PARC Readies Printed Electronics for Market

Inexpensive printed sensors, transistors, and memory devices that aren't as speedy or as high-capacity as silicon devices could enable the widespread use of sensors in places that aren't cost-effective today. Disposable devices could monitor and store information about the temperature of drugs, the safety of food during shipping, or air quality.

Researchers at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), which is owned by Xerox, have been developing a suite of materials for making printed electronics, including sensors and transistors. This week at the Printed Electronics USA conference in Santa Clara, California, PARC announced details about two partnerships to develop products based on its research prototypes. PARC will work with Norwegian company Thin Film Electronics to make higher-capacity printed memory devices that incorporate the research center's printed transistors. And PARC is working with Soligie of Savage, Minnesota, to develop products based on its printed temperature sensors.

Much of the excitement around printed electronics has centered on the potential to replace silicon electronics in complex devices such as display screens so that they can roll up. For these types of applications, researchers are working to match silicon's performance in materials that are just as fast and efficient, but flexible and inexpensive.

These more sophisticated printed electronics may be a few years from commercialization. "We want to go to market in simpler applications to prove that printed electronics can work today," says Davor Sutija, CEO of Thin Film. The company's 20-bit printed memory devices will be in toys early next year.

Products integrating these postage-stamp-sized memory devices will include playing cards paired with online games. Kids will use the cards to transfer their playing history between a PC and a handheld device. For a toy or a game that requires only a small amount of memory, using silicon-based memory like flash is impossibly expensive. "When you're only storing a small amount of data in lots of places, the cost threshold is right for printed electronics that cost a few cents," Sutija says.

Thin Film's memory devices are made on long reels of plastic using roll-to-roll printing, the same basic process used to churn out newspapers. They sandwich a layer of electrically sensitive polymer between top and bottom layers of wire-like electrodes that are perpendicular to one another. Where the electrodes cross, it creates a charge-storage device called a capacitor. When a small voltage is applied to the capacitor, the orientation of the polymer in the capacitor changes; this change in orientation makes the "1" and the "0."

Powered by WizardRSS | Best Membership Site Software

Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=c6635abaaffde986b66333da1f5fc2db

blac chyna bowl projections big 12 championship tickets notre dame football

US companies losing billions of dollars on lost laptops

Based on an Intel-funded study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, US businesses are losing billions of dollars a year on missing laptops. The survey discovered that in a one-year period, the 329 companies polled lost 86,455 notebooks, which averages out to 263 per organization.

It's suggested that the total economic impact of losing that many laptops is around $2.1 billion, which includes expenses like lost intellectual property and productivity, as well as legal, consulting, and regulatory fees. The average value of one lost notebook is said to be $49,246.

"Looking at these results, you can barely fathom the significant financial impact of missing laptops," said Intel. "More astonishing, considering the vulnerability of laptops and their data is that the majority of these companies aren't taking even basic precautions to protect them."


The study found that most companies don't take simple security measures such as encrypting and backing up data. Some 46% of the lost machines contained confidential information, but only 30% of those systems were encrypted and a mere 29% were backed up.

So, where are all the notebooks going? Surprisingly, only 25% of the systems are believed to be stolen (though thieves are suspected to be responsible for another) 15%. The remaining 60% simply vanished into the ether apparently, with the devices generically logged as 'missing'.

Some 40% of all the lost laptops disappeared in seemingly safe off-site locations, such as homes and hotel rooms. A third were lost while traveling via airports and so on, while 12% were misplaced in workers' offices. Only 5% of the missing notebooks are ever recovered.

Powered by WizardRSS | Best Membership Site Software

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41417-us-companies-losing-billions-of-dollars-on-lost-laptops.html

jenni lyn watson best buy cyber monday sugar bowl 2011 bcs projections

Backing for Fiscal Panel?s Plan Grows

The commission did not formally vote because while 11 of 18 members backed the plan, that was short of the 14-vote supermajority required to send the plan to Congress for action under the terms of Mr. Obama?s executive order last February establishing the commission. Even so, panel members of both parties, and opponents of the plan as well as supporters, said as they expressed their views that the package should serve as ?a template? for future action, in the words of Representative Xavier Becerra, a Democratic opponent from California.

?This plan deserves a vote and this president needs to make sure that by the State of the Union he also has his own plan and his own leadership because this is the issue of our time that must be solved,? said one of those who voted against the package, Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union who was a major supporter of Mr. Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Mr. Obama issued a statement supportive of the committee?s report without embracing any of its specific recommendations for spending cuts or tax increases. While he said his immediate goal is creating more jobs ? a nod to the rise in the unemployment rate announced Friday morning and the political pressure that sustained high levels of joblessness has put on him - he hinted that he might use some components of the plan as the basis for his own proposals to address the nation?s long-term fiscal imbalances.

?The commission?s majority report includes a number of specific proposals that I ? along with my economic team ? will study closely in the coming weeks as we develop our budget and our priorities for the coming year,? Mr. Obama said in a statement distributed by the White House as the president met with troops in Afghanistan.

?I don?t doubt our ability to meet this challenge, but our success depends on our willingness to engage in the kind of honest conversation and cooperation that hasn?t always happened in Washington,? Mr. Obama said. ?We cannot afford to fall back on old ideologies, and we will all have to budge on long-held positions. So I ask members of both parties to maintain an open mind and a commitment to progress as we work to lift this burden from the shoulders of future generations.?

The committee?s deliberations and the reactions to its proposals highlighted deep splits in Washington and the nation over how urgent the fiscal problem is, how it should be balanced against the economy?s more immediate needs and how it should be addressed.

The plan written by Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson ? representing the view that chronic deficits and the mounting debt must be dealt with aggressively ? would make deep cuts, mostly starting in 2012 given the economy?s fragility, in both domestic and military spending. It would overhaul the tax code, eliminating or reducing the $1 trillion a year in popular tax breaks for individuals and corporations and using the revenues mostly to slash income tax rates but also to reduce deficits. And to make Social Security solvent for 75 years, it would raise payroll taxes for the affluent and reduce future benefits, including by slowly raising the retirement age for full benefits to 69 from 67 by 2075.

Administration at work on Mr. Obama?s State of the Union address and annual budget release in January said there is interest in borrowing the commission?s calls for overhauling the tax code and fixing Social Security?s long-term finances.

Several Republicans also expressed a desire to see the plan serve as the basis for debate soon, especially on overhauling taxes. Senator Michael D. Crapo, a Republican of Idaho, called for ?immediate and aggressive action.?

Mr. Stern, the former labor leader, was the only one of the six private citizens whom Mr. Obama named to the panel to vote against the plan, citing its failure to invest in such areas as education and infrastructure even as it cut spending elsewhere. As the week began, people close to the commission privately predicted that few of the 12 elected officials on the panel would vote yes, reflecting the hesitance among lawmakers who must face the voters to compromise ? Republicans on taxes in particular and Democrats on domestic spending.

But in the end, after days of private one-on-one conversations by the chairmen ? Erskine B. Bowles, the president of the North Carolina University system and a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican Senate leader of Wyoming ? and revisions to the package?s mix of spending cuts and revenue increases, six of the 12 elected officials on the commission supported the chairmen?s recommendations. Two senior lawmakers on Congress?s budget committees are retiring, however, taking them out of the mix for any future legislative action.

Representative John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, the chairman of the House Budget Committee who lost his reelection bid in November, joked that as he struggled to decide to vote yes, ?I thought frequently, thank God I?m not running again.?

Turning serious, Mr. Spratt said it was ?an irony? that the commission was proposing such far-reaching and painful remedies for the coming decade when the White House and Congressional leaders simultaneously on Friday were negotiating how long to extend the soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts. As Mr. Spratt noted, an extension for the rates for all income levels would cost more than $4 trillion over the coming decade ? slightly more than the amount that the commission plan would cut from the deficits projected in that time.

The 11 supporters were split between the parties, with five Democrats and five Republicans, along with a political independent, Ann M. Fudge, the former chief executive of Young & Rubicam.

Powered by WizardRSS | Best Membership Site Software

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=d4ce68bed3d8388afcc60e094a72c6b0

oklahoma state football fanny brice randy shannon walmart cyber monday

Obama Seeking Aid for Jobless in Deal on Tax Cuts

But it is unclear how much leverage the White House has in the tax negotiations, given the drubbing Democrats took in the midterm elections, the tight Congressional calendar and a threat by Senate Republicans to block any legislation until the tax fight is resolved.

