Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget. Show all posts

We Should Be Embarrassed By The Sequester Debate

by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins.      The sequester debate is a national embarrassment - though not for the reasons you might think. We are debating whether shaving a few percent off the government's bloated budget will bring the country to its knees. It's a good thing the Founders are long dead, because if George Washington or James Madison   ... MORE

If You're Reading This, You're Surviving The Sequester Cuts

by John Stossel. That may surprise you, since President Obama likened the sequester to taking a "meat cleaver" to government, causing FBI agents to be furloughed, prosecutors to let criminals escape and medical research to grind to a halt! The media hyped it, too. The NBC Nightly News said, "The sequester could cripple air travel, force       ... MORE

Budget Cuts Could Pull Navy Out Of The War On Drugs

Tail-chasing activities may have to be curbed.  U.S. Navy frigates will stop patrolling for drug runners by April because of forced sequestration budget cuts, a Navy spokesman told USNI News on Monday. On Saturday, U.S. 4th Fleet was informed by Navy leadership it would suspend deployments of two ships—part of the Joint     ... MORE

America In Denial As Fiscal Tsunami Appoaches

by Gene Healy. It's hard to hear yourself think over all the caterwauling on Capitol Hill about the looming sequestration "crisis." For opponents of the spending cuts—at $85 billion, 2.3 percent of the $3.6 trillion federal budget—the rallying cry is half Lord Keynes, half St. Augustine: "Grant me chastity and continence—but not yet." But the time for a little  ... MORE

Rick Moran: The Upside To Sequestration?

Government carries forward its own momentum. Matthew Cooper writing at the National Journal: Everyone agrees that sequestration is asinine, but Washington is increasingly resigned to it. Other deadlines have been met by fevered last-minute negotiations and, mercifully, avoidance of calamity. This time there's less urgency and more sighs. There is an ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Official Lies

Let's expose presidential prevarication. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama warned that Social Security checks will be delayed if Congress fails to increase the government's borrowing authority by raising the debt ceiling. However, there's an issue with this warning. According to the 2012 Social Security trustees report, assets in Social Security's  ... MORE

California, Unsaved, Speeds Toward A Wall Of Debt

by Steven Greenhut.     A cursory glance at Governor Jerry Brown’s new budget could make you believe that California’s days of fiscal gloom are over as he champions a balanced budget and newfound “fiscal restraint.” California had been floating in debt. Then Brown persuaded voters in November to increase sales and income taxes.         ... MORE

Sheldon Richman: Against Government Debt

What Thomas Jefferson's favorite economist would say. The last time the debt-ceiling controversy arose, it occurred to me that if the raising the "ceiling" is a mere formality—if in fact the sky's the limit to government borrowing—it's no ceiling at all. Hence, I dubbed this charade the "debt sky." Those who favor automatic increases in the "limit"—or no limit  ... MORE

Emily Goff: 5 New Year's Resolutions For Congress In 2013

Resolving to do what's right.  While many Americans resolve to make 2013 the year they really do slim down, exercise more, and spend less, Congress could afford to commit to a few such resolutions of its own. Call them budget resolutions—something Congress hasn’t had in a while. Here are five suggestions: 1. Cut spending. The federal government is  ... MORE

The Three Not So 'Wise Men Of Washington, D.C.

These politicians are cooking the books.    Washington politicians are scaremongering that if no deal is reached between President Obama and congressional Republicans, taxes will go up on all of us January 1, when Bush tax rates expire. Nonsense. Most people have their taxes withheld gradually during the year. The president has the       ... MORE

John Stossel - It's The Spending, Stupid!

Why the account is overdrawn by $16 trillion.      Listening to progressive media pundits, I'd think the most evil man in the universe is Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. His crime? He heads a movement that asks political candidates to pledge not to raise taxes. I think Grover accomplished a lot. But I wish he'd convinced       ... MORE

Col. K Allard: Sequestration Spotlights Real Defense Abuses

Billions lost in cozy bureaucratic status quo.  A panel of defense-industry executives complained last week to a National Press Club audience about the defense budget cuts known as sequestration. Calling those reductions “irresponsible,” TASC CEO David Langstaff said sequestration would shatter “our ability to execute U.S. national   ... MORE

Despite New Taxes, California's Revenues Are In Freefall

The rich are voting with their feet. California State Controller John Chiang has announced that total state revenue for the month of November 2012 fell $806.8 million, or 10.8%, below budget. Democrats thought they could hammer “the rich” by convincing voters to pass Proposition 30 to create the highest state income tax in the nation. But it now    ... MORE

Steve Chapman: Higher Taxes, Smaller Government?

Incentives needed to curb spending.    It comes as no surprise to hear anti-tax activist Grover Norquist talk about tax cuts, but it does come as a surprise to hear him raise the subject of pink unicorns. Pink unicorns are purely imaginary—a trait he says they share with the spending curbs that Republicans hope to get from the administration in exchange ... MORE

Voters Kick The Fiscal Can Down The Road

by David Davenport.     After all the money (a campaign spending record exceeding $2 billion), hard work, negative campaigning and wall-to-wall advertising, Americans have voted to kick the can down the road.  They don’t want to take their medicine yet.  They want to continue to live in a suspended reality where government can keep growing and spending ... MORE

John Stossel: Coulter Defends Romney

Her defense goes only so far.  Mitt Romney tells people he won't fire federal workers or cut education spending. He says he'll spend more on the military. He sounds like a big-government guy. Or is he just pandering for votes? Ann Coulter came on my TV show to defend Romney. "What you call pandering is called getting elected," Coulter said. Romney says     ... MORE

$60,000 In Welfare Spent Per Household In Poverty

by Daniel Halper. New data compiled by the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee shows that, last year, the United States spent over $60,000 to support welfare programs per each household that is in poverty. The calculations are based on data from the Census, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Congressional Research Services. ... MORE

Poll Indicates California Voters To Reject Brown's Tax Hike

Big government at the saturation point.     California Gov. Jerry Brown's $6 billion tax increase initiative is losing steam with state voters as it enters the final stretch of the race, a poll released Thursday shows. Just 46 percent of Californians surveyed plan to vote for the measure Nov. 6, down from 55 percent a month ago, according to a USC Dornsife    ... MORE

Obama Spending Plans Will Hit Middle Class Hard

Politicians to seek more control of your earnings. A new study by Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum finds that President Barack Obama's spending plan would raise taxes on the middle class.  "Taxpayers making as little as $30,000 will carry $1,500 more in taxes annually over the next 10 years," the study finds. The significance  ... MORE