Thomas Jefferson is widely credited with coining an adage that makes fools of procrastinators: “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” But where budgets are concerned, Congress has failed to execute the third U.S. president’s advice for three years. (more)
Top Democrats have abdicated their leadership role and are ignoring the nation’s budget problems because they’re focused on their 2012 election campaigns, Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions told The Daily Caller. (more)
We thought tax reform meant lowering rates and broadening the base by eliminating or cutting back on various deductions, credits, and loopholes. That’s what the Bowles-Simpson commission proposed. That’s what Paul Ryan and David Camp are working on. And that’s the pro-growth model. (more)
The United States is over $14 trillion in debt. (more)
March is National Black Hole Awareness Month, a perfect time to match science with spending. While scientists continue to identify black holes in the far reaches of space, the closest and most deadly vortex is the nation’s $14.3 trillion national debt. Indeed, there are striking similarities between the astronomical black holes and the fiscal abyss facing the United States. (more)
The freshmen class roared into Congress vowing to get federal spending under control. And even though many of them recognize and revere the constitutional requirement to “provide for the common defense,” they refused to take the defense budget “off the table.” Good for them. (more)
After the midterm elections last fall, speculation mounted about the actual effect the newly elected Tea Party candidates would have in Washington. Would they remain loyal to the principles of fiscal discipline they preached on the campaign trail or would the election be a hollow victory lacking in substantive change? We received the first clue to the answer to that question this week when many of the Tea Party favorites expressed their opposition to voting for the continuing resolution. (more)
I just received a banking alert telling me that my account was overdrawn by $14.87. Since the overdraft fee of $35 has already been deducted, it’s kind of a day late and more than a few bucks short. As with many people facing a household budget deficit, I now need to figure out, line by line, where all my cash is going and what I can eliminate. Face it, it could be worse . . . I could be in the hole for, like $223 billion. Maybe I should just ask Bank of America to raise my bond rating? (more)
The government will not shut down — a least not for another two weeks. President Obama signed a measure last Wednesday that would finance the government until March 18th. The plan cut only $4 billion in spending from a budget that will overspend by $1.5 trillion. (more)
House Republican leaders failed their first major test about whether they will play straight with the American people — and now they’re paying the price. In an attempt to meet their Pledge to America commitment to cut $100 billion in spending in their first year, House leaders decided to compare their continuing resolution cuts to President Obama’s FY2011 budget request instead of comparing the cuts to current spending levels. This was a mistake. (more)
Change we can believe in has finally arrived in our nation’s capital. Last fall, the American people voted in mass to elect candidates that advocate the core principles of the Tea Party: fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government. In repayment for their support in November, the newly elected Tea Party candidates scored a major victory over the GOP establishment by pushing through their plan to cut $100 billion from the continuing resolution. (more)
President Obama spent most of his Tuesday morning press conference defending the budget proposal he had introduced a day earlier. The fiscal year 2012 budget, which would increase the federal debt by $7.2 trillion over 10 years, received an icy reception from Republicans, despite White House claims that it had made “tough decisions” to cut spending because of the economic climate. (more)
President Barack Obama is recommending more spending on the Department of Defense in his fiscal year 2012 budget than House Republicans pushed for in the Continuing Resolution (CR), which keeps the government running through the rest of this fiscal year. (more)
President Obama projects that the gross federal debt will top $15 trillion this year, officially equalling the size of the entire U.S. economy, and will jump to nearly $21 trillion in five years’ time. (more)
Americans are clamoring for honesty and action from their leaders. So it has been dispiriting to see the reaction from Democrats and Republicans to our nation’s grim financial outlook. (more)
On Saturday morning, after a round of doubles tennis with my wife and in-laws, I tuned into CSPAN’s Washington Journal program and watched Tea Party Express Director of Grassroots and Coalitions Amy Kremer do one of the network’s phone-in segments about the Tea Party Express’s political views — as she was in town for the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). She was engaging and polite, and spoke with conviction to a variety of callers from different political persuasions. Though she’d never previously been involved in politics before joining the Tea Party Express, she has the bearing and exudes the confidence of someone who’s had considerable leadership experience. I was very impressed. (more)
President Obama’s FY-2012 budget shows a failure of leadership by a man who claimed that he would change the way Washington works. Red ink continues to be spilled at record rates with no end in sight and yet President Obama continues to ignore the 800-pound gorilla in the room — our climbing $14 trillion national debt. (more)
Pivotal moments for a presidency rarely happen on a schedule: acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and sudden financial crises are usually the kind of events that intervene to dominate a political era. Yet, Monday’s release of the president’s new budget could end up being one of those moments that set a new course for our nation’s fiscal and economic future. (more)
Everyone agrees that there’s a lot of waste in Washington. Unfortunately, no one seems able to agree on what that waste is. One man’s pork project is another man’s lifeblood. When it comes to government spending, we have the equivalent of NIMBY, or Not In My Back Yard, except it’s Not In My District — no waste here. That’s why the self-imposed earmark moratorium is a minor miracle. But earmarks are only a snowflake hovering over the tip of the spending iceberg. (more)
Sign up for free Daily Caller News Emails