In a symbolic nod to President Obama?s pledge to let the tax cuts on upper-income brackets expire on Dec. 31, as scheduled by law, the House on Thursday approved a bill to continue the lower tax rates enacted during the Bush administration for Americans they described as ?middle class.? The vote was 234 to 188, with three Republicans joining 231 Democrats in favor; 20 Democrats and 168 Republicans were opposed.

The bill, however, has no chance of passage in the Senate, where even some Democrats say the tax cuts should be extended for everyone, at least temporarily, given the continued weakness in the economy.

Senate Democratic leaders scheduled their own symbolic votes for Saturday, intending to demonstrate their desire to end the tax cuts for the rich.

Republicans, meanwhile, expressed dismay at the posturing by Democrats, which they said was delaying the inevitable and even getting in the way of a potential deal on aid for millions of unemployed Americans whose benefits have started to run out.

Administration officials said no deal was at hand, and negotiators from the administration and the two parties in Congress met only briefly on Thursday. It is possible that the parties will be unable to reach a compromise, in which case tax rates will revert at the end of this year to their pre-2001 levels, meaning an across the board tax increase. However, the Treasury could be directed to keep the current rates while negotiations continue.

But the sense within both parties was that Democrats were essentially negotiating the terms of their major retreat on an issue that they once considered a slam-dunk on both substantive and political levels.

Senior Senate Republican aides said that an extension of all the income tax cuts was a foregone conclusion, but that a deal on jobless aid was possible if Democrats agreed to cover the cost. Democrats expressed indignation that Republicans were insisting on finding spending cuts to offset the unemployment benefits while being perfectly willing to add to the national debt the $700 billion cost of continuing the tax cuts on the highest incomes for the next decade.

?This is so grossly unfair,? the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said in a floor speech urging passage of the so-called middle-class tax package.

While the House bill has no chance of becoming law, it holds enormous symbolism for Democrats, who used the debate to accuse Republicans of standing for the rich. In an indication of the tensions between the parties on the issue, the House Republican leader and soon-to-be speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, derided the Democratic maneuver to force a vote on the bill as ?chicken crap.?

Even as lawmakers were debating the bill on the House floor, negotiators, including the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, were meeting in talks that all sides expected to end in a temporary extension of the tax rates for all income levels, perhaps for two or three years.

At the White House, administration officials outlined a list of their demands for an extension of expiring tax breaks, including the $800-per-couple ?Making Work Pay? tax credit for about 110 million households, a tuition tax credit for 8 million college students, and the earned-income tax credit and child tax credit for 15 million low-income families. They also listed expiring tax breaks for small businesses. They said those tax credits would have a greater impact on the economy than continuing the Bush tax cuts on upper income levels.

And with federal unemployment aid having expired on Tuesday for two million Americans, Mr. Obama is seeking a one-year extension. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked an effort by Democrats to take up a bill extending the benefits.

More Americans have been out of work beyond the 26-week period typically covered by state unemployment assistance than at any time in the decades since the government began keeping records. The unemployment assistance at issue is federal emergency aid for people who are unemployed beyond six months.

About 6.2 million Americans have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Mr. Obama?s Council on Economic Advisers reported on Thursday that nearly seven million Americans could lose benefits through next November as more people remained out of work for long periods.

Talks at the Capitol involving senior lawmakers from both parties, Mr. Geithner and the White House budget director, Jacob Lew, are expected to continue into next week.

But in the meantime, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said he would bring the House bill to the Senate floor on Saturday and would hold votes on that measure, as well as on an alternative Democratic proposal to raise the threshold at which the lower rates expire to $1 million.

Democrats had hoped to hold those votes on Friday, as well as votes on two Republican proposals for extending the tax breaks, but late Thursday a single Republican senator registered an objection stopping those votes.

That prompted Mr. Reid to note that even after agreeing to take up the tax issue before anything else, he was encountering Republican obstruction.

?I think everybody remembers that famous letter that was written to me saying until we get tax cuts resolved, funding the government, we?re not going to let you do anything legislatively,? he said at a news conference late Thursday. ?We?re at a new one tonight. They are not going to let us do anything with tax cuts or funding the government.?

The Republican alternatives include one from the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, that would indefinitely extend all of the Bush-era income tax cuts. None of the measures is expected to win the 60 votes needed to advance.

Congressional Democrats expressed deepening frustration with the White House, which they said had made numerous missteps that gave Republicans the upper hand. Some Democratic aides said that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had been asked to attend a caucus meeting to defend the White House negotiating stance. A spokesman said Mr. Biden had a previous commitment.

