Most American voters want to see the federal government make spending cuts across the board, but those same voters doubt such cuts will take place, according to a recent Rasmussen Poll. The survey found that only 39 percent of likely voters think it is somewhat likely that government will significantly reduce spending while 57…
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The latest effort coming out of Capitol Hill to reduce the debt and avoid default is called the “Gang of Six Plan”, named after its three Democrats and three Republican authors. The plan includes $500 billion in immediate “budget savings”, reductions in marginal income tax rates, and the abolition of the alternative minimum tax….
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No, I am not referring to the Allied Leaders in WWI, college basketball, or the top accounting firms in the U.S. The BIG FOUR of the Budget are Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defense. Together they make up around 65% of non-discretionary spending. Today, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal are running…
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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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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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Rasmussen Reports has released a new poll indicating that 58% of likely American voters prefer a partial shutdown of the U.S. government “until Democrats and Republicans can agree on what spending to cut” and 61% want less spending. As Republicans and Democrats in Congress haggle over the budget, most voters would rather have a…
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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 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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In a new article in the Wall Street Journal, Independent Institute Senior Fellow Richard Vedder and Journal Senior Economics Writer Stephen Moore explain why “Higher Taxes Won’t Reduce the Deficit: History shows that when Congress gets more revenue, the pols spend it”: The draft recommendations of the president’s commission on deficit eduction call for…
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The New York Times has a wonderful tool for understanding how the recommendations of the presidential deficit commission could work to close the estimated annual budget shortfalls in the future. You simply go through and select spending cuts and tax increases until the budget shortfall is corrected for both in the present and future….
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