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Archive for January, 2011

Robert Higgs: Government-caused Uncertainty Continues to Depress Jobs


Saturday January 29th, 2011   •   Posted by David Theroux at 11:49am PST   •   1 Comment

In his recent article in Investor’s Business Daily, “Uncertainty Continues To Depress Jobs,” Robert Higgs (Senior Fellow, The Independent Institute) discusses how the U.S. government’s interventionist and spending policies are prolonging high unemployment by creating a climate of massive economic uncertainty: President Obama, in his State of the Union address, promised to focus on…
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Dark Deficit Outlook: MyGovCost’s Emily Skarbek Offers Solutions


Thursday January 27th, 2011   •   Posted by Lindsay Boyd at 4:29pm PST   •   2 Comments

The latest economic forecasts are now projecting that the federal budget deficit will reach a record of nearly $1.5 trillion in 2011. As the Wall Street Journal reports, this “grim outlook landed a day after President Barack Obama outlined plans to push for new spending that he said would help keep the U.S. globally…
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Visualizing the 2011 Federal Spending Debate


Wednesday January 26th, 2011   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 7:42am PST   •   1 Comment

If you want to quickly see how President Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats’ federal government spending proposal for 2011 stacks up against what Congressional Republicans have in mind, shown against a background illustrating the trend in U.S. federal government spending since 1967, here you go! References 1 Obama, Barack. The State of the…
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Walter Williams on a Constitutional Spending Amendment


Monday January 24th, 2011   •   Posted by Emily Skarbek at 11:09am PST   •   2 Comments

In a characteristically informed and appropriately scathing attack on the welfare state, Walter Williams asserts a cautiously optimistic view of the recent trend in political discourse as it has become more popular to call for limits on the arbitrary powers of the state. “For the first time in my lifetime—and I’m approaching 75 years…
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Repeal of Obamacare Would Not Add to the Deficit


Saturday January 22nd, 2011   •   Posted by David Theroux at 4:19pm PST   •   1 Comment

Former Congressional Budget Office (CBO) officials Douglas Holtz-Eakin (Director), Joseph Antos (Assistant Director) and James Capretta (Associate Director) show in a new Wall Street Journal article, “Health Care Repeal Won’t Add to the Deficit,” that repealing Obamacare (“Affordable Care Act” or ACA) will not increase the federal deficit. In so doing, they refute the…
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Consensus on Cutting the Deficit?


Friday January 21st, 2011   •   Posted by Emily Skarbek at 8:34am PST   •   0 Comments

Yesterday The New York Times published the results of a poll on how to cut the national deficit. Interestingly, a majority of people think necessary action is needed, the deficit can be reduced without increasing taxes, and it is necessary to cut back on programs they benefit from. Cause for optimism? I think not….
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Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey: Cut Federal Spending by Scrapping Federal Programs


Thursday January 20th, 2011   •   Posted by David Theroux at 10:13pm PST   •   0 Comments

In a January 19th article in the Wall Street Journal, “What Congress Should Cut,” former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey and FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe propose abolishing “the Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development, end farm subsidies, and end urban mass transit grants, for starters.” The primary economic challenge today is…
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Independent Institute Senior Fellow Richard K. Vedder, a member of the Council of Economic Advisors for the Institute’s Government Cost Calculator, was interviewed by International PressTV on January 12th. In the interview, Dr. Vedder explains that President Obama has done nothing to rectify either the U.S. or international debt crisis. Indeed, under the Obama…
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Who Owns the U.S. National Debt?


Wednesday January 19th, 2011   •   Posted by Craig Eyermann at 5:49am PST   •   7 Comments

The answer is illustrated below: The United States’ total public debt outstanding was approximately $13.562 trillion at the end of the government’s fiscal year on 30 September 2010. As of 4 January 2011, the United States’ total public debt outstanding exceeds 14 trillion dollars. Despite that near half-billion dollar increase, the percentage composition of…
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Will Britain Move Toward Privatization in Health Care?


Monday January 17th, 2011   •   Posted by David Theroux at 9:13pm PST   •   4 Comments

Jill Lawless at the Associated Press reports that British Prime Minister David Cameron is seeking to “save money and cut red tape by giving control over management to family practitioners rather than bureaucrats, and allow private companies, charities and social enterprises to bid for contracts within the public health service.” Will Great Britain indeed…
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