Iran's parliament approves $462 billion budget

Greek lawmakers vote, 155-138, to approve the controversial austerity measure, authorizing $40 billion in budget cuts as well as tax hikes.Greece has approved an austerity bill that helps pull the debt-ridden country back from the brink of an immediate default.

Iran on Sunday announced an upward revision of its annual budget, as a rise in oil prices appeared to mitigate the impact of international sanctions on its economy.The Islamic republic's Guardians Council approved the budget for Iran's calendar and fiscal year to March 2013 at 5,560,000 billion rials ($453 billion at the official rate), the official IRNA news agency reported.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad presented his government's annual budget to parliament in February, asking for 5,100,000 billion rials ($410 billion).

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament on Monday approved a 347-billion-dollar budget for the year to March 2011 based on an oil price of 65 dollars a barrel, news agencies reported.The approved budget is less than the 368.4-billion-dollar plan put forward by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for parliamentary approval in January.ISNA news agency reported that of the 225 lawmakers present on Monday, 151 voted for the budget, 62 against and 12 abstentions."The lawmakers approved the outlines of the budget for the year to March 2011," ISNA said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives approved the final version of the annual defense policy bill on Thursday, authorizing $633.3 billion in defense spending for 2013, easing limits on satellite exports and providing more Marines for embassy security. The Republican-controlled House approved the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 315-107. The measure must still be approved by the Senate before it can go to President Barack Obama to be signed into law. The measure authorizes a Pentagon base budget of $527.5 billion, plus $88. ...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday presented parliament an annual budget which puts expenditure 23.6 percent higher than in Iran's current financial year, Mehr news agency reported.The budget for the year to March 2011 was valued at 368.4 billion dollars based on an oil price of 60 dollars a barrel, compared with the 298 billion dollars for the current year.Ahmadinejad presented the new fiscal plan which was broadcast live on state-television, but he did not reveal any income or expenditure figures.

VANCOUVER — B.C.’s Liberal government says it can make good on its promise to deliver surplus budgets this year and beyond, by hiking corporate and personal income taxes, selling off surplus assets and ratcheting down planned spending increases, ambitious measures described in a pre-election budget program that provincial finance minister Mike de Jong calls “plausible and achievable.”

We should start by putting the health-care bill into proper perspective. Opponents and supports of the bill have both profited immensely from exploiting the average person's inability to but billions and trillions into context. So let's begin by breaking down the numbers.