Obama Plans to Lift Veteran Hiring in Lead Up to Iraq Troop Withdrawal

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The Obama administration announced fresh steps Tuesday to lift the hiring of military veterans, who face higher levels of unemployment than other Americans as thousands more prepare to return home from Iraq.

President Barack Obama, currently touring electorally vital western states to convince voters he is doing everything he can to cut high U.S. unemployment, has repeatedly emphasized measures to aid veterans that resonate with many Americans.

He has pledged to use the executive powers of his office to work around Republicans in Congress, who oppose a $447 billion jobs plan he laid out last month because it raises some taxes.

The latest aid for veterans did not require a presidential executive order and was rather low-key.

The first initiative will encourage community health centers to hire 8,000 veterans over the next three years. The second will improve training opportunities for military medics to become physician assistants. They follow news last week from First Lady Michelle Obama that private firms had pledged to hire thousands more veterans over the next two years.

[Check out our editorial cartoons on President Obama.]

"This is an important step, but it is part of an overall plan," Matt Flavin, director of the White House task force on veterans, told reporters.

Unemployment among veterans who have served since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States stands at 235,000, or 11.7 percent, versus a national jobless rate 9.1 percent.

More veterans are expected to enter the labor force after Obama announced last week he was pulling the remaining 40,000 U.S. troops home from Iraq by the end of the year.

Obama is seeking to bypass congressional Republicans to show voters he is serious about spurring hiring and employment, key goals to securing his reelection next year.

On Monday in Las Vegas, where the housing market collapse hit hardest, Obama took steps to help homeowners who owe more on their homes than they are worth. On Wednesday, in the swing state of Colorado, he will highlight measures to help students better manage their student loan debt when they graduate.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]

Tuesday's action to aid veterans was not done through an executive order. Rather, it took the form of a challenge from the Obama administration to healthcare centers to lift veteran hiring and report back on how many are on the payroll.

Republicans complain Obama's western tour is naked election campaigning that shows that the Democratic president is not serious about working with them to lift economic growth and hiring.

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EU plans 'greener' farm subsidies

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12 October 2011 Last updated at 11:33 GMT Many farmers rely on the subsidies to stay in business The European Union has announced plans to reform its Common Agricultural Policy - its most expensive scheme, and one of the most controversial.

The CAP cost 58bn euros (£51bn; $80bn) last year - 47% of the whole EU budget.

The European Commission does not want to cut the budget, but change its priorities - including linking direct payments to environmental measures.

But farming, environmental and taxpayer groups all have their own concerns about the plans.

The proposals include:

keeping EU farm spending level until 2020, though it may be reduced by inflationcapping the total subsidy a large farm can receive at 300,000 euroslevelling imbalances in payments: to subsidise acreage farmed rather than production totals; and bring payments in the eastern EU up to levels in the westending sugar production quotasmaking 30% of the "direct payment" income support payments received by farmers dependent on environmental criteria.

Those environmental criteria include:

arable farmers growing at least three different crops, with none exceeding 70% of the total farm areafarmers leaving 7% of their land fallowensuring permanent pasture is maintained

The Commission said the aim of the reforms was to "strengthen the competitiveness, sustainability and permanence of agriculture throughout the EU in order to secure for European citizens a healthy and high-quality source of food, preserve the environment and develop rural areas".

It said the changes would gradually move rewards away from intensive farming to more sustainable practices.

Presenting the reforms, EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said: "Europe needs its farmers. Farmers need Europe's support. The Common Agricultural Policy is what feeds us, it's the future of more than half of our territory."

'Sofa farmers'

Farming unions fear farmers will face even more bureaucracy in order to qualify for the payments on which they rely to continue in business.

Gail Soutar of Britain's National Farmers Union also said it was important to direct support to "active farmers... who are producing a crop or a litre of milk, we don't want support to go to people who are no longer producing... sofa farmers".

Lobby group Friends of the Earth said the proposals would continue subsidising factory farming, and not do enough to change farming practices.

A spokesman said the changes would have "devastating consequences for rainforests, the climate and some of the world's poorest people".

