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KonaBody”> LANSING, Michigan – As a trained aerospace engineer, Patrick Colbeck applied his penchant for data analysis and “systematic approach” to his new job in early 2011: a Michigan state senator, recently elected and keen to create jobs in the faded industrial powerhouse. Those skills paid off handsomely for the first-term Republican this week as Governor Rick Snyder signed into law bills co-sponsored by Colbeck that ban mandatory union membership, making Michigan the nation’s 24th right-to-work state. From outside Michigan Republican circles, it appeared that the Republican drive to weaken unions came out of the blue – proposed, passed and [...]

House Republicans on Monday presented their first deficit-reduction plan that roughly matches the size of President Barack Obama’s $ 4 trillion tax-and-spending program without increasing tax rates. Under the proposal, the Republicans would increase taxes by $ 800 billion, abour half of what Obama has proposed. It includes $ 600 billion in savings in Medicare and other health programs – more than the $ 400 billion Obama has proposed. House Republicans said the offer was based on a deficit-cutting plan presented by Erskin Bowles, a co-leader of the Obama [...]

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday said it was “deeply implausible” that Republicans won’t agree to a fiscal-cliff deal over objections to upper-income tax hikes. Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council event in Washington, Geithner said it’s a “good” recognition on the part of Republican leadership of the need for increased revenue. “You have Republican leadership acknowledging in public that they are prepared to increase revenue, that’s an important change,” Geithner said. He said there just aren’t enough loopholes to close to generate the revenue that increased taxes on the top 2% would generate.

A group of four Republican senators on Friday sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner expressing concern about Chinese energy giant’s Cnooc Ltd’s $ 15.1 billion deal to buy Nexen Inc. , adding their voice to critics of the transaction. Sens. John Cornyn, John Hoeven, Richard Shelby and Jim Inhofe said they were concerned that foreign national interest are mixed with profit motivation in the transaction. The deal is subject to review by the U.S. government because Calgary, Canada-based Nexen has substantial drilling operations in the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico. The letter notes that “ownership and [...]