Obama Willing to Compromise on Taxes - Wall Street Journal

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—President Barack Obama said Monday he was willing to compromise with Republicans who want to extend tax cuts on the wealthy in order to make sure taxes do not go up on the middle class. But he said extending unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed was a priority.

"We've got to make sure that we're coming up with a solution even if it's not 100% of what I want or what the Republicans want," he said at a visit to Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, N.C.

His comments reflect the continuing negotiations in Washington. The White House said over the weekend that the president told allies he would sign a temporary extension of tax cuts for all Americans, including upper-income families, but only if is accompanied by an extension of unemployment benefits.

White House officials say he also wants to extend a variety of other tax breaks affecting lower- and middle-class families as well, though it was less clear if those will be part of the final package.

Over the weekend, White House officials and congressional Republicans closed in on a deal that would extend current income-tax rates for all Americans as well as a benefits program for the long-term unemployed. Leaders of both parties appeared optimistic about reaching an agreement on a broad tax package by midweek.

Speaking Monday, Mr. Obama made a particular pitch for the unemployment insurance, which has already run out for some two million Americans.

"We should also extend unemployment insurance for workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. That is a priority," he said. "It's not only the right thing to do. It's the smart thing to do."

Democrats say this aid helps the overall economy because families who benefit have little financial cushion and spend the money right away.

Mr. Obama repeated his view that tax cuts should expire for families earning more than $250,000 a year, meaning the top 2% of earners would see a tax increase. Republicans say the government shouldn't raise taxes on anyone given the slow economic recovery.

On Saturday, the Senate rejected the Obama-preferred plan to extend the tax cuts for middle-class families and allow taxes to rise on top earners.

"There are some serious debates that are still taking place. Republicans want to make permanent the tax cuts for wealthiest Americans. I have argued we can't afford it right now," Mr. Obama said Monday. "What I've also said is we have to find consensus here because a middle-class tax hike would not only be very tough on working families but a drag on our economy."

Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com

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Consumer Reports Says AT&T 'Worst-Rated' US Carrier - Wall Street Journal

Consumer Reports, the influential product review publication, says AT&T Inc. is again the country's worst-rated mobile service provider, a blow to the carrier's effort to rehabilitate its network and reputation.

The conclusion, based on a survey of 58,000 readers, shows subscribers continue to hold AT&T's service in low regard even after the carrier boosted its wireless spending by $2 billion this year in an effort to correct what it has acknowledged were weaknesses in its network.

The results bode poorly for AT&T as it faces possible competition for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, a phone it carries exclusively now and relies on for much of its subscriber growth. In fact, Consumer Reports found "iPhone owners were, by far, the least satisfied with their carrier."

"We take this seriously, and we continually look for new ways to improve the customer experience," AT&T said in an emailed statement. The carrier pointed to its success attracting customers and claimed its dropped-call rate is only slightly worse than the best in the industry.

One company to come out well from the survey was Sprint Nextel Corp. Its overall satisfaction rating pulled nearly even with Verizon Wireless's, an indication the company's effort to improve service and build up its device lineup is getting through to customers.

Write to Andrew Dowell at andrew.dowell@dowjones.com

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WikiLeaks cables, day 4: summary of today's key points - The Guardian

The US embassy in London. Photograph: Rex Features

The Guardian

• Russia is a "virtual mafia state" with rampant corruption and scant separation between the activities of the government and organised crime. Vladimir Putin is accused of amassing "illicit proceeds" from his time in office, which various sources allege are hidden overseas. And he was likely to have known about the operation in London to murder the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, Washington's top diplomat in Europe alleged.

• British and US officials colluded to manoeuvre around a proposed ban on cluster bombs, allowing the US to keep the munitions on British territory, regardless of whether a treaty forbidding their use was implemented. Parliament was kept in the dark about the secret agreement, approved by then-foreign secretary David Miliband.

• US diplomats believed that the Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, bore responsibility for a massacre last year that is the subject of a UN war crimes inquiry.

• Russia armed Georgian separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and carried out a wave of "covert actions" to undermine Georgia in the runup to the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, according to US diplomats.