The British government, which has called for a reduction in the overall size of the CAP, said the reforms should have focused more closely on food security and biodiversity.

But British Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said she was worried that the Commission's proposals "will be far too backward-looking and this precious opportunity will be lost".

The Commission's plans will be subject to debate and revision, before they are agreed by EU governments and the European Parliament.

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Analysis: Move to new plans may not save public pensions

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Sherri (C) and Curtis Walker (R) go over retirement options with Calpers Benefit Program Specialist Lisa Bacon (L) at the Calpers regional office in Sacramento, California, October 21, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Max Whittaker

By Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON | Fri Sep 30, 2011 11:37am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To fix their persistent pension problems, some states are looking to reshape their retirement plans to resemble those in the private sector, but they may find may employees resistant and the savings elusive.

Over the last few decades, the private sector has ditched traditional pension plans with their defined benefits. They have been replaced with defined contribution accounts, such as 401(k)s, in which employees allocate a set amount each month to invest -- often partly matched by employers -- and then cash out at retirement.

This has left the public sector as the main provider of defined benefit plans, which pay employees a fixed amount each month after retiring.

But pension funds have been stung by the recent financial crisis and recession, leaving taxpayers and political leaders agonizing over the possibility they will be unable to afford those defined payments. Estimates of a total shortfall range from around $700 billion to $3 trillion, due to differing forecasts of investment returns.

"If the idea is that tax revenues are down and state budgets are crunched, and they surely are ... I think it's worthwhile to take a step back and look at the actual costs," said Ilana Boivie, director of programs for the National Institute on Retirement Security, or NIRS

"Most states that have done those feasibility studies have found that you're not going to save any money" by switching to a defined contribution plan.

According to the National Conference of Public Employee Retirement Systems, the next two years will see "modest growth" in hybrid plans that combine elements of the defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. Around 5 percent of public entities already offer hybrids.

About 20 percent provide defined contribution plans, and around 5 percent will add a defined contribution option in the next two years.

Some states want to keep current employees in pensions and put new hires into defined contribution plans.

Alaska, the District of Columbia, Michigan and Minnesota all use defined contribution plans as their primary retirement offerings. In July, Utah began requiring employees to choose between a defined contribution plan and a hybrid.

The NIRS, in a study released on Thursday, found that moving into a system similar to 401(k) accounts can push up costs, especially at the start.

"That unfunded liability represents a debt that is a benefit promised and owed," said Boivie. "That unfunded liability will not go away."

When the defined benefit plan is closed to new members, employees and employer contributions to the plan could spike because the time span for wiping out funding gaps will be shorter and new employees will be putting money into their own retirement accounts instead of the pension plan.

Meanwhile, employers must bear the administrative costs for both plans as they phase out the pension program.

Defined benefit plans pool risks to achieve greater investment returns, the NIRS report found. They are able to "provide the same retirement income at about half the cost of a defined contribution plan."

The study also looked at retirement systems that offer employees a choice and found almost all workers prefer pensions.

The group examined the West Virginia's Teachers Retirement System's decision to provide new employees with defined contribution retirement plans in 1991. It found that the loss of new members made it more difficult to finance the unfunded obligations of the defined benefit plan.

Stock market problems prevented retirements from 2000 through 2002 and those in the new plan "achieved much lower investment returns" than the closed pension fund. In 2005, West Virginia returned to a defined benefit plan.

Nebraska opted for a defined contribution plan in 1967, which it closed in 2002 for a plan that does not let employees control investments made with their accounts. Instead, it guarantees an annual return and then pays out like a defined contribution plan, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

ALL GOVERNMENTS RETHINKING RETIREMENT

During the 1990s stock market boom, said Timothy Rouse, vice president of business development and public markets at ING U.S. Retirement, interest in public sector defined contribution plans surged. But, he said, it came from employees hungry for higher returns and not from states seeking savings.

The ING retirement group does not advocate how governments structure their retirement systems. Instead, it helps them manage the redesigns they choose.

Rouse said state and other public authorities can struggle with shifting to defined contribution plans because "in the short-term you're trading an 'IOU' for a hard dollar expense."

During recent budget crises, some states shrank their pension contributions or skipped them entirely.

Rouse said each state and local government has a unique set of issues to address in pensions. He added, though, that the recent recession is forcing all governments, including the federal government, to look at reforms.

"It's pretty much across the board. No one is safe from these discussions," he said.

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Tea Party Group FreedomWorks Plans Anti-Romney Rally

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Home > Politics & Policy > Tea Party Group FreedomWorks Plans Anti-Romney Rally

August 31, 2011 Print

As U.S. News reported yesterday, former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney seems to have the conservative creds to cut it with plenty of voters who consider themselves conservative—and perhaps enough, some argue, to win in a state like South Carolina. The fact that he's even headlining a Tea Party Express rally in Concord, New Hampshire this weekend attests to his esteem among some in the movement.

FreedomWorks, which has come to represent the purest of the pure among the conservative, limited-government Tea Party movement, has a different idea. He's a Tea Party poser, they say, and they're prepared to take action. They've organized a boycott of the former governor's Sunday evening speech at the Tea Party Express event, gathering up their local forces to instead attend an anti-Romney rally at the same time. [Read more about the 2012 presidential election.]

From the announcement on their website:

After months of distancing himself from the tea party, suddenly Mitt Romney wants to be one of us.

That's right, the big-spending former governor who signed Massachusetts' very own version of ObamaCare is scheduled to take the stage this Sunday at a rally in Concord, NH to lecture real conservatives about limited government and fiscal responsibility.

FreedomWorks and tea party groups from around the region will be there. But not to hear more platitudes from an establishment hack posing as an outsider.

We'll be there to tell the real story about Mitt Romney, and to protest his record, which represents everything the tea party stands against.

After all, if we don't hold candidates accountable for their actions while in office, who will? If we let ourselves be used as pawns to provide cover for the establishment, then what is the point of having the tea party?

We're standing on principle, not politics. Will you join us?

FreedomWorks, which is chaired by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, demonstrated their organizing power throughout the healthcare debate and during the 2010 election season. And for Romney, as he continues to gather votes from conservatives in key primary states, the group could certainly create a lot more trouble ahead.

Tags:Tea Party, 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney, republican party

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Top Dem: Obama Plans to Run Against Bush Again in 2012

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Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a chief surrogate of Barack Obama and leader of all Democratic governors, today said that the president's 2012 campaign will run against a familiar face: George W. Bush.

Charging that Bush and fellow Republicans socked the economy, destroyed the middle class and built a historically high deficit with tax cuts for the rich, O'Malley said that Obama and other Democrats will ask for more time to fix what they inherited.

"This election is going to be about which of the two alternatives have the best shot at moving our country forward out of this recession," said O'Malley.

[See a photo gallery of the Bush legacy.]

Shrugging off responsibility for the economic and political situation the president finds himself in, the self-described progressive said that it's unrealistic to believe that the nation's woes could be blamed on an administration just two-and-a-half years old.

"We could not have caused this amount of job loss in just two years, could not do it. Could not run up the biggest deficit in our nation's history in just four months in office, we're not that effective. We couldn't not have gotten ourselves in two long, protracted wars without any mechanism to pay for it just in the first two years in office. We didn't do those things," said O'Malley. "No party is so effective that they can accomplish those ills in just two years. And I think by the election people will remember that. Those were all things that the other guys did when they had the power."

[See five reasons Obama is the same as Bush and Clinton.]

Consider the deficit, he said. "Under President Obama it continues to go up until it we get to a point where we bring it down. And no nation with 10 percent unemployment can ever hope in a timely fashion to retire the deficit, the record deficit that George Bush created and left to his successor."

[Check out political cartoons about the budget and deficit.]

O'Malley, head of the Democratic Governors' Association, also spread the blame for Obama's situation to Republicans in Congress and those running for president.