Congressional Democrats also voiced worries that the administration was ready to give in quickly to Republican demands, in a bid to preserve time on the Senate calendar for ratification of an arms control treaty with Russia known as New Start.

Separately, the Senate approved a 15-day extension of the temporary spending measure that has financed the federal government since Oct. 1 and was set to run out on Friday.

Powered by WizardRSS | Best Membership Site Software

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=12e511e9b1da272221e7f6c7d0b5f1c8

ernest borgnine cwtv bee movie jenni lyn watson

Android to pass iOS before iOS catches up to BlackBerry

60.7 million people in the US owned smartphones during the last quarter, up 14 percent from the preceding three month period. The number of smartphone owners who use Google's Android OS is about to pass the number of users on Apple's iOS, but the number of Americans on RIM's BlackBerry OS is still ahead of both. Based on the data provided by tracking firm comScore, Android saw a huge sales jump while iOS gained a little and BlackBerry dropped quite a bit.

In the three months ending in October, RIM dropped from 39.3 percent to 35.8 percent. Apple's share rose less than a single percentage point, going from 23.8 percent to 24.6 percent. Meanwhile, the share of Google users rose sharply from 17.0 percent to 23.5 percent.

If iOS and Android were neck and neck a month ago, it looks like the latter will pass the former in the current quarter, especially given that it includes the 2010 holiday season. BlackBerry should remain in first this year, but that lead won't last for long.

Microsoft's share dropped from 11.8 percent to 9.7 percent of smartphone subscribers. Palm's numbers fell from 4.9 percent to 3.9 percent. Despite losing share to Android, most smartphone platforms are still gaining users because the smartphone market overall continues to grow.

Powered by WizardRSS | Best Membership Site Software

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41420-android-to-pass-ios-before-ios-catches-up-to-blackberry.html

ernest borgnine cwtv bee movie jenni lyn watson

Obama Seeking Aid for Jobless in Deal on Tax Cuts

But it is unclear how much leverage the White House has in the tax negotiations, given the drubbing Democrats took in the midterm elections, the tight Congressional calendar and a threat by Senate Republicans to block any legislation until the tax fight is resolved.

In a symbolic nod to President Obama?s pledge to let the tax cuts on upper-income brackets expire on Dec. 31, as scheduled by law, the House on Thursday approved a bill to continue the lower tax rates enacted during the Bush administration for Americans they described as ?middle class.? The vote was 234 to 188, with three Republicans joining 231 Democrats in favor; 20 Democrats and 168 Republicans were opposed.

The bill, however, has no chance of passage in the Senate, where even some Democrats say the tax cuts should be extended for everyone, at least temporarily, given the continued weakness in the economy.

Senate Democratic leaders scheduled their own symbolic votes for Saturday, intending to demonstrate their desire to end the tax cuts for the rich.

Republicans, meanwhile, expressed dismay at the posturing by Democrats, which they said was delaying the inevitable and even getting in the way of a potential deal on aid for millions of unemployed Americans whose benefits have started to run out.

Administration officials said no deal was at hand, and negotiators from the administration and the two parties in Congress met only briefly on Thursday. It is possible that the parties will be unable to reach a compromise, in which case tax rates will revert at the end of this year to their pre-2001 levels, meaning an across the board tax increase. However, the Treasury could be directed to keep the current rates while negotiations continue.

But the sense within both parties was that Democrats were essentially negotiating the terms of their major retreat on an issue that they once considered a slam-dunk on both substantive and political levels.

Senior Senate Republican aides said that an extension of all the income tax cuts was a foregone conclusion, but that a deal on jobless aid was possible if Democrats agreed to cover the cost. Democrats expressed indignation that Republicans were insisting on finding spending cuts to offset the unemployment benefits while being perfectly willing to add to the national debt the $700 billion cost of continuing the tax cuts on the highest incomes for the next decade.

?This is so grossly unfair,? the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said in a floor speech urging passage of the so-called middle-class tax package.

While the House bill has no chance of becoming law, it holds enormous symbolism for Democrats, who used the debate to accuse Republicans of standing for the rich. In an indication of the tensions between the parties on the issue, the House Republican leader and soon-to-be speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, derided the Democratic maneuver to force a vote on the bill as ?chicken crap.?

