The Obama administration is trying to revive talks about corporate tax reform that could see the top rate in the US drop from 35 percent to 28 percent. This time, in order to strike a deal with House Republicans, Obama is linking his corporate tax proposal to other proposals for investments that would trigger growth in middle class jobs, such as infrastructure investments.

This offers another test as to whether House Republicans are remotely interested in governing as opposed to reflexively opposing anything Obama stands for. Most House Republicans strongly favor corporate tax reform, and many of them also understand the importance of investments like infrastructure.

This proposal should also generate support among business lobbyists as well, though Obama’s insistence on some sort of minimum tax for foreign corporate earnings will still be a problem for many multinationals.

Something needs to happen, however, as the current system is riddled with loopholes.

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David Stockman has a new book out pretty much ripping everyone on the debt. He has a real problem with the bailout, takes on the Ryan budget along with the Obama administration, and predicts another crisis.

He loses credibility in my opinion when he discusses how we could have used bankruptcy through the crisis, and then he also goes back to the gold standard.

With the announcement today that Chrysler will repay its $7.5 billion bailout loan it received from the U.S. government, the auto bailout has reached another milestone.

To get out of its credit fix, Chrysler has lined up loans of $4.3 billion and will issue $3.2 billion in bonds. Italy’s Fiat, which controls Chrysler, will kick in $1.3 billion and get 46% ownership.

Private money has stepped up, thus validating the approach taken by the Obama administration. It’s also a significant victory for all the employees at Chrysler who worked through this difficult period and came out with new versions of vehicles like the Dodge Charger pictured above and the new Chrysler 200.

President Barack Obama gave a speech today on his energy strategy at Georgetown University in Washington. He addressed some of the recent controversy regarding domestic oil production, noting that oil production is at an 8-year high in the US, and that we can insist on safety with sensible regulation and still produce oil from offshore sites.

Obama urged oil companies to make greater use of the federal leases both onshore and offshore to prop up domestic oil output. The oil industry and GOP lawmakers have been loudly complaining about delays in the permitting of offshore drilling in recent months. But an irked administration, which had pledged tougher scrutiny of drilling applications after last year’s massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, fired back Tuesday with an Interior Department report that revived earlier debates about whether oil companies were exploiting the leases they already have.

Obama has made energy a priority since taking office, with the increase in automobile fuel efficiency marking perhaps his greatest impact. As part of the economic stimulus package adopted in 2009, he also won about $70 billion in grants and loan guarantees to promote energy efficiency, advanced batteries for cars and renewable energy. He has said that in addition to energy benefits those monies will create what he calls “green jobs.” But he poured a large amount of effort into winning passage of a cap-and-trade climate bill, which failed.

Chrysler’s two-minute Super Bowl commercial for the new Chrysler 200 featuring scenes of Detroit and with an appearance by Eminem is getting plenty of buzz. It’s two minutes long and quite compelling. The comeback story for the company fits with the concept of a rust best city trying to come back as well. I wonder if the workers at Chrysler and GM will be sending thank you notes to President Obama for saving the companies?