The bank tax, also known as the "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee," first appeared in Obama's 2011 budget and was projected to raise $90 billion over 10 years. A year later, in the wake of the mid-term elections and accusations from executives that Obama was "anti-business," the White House cut the proposal by two-thirds to just $30 billion.

The stock opened at $499.53, immediately jumped to $501 and continued to hover around the $500 mark in morning trading. As of 10:30 a.m., the stock was trading around $498 per share.

The company, Credit Mobilier, hoped to enrich lawmakers and protect itself from damaging legislation, documents show.

The Air Force plans to save at least 5 percent by eliminating redundancies in three maintenance and engineering contracts, Christina Sukach, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Space Command, said in an e-mail.

It wrestles with basic questions: Where to go? How to get there? When? And for what purpose?

It killed a plan to return to the moon and now is building a jumbo rocket to go to . . . well, it’s unclear. Maybe to an asteroid: a rock to be named later.

The government-sponsored entities are the most active buyers on the secondary market for residential mortgages, where a growing number of small financial institutions sell the home loans they originate. Private investors remain largely inactive in acquiring mortgages, leaving originators to question how the industry will function without government support.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will revamp the billing statements sent to homeowners and the disclosures required for some complicated mortgages. It also is drafting new rules to prevent servicers from improperly charging consumers for homeowner’s insurance.

Economists predict that the local area will grow more slowly in the coming years, largely because of the kind of pullback in government spending proposed by President Obama on Monday and advocated by many on Capitol Hill.