They laughed at us. They mocked our obsession with deficits, pay-fors, appropriations, mandatories, discretionaries, trust funds, scoring, and reconciliation. And now Paul Ryan --- budget chairman and fiscal analyst par excellence --- is the Republican nominee for vice president of the United States.
1:55 PM 02/14/2012
President Obama’s 2013 budget is fundamentally disappointing. The lesson of history for countries with the “U.S. disease” --- poor growth and bloated current and projected debt --- is fairly simple: keep taxes low, reform the tax code to make it more pro-growth, and cut spending by focusing on transfer programs while preserving and making more efficient the core functions of government, like national defense, infrastructure, basic research, and education.
3:54 PM 10/05/2011
The first rule of horror movies is that the villain is nearly impossible to kill. It would appear the same is true in public policy, where the worst proposals are dismissed --- only to rise again like zombies.
12:07 PM 05/05/2011
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should keep its hands off greenhouse gases (GHGs). That doesn’t mean that emissions of carbon or other GHGs aren’t important national security, business investment, or pollution policy issues -- that’s for citizens and policymakers to decide on the merits. It does mean that even if one decides in favor of limiting emissions, the EPA is the wrong way to go.
9:46 AM 04/05/2011
America is barreling toward disaster. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released its analysis of the latest Obama administration budget: it is nothing but bad news. Over the next 10 years, deficits exceed 4.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) every year, debt in the hands of the public doubles, and the debt-to-GDP ratio rises above 87 percent. Net interest climbs to almost 20 percent of revenues -- even with large tax increases -- in 2020. The result: the U.S. faces having its debt downgraded beginning in 2018.
2:39 PM 01/31/2011
Everybody supports infrastructure. Opposing infrastructure is like being opposed to puppies, kittens and sunshine. Liberals love it because it is big government and big spending at the same time. Conservatives acknowledge that in a market economy there will be a targeted role for government activities like national security, infrastructure, primary education, and basic research that has economy-wide benefits.
9:01 PM 01/04/2011
Speaking for the President of the United States on ABC’s This Week, CEA Chairman Austan Goolsbee launched this analysis of the upcoming need to raise the limit on federal debt:
6:07 PM 10/13/2010
How am I supposed to reconcile the following actions?
5:17 PM 09/27/2010
President Obama today signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act, a moment that does not constitute either much action or any real hope for jobs. Let’s review what’s on the table. First, there is the “mini-TARP” -- a $30 billion infusion to community banks -- and expansions of the Small Business Administration lending programs. There is no panacea for small business lending woes, so nothing the government does will matter much. This includes a fund for lenders, who will likely be terrified to touch taxpayer money lest they fall into the Treasury regulatory maw, and anything that builds on the SBA’s checkered history.
9:08 AM 08/20/2010
The economic news yesterday was dominated by two pieces of labor market data: new claims for unemployment insurance rose to 500,000 this week and small businesses accounted for 86 percent of job losses in the 4th quarter of 2009 (up from about 64 percent a year earlier). Small business employment dynamics link these two facts. But the White House has the diagnosis and policy wrong.
2:15 PM 07/26/2010
Secretary Geithner is evidently reflecting the left’s desire to wage class warfare at the expense of everyone’s well-being. It is time for him to recognize that the U.S. has a growth problem. The U.S. economy is growing, albeit slowly, not declining. GDP has been rising since the third quarter of 2009, and employment is up from its trough in December 2009, NFIB’s small business confidence index is up, consumer confidence is up, and the ISM manufacturing and non-manufacturing indices are above 50, signaling growth. There is substantial and widespread evidence of an ongoing economic expansion. It is time to put aside the mistake intellectual framework of Keynesian counter-cyclical fiscal fine-tuning known as “stimulus.”
10:34 AM 07/13/2010
The Washington Post is reporting today that confidence in President Obama continues to dwindle. The president’s spinmeisters continue to argue that it is, somehow, all George Bush’s fault. More generally, the media seems baffled. Even the inestimable Peggy Noonan wrote:
12:00 AM 06/09/2010
The simultaneous, impending sunsets of the 2001, 2003, and “stimulus” tax provisions at the end of this year portend a prolonged tax policy debate. Sadly, we can learn a lot about the quality of that debate by looking at the rhetoric and reality surrounding the taxation of carried interest.
12:00 AM 04/14/2010
With news that financial reform legislation is headed for the Senate floor, it is time to officially scrap the administration’s proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee—the “bank tax.” Now, before the populists with pitchforks and torches start after me, let me emphasize that, sensibly, the TARP law says that the taxpayers must be given a path to recouping their losses.
12:00 AM 03/17/2010
With the announcement of six Republicans (Reps. Paul Ryan, Dave Camp, and Jeb Hensarling and Sens. Judd Gregg, Tom Coburn, and Mike Crapo), the lineup for President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is set. While the commission will more likely feature show over substance, it also might be an opportunity to move forward on much-needed tax reform.
12:00 AM 02/10/2010
It should be clear by now that everyone agrees that jobs are the No. 1 one issue facing America. Over 7 million have disappeared from the economic landscape since the beginning of the recession. The official unemployment rate is 10 percent, while a broader measure that also includes discouraged and part-time workers stands at 17.3 percent. The private sector firm ADP estimates that another 22,000 job disappeared in January. A weary populace awaits the latest official round of bad news out of the Labor Department on Friday.
