Governor Jerry Brown is proposing measures to balance the California state budget, including cutting $12.5 billion in spending and extending $12 billion in expiring taxes. The politically ambitious move from the new governor involves a sequencing of three legislative parts. The legislature would pass spending cuts, voters would then be able to vote in…
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In his new column syndicated by Creators Syndicate, “Are politicians serious about spending cuts?”, John Stossel asks the key question about whether Washington is really going to address the gigantic, federal government spending and debt crisis that continues to mount: Last year, I reported that the United States fell from sixth to eighth place…
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Over at Economix, Casey Mulligan has a nice illustration of Austan Goolsbee’s approach to economic planning. In essence, targeted means of stimulating investment (say, with New Homebuyer tax credits) don’t work to increase investment, and thereby employment, in the short-run. Rather these types of subsidies have drive up prices for current asset owners—constituting windfall…
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Just in time for the end of 2010, the Associated Press released a story suggesting that retired Medicare beneficiaries are being promised way more in medical care than what than they’ll have paid for during their working careers: What you paid in Medicare taxes shows up on your W-2 income tax form every year….
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Michael Snyder reports on seventeen statistics on the unsustainable nature of reckless U.S. government spending and debt. 1. As of December 28th, 2010, the U.S. national debt was $13,877,230,355,933.00. 2. If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it…
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On Fox Business News, Judge Andrew Napolitano, host of “Freedom Watch,” discusses the record-breaking national debt of more than $14 trillion, encouraging Congress to say no to more spending. And below (at the 11:00 minute mark) the Judge talks with economics professor Dan D’Amico about the possibility of government seizing private retirement and pension…
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According to CBS News, on the last day of 2010 the U.S. National Debt hit a record level of more than $14 trillion or $14,025,215,218,708.52, up from $9 trillion just over three years ago and a whopping 55% increase since just before 2008. As the report states: It took just 7 months for the…
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Compared to how January 2011 might have played out, where every taxpayer in the United States would have received a smaller paycheck if the 111th U.S. Congress hadn’t acted to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, the Congress’ late action to extend those tax rates for another two years, while also throwing in…
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In an article in the Wall Street Journal, “The Right Way to Balance the Budget,” Andrew Biggs, Kevin Hassett and Matt Jensen report that new research of 21 countries over the past 37 years shows that to reduce government debt, a major reduction of spending must be adopted instead of higher taxes. On average,…
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