For all the talk of the tax cut deal’s impact on the deficit, if Republicans can get spending cuts to pay for the $60 billion or so that it would cost to extend unemployment insurance for a year then the agreement will be acceptable to a majority of even the most conservative among them. (more)
Conservatives are asking for a two-year timeout from earmarks. Mike Huckabee is ready to ban them for the next 20 years. (more)
Voter anger about the size of government will be tested directly Nov. 2 in a series of sweeping statewide ballot measures that would dramatically slash taxes or, in a few cases, raise them. (more)
The National Taxpayer Union released a letter Wednesday signed by more than 300 economists in support of a permanent extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, saying that failure to do so “would constitute a profound and damaging ‘anti-stimulus’ that would harm our prospects for expansion in the near future.” (more)
One thing is certain as Congress returns from recess: tax issues will lead the agenda. Many Americans are rightly concerned with the financial impact of President Obama and his allies in Congress enacting a de facto tax increase by failing to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax reductions in their entirety. The loss of these vital taxpayer relief provisions, combined with moves to impose harsh penalties on the energy industry, will be a one-two-three punch on Americans: less disposable income, more job losses, and a spike in energy costs. (more)
Consumers may soon get a guarantee that no new local and state taxes will pop up on their cell phone bills over the next few years. (more)
Something refreshing has begun to happen in the state of Maine. (more)
Perception is often reality in politics. Just ask George H.W. Bush. Twenty-three years ago this October, when he was beginning his campaign to succeed Ronald Reagan as President, Newsweek ran a cover story on him bearing this headline: “Fighting the Wimp Factor.” (more)
Heritage Action for America, the Heritage Foundation’s grassroots advocacy spin-off, is urging congressional leaders to sign on to Iowa Rep. Steve King’s discharge petition, aimed at repealing Obamacare. (more)
Maybe it’s the Dog Days of Summer. Perhaps it’s the heat—102 degrees in Washington—that’s getting to peoples’ heads. But President Obama’s latest policy—announced by his NASA administrator, astronaut Charles Bolden—is about to melt down. (more)
Corporations are getting creative in finding ways to receive millions of dollars in federal earmarks, but their creativity is not illegal, tax experts say. (more)
President Obama this week brought his unique brand of leadership to the U.S. Military Academy. Speaking to the West Point graduation, the commander-in-chief outlined a foreign policy that sharply differed from the Bush Doctrine that was proclaimed from that same podium eight years ago. (more)
An unlikely alliance of liberals and conservatives led by socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and firebrand conservative Sen. Jim DeMint is gaining ground in an effort to audit the Federal Reserve, despite objections by the White House and bank lobbyists. (more)
President Obama’s new Nuclear Posture Review has succeeded mightily in muddying the clear waters. He says we will not use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear power. Except Iran. Except North Korea. If we are attacked with biological or chemical weapons, we will not retaliate with nuclear weapons. Is this a green light for another attack on the homeland? And what are the former captive nations of Europe supposed to think? Does any NATO member—like Poland, like Estonia—sleep more soundly with this ringing declaration of confusion, this uncertain trumpet? (more)
Efforts by Democrats to point the finger back at Republican opponents for the explosion of the national debt and deficit in recent years ignores their own dismal track record during the last two years of the Bush administration. (more)
Few Americans can imagine retiring at age 42, let alone receive a pension for doing so. But that’s what Democrat Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island can look forward to when he completes his final term in the House of Representatives next January. (more)
