Republican critics and presumed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney are slamming President Obama for reversing a landmark welfare reform law instituted in 1996 under the Clinton administration. The 1996 law enacted a number of reforms, including a time limit on how long families could receive aid, a requirement that recipients must eventually find work, and a provision that replaced a federal entitlement with grants to the states.

As congressional Republicans continue their assault on President Obama’s seemingly failed “green” agenda, the White House announced August 7 it will expedite seven federal wind and solar projects across four western states. The programs, which will be grounded in Nevada, Arizona, California, and Wyoming, will generate enough power to run 1.5 million homes, the White House said in a press release.

A top advisor to President Obama received $100,000 in speaking fees in 2010 from a company doing business with Iran, the Washington Post reported earlier this week. David Plouffe, who also served as Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, accepted the payment from a firm tied to the Iranian government.

Federal subsidies distributed to the private sector in Fiscal Year 2012 cost American taxpayers nearly $100 billion, according to a startling new report by the libertarian Cato Institute. “That includes direct and indirect subsidies to small businesses, large corporations, and industry organizations,” the think tank stated in its policy analysis.

Congressional lawmakers have launched an investigation into potential taxpayer abuse carried out by the General Services Administration (GSA), a federal agency already charged with spending millions of dollars on lavish conferences and for other alleged financial misconduct. The embattled government department is being probed for 77 conferences and award ceremonies over the years as new information came to light over an exorbitant one-day event in Crystal City, Virginia that cost more than $250,000.

Speaking at a congressional hearing, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said the GSA’s Office of Inspector General and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure are looking into potential taxpayer waste actualized by the agency, which manages federal contracting and oversees government real estate.

As President Obama’s landmark healthcare law penetrates deeper into implementation, signs of medical rationing are sprouting, as 16 states have enacted a limit on the number prescription drugs they will insure for Medicaid recipients. 

Moving forward with President Obama’s environmental agenda, the White House is expected to authorize new federal auto standards in the coming weeks that will nearly double fuel economy requirements for vehicles by 2025. The regulations require “fleet wide” gas mileage of 54.4 miles per gallon, or the average fuel economy for all cars, vans, trucks and other vehicles.

The U.S. government poured more than $200 million into an Iraqi police training program that was never authorized by local authorities, according to a new government audit. The Police Development Program (PDP) was blueprinted as a five-year, multibillion-dollar effort to prepare Iraqi security forces for when U.S. troops evacuated last December.

The class warfare rhetoric that accompanies the tax debate is reigniting as congressional lawmakers battle over how to address a pending increase of the estate tax, also known as “the death tax.” The current rate of the tax, which is imposed on the transfer of the estate upon an individual’s death, is a component of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts that are slated to expire at the end of the year.

In an effort to curb an array of new regulations, House Republicans passed a bill Thursday that would shackle major federal rules until the national unemployment rate falls to six percent. Authored by Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.), the legislation hones in on excessive or poorly-written rules that could halt job growth and impose burdensome costs on American businesses.