• President Dmitry Medvedev was described by US diplomats as a junior figure, who "plays Robin to Putin's Batman".

• Gas supplies to Ukranian and EU states are linked to the Russian mafia, according to the US ambassador in Kiev.

• Moscow's veteran mayor Yuri Luzhkov was accused by the US ambassador of sitting on top of a "pyramid of corruption" involving the Kremlin, Russia's police force, its security service, political parties and crime groups by the US ambassador.

• Miliband's campaign to champion aid and human rights during the Sri Lankan humanitarian crisis last year was largely motivated by a desire to win favour with Tamil voters in the UK, according to a Foreign Office official.

Der Spiegel

• The US is sceptical that Russian President Medvedev has much of a future, believing Putin to be "in the driver's seat".

• Having helped to build up Georgia's military capabilities, the US made last-ditch diplomatic attempts to try to prevent it going to war with Russia in 2008. Washington's envoy to the Caucasus warned Georgia that war would "cost it valuable support in Washington and European capitals", while publicly George W Bush and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, continued to give their unqualified support to Georgia.

• The US has long been trying to loosen Russia's grip on Ukraine, according to diplomatic cables. On the inauguration of the new Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, they sought to make him a US partner thereby striking a diplomatic blow against the Kremlin.

Le Monde

• The US embassy in Moscow criticised the IMF, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for offering huge loans to Russia it felt were not justified.

El País

• One of the biggest objectives at the US embassy in Madrid over the past seven years has been trying to get the criminal case dropped against three US soldiers accused of the killing of a Spanish television cameraman in Baghdad. Telecinco cameraman José Couso was killed on 8 April 2003 during a tank shelling of the Hotel Palestine where he and other journalists were staying while they were covering the Iraq war. US diplomats held a host of meetings about the case with high-ranking members of the Spanish government.

New York Times

• The Russian prime minister, Putin, often did not show up at his office, according to rumours cited in a document titled Questioning Putin's Work Ethic.

• US diplomats warned of increasing distrust of the United States in Canada. They described "negative popular stereotyping" of Americans on Canadian TV. They also said Canadians "always carry a chip on their shoulder" in part because of a feeling that their country "is condemned to always play 'Robin' to the US 'Batman'".

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FTC Proposes 'Do Not Track' Option For Internet - InformationWeek

The Federal Trade Commission has made a potentially far-reaching proposal that would give web users the option of shielding personal information from advertisers, retailers and other companies while browsing the Internet.

The FTC gave its blessing to the so-called "Do Not Track" approach in a proposed framework for consumer privacy released Wednesday. The proposal would apply to all commercial organizations that collect or use data that can be linked to a specific consumer, computer or other device.

The commission favored giving consumers a simple mechanism for disallowing data gathering. To do that, the FTC recommended adding a button to browsers that would activate technology to prevent people from being tracked or receiving targeted advertising. The proposal would be an alternative to current browser privacy settings, which a recent study by Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon found inadequate to shield people's viewing habits.

The need for such simplicity stems from the fact that the voluntary approach -- in which organizations set their own privacy policies and notify consumers of the rules in advance of collecting information -- has failed. "Specifically, the notice-and-choice model, as implemented, has led to long, incomprehensible privacy policies that consumers typically do not read, let alone understand," the FTC report said.

The Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, agreed with the FTC and praised the report. "Today's FTC report identifies the most pressing privacy issues facing consumers today," the group said in a statement. "They correctly recognize that the current framework needs to be updated to reflect consumers' ongoing concerns about how their data is being collected and used."

The commission's proposed privacy framework would have companies build consumer privacy protection into every stage of development of products and services. In addition, organizations would offer a clearly defined no-tracking option at the time a consumer is making a decision that would set data gathering in motion. Finally, companies would increase transparency of their data practices through clearer, shorter and more standardized privacy notices and by providing access to consumer data they maintain. If a company planned to use data for something other than its originally stated purpose, then consumers would have to agree to the new use in advance.

