Yesterday, Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D–MT) released a modified chairman’s mark on the Highway Investment, Job Creation and Economic Growth Act of 2012 (S. 1813). When combined with the other section of the bill, this draft transportation reauthorization bill would authorize the program for two years after the latest temporary extension, which expires in March. This bill does contain needed reforms, including ending earmarks and letting states decide how to spend “enhancement” dedicated dollars. However, it makes the mistake of not capturing these savings to drive spending down, …
Clearly, the impact of President Obama’s proposal to consolidate parts of six trade agencies is tiny in comparison to the government’s $3.5 trillion in spending or its trillion-dollar-plus deficits. But if—and that is a big if, depending upon not-yet-available details—it represents a genuine step toward smaller, less costly, and more effective government, it would be a welcome small change from the direction of the past three years. The proposal would reportedly combine some of the functions of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Small Business Administration, the Export-Import …
As the clock counts down toward Christmas, Congress still has major unfinished business to attend to. Not that we should be surprised. Emblematic of a resoundingly disappointing year, the last remaining issue to be resolved directly affects the pocketbooks of Americans. Just days from now, the payroll tax “holiday” will expire. At the same time, fees for physicians and hospitals providing Medicare services will be severely cut and additional weeks of unemployment benefits for long-term unemployed will run out. It’s not like these expirations were unexpected. These issues have been …
What’s a supercommittee to do? Total national debt just hit a new record at $15 trillion, an increase of approximately $700 billion since the Supercommittee’s August inception. Hard as its members try, they just do not seem to be able to deliver the required $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction measures. The situation has deteriorated so badly that even some Republicans are offering up tax hikes. While this is precisely the wrong solution, it has created another insidious problem. Squabbles over the size of tax hikes are overshadowing the more vital …
For months now the so-called super committee has been meeting in secret, tasked with delivering a budget-cutting (er… make that deficit-cutting) plan. Many have doubted they could actually reach their minimum target of $1.2 trillion in cuts. Few, if any, details had leaked—until today, when we learned that the Democrats are trying to break the logjam and “go large” by offering up a deficit reduction package approaching $3 trillion. So, score one for the Democrats for exceeding the minimum cuts? Not so fast. As the old saying goes, the devil …
One of the most crucial issues confronting the nation is the debt and spending crisis. Standard & Poor’s downgraded the nation’s credit rating in August, while Moody’s put the U.S. on watch for a possible future downgrade. America is hemorrhaging debt, and bold steps are needed now to get spending under control. Toward that end, the House passed one of the boldest budget plans in decades this past spring. It was a clear statement outlining the steps we must take to stem the toxic red ink spilling across the federal …
Washington is boiling, and it’s not just the temperature. Dueling debt ceiling proposals, presidential veto threats, and heated rhetoric between and among parties have political tempers flaring, while the President’s rhetoric is seemingly designed to bring the markets to a full-throttle meltdown. House Speaker John Boehner’s (R–OH) debt-ceiling plan sparked a conservative revolt after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced that his plan would not deliver the cuts he was shooting for. So now Boehner is racing to redo his debt ceiling package. Meanwhile, over in the Senate…zippo. Majority Leader …
As the day debt ceiling of reckoning fast approaches, dueling proposals are flurrying around Washington fast and furious. The latest two are from House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Americans, and global financial markets, are watching Washington nervously for a real plan—one that will put the nation squarely on a path to solving our twin crises of spending and debt. Without strong structural changes in spending, our debt will balloon out of control. At stake are two issues. The short-term is obvious – will there be …
Desperate for a “balanced” approach to resolving the debt ceiling impasse, President Obama glommed on to the Gang of Six’s plan before the ink was dry. The plan has lots of tough-talking language intended to make both sides of the aisle tingle. But that’s where the balance ends. In reality, it’s a mostly empty bipartisan shell—heavy on tax hikes and promises of spending cuts, but devoid of details on how to make the sweeping transformative changes needed to solve our debt and spending crises. A core problem, of course, is …
Everyone’s heard that Moody’s has threatened to downgrade our bond rating unless the debt ceiling is raised. We get that—crisis pending, yada, yada, yada. But if you read the announcement closely, there are important new points they added to the mix. First, Moody’s really doesn’t believe–that the President really will let Geithner default on our Treasury bonds—despite all of President Obama’s foot-stamping, scaremongering, and high stakes “This may bring my Presidency down” retro-drama. Moody’s says that “there is a small but rising risk of a short-lived default” (emphasis added), that …
