Unreal World

Company: Qwest Communication International (NYSE: Q - News)
Perk recipient: Edward Mueller

Executives are often given the right to use the company jet for pleasure travel, but their spouses, children and friends are usually only allowed to use the plane when they're accompanying the employee. But Edward Mueller demanded an exception to that rule when he became CEO of Denver-based Qwest in 2007.

His employment agreement gave his wife and daughter the right to use the company jet to commute to and from California, where his daughter was still in high school. The phone company expensed $281,182 that year for Mueller family joy rides on the jet and ended up buying his California home for a $1.8 million premium to its resale price, too

Obama to Launch Re-election With Video

President Barack Obama will formally announce his re-election campaign with an online video that aides will post on his new campaign website, Democratic insiders tell National Journal.
The exact date and time of the announcement will be kept under wraps until Obama’s team alerts supporters with text messages and email. By that time, Obama will have opened his campaign account with the Federal Election Commission.
But Democratic donors are being told that the announcement will coincide with a Democratic National Committee fundraiser set for April 14 in Chicago, which Obama will attend.
The campaign could use the video to begin soliciting donations, according to National Journal.
President George W. Bush didn’t announce his re-election campaign until May of 2003. But Democrats close to the president are concerned that independent opposition groups will soon begin airing their television ads.
One of those groups, American Crossroads — with former Bush staffer Karl Rove as an adviser — is seeking to raise at least $130 million for the election cycle, on top of money allocated by the Chamber of Commerce and other Republican-leaning groups.

Administration Approves Bailout Pay Packages

WASHINGTON (AP) — The four companies still receiving government bailout aid won't be able to raise the amount of cash they pay out to their top executives this year, the administration's pay czar has ruled.
The decisions, released late Friday, cover 2011 compensation for the top 25 executives at General Motors Co., Chrysler, American International Group Inc. and Ally Financial Inc., the former financing arm of GM. The rulings clear the way for millions of dollars in salary and bonuses to be paid out by companies that are still repay the billions in aid they received during the financial crisis from the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
While the companies can't give cash raises, they are being allowed to boost the value of deferred stock awards to their executives. The Treasury Department defended that decision, saying it is in line with pay guidelines that it used to make compensation decisions in 2009 and 2010.
The government's findings do not identify the executives by name but only by salary rankings.
The highest-paid executive at insurance giant AIG will total compensation of $10.5 million in 2011, including a $3 million salary, the largest of any of the pay packages approved Friday by the pay czar. AIG confirmed in a filing with regulators Friday that President and CEO Robert Benmosche's pay will stand at $10.5 million this year, the same package he received in 2010.
GM's highest-paid executive will receive $1.7 million in salary for 2011 and performance-based stock awards that will bring total compensation to $9 million. The highest-paid executive at Ally Financial will receive no cash salary in 2011 but can be granted performance-based stock awards worth $9.5 million. GM is headed by Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson, and Ally's CEO is Michael Carpenter.
AIG nearly went under during the 2008 financial crisis. It had written insurance on the value of hundreds of billions in mortgage investments held by financial institutions. When the investments lost value, AIG could not afford to make good on its contracts. It took government help to stay out of bankruptcy and received a bailout package with a total value of $182 billion. The government got a 92 percent stake in the company and hopes to start selling the shares soon to help recoup its money. The company also has been selling off assets to repay the aid.
Taxpayers provided a total of $49.5 billion to GM as it went through a bankruptcy reorganization in 2009. The Treasury Department has trimmed its stake in GM to 26.5 percent of the company from 61 percent, when it sold $23.1 billion of GM stock at an initial public offering in November. Treasury will need to sell its remaining GM shares at an average price of $53 to break even on the bailout.


Read more on Newsmax.com: Administration Approves Bailout Pay Packages
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

Donald Trump's Birth Certificate

Donald Trump, who has been making television appearances calling for President Barack Obama to release his official birth documents, released his birth certificate exclusively to Newsmax on Monday.

“It took me one hour to get my birth certificate. It’s inconceivable that, after four years of questioning,  the president still hasn’t produced his birth certificate. I’m just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate. Why’s he making an issue out of this?"

Trump was skeptical that so few people have stepped forward to verify Obama's birth.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Exclusive to Newsmax: Donald Trump's Birth Certificate
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!

Secret Earmarks Remain in Federal Budget

USA Today reported this week that billions in earmarks remain tucked into the funding measure that keeps the federal government running for the remainder of the fiscal year.  Congress is debating right now how much to cut from the measure, yet these secret earmarks are not being openly discussed by members of Congress.

That’s unfortunate. Earmarks should be low hanging fruit for the cost-conscious legislator. They are special interests projects requested by individual members of Congress.

The USA Today story indicates that the House-passed short term funding measure fully funds $5 billion in existing earmarks.  Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has submitted legislation, in the form of an amendment to a “small business jobs bill,” to remove these projects.

According to USA Today, (Half of ‘earmark’ spending untouched in GOP bills,) $4.8 billion in earmarks are hidden in the defense, military construction and veterans affairs were left untouched by the Continuing Resolution (CR) that funds the government until April 8th:

House Republicans who crafted two short-term spending bills made $5.3 billion in cuts by going after some of Washington’s least popular spending: those congressional pet projects known as “earmarks.”  Even so, a congressional report shows they left $4.8 billion in earmarks untouched — and critics of congressional pork say they should go after it.  “Many in Congress promised taxpayers a full earmark moratorium, not a half moratorium,” says Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., an earmark opponent who requested the report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. “Protecting nearly $5 billion in earmarks from cuts sends the wrong message to taxpayers.”

Much of the information comes from a March 17 report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS). According to that report, “funding that was made available to accounts for earmarks in FY2010 would still be available to the agency for obligations in FY 2011.”  Uh-oh. The CR that states that “all of the earmark disclosure lists from the FY 2010 appropriations ‘shall have no legal effect’ for FY2011.”  This leads one to conclude that all of these apparent reductions in earmarks are fake spending cuts.

If the Congress were to delete the approximately $10 billion in earmarks from the FY2010 process, one could make an argument that those funds never would have been expended (because of the “no legal effect” language) and that the American people should not believe that $10 billion in the final number of cuts are real cuts to spending for this fiscal year.

Sen. Coburn’s legislation would eliminate all of these old earmarks and other special interest earmarks from the federal budget.  One earmark Coburn would repeal is a tax credit for “Volumetric Ethanol.”  That move alone would save $6 billion in taxpayer money.

Another Coburn legislative item would bar federal unemployment benefits to those earning over $1 million a year.  The senator’s office says this amendment would save taxpayers $20 million:

According to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, as many as 2,840 households who have reported an income of $1 million or more on their tax returns were paid a total of $18.6 million in unemployment benefits in 2008. This included more than 800 earning over $2 million and 17 with incomes exceeding $10 million.

Coburn also defunds earmarks in the FY 2010 defense appropriations bill. One example: a $20 million earmark for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Massachusetts.  Elsewhere, highway and mass transit earmarks call for nearly $700 million in extra spending.

A major obstruction to Coburn’s efforts to pull the plug on earmarks is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).  Coburn has been offering this legislation as amendments to pending bills. Leader Reid has refused to let the Oklahoman call up any of his amendments to the small business jobs bill preventing a vote. The President also shares some blame for not calling for the CRs to eliminate all earmarks. Nor do House Republicans win any plaudits here; they have yet to pass a short term CR without earmark funding.

Trump Won't Back Off Obama's Birth Papers

Donald Trump is not backing down from his demand that President Barack Obama produce his birth certificate and stepped up his criticism by questioning why he has not released other personal records, including college transcripts and legislative papers.

The billionaire real estate tycoon and star of “The Apprentice” created a stir on Wednesday when he said on “The View” that Obama must release his birth certificate.

Now Trump has reiterated his call in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, with this simple message for Obama: Why don’t you produce your birth certificate and put to rest all speculation that you were born outside the United States?

He says Obama’s birth certificate controversy is a “strange situation” — there are conflicting reports as to what Honolulu hospital he was born at, and the governor of Hawaii claims he somehow remembers Obama being born 50 years ago.

Read more on Newsmax.com: Trump Won't Back Off Obama's Birth Papers
Important: Do You Support Pres. Obama's Re-Election? Vote Here Now!