In his speech Tuesday night, President Obama managed to carry on his habit of advocating for bigger federal programs. Yet, at the same time he was the first president to deliver a State of the Union that technically included more savings than spending. How is this possible? (more)
“If we pretend it didn’t happen, it will all just go away.” Welcome to the time machine mentality of Washington one year after the 2010 election thumping. (more)
The Obama administration has asked the deficit-reduction “super committee” to consider several major health care reforms. These reforms need to be designed so that they improve — not compromise — health and innovation in the United States. (more)
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul’s proposed FY 2013 budget, which was released on Monday, slashes federal government extravagance by more than $1 trillion. The budget honors the vision of limited government and individual liberty enshrined by the Founding Fathers in the United States Constitution. As Thomas Jefferson lectured in his First Inaugural Address: “Still one thing more, fellow-citizens — a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.” (more)
Although the growing “Occupy” movement has clearly set its sights on New York’s financial district, which it sees as a symbol of growing income inequality and the disproportionate political influence of the “1%,” recent Census data suggests that their anger at “the rich” should be directed at the nation’s capital. (more)
Every Republican candidate hoping to take on President Barack Obama says he or she has a plan to get America back on track. But when it comes to offering specifics, most are coy and evasive. (more)
More than a few observers last month remarked that raising taxes, and giving Congress even more money to spend, is akin to handing a bottle of whiskey to a habitual drunk. They’re probably right — and the comparison just might point in a helpful direction. (more)
Business Insider — Who gets screwed if the Supercommittee fails to come to an agreement, triggering automatic spending cuts of $1.5 trillion? (more)
As is typical of politicians generally, and Obama particularly, the response to continued U.S. economic anemia is yet another speech. On Thursday, President Obama, channeling the spirits of two long-deceased progressive presidents, combined Teddy Roosevelt’s bully pulpit with Woodrow Wilson’s penchant for omnipotent and omnipresent government to call for — wait for it — more “stimulus.” (more)
The private sector created 17,000 new payroll jobs in August and the government lost 17,000. The net was zero. Nada … zip … zilch … nothing. (more)
Why is it that the national debt exploded between 2003 and 2007, when Republicans controlled the presidency and both chambers of Congress? Why is it that even when Ronald Reagan, the last real conservative president, sat in the White House, government grew astronomically? (more)
NEW YORK (AP) — The majority of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics believe that the federal deficit should be reduced only or primarily through spending cuts. (more)
House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced this week that they will be shuttering the congressional page program, an initiative that brings high school students to Capitol Hill to work alongside elected officials, later in the month. (more)
There he goes again. Out on the campaign trail, President Obama is proposing more federal spending as his answer to sluggish growth and jobs. That won’t do it, Mr. President. (more)
Ezra Klein recently posted a New York Times graphic supporting his view that the deficit is primarily the fault of former President Bush and his predecessors, rather than President Obama. Interestingly, he makes no attempt to claim that Obama’s policies have reduced the deficit, just that Obama’s deficit increases were smaller than Bush’s. (more)
Our time is now. This is the moment where we as a country must make the difficult decisions and fight the good fight. (more)
In June 2002, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on the federal government’s long-term budget outlook. The report predicted that federal spending, which had hovered around 20% of GDP since World War II, would reach 23.8% of GDP in 2040, 30% of GDP in the late 2050s and 40% of GDP — double the postwar average — around 2075. (more)
Carl Van Doren, an early twentieth century literary critic, said that America rediscovers herself about every 30 years. Grant Wood (the painter of “American Gothic”) believed the Great Depression was one of those periods of rediscovery. The drama of the debt crisis leads me to think we are rediscovering ourselves yet again. (more)
The pin-striped men of morning
Are coming for to dance
Forty million dollars
The kids don’t stand a chance
— Vampire Weekend (more)
At his press conference on the debt ceiling negotiations, President Obama lamented that he’d rather “be talking about stuff that everybody welcomes, like new [government] programs.” The president’s statement reveals a lot about his attitude toward government spending — one which many other politicians share — and demonstrates just how we got into the current debt crisis. (more)
