WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Despite its enormous unpopularity among voters, the government’s Wall Street bailout plan succeeded much more quickly and at a lower cost than expected, a Treasury report released on Tuesday said.

“The Troubled Asset Relief Program has succeeded faster, and at a much lower cost, than expected,” the report said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With just two months left before it has to issue a final report, a U.S. commission looking at ways to cut the federal deficit was to meet again on Wednesday amid questions about its hard-headedness.

Getting the government’s budget out of the red and back into the black — after years of costly wars, tax cuts and recession — will require spending reductions and tax increases, according to most analysts looking at the issue.

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) – With just two months left
before it has to issue a final report, a U.S. commission
looking at ways to cut the federal deficit was to meet again on
Wednesday amid questions about its hard-headedness.

Getting the government’s budget out of the red and back
into the black — after years of costly wars, tax cuts and
recession — will require spending reductions and tax
increases, according to most analysts looking at the issue.

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Stimulating the U.S.
economy by increasing spending or renewing expiring income tax
cuts would provide a short-term economic boost, but end up
being a drain on long-term growth, the chief congressional
budget analyst warned on Tuesday.

Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf said
increasing government borrowing to boost spending or to extend
the tax cuts enacted under former President George W. Bush,
which are set to expire at the end of the year, would provide a
short-term boost but result in lower levels of growth and
national income by 2020.

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) – U.S. House of
Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday the House
would vote this year on extending middle-class tax breaks, but
she would not commit to vote before the Nov. 2 congressional
elections.

“The American middle class will have a tax cut,” Pelosi
said at her weekly news conference. “It will be done in this
Congress.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans have vowed to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul, or at least eliminate as many of its provisions as possible.

Republicans included a pledge to roll back the healthcare bill in their “Pledge to America,” a pre-election plan to slash spending and stop “job-killing tax hikes.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A $30 billion small business lending bill cleared Congress on Thursday, giving President Barack Obama’s embattled Democrats a hard-won victory just weeks before the November elections.

The House of Representative gave the bill final congressional approval on a mostly party-line vote of 237 to 187. It now goes to Obama who will sign it on Monday.