"Their party is directly responsible for a great deal of damage to our economy because of their policies and they cannot run away from that. The facts are stubborn things and people over time do figure out whose on their side, who is not, and they're responsible for an awful lot of damage to our country's economy, to the erosion of our middle class, to first stagnating and then declining wages and their worship at the altar of tax cuts for the wealthy is unbecoming to the vast majority of hard working families that want a better future for their kids," he said. O'Malley spoke to reporters at a newsmaker breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Worse, said O'Malley, the GOP is still hurting the economy by not rubber stamping Obama's jobs program and fielding presidential candidates who are offering up tax cuts the party has long favored.

"I firmly believe that Republicans in Congress, driven by a concerted group, have decided that it is not in their party's political interests to have the president succeed at creating any jobs," he said.

[See editorial cartoons about the economy.]

As for the presidential candidates, he said that they are "pretty much sticking with the trickle down George Bush mode."

When a reporter asked why Democrats weren't more upset with Obama and themselves fielding a primary challenger, O'Malley pretty much laid out the Obama campaign message.

"The reason why no one is running against him in the Democratic Party is because he saved our country from going into the second Great Depression, he's managed to get something done on healthcare ... he's managed to effectuate the drawdown and eventual withdrawal on Iraq and hopefully on our way in Afghanistan."

[See political cartoons about Afghanistan.]

As for Obama hurting the party in the elections, he said, "I don't see him as bringing the ship down."

Then he lowered the boom: "Things actually could be worse, and could get worse."

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News : Warden's wife plans appeal on aiding inmate escape

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - If you believe her story, Bobbi Parker spent the better part of 11 years in a prison without bars, captive to a sociopathic killer.
But now that an Oklahoma jury has rejected that notion, the 49-year-old wife of a prison warden finds herself in a real jail -- behind real bars.
Parker will spend her second night locked up in the Greer County jail on Thursday after a jury found her guilty of helping Randolph Franklin Dial escape in 1995.
Her lawyers said they plan to appeal the sentence, comparing her situation with Dial to that of a prisoner of war.
"She's depressed," her lawyer, Garvin Isaacs, told Reuters. "They're all really sad this happened. They wanted Bobbi to come home and be with them and get on with life."
Instead of staying with her husband, with whom she reunited after she and Dial were discovered in 2005, she could spend the next year incarcerated if the judge agrees with the jury's recommendation.
Isaacs said Parker was the victim of a trial riddled with judicial errors that kept important information from the jury.
The undisputed villain in the case is Dial, who died of lung cancer in 2007 but left behind a long trail of written admissions detailing how he drugged the woman, kidnapped her at knifepoint and took her to east Texas, where they led a backwoods existence under phony names.
The two knew each other, according to prosecutors, from a pottery class held in the Parker garage on prison grounds.
The state claimed she loved Dial, but her lawyer said there was not a bit of affection between the pair, only a clear understanding that he would harm the husband and two daughters Parker left behind in Oklahoma if she fled.
"The guy's a hitman, killer, convicted murderer, and he was dangerous," Isaacs said.
He already had confessed to one murder, the 1981 slaying of a man in Broken Bow, Oklahoma.
State prosecutors, though, are making no apologies.
They had enough damaging information to paint Parker in an unsympathetic light, such as a taped conversation that a state police investigator conducted with Dial after he was returned to prison in 2005.
At one point in the interview Dial was asked, "Do you think she loved you?" and Dial replied, "She thought she did."
After a four-month trial in which 80 people testified and 800 court exhibits were introduced, Parker will be formally sentenced on October 6.
The trial may be the longest criminal trial in Oklahoma City, said District Attorney John Wampler, who said he's satisfied with the one-year sentence recommended for Parker.
But the 3,000 residents of Mangum, the county seat of Greer County, remain divided on whether the woman is guilty, said Casey Paxton, editor and co-owner of the weekly newspaper, The Mangum Star-News.
"It's about half-surprised," Paxton said of the town. "The biggest thing is they're just glad it's over."
Prosecutors offered Parker a plea bargain years ago in which she would serve a token amount of time in jail if she would plead guilty, Wampler said.
"Most of what I was seeking was an admission of 'guilty' on her part," he said. "The length of time she served was not a big issue to me."
(Editing by Karen Brooks and Jerry Norton)

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