President Barack Obama in an op-ed published in the Washington Post makes several valid points. But the most important is his statement dismissing plans that “echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis.” He’s absolutely right. Failed theories such as: Government spending stimulates the economy. Federal spending in 2008 topped $3.3 trillion, up over a trillion dollars since 2003 alone. The federal budget deficit this year is expected to be $1.5 trillion or more, or more than 10 percent of GDP. If federal spending and deficits were …
Maintaining and modernizing our armed forces doesn’t just protect America, it fulfills the Constitution’s mandate to “provide for the common defense.” Yet the defense budget appears to be one place where President Barack Obama and Congress are looking to offset massive new spending elsewhere – “stimulating” or otherwise. “The Pentagon faces a $100 billion annual shortfall in its procurement and modernization accounts,” warns Kim Holmes, Heritage’s vice president for defense and foreign policy studies. “The question facing Mr. Obama is not whether to trim a few expensive and unnecessary weapons …
Just like the Senate stimulus bill, the more time we examine President Obama’s Cabinet nominees, the more ‘honest mistakes’ are revealed. Congresswoman Solis is having a particularly bad week. Earlier this afternoon, we told you about USA Today’s revelation that Ms. Solis and her husband were experiencing similar tax problems (i.e. not paying them) that got three of President Obama’s other nominees in trouble. That was literally two hours ago. Earlier this week, we told you about her involvement with the group Americans Right to Work (ARW) which may have …
The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reports that the environmental lobby is on red alert over an amendment to Obama’s Trillion Dollar Debt Plan from Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY). Ambinder says Barrasso is still a firm ‘no’ on the package, but is proposing an amendment that would exempt any project funded by the plan from a normally mandatory National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review. Normally it takes a federal construction projects an average of 4.4 years to complete a NEPA review. Throw in the Clean Water Act’s section 404 requirements, and before …
Some Americans in their later years may decide to buy a new recreational automobile. Maybe a Corvette, maybe a new Prius. They may even add a third garage to a two-garage house to accommodate their mid-life splurge. If the current Senate Trillion Dollar Debt Plan is enacted, the U.S. Government will need to splurge on a garage big enough to fit 30,000 extra new cars. It sounds like Uncle Sam is having a mid-life crisis. Earlier today, President Obama visited the U.S. Department of Energy, where he made the case …
Chris Strohm reports in Congress Daily that the democratic leadership in the House Homeland Security has finalized their legislative agenda for the year. And the news is not good. After banging the drum for years (like in our recent report with CSIS – Homeland Security 3.0) that oversight of the department needs to be consolidated in the committee, just as the 9/11 Commission recommended, the committee leadership seems intent in every way to undermine the case by incoherent, spotty, and misguided activities. For starters, according Strohm the draft, “left out …
Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf has a post up at his Director’s Blog on the Macroeconomic Effects of the Senate Stimulus Legislation. This is what he writes about the short term benefits of Obama’s Trillion Dollar Debt Plan: CBO estimates that the legislation would raise employment by 0.9 million to 2.5 million at the end of 2009; 1.3 million to 3.9 million at the end of 2010; and 0.6 million to 1.9 million at the end of 2011. Increase employment by between 0.9 million and 2.5 million? The spread …
Just when you thought the tax problems for President Obama’s Cabinet nominees were finally over, another one surfaces. USA Today reports today that Labor Nominee Hilda Solis’ husband settled over $6,000 in tax liens yesterday. Tax liens that were 16 years old. As a result, today’s hearing of the Senate Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has been postponed to give Senators the time to review yet another tax problem. Congresswoman Solis’ supporters, including the White House, are likely to say that this ‘honest mistake’ was her husband’s and not hers, …
Aside from the Stimulus Package, the Liberals in Congress have something else up their sleeve on their agenda. It is known as the “Employee Free Choice Act”, but names can be misleading. The premise of this bill is to “establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiation.” However, the danger of this bill is laid out in Section 2: [Emphasis mine] If the Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed …
President Barack Obama likes to rail against high salaries on Wall Street and has even enacted a $500,000 salary cap for executives of firms that receive bailout money from the U.S. Treasury. But why stop there? Virtually all Universities receive millions in federal aid every year and are asking for billions more in Obama’s Trillion Dollar Debt Plan. Why not cap pay for those executives too? According to the Chronicle of Higher Education 14 public universities paid their top officials more than $700,000 in total compensation in 2008. 59 of …
