The Super Majority

Geithner Says US Will Never Lose AAA Debt Rating, Despite $1.6 Trillion 2010 Deficit

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. is in no danger of losing its Aaa debt rating even though the Obama administration has predicted a $1.6 trillion budget deficit in 2010.

“Absolutely not,” Geithner said, when asked in an ABC News interview broadcast yesterday whether a downgrade is a concern. “That will never happen to this country.”

Geithner said investors around the world turn to U.S. Treasury securities and dollar-denominated assets whenever they are worried about global stability. That reflects “basic confidence” in the U.S. and its ability to bounce back from the global recession, he said.

Moody’s Investors Service Inc. last week said the U.S. government’s bond rating will come under pressure in the future unless additional measures are taken to reduce budget deficits projected for the next decade.

Read the full article at Bloomberg

Rahm Emanual’s ‘Retarded’ Comment Flares Up Limbaugh, Palin

Rush Limbaugh has pounced on Rahm Emanuel’s “retarded” blunder and is using the same offensive term to bludgeon his enemies on the left.

On yesterday’s episode of “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” the right-wing icon used the firestorm surrounding Obama’s chief of staff as cover to blast liberal activists as “retards,” and suggest a “retard summit” is in the offing at the White House.

The embattled Emanuel sat down yesterday afternoon at the White House with a group of advocates for the disabled to apologize for hurling the phrase “f—ing retarded” during a closed-door strategy session in August.

The slur, reported last week, was thrust in the spotlight after Sarah Palin called for Rahm to be fired in a Facebook post.

Palin, whose son has Downs syndrome, likened Rahm’s expletive to use of the N-word.

Read the full article at NY Post

Reid Unhappy as Obama Continues to Knock Las Vegas

President Obama is catching heat from Nevada lawmakers and business leaders regarding his comments Tuesday criticizing trips to Las Vegas.

During the president’s town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, he discussed the need to curb spending during tough economic times. “When times are tough, you tighten your belts,” the president said. “You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

The president’s comments come nearly a year after he criticized companies that received federal money for taking corporate junkets to Las Vegas. “You can’t go take that trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on taxpayers’ dime,” he said at the time. Local business leaders say Nevada tourism suffered last year in part because companies canceled trips to Las Vegas in the wake of the president’s comments.

Read the full article at Las Vegas Now

Deficit Soars Unchecked in Obama’s $3.8 Trillion Budget

President Obama sent Congress a $3.8 trillion budget Monday for fiscal year 2011, pushing a plan that includes new jobs-creation programs but is projected to add $1.3 trillion in deficit spending on top of the current year’s projected $1.6 trillion deficit.

President Obama sent Congress a $3.8 trillion budget Monday for fiscal year 2011, pushing a plan that includes new jobs-creation programs but is projected to add nearly $1.3 trillion in deficit spending on top of the current year’s projected $1.6 trillion deficit.

According to the plan, the 2011 deficit of $1.267 trillion would fund nearly the entirety of the year’s discretionary spending, which is $1.415 trillion or 37 percent of the government’s total outlays. Mandatory spending on items such as entitlements and interest payments make up the rest.

Read the full article at Fox News