MORE NEWS BITS

"We are definitely overdue for some honesty in the debate over the progressivity of the nation's tax burden"

We already know of a handful of congressmen who got special low-cost mortgage deals from Countrywide Insurance, but are there more? Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wants to find out, but his request to subpoena documents has been refused by the chairman who must issue such a demand, Representative Edolphus Towns (D-NY). He claims he's too busy to bother. And what other deals have congressmen gotten that we're unaware of?

Yesterday I wrote about the "cash for clunkers" government program to trade in old cars for cash to buy new ones and how the money is running out rapidly; turns out its running out even faster than I understood:

Through late Wednesday, 22,782 vehicles had been purchased through the program and nearly $96 million had been spent. But dealers raised concerns of large backlogs in the system, prompting the suspension.

The Transportation Department is suspending the program, as the money is almost gone and there are some problems with the system. "If they can't administer a program like this, I'd be a little concerned about my health insurance," as a car salesman said in a New York Consumer News report by Lou Young. The program lasted six days.

*UPDATE: Congress is rushing through a new $2 billion extension to the program. No word on how this will be paid for, or what the bailout for the auto industry will be when people who can't afford to pay for their cars default on the loans.

Blue M&Ms are hiding a secret: the dye has a chemical that apparently helps block pain signals, and can also reduce and heal some spinal injuries. It has a curious side effect as well: it turns you blue, temporarily.

At Boing Boing we find out that RIAA and record company execs don't think you buying their product means you get to listen to it as long as you want. They reason that cars break down and computers stop working, so that means music should stop working too, and that's why DMA software that runs out on you is perfectly acceptable. I have books printed in the 19th century on my shelf, and there's art in museums from BC, but they figure music and movies have a short expiration date?

I've written about how the rich pay plenty in taxes, but new data from the Tax Foundation indicates that they're paying even more lately. They include this handy graphic:

As you can see, the trend has continued since tax reform in the 80s, and now the top 1% richest taxpayers paid 40.4% of the total federal income taxes in 2007. By comparison the entire bottom 95% of the US taxpayers combined paid 39.4. As Scott A. Hodge puts it in the Tax Foundation article: "To put this in perspective, the top 1 percent is comprised of just 1.4 million taxpayers and they pay a larger share of the income tax burden now than the bottom 134 million taxpayers combined." No nation on earth has the rich paying as much or the poor paying as little in taxes.

Yet another missile defense "Star Wars" test worked, in a long line of successful tests. President Obama wants to shut down the program, and Democrats have always been against the idea of a system to protect the US from nuclear missiles.

Someone invented a bikini that rapidly dissolves in water, you'd think it would feel odd and be less than durable. Why have such a thing? The only reason I can think of is to trick girls or be mean to one that's dumped you. The fabric could also be made into men's swimwear, so guys watch out for a vindictive girlfriend's gifts...

And finally, in bad news, the recession we're experiencing is worse than originally believed according to Bob Willis at Bloomberg News:

The first 12 months of the U.S. recession saw the economy shrink more than twice as much as previously estimated, reflecting even bigger declines in consumer spending and housing, revised figures showed.

The world’s largest economy contracted 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the last three months of 2008, compared with the 0.8 percent drop previously on the books, the Commerce Department said today in Washington.

Consumer spending dropped .3% more than believed, residential construction dropped 2% more than they thought, and the economy contracted almost 1% more than initially reported. The worst misread was that the GDP dropped 2.5% in 4th quarter 2008 instead of the .5% reported at the time. Savings went up, which is always a good thing, and spending has continued and even in some sectors increased in a combination of news that is baffling: the economy is doing worse, jobs are being lost, people are saving more money, but they're spending more?