WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden asserted in an interview Wednesday that taxpayers have “gotten their money’s worth” out of the $787 billion stimulus program that Congress passed during the depths of the recession. In an interview broadcast on CBS’s “The Early Show,” Biden defended the program against accusations by Republicans critics that it hasn’t been the job-manufacturing machine the administration promised to the American people.

The electoral map candidate Barack Obama remade in 2008 appears to be retreating into its familiar patterns. Obama broke the decisive role Ohio and Florida seemed to play in presidential elections, by moving from trench warfare engagement in the two states to a broader battlefield on which Republicans were placed on the defensive in states they’d once taken for granted. And his victories in places where Democrats had fared poorly in recent elections — Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, the interior West —seemed to validate his strategists’ claims that he had consigned the red state-blue state presidential dichotomy to the bookstore remainders bin.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is plowing ahead with a commission to tackle the federal debt despite resistance from Republican leaders. Mr. Obama will name former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson as co-chairmen of the commission Thursday when he signs an executive order creating the panel, an administration official said. The commission’s job will be to help bring down the federal budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2015, compared with nearly 10% today, and to propose ways to hold down the surging costs of government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The president will also ask the panel to look at the U.S. tax code and has not ruled out tax increases for the middle class should the commission deem them necessary.

WASHINGTON — Wading deeply into fiscal policy is not normally the domain of the Federal Reserve, but several central bank officials have begun speaking out in forceful terms about the dangers of the expanding deficit. Though only a minority so far, the officials are warning that a failure to bring the budget under control could lead to a dangerous spiral of inflation. Worries about the possible long-term effects of the deficit have galvanized political debate in recent days, culminating in President Obama’s decision to create a bipartisan commission to tame the nation’s debt.

James Cameron has the two biggest movie blockbusters of all time: “Titanic” and “Avatar.” So what’s left for him to conquer? The world of literature. At a reception held in his honor on Tuesday night in New York City at the Four Seasons Restaurant, Cameron confirmed reports that he’s turning his Oscar-nominated movie “Avatar” into a novel.

Nothing comes easy in the health care debate. Take an upcoming House vote to repeal the long-standing antitrust protections for the insurance industry. To most members of Congress, it seems like a no-brainer: Why should insurers be exempted from antitrust laws, anyway? But Democrats look like they’ll scale back the legislation to protect insurance companies that offer malpractice coverage to doctors and other health care providers, bowing to industry pressure in the latest concession of the health care fight.

A top Italian food writer has been suspended indefinitely from the country’s version of the television programme Ready Steady Cook for recommending stewed cat to viewers as a “succulent dish”. RAI, the public broadcasting network, said that it had dropped Beppe Bigazzi, 77, for offering the recipe on La Prova del Cuoco, which is broadcast at midday on the main channel. Its switchboard was inundated with complaints from viewers and animal rights groups. Bigazzi said that casserole of cat was a famous dish in his home region of Valdarno, Tuscany.

52 percent of Americans said President Barack Obama doesn’t deserve reelection in 2012, according to a new poll. 44 percent of all Americans said they would vote to reelect the president in two and a half years, less than the slight majority who said they would prefer to elect someone else.
Obama faces a 44-52 deficit among both all Americans and registered voters, according to a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Tuesday. Four percent had no opinion.

Dear Mr. President, A year ago on February 17, 2009, Congress passed, and you signed, H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In the three months prior to the Act, the nation lost 2.2 million jobs. Financial institutions were on the brink of collapse, and the “Great Recession” was being recognized for what it was – the most calamitous economic downturn since the Great Depression. You asked me to lead the implementation of the Act, with a focus on getting its efforts underway quickly, watching the taxpayers’ funds carefully, and putting America back to work. Attached is a report on the first year of our implementation efforts. One year after the passage of the Act, we can report that approximately 2 million jobs have been created or saved thanks to the Act’s impact on hiring in the private sector, by local and state governments and by non-profits. This estimate comes from the Congressional Budget Office and is corroborated by the analysis of the Council of Economic Advisers. In January, we received more than 160,000 reports on progress from recipients of funds under the Act. These reports provided a transparent look at what was going on in projects and activities that accounted for a sample representing about 20 percent of overall spending under the Act.

Sen. Arlen Specter couldn’t make the funeral today of fellow Democrat and Pennsylvania powerhouse Rep. John Murtha, who died last week from gall bladder surgery complications. The aging Specter discovered just last year that he wasn’t a Republican all these years but belonged better in the majority party of President Obama. Now, despite the president’s promised backing, Specter faces a daunting primary challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak. We don’t know what regrets Specter sent to the Murtha family and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other mourning Dems about his inability to be there to bury the tough old ex-Marine Murtha this morning. But the fact is, as pointed out by the eagle-eyed Daniel Malloy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Specter was in California.

