Almost a year ago, in a Washington Examiner column on the Chrysler bailout, I reflected on the Obama administration's decision to force bondholders to accept 33 cents on the dollar on secured debts while giving United Auto Worker retirees 50 cents on the dollar on unsecured debts.
This was a clear violation of the ordinary bankruptcy rule that secured creditors are fully paid off before unsecured creditors get anything.
Lawmakers continued hammering out a Health and Human Services budget Wednesday, but Senate and House negotiators failed to agree on how to resolve a funding cut that removes nearly $200 million in Medicaid funding to nursing homes.
Negotiators agreed to bump discussions of the funding cut for now, along with discussions of whether to overhaul the state Medicaid program, to conclude this round of conferencing of the Health and Human Services budget. The issues will be taken up again later in the process.
CRIST UNWORRIED ABOUT TENSION WITH LEGISLATURE
Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday that he was not worried about his frosty relationship with the Legislature that has colored his final session as it winds down. Crist has vetoed two measures passed by the Republican-led Legislature and flirted with leaving the party to run for the U.S Senate.
Spurred by leaders of both houses of the Legislature, the House passed measures Wednesday calling for the federal government to balance its budget.
Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, opened the session by calling for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. To that end, Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Delray Beach, sponsored a measure calling for a constitutional convention to amend the U.S Constitution. The measure passed 70 to 42.
With less than two weeks to go in the legislative session, the Florida House spent the better part of Wednesday debating national matters and passing memorials to Congress.
The House passed a measure asking Congress to hold trials of captured terrorists and enemy combatants in military tribunals instead of in a civilian courtroom. The measure passed on an 83-28 vote with some Democrats, including incoming House Minority Leader Ron Saunders of Key West joining Republicans in voting for it.
Cathie Dorman is fighting a legal battle to keep the bank from foreclosing on her house in Stuart, and she wants lawmakers to know it.
She joined a group of 30 homeowners and lawyers Wednesday who traveled to the Capitol to remind their lawmakers that homeowners throughout the state are still battling mortgage foreclosures and fraud.
With an oil rig exploding off the coast of Louisiana on Tuesday, opponents of offshore oil exploration are arguing this latest incident shows the hazards drilling poses to the environment as well as the physical threat it poses. Leading the charge?
MORRISVILLE, Pa. -- The bridge spanning the Delaware River connects New Jersey's capital with this town where the nation's most interesting governor occasionally eats lunch at Cafe Antonio. It also connects New Jersey's government with reality.
