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Republicans have long said that tax cuts don't need to be paid for but House Minority Leader John Boehner refused to use the talking point Sunday.

NBC's David Gregory asked Boenher he agreed with Alan Greenspan that tax cuts do not pay for themselves. The Minority Leader sidestepped the question.

"The only way to get our economy going again and solve the budget problems is to get the economy moving, get more people back to work where they can care for their own families, and begin to expand the tax rolls to bring more revenue for the federal government," began Boehner. "What we have to do is we have to get our arms around the spending spree that's going on in washington, DC."

"You're not being responsive to a specific point, which is how can you be for cutting the deficit and also cutting taxes as well when they're not paid for?" asked Gregory.

"Listen, you can't raise taxes in the middle of a weak economy without risking the double-dip in this recession," replied Boehner, still not answering the question.

"That's not the question. Are tax cuts paid for or not?" pressed Gregory.

"You're trying to get into this Washington game and their funny accounting over there," said Boehner.

As Digby noted, hopefully this will speed up the Congress doing something about financial reform. Dylan Ratigan talks to Eliot Spitzer about the release of a 2200 page report detailing a potential criminal case against Lehman Brothers.

In Lehman’s Demise, Some Shades of Enron:

The bankruptcy examiner’s report filed by Anton R. Valukas on the 2008 demise of Lehman Brothers discusses some accounting gimmicks that are eerily reminiscent of how Enron tried to prop up its balance sheet back in 2001 before it collapsed.

Both companies appear to have played right along the edge of properly accounting for transactions designed to make them appear much stronger than they turned out to be, becoming steadily more aggressive as they teetered on the brink of ruin.

The examiner’s report discusses potential claims that the bankruptcy trustee can bring against Lehman’s former officers and outside advisers and does not mention potential government law enforcement action. Reading his report, however, gives strong indications that at a minimum the Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to pursue civil charges for securities fraud, and that criminal charges are certainly possible against Lehman’s former top executives.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham doesn't have much good to say about the president and his administration's handling of health care reform. Graham accused the Obama administration of giving "bribes" to Democratic Senators in exchange for their votes, calling it "seedy Chicago politics."

"You know, change you can believe in, after this health care bill debacle is now becoming an empty slogan. And it’s really been replaced by seedy Chicago politics, when you think about it, backroom deals that amount to bribes," said Graham.

The senator from South Carolina went on to criticize the Democrats' method of paying for health care reform. "No Congress is going to allow Medicare to be cut $470 billion. We will forgive those cuts to doctors and hospitals. That's how you pay for the bill. It's Enron-accounting. It's a sham," Graham told CNN's John King Sunday.

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Keith has the run down on United Health Group's Stephen Hemsley who's leading the charge against health care/insurance reform and who was recently sending employees armed with talking points to attend protests and town halls. First up, his campaign donations from OpenSecrets: United Health Group Contributions to Federal Candidates:

House

Total to Democrats: $138,700

Total to Republicans: $100,500

Senate

Total to Democrats: $71,500

Total to Republicans: $58,300

Next we have the lawsuit they settled just one week before President Obama took office. Health insurer accused of overcharging millions:

One of the nation’s largest health insurers has agreed to pay $50 million in a settlement announced today after being accused of overcharging millions of Americans for health care.

The New York attorney general’s office launched an investigation after receiving hundreds of complaints about Oxford Insurance and its parent company, UnitedHealth Group, which claims to rely on “independent research from across the health care industry” to determine reimbursement rates. In actuality though, it relies on Ingenix, a research firm owned by UnitedHealth Group.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says Ingenix has been manipulating the numbers so insurance companies pay less. In a just-released report, he contends that Americans have been “under-reimbursed to the tune of at least hundreds of millions of dollars.” Although UnitedHealth Group and Oxford Insurance were the only entities investigated, other major insurers use Ingenix, including Aetna, CIGNA and WellPoint/Empire BlueCross BlueShield.

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