The federal government announced on Monday an update to a program for homeowners that would let borrowers who were underwater – owing more on the mortgage than the house is worth – to refinance their loans at the new historically low interest rates of almost 4%. [More]
obama
Obama's Debt Reduction Plan Includes Letting Debt Collectors Robo-Call Cellphones To Collect On Federal Student Loans
By 10.4.11
One part of the debt-reduction bill Obama sent to Congress is a provision that would let debt collectors robo-call cellphones to collect on what’s owed to the government, like federal student loans. [More]
Obama Calls For Congress To Quickly Pass Jobs Bill
By 9.9.11
Last night, President Obama addressed Congress and urged them to pass the American Jobs Act immediately. Here are some of the highlighted proposals: [More]
White House Developing Plan To Save USPS
By 9.7.11
“I’m operating right now with a week’s worth of cash,” Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe told Senators on Tuesday. After the Postmaster General went to Capitol Hill to pass the hat around, the White House announced it’s a few weeks away from developing a plan to save the USPS from bankruptcy. [More]
What The New Tax Deal Means For You
By 12.8.10
Besides the Bush tax cuts getting stretched another two years, the proposed new Obama-GOP tax deal has other goodies in the bag for you. [More]
Does "Slurpee Summit" Hype Make You Crave Frozen Sugar Water?
By 11.4.10
Thanks to President Obama’s off-the-cuff comment
that he’d like to hold a “Slurpee Summit” with Republican leaders,
the 7-Eleven drink is suddenly up there with the McRib and Double
Down as a cool guilty pleasure for discerning fast-foodies. What
about you? Are you craving Wicked Apple, Kratos Fury, Invincible
Orange, or one of 7-Eleven’s other mashups of sugar, water and
slushed ice? Slide on in and tell the world.
Does Walmart Segregate Its Books By Race?
By 9.2.10
Say you’re shopping at Walmart and decide you want to pick up Barack Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope or maybe you’re an Indianapolis Colts fan and want to hear what Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy has to say in his book The Mentor Leader. But you can’t find either book in the Biography section… Oh, maybe you should look in those unmarked shelves that make up the “black” section of Walmart’s book selection. [More]
More Than 40 Experts Issue Call For More Government Stimulus And Tax Credits
By 7.20.10
Online news site The Daily Beast is apparently tired of this whole “floundering economy” thing, so it got more than a dozen economists and historians to come together and issue a manifesto yesterday calling on the U.S. government to “reboot America.” By the end of the day, the number of experts supporting the manifesto increased to more than 40. They argue that the government has to help return lost purchasing power to the unemployed and must use tax cuts and stimulus to boost overall demand, or we’ll never make it out of this slump. [More]
Self-Insured Premiums Jump By 20%, Triggering Warning From White House
By 6.22.10
About 10% of respondents in our informal poll yesterday about health insurance said they pay their own premiums, and according to a new poll from Kaiser Survey, three quarters of those people just faced a premium increase of 20% on average. The recent hikes have prompted the White House to say it will “sternly warn industry executives” today that insurers shouldn’t try to use the new health care law as an excuse to gouge customers, according to the New York Times. [More]
Obama Orders Govt To Pay You Via Direct Deposit
By 6.14.10
Now you can sit hitting refresh all day instead of looking out the window every 5 minutes to see if the red flag on the mailbox is down: the White House has ordered the government to switch to direct deposits for all payments to consumers. [More]
BP Oil Spill More Like 12,000-19,000 Barrels Per Day
By 5.28.10
First BP told us 1,000, then 5,000, and now a joint federal and independent research task force estimates that 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of oil were spewing into the Gulf since the crisis began, NYT reports. If the numbers are right, then we’re talking about as much as 30 million gallons. That would be more than 3x the amount from the Valdez disaster. [More]
White House Says CFPA On Your Side: "Anything Is Fair Game"
By 5.21.10
The new Consumer Financial Protection agency will be a place you can go to with your complaints and they will be taken seriously, the White House said this afternoon during a conference call in which Consumerist took part. While, “It’s not totally worked out who’s going to be manning the 1-800 number,” said senior economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, [More]
White House: Free Market Isn't "Free License To Take Whatever You Can Get"
By 4.22.10
The White House has released potions of a speech to be made by the president later today in NYC. In it Mr. Obama calls on banking industry lobbyists to halt their efforts to stop financial reforms that he feels are in the best interest of the market and the country. [More]
Obamacare Provides A Room To Pump Breast Milk In
By 4.11.10
Whether you are a proponent of breastfeeding or not, the reality is that working mothers who do nurse their children need a place to pump during the workday, and the bathroom just might not do. Luckily for them, the new health care bill signed by President Obama includes provisions for nursing women in the workplace. [More]
Heath Reform Fears: Consumer Reports Interviews Obama Administration
By 3.16.10
Health reform is scary, which is why one of my grandma’s keeps forwarding me emails about how Obama is going to steal her walker. Will it save me money? What if I hate my employer’s insurance? What changes would I notice right away? Consumer Reports took your questions to the Administration to cut through the hype and get the facts. Nancy Metcalf interviews Secretary of Health & Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. [More]
Ask The Administration Your Health Reform Questions
By 3.12.10
Consumer Reports is going to the White House to ask them what’s up with health reform, and they need your questions press to them. The Health Blog is going to interview Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, the crackerjack former state insurance commissioner of Kansas. What does health reform mean? How much will it cost? Are we going to get savings or will private doctors get run out of business? Leave your questions in the comments here or over on the Consumer Reports Health Blog or email it to tips@consumerist.com, subject “health reform.”
Ask a top administration official your questions about health reform [Consumer Reports Health Blog]
Insurance Companies Want Fewer Policies At Higher Rates, Says Obama
By 3.8.10
At a speech today in Philadelphia, President Barack Obama set his sights on the insurance industry as the main stumbling block to the passing of a National Health Care plan, saying they would rather not insure the people who need insurance the most. [More]
VIDEO: Obama Gets Advice In Middle Of The Night From Former/Dead Presidents
By 3.3.10
While Barack Obama stresses out at night in the White House, he’s visited by former Presidents George and George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan… all of whom seem to have an opinion on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. [More]
