Edward P. Lazear (former Chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisors; Jack Steele Parker Professor of Human Resources Management and Economics, Stanford University; Morris Arnold Cox Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution) proposes significant spending cuts, no tax increases, and most importantly—adoption of rule-based constraints on future government spending. What do you think—is limiting growth in government…
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“My fellow Americans, I come to you today with a heavy heart. We have a crisis on our hands. It is one of our own making. And it is one that leaves us with no good choices. For many years, our nation’s government has lived beyond its means…We have not faced the hard reality…
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John Stossel at Fox Business recently hosted a superb one-hour program, “Freeloaders,” that brings up to date another program he did on the same subject at ABC’s “20/20” in 2006. In the new program, he critiques the welfare state in America and takes on major corporations, millionaire entertainers, panhandlers, Indian Reservations, and anyone on…
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Seth McLaughlin at the Washington Times reports in “Fears rise that Japan could sell off U.S. debt” of the growing concerns that the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters and now economic crisis in Japan could trigger a major sell-off of there of its huge holdings of U.S. government debt. As of January, Japan is…
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Certain to make the fodder for late night comedians and as a possible boost for the bidet industry, the Omaha World-Herald reports that believe it or not, Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle has launched a campaign to push for a new form of “sin” tax—a federal tax of ten cents for every roll of toilet…
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Margo Thorning writes in the Wall Street Journal, “Pull the Plug on Electric Car Subsidies: They are costly and don’t do enough to protect the environment,” that the flow of taxpayer money into subsidizing plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) is economically and environmentally harmful, a waste, and should be ended now. There are a lot…
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Keith Hennessey decided to dig deeper into why the CBO believes that President Obama’s new budget proposal will add an extra 2,300,000,000,000 dollars to the U.S. national debt over the next 10 years above and beyond what the President claims, and specifically why the budget proposal anticipates that $328,000,000,000 of that extra amount will…
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In “State workers’ unused paid time means big payouts,” Marisa Lagos reports in the San Francisco Chronicle that while California has been facing a financial crisis with record deficits and high unemployment, many state government employees are receiving half-million dollar payments for amassed sick days upon leaving or retirement: One public employee received a…
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Bloomberg BusinessWeek has identified the biggest risk in continuing today’s levels of deficit spending for the U.S. government: Barack Obama may lose the advantage of low borrowing costs as the U.S. Treasury Department says what it pays to service the national debt is poised to triple amid record budget deficits. Interest expense will rise…
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The Associated Press reports that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) questions the claims of the Obama administration regarding projected budget deficits over the next ten years in which the White House overestimates tax revenues and savings from Medicare payments to doctors. A new assessment of President Barack Obama’s budget released Friday says the White…
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