted on talk radio.

"We are at a fork in the road,’ Talk radio giant Rush Limbaugh told listeners Monday. “We can take the fork to the Moscow of the 1970s or we can take the fork to China. That's the road to recovery Obama is offering. We might want to try the road south to Cuba, but the only thing that would make that worthwhile are cigars."

In an e-mail to listeners Limbaugh added, “The march to socialized medicine starts in the spending bill that Obama is scaring you into backing. This thing is packed with earmarks for liberal special interests. It's not stimulative.

“Health provisions in the ‘stimulus’ bill tell old people: You're gonna die, so accept it and get out of the way! Stop using up money we'd rather spend treating somebody younger.”

Tragically, McCaughey states, the incipient plan for national healthcare will actually hurt business and employment.

“The healthcare industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product,” she writes on Bloomberg.com. “Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.”

Late Nite Jokes

Jay Leno

Last night Barack Obama held a press conference. His press conferences are different form George Bush’s in many ways: There were verbs, there were syllables, there were complete sentences . . .

I miss the Bush news conferences. Like when he was asked a question, he would say, “Can I have a hint?”

In Minnesota, Republican Norm Coleman, who is in a legal fight with Al Franken over who won the election for the Senate, said, “God wants me to serve.” Here’s my question: How bad of a candidate are you when you can’t win despite having the creator of the universe on your side?

Even God is saying, “Look Norm, I created heaven and earth — you’re not giving me much to work with here.”

David Letterman

The economy stinks. It’s so bad, today as I was walking through Central Park, I saw a pigeon feeding an old lady.

Westminster Dog Show happening in New York right now. Today, Bernie Madoff swindled a poodle out of its rhinestone collar.

Obama says he still believes in bipartisanship and pledges to work with Republicans to reduce the size of Jessica Simpson.

Conan O'Brien

Yesterday, when President Obama was getting into his helicopter, he accidentally
bumped his head on the door. When he heard about it, President Bush said, “See!? It’s complicated, right!?”

Today Barack Obama went to Florida and gave a speech on the economy. Obama’s speech was interrupted five times by applause and six times by old people whispering, “Is he Cuban?”

Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez admitted to using steroids — he said he used steroids due to the pressure of his $250 million contract. Which makes you wonder what kind of steroids Oprah is on.

The other day in Indiana, a woman burst into tears while she was robbing a Long John Silver’s and told the cashier, “If I weren’t down and out, I wouldn’t be doing this.” Then the cashier told her, “That’s what all our customers say.”

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The Senate passed the stimulus bill — $838 billion. So everything’s fine; we’re rich again.

That’s just under $3,000 for each person in America. Here’s how it’s going to work: On March 30, every American will receive a roll of 30 $100 Obama stimulus coins. You can use them to trade with friends or use them in a machine to buy stimulus nutrition bars.

Obama says it’s going to take a lot of time to convince Republicans of his bipartisanship. The biggest hurdle is how do you convince Republicans that bipartisanship doesn’t mean you have to sleep with other dudes?

Obama's Stimulus Promises, Facts Don't Add Up

WASHINGTON – At least Route 31 is a road to somewhere.

President Barack Obama had it both ways Monday when he promoted his stimulus plan in Indiana and later at a prime-time news conference. He bragged in Indiana about getting Congress to produce a package with no pork, yet boasted it will do good things for a Hoosier highway and a downtown overpass, just the kind of local projects lawmakers lard into big spending bills.

Obama's sales pitch on the enormous package he wants Congress to make law has sizzle as well as steak. He's projecting job creation numbers that may be impossible to verify and glossing over some ethical problems that bedeviled his team.

At his news conference, he said the plan he supports would create or save "up to 4 million jobs." In his opening statement at the news conference, at least, he avoided the claim made earlier that the plan would create or save at least 3 million jobs.

In recent years, the so-called Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska came to symbolize the worst excesses of congressional earmarks, a device that allows a member of Congress to add money for local projects in legislation, practically under the radar.

Nothing so bold, or specific, as that now-discarded bridge project is contained in the stimulus package. That's not to say the package steers clear of waste or parochial interests. Obama played to such interests Monday, speaking at one point as if he'd come to fill potholes.

A look at some of Obama's claims in Elkhart, Ind., and the news conference called to make his case to the largest possible audience:

OBAMA: "Not a single pet project," he told the news conference. "Not a single earmark."

He said in Elkhart: "I know that there are a lot of folks out there who've been saying, 'Oh, this is pork, and this is money that's going to be wasted,' and et cetera, et cetera. Understand, this bill does not have a single earmark in it, which is unprecedented for a bill of this size. ... There aren't individual pork projects that members of Congress are putting into this bill."

THE FACTS: There are no "earmarks," as they are usually defined, inserted by lawmakers in the bill. Still, some of the projects bear the prime characteristics of pork — tailored to benefit specific interests or to have thinly disguised links to local projects.

For example, the latest version contains $2 billion for a clean-coal power plant with specifications matching one in Mattoon, Ill., $10 million for urban canals, $2 billion for manufacturing advanced batteries for hybrid cars, and $255 million for a polar icebreaker and other "priority procurements" by the Coast Guard.

Obama told his Elkhart audience that Indiana will benefit from work on "roads like U.S. 31 here in Indiana that Hoosiers count on." He added: "And I know that a new overpass downtown would make a big difference for businesses and families right here in Elkhart."

U.S. 31 is a north-south highway serving South Bend, 15 miles from Elkhart in the northern part of the state.

OBAMA: "We also inherited the most profound economic emergency since the Great Depression."

THE FACTS. This could turn out to be the case. But as bad as the economic numbers are, the unemployment figures have not reached the levels of the early 1980s, let alone the 1930s — yet. A total of 598,000 payroll jobs vanished in January — the most in nearly 35 years — and the unemployment rate jumped to 7.6 from 7.2 percent the month before. The most recent high was 7.8 percent in June 1992.

And the jobless rate was 10.8 percent in November and December 1982. Unemployment in the Great Depression ranged for several year from 25 percent to close to 30 percent.

OBAMA: "I've appointed hundreds of people, all of whom are outstanding Americans who are doing a great job. There are a couple who had problems before they came into my administration, in terms of their taxes. ... I made a mistake ... I don't want to send the signal that there are two sets of rules."

He added: "Everybody will acknowledge that we have set up the highest standard ever for lobbyists not working in the administration."

THE FACTS: Two of his appointees, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle for secretary of health and human services and Nancy Killefer as his chief compliance officer, dropped out after reports they had not paid a portion of their taxes.

Obama previously acknowledged he "screwed up" in making it seem to Americans that there is one set of tax compliance rules for VIPs and another set for everyone else. Yet his choice for treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, hung in and achieved the post despite having belatedly paid $34,000 to the IRS, an agency Geithner now oversees.

That could leave the perception that there is one set of rules for Geithner and another set for everyone else.

On lobbyists, Obama has in fact established tough new rules barring them from working for his administration. But the ban is not absolute.

William J. Lynn III, tapped to be the No. 2 official at the Defense Department, recently lobbied for military contractor Raytheon. William Corr, chosen as deputy secretary at Health and Human Services, has lobbied as an anti-tobacco advocate. And Geithner's choice for chief of staff, Mark Patterson, is an ex-lobbyist from Goldman Sachs.

OBAMA: "The plan that we've put forward will save or create 3 million to 4 million jobs over the next two years."

THE FACTS: Job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.

Beyond that, it's unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it's clear when jobs are abolished, there's no economic gauge that tracks job preservation.

Obama reworded his claim at the news conference, dropping the assertion that at least 3 million jobs would be saved or created.