Even as lawmakers were debating the bill on the House floor, negotiators, including the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, were meeting in talks that all sides expected to end in a temporary extension of the tax rates for all income levels, perhaps for two or three years.

At the White House, administration officials outlined a list of their demands for an extension of expiring tax breaks, including the $800-per-couple ?Making Work Pay? tax credit for about 110 million households, a tuition tax credit for 8 million college students, and the earned-income tax credit and child tax credit for 15 million low-income families. They also listed expiring tax breaks for small businesses. They said those tax credits would have a greater impact on the economy than continuing the Bush tax cuts on upper income levels.

And with federal unemployment aid having expired on Tuesday for two million Americans, Mr. Obama is seeking a one-year extension. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked an effort by Democrats to take up a bill extending the benefits.

More Americans have been out of work beyond the 26-week period typically covered by state unemployment assistance than at any time in the decades since the government began keeping records. The unemployment assistance at issue is federal emergency aid for people who are unemployed beyond six months.

About 6.2 million Americans have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Mr. Obama?s Council on Economic Advisers reported on Thursday that nearly seven million Americans could lose benefits through next November as more people remained out of work for long periods.

Talks at the Capitol involving senior lawmakers from both parties, Mr. Geithner and the White House budget director, Jacob Lew, are expected to continue into next week.

But in the meantime, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said he would bring the House bill to the Senate floor on Saturday and would hold votes on that measure, as well as on an alternative Democratic proposal to raise the threshold at which the lower rates expire to $1 million.

Democrats had hoped to hold those votes on Friday, as well as votes on two Republican proposals for extending the tax breaks, but late Thursday a single Republican senator registered an objection stopping those votes.

That prompted Mr. Reid to note that even after agreeing to take up the tax issue before anything else, he was encountering Republican obstruction.

?I think everybody remembers that famous letter that was written to me saying until we get tax cuts resolved, funding the government, we?re not going to let you do anything legislatively,? he said at a news conference late Thursday. ?We?re at a new one tonight. They are not going to let us do anything with tax cuts or funding the government.?

The Republican alternatives include one from the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, that would indefinitely extend all of the Bush-era income tax cuts. None of the measures is expected to win the 60 votes needed to advance.

Congressional Democrats expressed deepening frustration with the White House, which they said had made numerous missteps that gave Republicans the upper hand. Some Democratic aides said that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had been asked to attend a caucus meeting to defend the White House negotiating stance. A spokesman said Mr. Biden had a previous commitment.

Congressional Democrats also voiced worries that the administration was ready to give in quickly to Republican demands, in a bid to preserve time on the Senate calendar for ratification of an arms control treaty with Russia known as New Start.

Separately, the Senate approved a 15-day extension of the temporary spending measure that has financed the federal government since Oct. 1 and was set to run out on Friday.

Powered by WizardRSS | Best Membership Site Software

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=12e511e9b1da272221e7f6c7d0b5f1c8

big 12 championship tickets notre dame football juan manuel marquez vs michael katsidis steven pieper

Obama Seeking Aid for Jobless in Deal on Tax Cuts

But it is unclear how much leverage the White House has in the tax negotiations, given the drubbing Democrats took in the midterm elections, the tight Congressional calendar and a threat by Senate Republicans to block any legislation until the tax fight is resolved.

In a symbolic nod to President Obama?s pledge to let the tax cuts on upper-income brackets expire on Dec. 31, as scheduled by law, the House on Thursday approved a bill to continue the lower tax rates enacted during the Bush administration for Americans they described as ?middle class.? The vote was 234 to 188, with three Republicans joining 231 Democrats in favor; 20 Democrats and 168 Republicans were opposed.

The bill, however, has no chance of passage in the Senate, where even some Democrats say the tax cuts should be extended for everyone, at least temporarily, given the continued weakness in the economy.

Senate Democratic leaders scheduled their own symbolic votes for Saturday, intending to demonstrate their desire to end the tax cuts for the rich.

Republicans, meanwhile, expressed dismay at the posturing by Democrats, which they said was delaying the inevitable and even getting in the way of a potential deal on aid for millions of unemployed Americans whose benefits have started to run out.

Administration officials said no deal was at hand, and negotiators from the administration and the two parties in Congress met only briefly on Thursday. It is possible that the parties will be unable to reach a compromise, in which case tax rates will revert at the end of this year to their pre-2001 levels, meaning an across the board tax increase. However, the Treasury could be directed to keep the current rates while negotiations continue.

