June 17, 2009

Federal budget path 'unsustainable':

The director of the Congressional Budget Office warned the current trend in the federal budget will "depress economic growth in the United States."

Director Doug Elmendorf wrote on a CBO Web site, after he delivered a bleak assessment to the Senate Budget Committee, the U.S. debt held by the public will go from 41 percent of gross domestic product in fiscal year 2008 to 60 percent by the end of fiscal 2010 -- 15 months away. Interest payments on the national debt would go from 1 percent of gross domestic product to 2.5 percent by 2020.

Earlier this week the budget deficit for the first nine months of the fiscal year reached $1 trillion with the White House saying it would likely approach $1.8 trillion in the next three months. That is one of the conservative estimates.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at an AARP forum, pushed the administration's desire for healthcare reform saying under the current trend, "we're going bankrupt as a nation." He said we need spend -- a lot -- to stop that. Healthcare reform plans are estimated to cost from $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion.

Again Elmendorf dampened such enthusiasm, saying congressional Democrats' plans for healthcare reform "significantly expands the federal responsibility for healthcare costs."

Sotomayor hearings:

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearings into the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court concluded with Republicans saying an overall vote should come before the Senate's summer recess.

Considering the strong Democratic support for Sotomayor, that timetable suggests she'll be confirmed in time for the Supreme Court term that begins Oct. 5.

She would replace Justice David Souter, who served 19 years on the court and was a reliable vote on the liberal side of the court's opinions. It is not expected that Sotomayor's confirmation will change the ideological makeup of the court.

Among those testifying Thursday was New Haven, Conn., firefighter Frank Ricci. Sotomayor was on an appeals court panel that supported a decision against discrimination allegations brought by Ricci and other firefighters. They said the city's decision to toss the results of a promotion exam because too few minority candidates passed was wrong. The trial and appeals court decisions have been overturned by the Supreme Court.

Ricci said, "We sought basic fairness and even handed enforcement of the laws -- something all Americans believe in." He said the appeals court ruling "divides people who don't wish to be divided along racial lines."

However, neither he nor fellow firefighter Ben Vargas said they opposed to Sotomayor's confirmation to the Supreme Court, the New Haven Register reported.

Indonesia hotel attacks:

Two luxury hotels in Jakarta were attacked by suicide bombers Friday with at least nine people killed and dozens injured.

There has been no claim of responsibility but high on Indonesian officials' list of suspects would be the Islamist militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has carried out several attacks in Indonesia over the years.

One of Friday's blasts was at a Marriott Hotel that had been the site of a similar attack six years ago in which 13 people died. A year before that, explosions at two nightclubs in Bali killed 202 people. Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been linked to al-Qaida, was found to be involved in those attacks.

Post-election Iran:

The doubts of many Iranians regarding the official results of the June 12 presidential elections in Iran don't seem to be going away.

Friday police arrested more than a dozen people and used tear gas to break up a demonstration after Iran's former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a sermon that people detained following protests about the election should be released, The New York Times reported.

Among those in attendance for Rafsanjani's talk was Mir Hossein Mousavi, who came in second behind Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the official results.

There were wide protests following the election and the Times said Friday's sermon drew "tens of thousands" of Mousavi supporters. It was the first such gathering in about a week.

The Iranian legislature has determined Ahmadinejad will be sworn in for his second term during the first week of August.