“The late great Austrian economist F.A. Hayek would have seen the Arab Spring for the economic revolt it was right from the start,” writes Hoover Institution scholar Fouad Ajami in The Wall Street Journal. In his iconic Road to Serfdom, Hayek laid out the stepping stones that lead societies to abandon individual freedom and replace it with central planning and socialism. Ajami explains how the Arab world went down its road to serfdom during the 1950s and ’60s. America faces a similar risk today. Ajami writes: “What Hayek would call …
Earlier today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell floated a proposal that, essentially, cedes the authority for raising the debt limit from the Congress to the president. Under McConnell’s plan, President Obama would propose three incremental debt limit increases between now and the end of 2012. Congress could only vote to disapprove these requests, which President Obama could then veto. Without a 2/3 majority in Congress to override that veto, which is very unlikely, the debt limit increase would become automatic. This plan is insufficient and is obviously a non-starter. At …
Yesterday, the President conditioned a debt limit increase on the House and Senate meeting his demands to increase taxes, a very risky declaration. The President declared that he would veto any short-term debt limit increase because he wants a comprehensive deal including tax increases. Ben Feller of the San Francisco Chronicle asked the President if he would sign a short-term debt limit increase: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Two quick topics. Given that you’re running out of time, can you explain what is your plan for where these talks …
Today, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) introduced legislation to force seven calendar days of transparency before any debt limit deal is passed by the Senate. The measure is in the form of a point of order and reads as follows: It shall not be in order in the Senate to proceed to any measure that would increase the statutory limit on the public debt above $14.294 trillion unless that measure has been available on a public website for a full 7 calendar days before consideration on the floor of the Senate. …
Ever since the debate over the debt limit began in earnest at the start of the year, the Obama Administration, led by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, has implied that the U.S. might default on its publicly held debt. In his press conference today, the President said that “it is not acceptable for us not to raise the debt limit and to allow the U.S. government to default. We cannot threaten the United States’ full faith and credit for the first time in our nation’s history.” The fear of default and …
Any budget agreement should include an improvement of the accuracy of Social Security’s annual cost-of-living allowance (COLA) payments. Press reports say this is now on the table. COLAs are designed to protect retirees against inflation eroding the value of their benefits, but the index used to calculate those payments is inaccurate and overstates inflation by about 1 percentage point a year. Back in 1996, a commission led by economist Michael Boskin proved this, and since then, experts have been pushing for a more accurate measure. A more accurate measure would …
Last night, President Barack Obama and U.S. congressional leaders failed to reach agreement on a deal to raise the nation’s debt limit. Meanwhile, it has been more than 800 days since the U.S. Senate passed a budget, liberals in Washington are pushing for higher taxes, unemployment is soaring, the deficit keeps growing, and America is careening toward an economic future as the Europe of the West. That’s a future of crippling debt, spending, and permanently high unemployment that some in Congress are trying to avoid. On Saturday, Speaker of the …
There’s no good way to spin the news that came out of today’s monthly U.S. jobs report. The economy generated only 18,000 total new jobs, the unemployment rate increased to 9.2 percent, and the number of unemployed Americans has gone up by 445,000. In other words, the recovery appears to have slowed markedly. President Barack Obama’s stimulus-infused “recovery” refuses to ignite, unsurprisingly to all but him. And to make matters worse, May’s paltry job growth numbers were revised even farther downward, from the initial estimate of 54,000 to 25,000. Sadly, the record continues—the Obama …
In the debate about raising the debt ceiling, the reality is often lost that the top 10 percent of income earners—those making more than $113,799 in 2008 (the latest year available from the IRS)—already pay 69.9 percent of the income taxes. The same top 10 percent, however, earn only 45.8 percent of the income. The IRS also reports that in 2008, the top 25 percent of income earners—those earning $67,280 or more—pay 86.34 percent of the income taxes, yet earn only 67.38 percent of all income in the U.S. (See …
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) today predicted lawmakers would take President Obama to court if he deemed the debt ceiling is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. Liberals have floated the desperate and devious ploy in recent days to avoid spending cuts demanded by conservatives. “If the president decides to do that — and that would be his decision and his alone — our only option at that point would probably be to take him to court,” Johnson said this morning on a call with reporters and bloggers. “If he does it, …
