U.S. $1.3 trillion in the red
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The federal deficit for fiscal year 2010 was $1.3 trillion, the second consecutive year the deficit topped the trillion-dollar mark, U.S. officials said.
The deficit, as a percentage of the gross domestic product, fell to 8.9 percent from 10 percent in fiscal year 2009, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jeffrey Zients said in a joint statement.
The FY2010 figure was the second-largest deficit on record, second only to last year's $1.4 trillion, the Treasury Department said. Much of the year, the 2010 deficit was projected to top 2009's.
"Careful stewardship" of emergency funding activities, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, helped the deficit be less than estimated for FY 2010, which ended Sept. 30, Geithner and Zients said.
The TARP outlays of $9 billion in FY 2010 were $25.9 billion less than estimates from July, the officials said. Aid to the Federal National Mortgage Association and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. loan programs was $52.6 billion in FY 2010, $16.4 billion less than the most recent forecast, the two officials said.
"By carefully managing the emergency initiatives to stop the financial panic and by accelerating our exit from those investments, we have significantly lowered the cost to taxpayers, bringing the costs of the financial rescue down by more than $240 billion this year," Geithner said. "However, we still have a long way to go to repair the damage to the economy and address the long-term deficits caused by the crisis."
Zients said the fiscal year 2012 budget policy process would still enforce the three-year, non-security discretionary spending freeze and "continue our efforts to put the nation on firm fiscal footing."
Even though the data indicate the country is moving in the right direction, U.S. President Barack Obama "thinks we still need to do a lot of work in order to get our fiscal house in order," said White House spokesman Bill Burton.
"He's taken a number of steps to do that already," Burton said. "And he's going to continue to work hard to make sure that we're on the right track."
Retirees won't get cost-of-living raise
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- People who receive Social Security benefits will not get a cost-of-living increase for a second straight year, the Social Security Administration said Friday.
Nearly 54 million retirees and other Americans won't see an increase in their monthly retirement checks. It is the first time in 35 years there have been consecutive years when benefits didn't increase.
The automatic increases are tied to the Consumer Price Index and Friday's announcement came moments after the Labor Department released CPI figures for the third quarter. It showed prices this year were 1.5 percent higher than a year ago.
While many segments of the population benefited from the Obama administration's stimulus plans, older Americans are feeling the pinch of the weak economy, a Washington Post report said.
"Older Americans need relief, not cuts to Social Security to reduce a deficit [it] didn't cause," said Nancy LeaMond, executive vice president of AARP, the organization of Americans age 50 and older.
President Obama will renew his call for a $250 Economic Recovery Payment to veterans, seniors and people with disabilities, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday.
"We're grateful that Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi has indicated she will bring the new Economic Recovery Payment to a vote and we urge members of Congress on both sides of the aisle to support our seniors, veterans and others with disabilities who depend on these benefits," Gibbs said.
Last year, 56 million people benefited from the first Economic Recovery Payment, including about 50 million Social Security beneficiaries, Gibbs said.
The lack of a cost-of-living adjustment affects several groups of people in addition to the nation's 38 million retirees 65 and older, the report said.
They include family members of workers who died prematurely and people who qualify for Social Security disability payments. The typical retiree receives a Social Security payment of almost $1,200 per month.
Poll: Foreclosure moratorium support fades
WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Americans are less supportive of a foreclosure moratorium now than they were 18 months ago, a Rasmussen Reports survey released Friday indicated.
The telephone survey indicated 45 percent of likely voters favored a plan that would force banks to stop all mortgage foreclosures for the next six months, while 38 percent said they opposed such a moratorium, Rasmussen said. Eighteen percent said they were unsure.
In February 2009, 56 percent favored a moratorium and 30 percent were opposed.
Fifty-two percent of likely voters said Wall Street investors and mortgage companies are to blame for most of the problems in the lending industry, while 35 percent faulted individuals who borrowed more than they could afford, the survey indicated. Those percentages changed from July 2008, when slightly more voters blamed borrowers than Wall Street investors and mortgage companies.
Thirty-eight percent of voters said they thought new laws were needed to regulate the mortgage industry, while 47 percent indicated they thought more emphasis should be put on enforcement of current mortgage lending laws.
The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted Wednesday and Thursday. The margin of sampling error is 3 percentage points.
Biden: Where's the money coming from?
DES MOINES, Iowa, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Vice President Joe Biden, in an interview with ABC News, said he wants the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other special interest groups to name their donors.
Biden said the Chamber of Commerce and outside interest groups are raising millions of dollars and using the money to run negative campaign ads without disclosing the donors and funding sources.
"Just tell us where the money's coming from," Biden said in the interview following a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa. "Why can't the Chamber say, 'These are where the contributions are coming from?' Why can't Karl Rove tell us where the contributions are coming from?"
Rove, who was a top strategist for President George W. Bush, is one of the prime targets in campaign appearances by Obama administration officials, the report said.
Biden said stories circulating that he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will switch jobs are false. It is "not in the cards," he said.
In the wide-ranging interview Thursday evening, Biden predicted Democrats would retain control of Congress and spoke about the impact the Tea Party movement has on the Republican Party.
Four die from missiles fired from drones
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- An attack by unmanned aircraft in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region Friday killed four suspected militants, Pakistani military officials said.
The missiles fired from the drones were fixed on a target in Machi Khel, a village in a district considered a stronghold for al-Qaida and Taliban militants, Pakistan's English-language newspaper Dawn News reported.
CNN reported officials as saying two missiles struck a vehicle believed to belong to militants.
