US President Barack Obama sought to rally support for his emerging economic rescue package on Saturday as he stood by his latest Cabinet nominee to run into tax problems that could impede confirmation.
Obama, in his second weekly radio address since taking office, pledged to help lower Americans’ mortgage costs under a new plan to be unveiled soon to help revive the financial system and “get credit flowing again.”
An administration official said the roll-out of the plan was on track in response to a CNN report saying its announcement was being pushed back because of its complex nature.
Obama’s finance team is working on a plan to stem huge losses at banks caused by toxic assets.
So far, about half the US$700 billion of the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program has been used up since it was rushed out late last year.
Even as he moved to confront the economic crisis, Obama was facing a new political distraction — the disclosure that Tom Daschle, picked to spearhead US health care reform, failed to pay more than US$128,000 in taxes.
It was the latest glitch in Obama’s effort to complete his Cabinet and focus on priorities including a mid-February target for Congress to pass an economic stimulus bill with more than US$800 billion in tax cuts and spending.
The White House said Obama expected Daschle, a former Senate Democratic majority leader, to be confirmed by the Senate as secretary of health and human services.
With the recession and financial crisis topping his agenda, Obama urged the Senate to approve the stimulus bill that the House of Representatives passed this week.
Obama last week won passage of the US$825 billion stimulus plan in the House without a single Republican vote. Next it heads to the Senate, where Vice President Joe Biden predicted the measure would fare better among Republicans.
The Democratic president does not need Republicans for his economic plan and other initiatives to clear the Democratic-controlled Congress, but he has said he wants to get away from politics as usual and introduce a new era of bipartisanship.
Obama appeared to be leaning toward appointing a third Republican to his Cabinet, placing the fiscally conservative Senator Judd Gregg at the head of the Commerce Department.
Gregg is the leading candidate for the job, an Obama administration official said on Saturday.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique