Small Gifts Sent to Ease U.S. Debt

Right now the U.S. debt is around 14 trillion, which is number 14 followed by twelve zeroes (14,000,000,000,000). Anyone seeing this number for the first time would be overwhelmed, but not the 6th graders of Montgomery elementary school in Alabama. They raised $324.50 last year by selling cookies, all to be donated, when they learned about the national debt. And they are not alone in this noble feat, as last year the U.S. treasury received $3.1 million in donations to ease the current debt.

This 50 year old program might come as a surprising thing to many of us as the government does not advertise the program, and the officials try to avoid the attention. When asked about why the program is little known, the commissioner of bureau said that soliciting donations might "seem straightforward and benign, but could rub the taxpayers the wrong way."

So far since 1961, when the program first started, the U.S. treasury has received $80 million in donations.

Obama Will Not Extend Bush-Era Tax Cuts to Wealthy

President Obama on Wednesday will rule out any compromise that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy beyond this year, officials said, adding a populist twist to an election-season economic package that is otherwise designed to entice support from big businesses and their Republican allies.

Mr. Obama’s opposition to allowing the high-end tax cuts to remain in place for even another year or two would be the signal many Congressional Democrats have been awaiting as they prepare for a showdown with Republicans on the issue and ends speculation that the White House might be open to an extension. Democrats say only the president can rally wavering lawmakers who, amid the party’s weakened poll numbers, feel increasingly vulnerable to Republican attacks if they let the top rates lapse at the end of this year as scheduled.

It is not clear that Mr. Obama can prevail given his own diminished popularity, the tepid economic recovery and the divisions within his party. But by proposing to extend the rates for the 98 percent of households with income below $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals — and insisting that federal income tax rates in 2011 go back to their pre-2001 levels for income above those cutoffs — he intends to cast the issue as a choice between supporting the middle class or giving breaks to the wealthy.