Word: finalities
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...Israel's top three political parties appeared on television the night of the Feb. 10 elections and declared victory. This was clever, since none of them had really won. Avigdor Lieberman, whose extreme anti-Arab Yisrael Beitenu party finished third, went on first. His party had surged in the final weeks and would now, he boasted, be "the key" to forming a majority coalition in the 120-seat Knesset. Maybe. Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud party finished second, appeared next. He had won, he said, because Likud was the leading right-wing party and conservatives of various stripes had gained...
...final hiccup in a three-week process that was full of hiccups was over the approximately $10 billion added to the state-stabilization fund that House Democrats wanted to see directed toward school construction. The three Senate Republicans - Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, without whose votes the bill would not have passed the Senate - wanted to leave how the funds would be spent up to governors. Ultimately, the two sides agreed to allow governors the option of spending the money on school construction but not limit the money to that. "There...
...bill is expected to draw at least a few GOP votes in the House, reflecting just how far to the center the measure has moved in passing the Senate. The final cost, $789 billion, is well below the $800 billion ceiling that the three Republicans and a group of 15 centrist Senate Democrats had demanded in exchange for their support. Even so, House Republicans complained bitterly about being left out of the process. "Some have said that we don't want to see anything done. Nothing could be further from the truth," said Representative Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House...
...final bill comprises about 35% in tax cuts and 65% in spending, including more than $150 billion for infrastructure projects. The conferees removed $68 billion in business tax cuts that would have let companies write off recent losses, and a home-buyers' credit of $15,000 was reduced to $8,000. A provision to help car buyers write off their interest payments was also reduced, to $2 billion from $11 billion. The bill does include a $70 billion annual Alternative Minimum Tax relief patch to prevent millions of middle-class Americans from getting penalized by a measure that was originally...
...benign neglect shown on the Israeli-Palestinian peace effort by the Bush Administration won't be an option for the Obama Administration. But the policy pursued by the Bush White House in its final year of isolating Hamas while promoting talks about talks between Olmert and Abbas is no longer viable. Israel has tacked to the right, away from moves toward a solution based on the Arab peace plan for which Obama recently expressed support. The terms of that plan call for a two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders and sharing Jerusalem. That Palestinian bottom line...