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If your flight is delayed in the coming weeks, Republicans want to make sure you blame President Obama , despite having claimed that these cuts would be good for the economy. GOP lawmakers were also alarmed at the cancellation of White House tours

Tags: action, author, black, flight, health, housing, lgbt, poverty, the nation, thinkprogress, unemployment, white house

Conservative media figures are painting a new White House push on affordable housing with the same dishonest brush they used to shift blame away from Wall Street for the housing bubble that precipitated the 2007-08 financial crisis. On the April 3 edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom , Fox Business host Stuart Varney said that “lowering standards for who can borrow money to buy a home” is “what got us into trouble in the first place.” The Washington Free Beacon made the same claim in an article titled “Subprime: The Sequel,” and Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com claimed “the central failure in that bubble…was incentivizing increasingly risky loans with government cash and coercion .” But the housing bubble of the early 2000s was caused by private sector lending behavior , not government policy. The government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, commonly called the GSEs, didn’t lead private financial institutions into the subprime market and the complex financial instruments that made the bubble so toxic

Tags: author, desktop, economy, education, governor, housing, science, sponsor, video, war, white house

Fox’s Charles Payne attacked President Obama for stoking  fears about the debt ceiling and blamed him for the economic consequences. But experts agree that Obama’s concerns are justified, as failing to raise the debt limit could lead to higher deficits, and higher interest rates, which could have dire consequences for the economy

Tags: articles, breaking news, foreign policy, housing, jobs, media, perception, the nation

Federal regulators yesterday announced an $8.5 billion settlement with 10 of the nation’s biggest banks over various foreclosure abuses. According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, “The sum includes $3.3 billion in direct payments to eligible borrowers and $5.2 billion in other assistance, such as loan modifications and forgiveness of deficiency judgments.” This settlement — which comes in addition to the $25 billion foreclosure fraud settlement crafted last year — is meant to provide redress to homeowners who had to deal with “ independent ” foreclosure reviews that were not so independent . But Rep.

Tags: archives, assistance, fiscal-cliff, housing, jobs, lgbt, taxes, war

In an attempt to discredit higher taxes on the wealthy, Fox’s Stuart Varney claimed that high taxes lead to out-migration of residents.

Tags: budget, desktop, director, elections, environment, foreign policy, government, housing, jobs, media, security

As lawmakers work on a balanced deal of spending cuts and revenue increases to avoid the coming fiscal cliff, another prominent Republican is publicly rejecting Grover Norquist’s no-tax pledge. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) told a local television station in Georgia on Wednesday that he will no longer support the Taxpayer Protection Pledge to never vote for any tax increases under any circumstances.

Tags: archives, bankruptcy, climate, congress, economy, grover-norquist, housing, media, political, social security

During a report on how Hurricane Sandy continues to impact New York City residents, including those struggling without power or gasoline, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly stated, “It’s not like New Orleans where they can go to the Superdome. There’s no Superdome here in New York.” But in contrasting the current situation in New York with what happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Kelly ignored key distinctions — namely that the Superdome was rendered largely inhabitable shortly after thousands took refuge there.

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Mitt Romney’s campaign has received a lot of negative attention for running utterly untrue television ads in Ohio that claim Chrysler is moving all of its Jeep production overseas. But that’s not stopping the candidate from making a made-for-radio version of the advertisement, repeating many of the same blatant falsehoods.

Tags: author, barack-obama, election, housing, lgbt, mitt-romney, progressive news, security, taxes, thinkprogress

As Mitt Romney continues to struggle to explain his various positions on the auto rescue that saved General Motors and Chrysler, his presidential campaign has released an ad about the bailout that is littered with falsehoods and misdirections. Watch it: The 30-second ad is running in Ohio, a state where Romney is trailing in the polls and has been battered by the Obama campaign for his opposition to the auto rescue.

Tags: bankruptcy, economy, government, housing, lgbt, polls, progressive news, security, taxes

Since 2000, middle class incomes and wages have essentially been stagnant ; that period has been called a “ lost decade ” for the middle class. Meanwhile, some costs have skyrocketed. According to a new report from the Center for Housing Policy and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, rising costs for housing and transportation have squeezed the middle class over the last 12 years, rising by 44 percent .

Tags: action, archives, government, housing, progressive news, security, taxes, transportation