Yesterday at 3:00 p.m. ET, the Treasury Department updated its calculation of the U.S. National Debt to: $12,031,299,186,290.07. That $12 trillion record high comes just eight months after it hit $11 trillion and is only expected to rise faster considering the federal deficit for 2009 was over $1.4 trillion. And …
The failure of the stimulus package to create jobs and generate economic growth becomes more apparent each day – despite preposterous claims from the White House about all the jobs they say it has created and saved. Counter intuitively (at least in the sane world outside of Washington), the stimulus’ …
Last week President Barack Obama announced he wants to give every Social Security recipient a $250 payment to make up for the fact that they will not get a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). The Washington Post describes this as a one-time payment. They are wrong. George Will explains: “This is the …
The latest video from Political Math does well in explaining how mandatory spending, consisting mostly of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, will crowd out other spending from the federal budget. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70lkobYY0Hc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Ten democratic Senators recently issued an important call to action for Majority Leader Harry Reid to support efforts to get America’s long-term fiscal imbalance under control. One can only hope Senator Reid listens. As the letter notes, America is already $12 trillion in debt and, in the next decade, will …
Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) has proposed a novel way to strengthen the House Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rule. PAYGO – which requires that all legislation expanding entitlements or cutting taxes be fully offset – has been exposed an ineffective gimmick. PAYGO exempts discretionary spending increases (which comprise 40 percent of the budget) …
