In 2011, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner realized the most significant achievement of his entire career in the U.S. Congress when he reached a deal with the White House to restrain the growth of U.S. government spending: the Budget Control Act of 2011. Here, using the leverage of the threat of not…
Read More »
Readers of MyGovCost will likely be interested in this week’s Econtalk podcast with Don Boudreaux on the nature and significance of public debt. Roberts and Boudreaux begin by discussing debt at the household level and then work to draw out which lessons apply to the spending of a federal government. In doing so, the…
Read More »
In “Mediscare: The Surprising Truth,” Thomas Savings and John Goodman discuss in the Wall Street Journal the scare-mongering campaign by the Obama administration regarding ObamaCare and Medicare, and then provide positive reform directions based on creating tax-free, private, health care accounts providing choice: The Obama administration has repeatedly claimed that the health-reform bill it…
Read More »
Last Wednesday, months after rejecting his own presidential commission’s recommendations for reducing the U.S.’s record deficits produced by his administration, President Barack Obama finally offered a plan to deal with the nation’s excessive federal budget deficit. He didn’t do it because he wanted to do it or because he genuinely believes it’s in the…
Read More »
In a new article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Grasping budget’s billions and trillions: Incomprehensibly huge numbers mask real burdens,” Independent Institute Research Fellow Emily Skarbek (Director of the Government Cost Calculator) discusses the meaning and absurdity of the $3.8 trillion federal budget and the meaningless reforms being proposed. Taxpayers might have strong feelings about…
Read More »
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…
Read More »
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…
Read More »