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  • Entitlements, Taxes & Spending

    Replace the culture of entitlement with the culture of mutual responsibility.

    Obama Ducks Responsibility for Washington’s Spending Binge

    In a recent “60 Minutes” interview, host Steve Kroft primed President Obama with this statement: “Most Americans think we’re spending too much money.” To which Obama uttered a contemplative “Mm-hm.” An understatement, indeed. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that federal spending will reach $3.56 trillion, or about 23 percent … More

    Chart of the Week: 70% of Spending Goes to Dependence Programs

    Federal spending concentrated on the 47 dependence-creating government programs that include housing, farm subsidies, and entitlements now comprises more than 70.5 percent of total federal expenditures as of 2010, according to Heritage’s Index of Dependence on Government. This represents the fourth year in a row that the Index of Dependence … More

    Texas Pension Group Compiles List of ‘Hostile Threats’ – Including Heritage

    A non-profit group that represents members of Texas’s public employee retirement system outlined a host of individuals and organizations that it considers “hostile threats” in a recent presentation. The presentation, which the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS) posted online, goes on to describe methods of marginalizing those “threats” to … More

    Socialist Austerity in France

    Francois Hollande won election to the French presidency by promising that more government spending would lead to quick economic growth. He sharply criticized the “austerity”—i.e., sudden spending cuts—proposed by his opponent. A few months later, Hollande has come full circle. In addition to a tax increase that has wealthy French … More

    Obama: Don’t Worry About $16 Trillion Debt

    Last night on the CBS Late Show with David Letterman, President Obama suggested that “we don’t have to worry about [the debt] short term.” Excuse me? On September 4, the U.S. national debt hit the $16 trillion mark. We now owe more on the national debt than the entire U.S. … More

    Morning Bell: Government Dependency Rises As Number of Taxpayers Declines

    The leak of a video featuring former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) has sparked debate about government dependency and the number of people in the United States who do not pay federal income tax. In the video, Romney refers to “47 percent” of Americans and says that they are “dependent upon … More

    Dependence on Government vs. the American Dream

    Mother Jones has opened a broad debate about the role of government in our society. In a clandestine tape recorded in May and obtained by the magazine, former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) remarked that 47 percent of taxpayers pay no federal income taxes. He notes, among other things, the increase … More

    Index of Dependence on Government Jumps for the Fourth Year in a Row

    The leak of a video featuring former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) has sparked debate about government dependency and the number of people in the United States who do not pay federal income tax. The Heritage Foundation has published the Index of Dependence on Government for the past 10 years, and … More

    Congressional Research Service Wrongly Implies Lower Tax Rates Don’t Strengthen Economy

    The Congressional Research Service (CRS) set out to make a convincing case that lower income tax rates do not strengthen the economy. It failed, but in so doing, it called into question the quality of CRS analysis and the institution’s credibility as non-partisan. The CRS is supposed to provide expert, … More

    New Administration Report Gives Few Details on Sequestration’s Military Cuts

    The White House is attempting to use the U.S. military as a bargaining chip to force Congress to raise taxes—the looming “sequestration” budget cuts were never supposed to happen, because Congress was supposed to come to a budget agreement. Now the military faces deep, across-the-board cuts. The President has attempted … More