Tick, tick, tick — the sound of a Congressional trade bomb. By its own, not very exacting standards, Congress has patiently waited for change in Chinese currency policy. The single most likely time for that was the G-20 finance minister’s over the weekend in South Korea. But nothing meaningful from Beijing. Again. From now until summer recess, Congress likely will be working toward punishing China. The frustration is understandable. The U.S. has played the indispensable role in rapid Chinese economic development, if for our own reasons. We’ve received cheaper goods …
In an ode to irony, The Fiscal Times reports that President Obama’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (more popularly known as the “debt commission”) is running out of money: President Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission is operating on a shoestring budget and some panel members and lawmakers worry that it may run short of money. The 18-member commission faces the daunting challenge of coming up with proposals by Dec. 1 to tame the federal government’s trillion-dollar budget deficit. But the panel’s own budget is only $500,000, barely enough to cover office …
House Cloakroom: June 7 – 11 Analysis: The House returns from its Congressional recess on Tuesday and will be going over to the White House for the annual Congressional picnic. The rest of the week is pretty light with mostly suspensions bills on the House floor. The main bill for the week is a Federal Housing Authority authorization bill. Additionally, the House could possibly consider Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA) TARP III bill which would create a $30 billion lending program that would duplicate efforts made by the $700 billion original …
This Sunday, people around the world will honor the 66th anniversary of D-Day, when over 160,000 troops from the United States, Britain, France and Canada bravely stormed the beaches of Normandy, marking a turning point in World War II. In Bedford, Virginia, a memorial to the invasion will be unveiled with statues of western Allied leaders, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Harry Truman. The memorial will also include a bust of dictator Joseph Stalin. Residents of Bedford are rightfully outraged. Annie Pollard, a Bedford County supervisor, and a …
Andy Roth, Vice President of Club for Growth, highlighted a Boston Herald article about renovations to an IRS facility in a tweet he sent out this week: .bbpBox15185634547 {background:url(http://s.twimg.com/a/1274144130/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) #9ae4e8;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block} An IRS facility in Mass. will include a reflecting pool, an art gallery, and indoor gardens. – http://bit.ly/cxTHEPless than a minute ago via TweetDeckAndy Rothandyroth The Herald reports that the Andover, Massachusetts facility will boast a host …
Heritage analysts Rea Hederman and James Sherk write about the June Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment reportr: “(BLS) announced that net employment increased by 431,000 in May, and that the unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent. While this appears to be good news, 411,000 of those new jobs are temporary government jobs associated with hiring for the decennial census. The private sector created only 41,000 jobs. More Americans exiting the labor force also had an effect on the drop in the unemployment rate. The private sector …
The Obama administration’s Race to the Top program presents states with a choice: adopt national standards for academic performance, or refuse desperately-needed federal dollars. The problem? National standards only standardize mediocrity, while taking power over educational choices out of the hands of parents and local school boards and transferring it to the cumbersome and often misled bureaucracy of Washington. Recent scandal over the corrupt and ineffectual Head Start program goes to show how ill-equipped the federal government is at directly administering a national school program; while the Obama administration’s shameless …
Health care reform was supposed to lower health care spending while expanding access for the uninsured. Instead, though Obamacare will cost taxpayers trillions, it will do little to address the rising cost of care. The government overhaul will not only have large and immediate negative effects for Americans of every ilk, but will have severe implications for future generations, amassing more federal debt to kick down the road to tomorrow’s taxpayers. In a recent paper, Heritage expert James Capretta lays out the several ways in which Obamacare will add to, …
Heritage budget analyst Steve Keen, rightly points out that the Republican Study Committee (RSC) has unveiled a budget proposal that “is a welcome fiscal blueprint that would restore fiscal discipline to the nation and avert a Grecian formula meltdown.” Unfortunately, the RSC budget also gets a critical component of the budget wrong. It misses the mark on Washington’s #1 job; its Constitutional responsibility to provide for the common defense. At the heart of the RSC budget is a commitment to bring federal discretionary spending, of which defense is a component, …
Recent developments in Congress now make clear that Congressional leadership is willing to go through all of 2010 without a death tax in order to get what they have wanted all along – a death tax with a rate and exemption amount at their levels prior to the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. According to an article in today’s Tax Notes (subscription required): Senate Finance Committee ranking minority member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, blamed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on June 2 for the uncertainty about the future of the …
