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The Big Four met on and off for more than three hours Tuesday night in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s conference room in the Capitol. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
DRIVING THE DAY
HERE’S WHAT WE CAN SAY at this early hour. If you are gambling or setting odds, there’s a damn good chance that there will be a stimulus deal reached. It could be reached today maybe! Theoretically! given that: Friday is the government funding deadline, all the leaders agree a Covid relief deal should be paired with government funding, they have said they won’t leave town until a Covid deal is notched and passed,
reports gives us a glimpse of some crazy and not very reasonable expenditures. richard lui is here with the drilldown. dare i ask where this money is going? got some examples for you, chris. more than 1/4 of the members that left the house this year still had some $100,000 in campaign accounts, according to usa today. in the past, this is where some of that excess went. one member lavished it on valentine s day expenses at the ritz-carlton, says the wall street journal. another spent it on a luxury car. while another secured a $10,000 lifetime membership at a private club. well, more recently, after losing re-election, republican alan west gave half a million to two foundations. the allen west foundation and american legacy guardians have the same post office box. west has not stated the purpose of those foundations and still has close to a million left to spend. democrat norm dicks gave $35,000
what ben bernanke said yesterday was exactly what the market expected him to say, we know things are weak, we know europe is a severe issue. him saying it even though they knew he was going to say it makes people more worried looking for something to hold on to and a little bit of hope. most people say this is a dramatic sell-off and you might see stabilization. that isn t the same thing as saying we aren t in a real economic problem, we know we are. it seems the markets are underwhelmed by the feds latest move to kick start the economy. is there anything they can do? certainly not the fed. the fed has been deluging the economy with money the last three years. this idea of more purchases and government bonds ben bernanke announced yesterday i m not so sure they had a very calming effect. erin is right. and the president s speech wasn t very helpful. monday, the president announced a trillion and a half-dollar tax increase in 2013, 14, 15 months away. that was a very beari
what ben bernanke said yesterday was exactly what the market expected him to say, we know things are weak, we know europe is a severe issue. him saying it even though they knew he was going to say it makes people more worried looking for something to hold on to and a little bit of hope. most people say this is a dramatic sell-off and you might see stabilization. that isn t the same thing as saying we aren t in a real economic problem, we know we are. it seems the markets are underwhelmed by the feds latest move to kick start the economy. is there anything they can do? certainly not the fed. the fed has been deluging the economy with money the last three years. this idea of more purchases and government bonds ben bernanke announced yesterday i m not so sure they had a very calming effect. erin is right. and the president s speech wasn t very helpful. monday, the president announced a trillion and a half-dollar tax increase in 2013, 14, 15 months away. that was a very beari