A Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report shows that a repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the top 1% of income earners would provide sufficient revenues to close the Social Security funding gap.

There are a few noteworthy findings in this CRS report on the estate tax:

• Estate tax repeal would account for over 25 percent permanent extension of the 2001-2003 Bush tax cuts
• In 2006, 0.93 percent of deaths resulted in taxable returns. In 2002, that number was 1.86 percent.
• Estate and gift tax revenues accounted for 1.0 percent of federal revenue in 2006 - a decrease from 1.4 percent in 2002.

The New York Times examines how a contractor, headed by a 22-year-old, came to supply Iraqi and Afghan security forces with 40-year-old ammunition. The firm, AEY, Inc., was awarded a $300 million contract to be a critical supplier of munitions to the Iraqi and Afghan security forces and supplied millions of rounds of ammunition from Cold War-era stockpiles in Eastern Bloc countries. AEY is one of many previously unknown defense companies to have thrived since 2003, when the Pentagon began dispensing billions of dollars to train and equip indigenous forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Its rise from obscurity once seemed to make it a successful example of the Bush administration's promotion of private contractors as integral elements of war-fighting strategy.

When the Federal Reserve engineered JPMorgan's takeover of failing investment bank Bear Stearns, the Fed guaranteed some $30 billion in Bear Stearn's assets. This has prompted an investigation into the deal by the Senate Finance Committee. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) explains why Congress should get involved: