WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service wants its cut from oil spill victims who receive BP payments for lost wages.The agency says that under current law, BP payments for lost wages are taxable — just like the lost wages would have been.The IRS says payments for physical injuries or property loss are generally tax free.BP officials have agreed to create a $20 billion fund for spill
Ahead of this weekend's G-20 forum in Toronto, President Obama has signaled his displeasure with the way that some European countries are focusing on deficit reduction rather than using government spending to help stimulate the sluggish global economy.But evidently he's been unable to get the same point across to his own Treasury secretary — or to the Democratic Congress.In an interview Thu
David Brooks' New York Times column on the McChrystal debacle decries the development, since WWII, of a military (and government) where behind-the-scenes revelation trumps ability on the job.Brooks reckons this culture of exposure has added another scalp, chasing a general who was excellent at his job. Brooks' not particularly reassuring defense of McChrystal is that this kind of sniping, s
Anyone who's been paying any attention for the past 10 years knows that Afghanistan is an intractable, solution-free mess.Certainly, General McChrystal had figured it out -- probably well before the 60 Minutes interview in which he insisted America could succeed there.(Funny how neither he nor anybody else -- on the right or left -- has been able to define what success in Afghanistan would look
My constituents want Washington to work for us, not the special interests like Wall Street banks. That's why I stood up for Main Street banks, small businesses and working families in my home state by proposing the toughest reforms for Wall Street of anyone in either party, including the administration. One of my reform proposals would make the $600 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market fu
A colleague of mine in the Obama administration sparked a political controversy about 15 years ago when she wrote about the impact a village can have in raising a child.While I'm sure many are disappointed that the politics guiding that debate remain much the same, there is little doubt that caring for a child involves the village now more than ever.In today's America, families look different tha
I happen to be in Portland, Ore., this week, where hell's magnet is pulling another hero down, down, down.There's a lot to do in Portland besides get a below-the-belt massage.In the ten blocks around this hotel, there's the Oregon history museum, art galleries, fantastic restaurants.Anyone can ride the tram around downtown for free.The Trailblazers shoot hoops in a nearby stadium.Wild roses bloom
For many, if not most Americans, the economy is consistently rated as issue number one come election time.So it's hard to imagine that obesity --a crisis so intimately tied to our financial well being that it threatens to account for $344 billion in medical-related expenses and 21% of health-care spending by 2018-- could ever be dismissed as being beyond the bounds of social or government involve