New America in the News: 2007

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic 2008 presidential frontrunner, on Wednesday delivered an impassioned call for Americans to move beyond partisanship and embrace a “new bargain” that would address the growing economic insecurities of the country’s middle class.

KAI RYSSDAL: It's called the power of the purse. The Constitution says Congress has it. Of course, the White House is free to submit its own budget request. And the president said today he'll do just that on Monday. He's promising his fiscal 2008 budget will be a big step on the way to balancing the government's books. But before that can happen lawmakers need to take care of their fiscal '07 accounting. They're hoping to do that by tomorrow. It'll be about $463 billion worth of budgetary horsetrading...

The first two weeks of the semester are always hectic at Mott Community College's cashier's office, but this year the waits have been a little longer. And the bookstore lines are always long during rush week, but this year they've snaked out a bit farther into the hallway.

SACRAMENTO – It was a watershed moment in his campaign for re-election. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger turned to Democratic challenger Phil Angelides during their one and only debate and said: “I can tell by the joy I see in your eyes that you love to raise taxes. Why don't you just say right now, 'I love increasing your taxes?' ”

These days, Schwarzenegger certainly isn't shy about asking taxpayers for more, but it's hard to tell if he gets any joy out of it.

Gov. Ed Rendell aims to make health insurance affordable for all Pennsylvanians. The Democratic governor's "Prescription for Pennsylvania" remains one of the largest proposals of any state, according to health policy advocates. Here is how it compares with similar proposals in California and Massachusetts.

This week, President Bush offered tax deductions for individuals buying health care insurance. Who does this help? Lisa Napoli does the math.

KAI RYSSDAL: There was lots of coverage this week of the president's State of the Union address. We thought today we'd zero in on one slice of what he offered up--health care. You've probably heard by now that Mr. Bush wants to change the way health benefits are taxed. The president says that ultimately it'll help more Americans afford insurance. We asked Marketplace's Lisa NAPOLI: to look into who'll actually, well, benefit.

George W. Bush on Friday sought to deny widespread rumours his administration was preparing some kind of military action against Iran. Mr Bush confirmed a report in Friday’s Washington Post that he had authorised US troops to shoot and kill Iranian operatives in Iraq, but denied this was a prelude to stronger action.

“We believe we can solve our problems with Iran diplomatically,” said the US president. “It makes sense that if somebody is trying to harm our troops, or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them.”

WASHINGTON -- Most Americans who have health insurance get it through their employers, in part because employers can take a tax deduction for premiums but most individuals can't.

In proposing to change that system last night, President Bush drew support from free-market thinkers who believe the link between employment and health coverage encourages people to buy more expensive coverage than they need, since employers pick up most of the tab.

Maya MacGuineas, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, President discusses her op-ed, “The $800 Billion Tax Loophole” in which she proposes ideas for Congress and the White House to find funds to balance the federal budget. In her online op-ed in the Washington Post, she argues for a reform of targeted tax cuts. She estimates that $800 billion can be “found” to fund Social Security, Medicare and other programs...