But the sense within both parties was that Democrats were essentially negotiating the terms of their major retreat on an issue that they once considered a slam-dunk on both substantive and political levels.

Senior Senate Republican aides said that an extension of all the income tax cuts was a foregone conclusion, but that a deal on jobless aid was possible if Democrats agreed to cover the cost. Democrats expressed indignation that Republicans were insisting on finding spending cuts to offset the unemployment benefits while being perfectly willing to add to the national debt the $700 billion cost of continuing the tax cuts on the highest incomes for the next decade.

?This is so grossly unfair,? the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said in a floor speech urging passage of the so-called middle-class tax package.

While the House bill has no chance of becoming law, it holds enormous symbolism for Democrats, who used the debate to accuse Republicans of standing for the rich. In an indication of the tensions between the parties on the issue, the House Republican leader and soon-to-be speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, derided the Democratic maneuver to force a vote on the bill as ?chicken crap.?

Even as lawmakers were debating the bill on the House floor, negotiators, including the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, were meeting in talks that all sides expected to end in a temporary extension of the tax rates for all income levels, perhaps for two or three years.

At the White House, administration officials outlined a list of their demands for an extension of expiring tax breaks, including the $800-per-couple ?Making Work Pay? tax credit for about 110 million households, a tuition tax credit for 8 million college students, and the earned-income tax credit and child tax credit for 15 million low-income families. They also listed expiring tax breaks for small businesses. They said those tax credits would have a greater impact on the economy than continuing the Bush tax cuts on upper income levels.

And with federal unemployment aid having expired on Tuesday for two million Americans, Mr. Obama is seeking a one-year extension. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked an effort by Democrats to take up a bill extending the benefits.

More Americans have been out of work beyond the 26-week period typically covered by state unemployment assistance than at any time in the decades since the government began keeping records. The unemployment assistance at issue is federal emergency aid for people who are unemployed beyond six months.

About 6.2 million Americans have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Mr. Obama?s Council on Economic Advisers reported on Thursday that nearly seven million Americans could lose benefits through next November as more people remained out of work for long periods.

Talks at the Capitol involving senior lawmakers from both parties, Mr. Geithner and the White House budget director, Jacob Lew, are expected to continue into next week.

But in the meantime, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said he would bring the House bill to the Senate floor on Saturday and would hold votes on that measure, as well as on an alternative Democratic proposal to raise the threshold at which the lower rates expire to $1 million.

Democrats had hoped to hold those votes on Friday, as well as votes on two Republican proposals for extending the tax breaks, but late Thursday a single Republican senator registered an objection stopping those votes.

That prompted Mr. Reid to note that even after agreeing to take up the tax issue before anything else, he was encountering Republican obstruction.

?I think everybody remembers that famous letter that was written to me saying until we get tax cuts resolved, funding the government, we?re not going to let you do anything legislatively,? he said at a news conference late Thursday. ?We?re at a new one tonight. They are not going to let us do anything with tax cuts or funding the government.?

The Republican alternatives include one from the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, that would indefinitely extend all of the Bush-era income tax cuts. None of the measures is expected to win the 60 votes needed to advance.

Congressional Democrats expressed deepening frustration with the White House, which they said had made numerous missteps that gave Republicans the upper hand. Some Democratic aides said that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had been asked to attend a caucus meeting to defend the White House negotiating stance. A spokesman said Mr. Biden had a previous commitment.

Congressional Democrats also voiced worries that the administration was ready to give in quickly to Republican demands, in a bid to preserve time on the Senate calendar for ratification of an arms control treaty with Russia known as New Start.

Separately, the Senate approved a 15-day extension of the temporary spending measure that has financed the federal government since Oct. 1 and was set to run out on Friday.

Powered by WizardRSS | Best Membership Site Software

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=12e511e9b1da272221e7f6c7d0b5f1c8

bowl projections big 12 championship tickets notre dame football juan manuel marquez vs michael katsidis

Backing for Fiscal Panel?s Plan Grows

The commission did not formally vote because while 11 of 18 members backed the plan, that was short of the 14-vote supermajority required to send the plan to Congress for action under the terms of Mr. Obama?s executive order last February establishing the commission. Even so, panel members of both parties, and opponents of the plan as well as supporters, said as they expressed their views that the package should serve as ?a template? for future action, in the words of Representative Xavier Becerra, a Democratic opponent from California.