Advertisers have been adamantly against government-imposed privacy regulations, preferring a self-regulatory approach instead. In an appearance this year before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, Mike Zaneis, VP of public policy for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, argued that the industry "has a long and successful history of protecting consumers' privacy rights through effective self-regulation."

"Given the free content and services that consumers enjoy because of advertising revenue, it is imperative that any new laws be carefully tailored," Zaneis said.

Shar VanBoskirk, analyst for Forrester Research, said the firm's studies have shown that consumers are generally willing to share information with marketers if there's a valuable payback for doing so. Consumers are more concerned about the lack of control they have over their data, and VanBoskirk said she doesn't have a lot of faith that legislation would effectively address those concerns.

"Consumers need education to understand how their data is used, when data sharing has a benefit for them, where their data goes, who knows what about them, and then how to elect out of data sharing if they choose," VanBoskirk said in an e-mail sent to InformationWeek.

The FTC does not have the authority to require companies to follow its framework, much of which would require an act of Congress. The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection is scheduled to consider on Thursday the feasibility of a universal method for opting out of being tracked online, according to The New York Times.

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Compute clouds created for government data centers must adhere to a range of specifications designed to support data and system security, privacy, and governance. shared-services cloud model. In this report, we identify the key specs that need to be factored into any federal cloud architecture. Download the report here (registration required).

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Lame Duck Debate Rages on Taxes, Deficit, Arms - CBS News

(CBS)  This year's lame duck session of Congress is turning into more of an excited goose, as both political parties have engaged in recent days in lively public negotiations over federal spending, unemployment benefits and nuclear weapons disarmament.

But foremost on the agenda is the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts and Republican leaders appear to be successfully wielding leverage to have the cuts extended across the board, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

"It looks like the president has come around to the idea, with encouragement from other Democrats, that we can't raise taxes in a recession," said Republican South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint on the CBS' "Early Show" on Thursday. "I would prefer a permanent extension of the current tax rate. I suspect the president is going push for something more temporary."

After meetings Wednesday between GOP leaders that many called civil and positive, Mr. Obama also voiced confidence that a compromise would be reached.

"There are gonna be ups and downs to this process but I'm confident that we're gonna be able to get it done," Mr. Obama said.

Democrats had been hoping to let the tax cuts for wealthy Americans - those making more than $200,000 individually and couples making more than $250,000 - to expire at the end of the year.

"We are going to extend tax breaks to all; it's just a matter of how long those extensions will be," said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Republicans issued an ultimatum in a letter stating they would not let any legislation move forward before funding the federal government and extending the tax cuts, providing leverage over the Democrats whose lame-duck agenda also includes extending long-term unemployment benefits which lapsed for 800,000 jobless Americans this week.

Republicans are insisting that the $65 billion benefits extension be paid for by cutting the budget elsewhere. Democrats say it's an emergency, exempt for the usual rules.

"This is not a big new welfare program," said Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown. "This is extending employment benefits. I just don't get it. They'd rather do tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires."

Amid the wrangling over tax cuts and spending, President Barack Obama's bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform began seeking votes for plan to rein in the massive federal deficit.

The commission made recommendations to add an average of 1,700 to the average American's tax bill, slash 200,000 federal jobs and raise the retirement age from 67 to 69 years old, Cordes reports. It remains doubtful the 18-member commission will get the necessary 14 votes to even bring their recommendations up for debate in the full Congress. Only seven panel members have indicated their support so far.

The White House is also pushing the Senate to ratify the U.S.-Russia nuclear disarmament treaty, or START. Republicans have been repeating rumors that the State Department made a side deal with Russia to limit a proposed missile defense shield in Europe in exchange for signing START, a nuclear disarmament treaty. Even though the State Department came out yesterday to vigorously deny the claims, DeMint repeated them on "The Early Show" this morning.

"Reports in the last couple of days suggest there have been side deals that would limit our missile defense capabilities," Sen. DeMint said. "My biggest concern about the START treaty is that it accepts parity with Russia and I think explicitly or implicitly limits our ability to develop missile defense which may be the most important of our defense system in the next ten years."

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