President Obama says he wants to get the U.S. economy growing, so here's a tip that may help: In order for Congress to ratify free-trade agreements, the White House must first send the signed deals to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. On his three-state tour in the Midwest this week, Mr. Obama repeatedly told audiences that the Korea, Colombia and Panama free-trade deals… Read more

A federal appeals court has struck down the requirement in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul package that virtually all Americans must carry health insurance or face penalties. But the decision didn't go as far as a lower court that had invalidated the entire overhaul as unconstitutional. A divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday struck… Read more

Today, in an interview on CNBC’s "Squawk Box," Obama insider Don Peebles threw cold water on the Democratic-endorsed idea of tax increases saying, "Well, I think the door should have been slammed on any new taxes.  I think it's closed but not slammed.  Hard core reality is that there's no appetite in the financial markets, businesses cannot afford it.  Any increase in… Read more

AMERICA'S new health law would bring change, Democrats said, but not too much. In the battle over Obamacare, no matter was more delicate than the fear that Americans would lose their insurance. “If you like your health care plan,” Barack Obama assured a town-hall meeting in 2009, “you can keep your health care plan.” Two years later, the debate continues. The basic question is whether… Read more

President Obama famously played to grandma's Social Security fears this week, saying in an interview about the debt-ceiling talks that "I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3 if we haven't resolved this issue because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it." To which a friend of ours replied, whatever happened to the trust fund? That's the fund… Read more

After the very strong ADP employment report on Thursday, many economists marked-up their forecasts for Friday’s official payroll report. We moved ours up 5,000, and went into the report at 140,000 net new private sector jobs. Ouch…the official report showed just 57,000 new private sector jobs and equities immediately headed south. For bulls, this data was a huge disappointment. But… Read more

With talks on reaching a deal to cut spending and raise the debt ceiling reaching a critical stage, the venerable over-50 organization AARP has weighed in with a television advertisement that seeks to shift the focus from entitlement programs such as Medicare onto what it deems to be wasteful spending by Congress. We had earlier given the American public four Pinocchios for failing to… Read more

Obamacare poses two great dangers to our nation: lower quality of care and runaway costs. It will stifle innovation and lead to rationing. But the overwhelming cost and the damage it will do to our nation’s finances at a pivotal moment in our history deserve greater scrutiny. The promises Obamacare supporters have made about the ultimate cost of the program are based on highly unlikely… Read more

The federal government's financial condition deteriorated rapidly last year, far beyond the $1.5 trillion in new debt taken on to finance the budget deficit, a USA TODAY analysis shows. The government added $5.3 trillion in new financial obligations in 2010, largely for retirement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. That brings to a record $61.6 trillion the total of… Read more

"Now, my administration has a job to do as well, and that job is to get this economy back on its feet," President Obama declared on July 14, 2009, in Warren, Mich. "That's my job, and it's a job I gladly accept. I love these folks who helped get us in this mess and then suddenly say, well, this is Obama's economy. That's fine. Give it to me." OK. It's yours. The unemployment rate… Read more