?This plan deserves a vote and this president needs to make sure that by the State of the Union he also has his own plan and his own leadership because this is the issue of our time that must be solved,? said one of those who voted against the package, Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union who was a major supporter of Mr. Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Mr. Obama issued a statement supportive of the committee?s report without embracing any of its specific recommendations for spending cuts or tax increases. While he said his immediate goal is creating more jobs ? a nod to the rise in the unemployment rate announced Friday morning and the political pressure that sustained high levels of joblessness has put on him - he hinted that he might use some components of the plan as the basis for his own proposals to address the nation?s long-term fiscal imbalances.

?The commission?s majority report includes a number of specific proposals that I ? along with my economic team ? will study closely in the coming weeks as we develop our budget and our priorities for the coming year,? Mr. Obama said in a statement distributed by the White House as the president met with troops in Afghanistan.

?I don?t doubt our ability to meet this challenge, but our success depends on our willingness to engage in the kind of honest conversation and cooperation that hasn?t always happened in Washington,? Mr. Obama said. ?We cannot afford to fall back on old ideologies, and we will all have to budge on long-held positions. So I ask members of both parties to maintain an open mind and a commitment to progress as we work to lift this burden from the shoulders of future generations.?

The committee?s deliberations and the reactions to its proposals highlighted deep splits in Washington and the nation over how urgent the fiscal problem is, how it should be balanced against the economy?s more immediate needs and how it should be addressed.

The plan written by Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson ? representing the view that chronic deficits and the mounting debt must be dealt with aggressively ? would make deep cuts, mostly starting in 2012 given the economy?s fragility, in both domestic and military spending. It would overhaul the tax code, eliminating or reducing the $1 trillion a year in popular tax breaks for individuals and corporations and using the revenues mostly to slash income tax rates but also to reduce deficits. And to make Social Security solvent for 75 years, it would raise payroll taxes for the affluent and reduce future benefits, including by slowly raising the retirement age for full benefits to 69 from 67 by 2075.

Administration at work on Mr. Obama?s State of the Union address and annual budget release in January said there is interest in borrowing the commission?s calls for overhauling the tax code and fixing Social Security?s long-term finances.

Several Republicans also expressed a desire to see the plan serve as the basis for debate soon, especially on overhauling taxes. Senator Michael D. Crapo, a Republican of Idaho, called for ?immediate and aggressive action.?

Mr. Stern, the former labor leader, was the only one of the six private citizens whom Mr. Obama named to the panel to vote against the plan, citing its failure to invest in such areas as education and infrastructure even as it cut spending elsewhere. As the week began, people close to the commission privately predicted that few of the 12 elected officials on the panel would vote yes, reflecting the hesitance among lawmakers who must face the voters to compromise ? Republicans on taxes in particular and Democrats on domestic spending.

But in the end, after days of private one-on-one conversations by the chairmen ? Erskine B. Bowles, the president of the North Carolina University system and a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican Senate leader of Wyoming ? and revisions to the package?s mix of spending cuts and revenue increases, six of the 12 elected officials on the commission supported the chairmen?s recommendations. Two senior lawmakers on Congress?s budget committees are retiring, however, taking them out of the mix for any future legislative action.

Representative John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, the chairman of the House Budget Committee who lost his reelection bid in November, joked that as he struggled to decide to vote yes, ?I thought frequently, thank God I?m not running again.?

Turning serious, Mr. Spratt said it was ?an irony? that the commission was proposing such far-reaching and painful remedies for the coming decade when the White House and Congressional leaders simultaneously on Friday were negotiating how long to extend the soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts. As Mr. Spratt noted, an extension for the rates for all income levels would cost more than $4 trillion over the coming decade ? slightly more than the amount that the commission plan would cut from the deficits projected in that time.

The 11 supporters were split between the parties, with five Democrats and five Republicans, along with a political independent, Ann M. Fudge, the former chief executive of Young & Rubicam.

Powered by WizardRSS | Best Membership Site Software

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=d4ce68bed3d8388afcc60e094a72c6b0

bee movie jenni lyn watson best buy cyber monday sugar bowl 2011

Weekend Open Forum: How often do you beat games?

