NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C - News), which received a massive taxpayer-funded rescue last year, canceled plans to buy a $50 million executive jet after news of the new plane drew rebukes from politicians.

Millions in cancellation fees will have to be paid, however.

What you say is very true. However that is why projects must be budgeted before they are started. Any CEO knows this.

Failure to establish and follow an approved budget is a roadmap to excesseive spending. Unfortunatly, too many boards are willing to approve an executive's project because they often lack the expertise to effectively evaluate outcomes.

Who benefits the most from tax cuts? Those that are employed or self-employed, and in the higher tax brackets.

tax cuts are necessary just as higher salaries, bonuses, payouts for non-performance, stock options, and severance packages are the norm in American business models.

The GOP tax cuts have done nothing more than enrich the rich. And, as icing on the cake, the Repukes refused to provide the oversight needed to keep our financial system on track.

The GOP needs to wake up to the fact that they have been in control for most of the past 10 or 12 years, so any complaints from them about attempts to fix their mess need to be ignored.

thanks to GOP leadership and GOP values. The Democrats have won handily in the election and they should use their new muscle more forcefully. The GOP does not want harmony, it wants partisanship. The American public wants a strong Democratic party.

Towards that end, the Dems must push their agenda and not be too concerned about stepping on GOP toes. The Republicans are, for the most part, still living in the 19th century, as evidenced by their love of backward, non-thinkers like Limbaugh, Hannity, DeLay, Armey, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Savage, Bush, etc.

to drive the country into the mess it is in today.

They should shut up or get on board (like the voters have instructed) and let good government have a chance.

Obama is driving the GOP nuts. The Republicans cannot deal with anyone that is intelligent and for some reason they feel threatened by ideas and progress. I feel sorry for these folks, living in a world of delusion and rotten leadership, and having to live with the wreckage that Bush has left.

Absent an alternative to a plan that just gives more money to the wealthy (aka Tax Cuts), the Republicans should shut up.

Something about religion being "the opiate of the people" or words to that effect.

and therein lies the reason why the GOP will never dig itself out of the muck that it is in.

Whenever the GOP needs to beef up its propaganda campaign they trot Limbaugh out.

Your administration's reaction to the 9/11 attack was to ATTACK THE WRONG COUNTRY, remember? So don't preach about terrorist threats.

We'll be paying dearly for your mistakes for many years. That is your legacy, idiot.

I read the WSJ article you linked in your post. Aside from the WSJ Opinion articles being mostly biased against the left, the subject of the article could apply to others, in either political party.

Obama has promised reform in Washington, and we are seeing a plan that is just getting started. And, as everyone knows, changing a culture is one of the most difficult undertakings possible.

There will be stumbles and mistakes and if too many people echo Limbaugh's wish "that I hope he fails" we are in grave danger.

Electing Bush to two terms was stupid. Believing that home values would increase ad infinitum was stupid. Allowing tax cuts to further feed the rich was stupid. Believing that GOP blowhards on hate radio and Fox TV are serious newspeople is stupid. Listening to Obama's critics trying to derail the recovery is stupid. Believing that the GOP puts the country before the Party is stupid.

The GOP is trying to fix the fiscal problem with the same bullshit that got us here in the first place and Americans are falling for it. Are we stupid enough yet?

Apparently not.

So you're OK with going to war based on faulty or made-up intel, attacking the wrong country, losing 4,000+ killed and 30,000 Americans wounded and countless Iraqi civilians killed, wounded or displaced in an unecessary war?

Perhaps Iraq will be better off eventually but that does not give us the moral authority to attack other countries because we do not like their leaders. Otherwise, we'll have to treat the 9/11 attackers as heros, because they attacked us for the same reason we attacked Iraq.

Tax cuts did not get us into this mess but they will not cure the problem, so why is the GOP's first solution to every financial problem a tax cut?

They believe in "trickle-down" monetary policy. If you give enough to the wealthy that will result in a benefit to the middle class and the poor.

Except that it has not worked very well. The rich are getting richer, the poor are worse off, and the middle class has been stagnant.

As for guns, you can relax. Gun control is the least of our worries right now.

That is what Obama is having to do in the midst of the GOP hate/spin/Limbaugh/Hannity campaign.

Obama should use simple and direct bullet points to frame his economic plan and repeat them continually until we all understand exactly what is being proposed.

He should simultaneously repeat the failures of the past GOP attempts to deregulate the markets and the financial industry and how that has contributed to the mess we have today.

Discrediting the GOP and its blowhards is essential.