Mischa Barton was driving around aimlessly in her classic Cadillac yesterday in L.A., smoking some sort of roll-up. Mischa — who pled no contest to DUI in 2008 — got sidelined after running out of gas. As for what she was smoking … no word yet from her rep.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland will have surgery related to a ruptured cyst near his kidney. Production on the TV show 24 – which Sutherland both stars in and is executive producer of – is expected to halt for one week while he recuperates. “While Kiefer Sutherland is frustrated to miss even one day of work, he and Fox decided together that it would be best to complete this minor elective procedure now as a precaution as opposed to six weeks from now when production wraps. He looks forward to returning to work next week,” Sutherland’s publicist said in a statement to the Times.

Federal authorities will not pursue charges against the officers involved in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell, the unarmed bridegroom who died in a hail of police bullets outside a Queens strip club just hours before his wedding. Prosecutors said there was “insufficient evidence” that Bell’s civil rights were violated when undercover officers unloaded on a car carrying Bell and two friends on a Jamaica street in November, 2006. Three officers were acquitted in 2008, including Michael Oliver, who police said reloaded while firing 31 of the 50 shots that filled the vehicle and surrounding streets.

Ex-FL Gov. Jeb Bush (R) will raise money for Milwaukee Co. exec. Scott Walker (R), the likely GOP nominee to replace retiring Gov. Jim Doyle (D), Walker’s campaign announced today. Bush will host a $250 per person reception at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee on March 8. Photos with Bush will go for $1K, while donors can sit in on a 30-minute roundtable discussion for $5K.

Tiger Woods might still be in a heap of trouble with his wife but EA is still a big fan. EA Sports are set to release a line of sports accessories for the Nintendo Wii including golf clubs for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11. EA previously ignored the Tiger Woods scandal to announce Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 which is due out in June. The new Wii golf clubs will work with that title and the previous installment in the Tiger Woods franchise. The Wii clubs for Tiger Woods PGA Tour will stretch to 36”, so you’ll need to be quite careful when you start swinging them around in your living room or your TV screen will end up like the back window of an SUV.

Senate Democrats say they see no need to abandon the idea of using reconciliation to pass health care reform this year just because President Barack Obama has scheduled a bipartisan summit next week to try to break the impasse on Capitol Hill. Obama’s nationally televised health care summit is set for Feb. 25 — and the president has said his goal is to use the discussion to jump-start a bipartisan way forward on the health care overhaul. The issue has been idling in the Senate since late January, when the election of Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D) gave Republicans the extra seat they needed to sustain a filibuster. Given the unified GOP opposition to their health care effort, Senate Democrats argued just before departing for the Presidents Day recess that Obama’s summit is no reason to shelve reconciliation as a potential strategy. The tactic would allow Democrats pass certain aspects of health care reform with just 51 votes. “I think it should be constantly pursued,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said Thursday when asked whether Democrats should take a break from drafting a reconciliation bill until after Obama’s summit.

TAMPA – Facing Marco Rubio’s avalanche of momentum in the Republican Senate primary, Gov. Charlie Crist’s best shot at winning – and salvaging his political career – is to redefine Rubio’s image. Rubio, Crist will contend, isn’t the conservative purist that the Miami Republican and adoring conservative pundits have claimed. Crist has the money for ads to repaint Rubio, but will he have the ammunition? Few politicians could spend a career like Rubio’s – 2000-08 in the Florida House, the past two years as speaker with the power to control all House legislation – without compromising occasionally. “Compromising ideas is acceptable. Compromising principles is not,” Rubio said. “I’ve never compromised on my principles.” Rubio’s record is conservative. Many supporters of former Gov. Jeb Bush, and even Bush, consider Rubio the inheritor of Bush’s anti-government social conservative mantle.

Senate Republicans will lay out a 10-point election year agenda this spring, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) suggested on Tuesday morning. McCain said Republicans would craft a list of 10 legislative pledges which they would seek to enact within the first 60 days of taking back control of Congress, if they were to do so in this fall’s elections. “We Republicans have to provide — and we will later this spring — a positive vision with what we want to do for the country,” McCain said during an interview on KFYI radio in Arizona.

Evan Bayh: “But if I could create one job in the private sector by helping to grow a business, that would be one more than Congress has created in the last six months. If I could help educate our children at an institution for higher learning, that would be a noble thing. If I could help a charity, cure a disease or do something else worthwhile for society — that’s what has motivated my life and that’s what I think Congress needs to focus on, things that will help the American people meet the challenges they face in real ways in their daily lives. That’s what I want to do with my life. And if you’ll invite me back on your show in 11 months, I’ll be able to tell you!”

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman now runs dead even with likely Democratic nominee Jerry Brown in California’s gubernatorial contest. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely California voters finds Republican hopeful Whitman and Brown tied with 43% each. Six percent (6%) like some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided. A month ago, Brown, a longtime California political figure who now serves as attorney general, posted a four-point lead over Whitman, 43% to 39%. In November, the two were tied at 41% apiece. Brown continues to maintain a double-digit lead – 46% to 34% – over the other leading Republican in the contest, State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Seven percent (7%) like another candidate, and 13% are undecided. Last month, Brown was ahead 45% to 35%, and in November, he had a 43% to 32% lead over Poznier.