“Council on Foreign Relations” on The Daily Caller

With the Bush tax cuts set to expire in five months, congressional Democrats are at odds over whether to allow the increase with the economy still struggling. (more)

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Sunday disputed claims that allowing a portion of the Bush tax cuts to expire will choke economic growth, saying the government needs to do the “responsible” thing and show the world it is capable of tackling the deficit. (more)

The liberal tax revolt, as the Wall Street Journal is calling it, is a very important topic — especially for investors and small-business entrepreneurs. And for new jobs. (more)

The Obama administration will allow tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire on schedule, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday, setting up a clash with Republicans and a small but vocal group of Democrats who want to delay the looming tax increases. (more)

Rolling Stone magazine published this week a controversial article entitled “The Runaway General,” that has created quite the buzz over the past 24 hours. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Afghanistan, was profiled in the piece and, to his detriment, made several mistakes. Now, he is being called to the White House to explain the circumstances surrounding the article. In a critical juncture in the war, the president called his most senior commander overseeing 94,000 American troops to most likely reprimand him or ask for his resignation. (more)

China said it will allow a more flexible yuan, signaling an end to the currency’s two-year-old peg to the dollar a week before a Group of 20 summit. (more)

BEIJING – China will chart its own course on currency reform based on its needs, and external pressure will only delay the reform, Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said on Tuesday. (more)

The last few weeks have shown an uptick in violence throughout Iraq in comparison to the relative calm the nation has experienced over the last few years. Iraq is in far better shape but the inability to form a government over two months after the March 7 elections has given the insurgency another reason to strike. It’s also another reason that Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, could delay the start of the Aug. 31 “waterfall” drawdown of 46,000 U.S. Soldiers by one month to June. A senior official in Baghdad told the Associated Press that “from a military perspective, the best way for us to maintain security is to hold as many forces on the ground until we need to redeploy them. It’s really prudent, given the political conditions are unsettled, for (Odierno) to wait as long as he can.” (more)

CINCINNATI – Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, here to speak at a fundraiser Thursday night, turned diplomatic when asked about the Obama Administration’s handling of national security. (more)

President Barack Obama does not support implementing a value-added tax (VAT) in the United States, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Thursday. (more)

The man who takes Sachs of gold is the man who makes the rules. President Obama is that man, and Republicans in Congress should demand an independent special prosecutor to investigate the relationship between gold and rulemaking in the executive branch. With nearly a million dollars of Goldman Sachs money in his hip pocket (rendering that institution his most generous ’08 corporate campaign contributor), Obama appears to be ignoring some serious rule-breaking. (more)

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) emerged from a meeting with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Monday to announce she would join a GOP filibuster of Wall Street reform. (more)

The votes are in from Muqtada al-Sadr’s Iraqi “referendum” and the winner is … neither of the front runners, former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi or current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It’s the former interim Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who served from 2005-06. So, why did the Sadrist movement pick Mr. al-Jaafari? (more)

BEIJING — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met with a Chinese vice premier on Thursday and discussed economic ties in a sign the two sides might be trying to cool their rhetoric in a dispute over China’s currency controls. (more)

Kicking off a two-day trip intended to strengthen economic ties between India and the United States, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner met with top officials in New Delhi on Tuesday. The two sides pledged to cooperate to increase global economic stability, but no concrete goals, plans or business deals were unveiled. (more)

Average U.S. tax refunds are up almost 10%, or about $260, this year, a White House official said Monday, an increase the administration attributes to tax credits included in the economic stimulus package. Vice President Joe Biden will announce the increase at a White House event later Monday with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman. Other administration officials are fanning out across the country for a series of events this week designed to highlight tax benefits ahead of the April 15 tax-filing deadline. The White House also is unveiling a new Web site tool to help people take advantage of the benefits. (more)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is still fighting for a single, independent consumer financial protection agency, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday as lawmakers haggled over a financial reform bill. (more)

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) threw a wrench into Democratic efforts to get a public option passed through reconciliation, saying that he thought the maneuver was overly partisan and that he was inclined to oppose it. (more)

Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. is in no danger of losing its Aaa debt rating even though the Obama administration has predicted a $1.6 trillion budget deficit in 2010. (more)

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. is in no danger of losing its Aaa debt rating even though the Obama administration has predicted a $1.6 trillion budget deficit in 2010. (more)