GOP gloves off for budget brawl  —  House Republicans have begun unveiling detailed alternatives to President Barack Obama's policies — a concerted effort to push back against Democratic efforts to label them “the Party of No.”  —  On Wednesday, it was a housing plan.

Obama's bank plan could rob the taxpayer  —  The Geithner-Summers plan, officially called the public/private investment programme, is a thinly veiled attempt to transfer up to hundreds of billions of dollars of US taxpayer funds to the commercial banks, by buying toxic assets from the banks at far above their market value.

Geithner to Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight of Financial System  —  Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to propose today a sweeping expansion of federal authority over the financial system, breaking from an era in which the government stood back from financial markets …

Palin in Anchorage  —  Peter Hamby picks up a candid Sarah Palin speech to the Alaska GOP last week, in which she expressed her unhappiness with the media and her alienation from the McCain campaign: … The rest of the speech is here.  —  Also, Palin's PAC says it wasn't polling Iowa …

Steele On Rush Flap: “It's All Strategic”  —  Michael Steele just doesn't know how to stop.  —  Steele appeared on CNN this afternoon, and was asked by host Don Lemon whether he's ever considered running for president, and right off the bat he managed to give the sensible, correct answer …

China and the Dollar  —  Markets don't like Treasury talking down the dollar's status.  —  As if the dollar didn't have enough problems, Timothy Geithner took China's bait yesterday and said he was “quite open” to its suggestion this week to displace the greenback with an “international reserve currency.”

Cities Deal With a Surge in Shanty Towns  —  FRESNO, Calif. — As the operations manager of a outreach center for the homeless here, Paul Stack is used to seeing people down on their luck.  What he had never seen before was people living in tents and lean-tos on the railroad lot across from the center.

Bold claims of stimulus jobs can't be measured  —  Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition  —  WASHINGTON - If space exploration were conducted like the job forecasts under the government's new stimulus law, man surely would have missed the moon.  But this isn't rocket science.

Rahm Emanuel's profitable stint at mortgage giant  —  Short Freddie Mac stay made him at least $320,000  —  Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the current housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up …

Budget battle rife with contradictions  —  The White House rushed Wednesday to blur the lines between President Barack Obama and Democratic spending plans taking shape in Congress.  They're not twins but still kin, as budget director Peter Orszag put it.  —  But like many families …

Another Obama nominee withdraws  —  Chalk up another casualty in the Obama administration's attempts to staff federal agencies.  —  Jon Cannon, nominated to be the deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency, pulled his name from consideration today, citing questions over a non-profit …

E.U. President Blasts U.S. Spending  —  Czech Premier Calls Obama Administration's Economic Policies ‘a Road to Hell’  —  The president of the European Union on Wednesday ripped the Obama administration's economic policies, calling its deficit spending and bank bailouts “a road to hell.”

States could lose billions in taxes to stimulus  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — President Barack Obama told the nation's governors in February that the states' $229 billion share of the federal stimulus package “will ensure that you don't need to make cuts to essential services that Americans rely on now more than ever.”

Threats to AIG: “We Will Get Your Children”  —  The anger in the threats against AIG executives is palpable.  —  “Get the bonus, we will get your children,” someone identified only as “Jacob the Killer” hauntingly writes in an e-mail.  —  His is one of dozens of threats against AIG …

Ed Henry's take on exchange with Obama  —  Ed Henry, CNN's senior White House correspondent, got a tough answer from President Obama when he asked Tuesday night why Obama waited days to express outrage on the AIG bonuses.  “Because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak,” Obama said.

AIG Fights a Fire at Its Paris Unit  —  Executives' Resignations Put Billions in Contracts at Risk of Default  —  Amid the flap over bonuses at American International Group Inc. two of the company's top managers in Paris have resigned.  Their moves have left the giant insurer …

The Civil Heretic  —  FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY the eminent physicist Freeman Dyson has quietly resided in Prince­ton, N.J., on the wooded former farmland that is home to his employer, the Institute for Advanced Study, this country's most rarefied community of scholars.

The Fierce Urgency of Peace  —  Pressure on President Obama to recast the failed American approach to Israel-Palestine is building from former senior officials whose counsel he respects.  —  Following up on a letter dated Nov. 6, 2008, that was handed to Obama late last year by Paul Volcker …

Albany Reaches Deal to Repeal '70s-Era Drug Laws  —  ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson and New York legislative leaders have reached an agreement to dismantle much of what remains of the state's strict 1970s-era drug laws, once among the toughest in the nation.

Modeling an FDIC Robbery.  —  I want to explain the Geithner Put for those without a finance background who want to understand how FDIC is going to get looted.  (Warning: Will contain graphs, and be long and boring even by normal standards here.)  Recap: Banks have “toxic waste” assets, which they want to sell.

Bloomberg backs gay marriage in NYS  —  Mayor Bloomberg said Wednesday night he stands ready to ask the Legislature to allow gay marriage in New York State, but doesn't know when the time will be right.  —  “We see that the tide is turning, that support is mounting,” Bloomberg told …