Backing for Fiscal Panel?s Plan Grows

The commission did not formally vote because while 11 of 18 members backed the plan, that was short of the 14-vote supermajority required to send the plan to Congress for action under the terms of Mr. Obama?s executive order last February establishing the commission. Even so, panel members of both parties, and opponents of the plan as well as supporters, said as they expressed their views that the package should serve as ?a template? for future action, in the words of Representative Xavier Becerra, a Democratic opponent from California.

?This plan deserves a vote and this president needs to make sure that by the State of the Union he also has his own plan and his own leadership because this is the issue of our time that must be solved,? said one of those who voted against the package, Andy Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union who was a major supporter of Mr. Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Mr. Obama issued a statement supportive of the committee?s report without embracing any of its specific recommendations for spending cuts or tax increases. While he said his immediate goal is creating more jobs ? a nod to the rise in the unemployment rate announced Friday morning and the political pressure that sustained high levels of joblessness has put on him - he hinted that he might use some components of the plan as the basis for his own proposals to address the nation?s long-term fiscal imbalances.

?The commission?s majority report includes a number of specific proposals that I ? along with my economic team ? will study closely in the coming weeks as we develop our budget and our priorities for the coming year,? Mr. Obama said in a statement distributed by the White House as the president met with troops in Afghanistan.

?I don?t doubt our ability to meet this challenge, but our success depends on our willingness to engage in the kind of honest conversation and cooperation that hasn?t always happened in Washington,? Mr. Obama said. ?We cannot afford to fall back on old ideologies, and we will all have to budge on long-held positions. So I ask members of both parties to maintain an open mind and a commitment to progress as we work to lift this burden from the shoulders of future generations.?

The committee?s deliberations and the reactions to its proposals highlighted deep splits in Washington and the nation over how urgent the fiscal problem is, how it should be balanced against the economy?s more immediate needs and how it should be addressed.

The plan written by Mr. Bowles and Mr. Simpson ? representing the view that chronic deficits and the mounting debt must be dealt with aggressively ? would make deep cuts, mostly starting in 2012 given the economy?s fragility, in both domestic and military spending. It would overhaul the tax code, eliminating or reducing the $1 trillion a year in popular tax breaks for individuals and corporations and using the revenues mostly to slash income tax rates but also to reduce deficits. And to make Social Security solvent for 75 years, it would raise payroll taxes for the affluent and reduce future benefits, including by slowly raising the retirement age for full benefits to 69 from 67 by 2075.

Administration at work on Mr. Obama?s State of the Union address and annual budget release in January said there is interest in borrowing the commission?s calls for overhauling the tax code and fixing Social Security?s long-term finances.

Several Republicans also expressed a desire to see the plan serve as the basis for debate soon, especially on overhauling taxes. Senator Michael D. Crapo, a Republican of Idaho, called for ?immediate and aggressive action.?

Mr. Stern, the former labor leader, was the only one of the six private citizens whom Mr. Obama named to the panel to vote against the plan, citing its failure to invest in such areas as education and infrastructure even as it cut spending elsewhere. As the week began, people close to the commission privately predicted that few of the 12 elected officials on the panel would vote yes, reflecting the hesitance among lawmakers who must face the voters to compromise ? Republicans on taxes in particular and Democrats on domestic spending.

But in the end, after days of private one-on-one conversations by the chairmen ? Erskine B. Bowles, the president of the North Carolina University system and a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, and Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican Senate leader of Wyoming ? and revisions to the package?s mix of spending cuts and revenue increases, six of the 12 elected officials on the commission supported the chairmen?s recommendations. Two senior lawmakers on Congress?s budget committees are retiring, however, taking them out of the mix for any future legislative action.

Representative John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, the chairman of the House Budget Committee who lost his reelection bid in November, joked that as he struggled to decide to vote yes, ?I thought frequently, thank God I?m not running again.?

Turning serious, Mr. Spratt said it was ?an irony? that the commission was proposing such far-reaching and painful remedies for the coming decade when the White House and Congressional leaders simultaneously on Friday were negotiating how long to extend the soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts. As Mr. Spratt noted, an extension for the rates for all income levels would cost more than $4 trillion over the coming decade ? slightly more than the amount that the commission plan would cut from the deficits projected in that time.

The 11 supporters were split between the parties, with five Democrats and five Republicans, along with a political independent, Ann M. Fudge, the former chief executive of Young & Rubicam.

Powered by WizardRSS | Best Membership Site Software

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=d4ce68bed3d8388afcc60e094a72c6b0

bryan cranston cyber monday deals 2010 blac chyna bowl projections