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

    Chairman Conrad’s Embarrassing Quasi-Budget

    April 19, 2012 at 11:54 am

    7 Comments

    Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad, D-N. Dak., holds a news conference on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, to preview the Budget Committee's budget resolution markup. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

    The Senate Budget Committee stretched a few definitions in announcing yesterday’s “Mark-Up of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2013.” Turns out it’s not really a budget resolution, per se, and there will be no formal committee action on it—no amendments, no vote, no real committee-adopted fiscal … More

    New Research Confirms that Spending Cuts Stimulate the Economy

    April 17, 2012 at 6:30 pm

    4 Comments

    scissors

    New research suggests that legislators should cut spending and enact growth-inducing policies. The reasoning? According to the study, spending cuts can positively affect economic growth and are the only historically reliable way to lower deficits and debt. The authors of the study, Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi, write that “spending-based … More

    In Pictures: What Costs More? Life or Taxes?

    April 17, 2012 at 4:43 pm

    8 Comments

    taxes-living-chart-sm

    As the saying goes, there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. Given that fact, it’s worth taking a look at how much it costs to live and how much it costs to pay taxes, especially on this Tax Day. The Republican Study Committee has pulled together a … More

    Why Bush Isn’t Responsible for Today’s Debt Crisis

    April 17, 2012 at 2:56 pm

    67 Comments

    Former US president George W. Bush (R) applauds as US President Barack Obama waves after being sworn in as the 44th US president at the Capitol in Washington on January 20, 2009

    We get it, the last thing President Obama wants is to be blamed for is the nation’s growing debt—or anything else, actually. But the statute of limitations on blaming President George W. Bush for everything—anything—must have run out by now.  On the debt in particular, it’s sort of a hard … More

    Morning Bell: What Tax Day Could Feel Like in 2013

    April 17, 2012 at 9:02 am

    42 Comments

    1040Form

    In addition to today being Tax Day, it’s also, coincidentally, “Tax Freedom Day” — meaning that it has taken from January 1 until now for Americans to earn enough money to pay this year’s federal, state, and local tax bill — 29.2% of all our income. In other words, for … More

    Tax Day 2012: Taxmageddon on the Horizon

    April 16, 2012 at 5:33 pm

    3 Comments

    irs

    In a bit of scheduling serendipity, Tax Freedom Day—the day when Americans finally earn enough income to pay off the bill for all federal, state, and local taxes for the year—falls on April 17 this year. That also happens to be Tax Filing Day 2012. Absent tax changes made by … More

    Picture This: The Buffett Rule vs. Obama’s Budget

    April 16, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    22 Comments

    buffett-rule-size-sm

    President Obama says his “Buffett Rule” — which imposes higher taxes on wealthy Americans and job creators — will help “stabilize our debt and deficits for the next decade.” But if you compare how much money his policy raises with how much he’d like to spend, you get a much … More

    Morning Bell: Tax Gimmicks, Tax Doom

    April 16, 2012 at 8:46 am

    56 Comments

    Obama-4-10-12-taxes

    The U.S. Senate could vote today on the gimmicky distraction known as the Buffett Rule — President Obama’s plan to raise taxes on wealthy Americans and job creators in order to supposedly bring “fairness” to the tax code and pay down the debt. As the paper-thin justification for the proposal … More

    Chart of the Week: The Tax Burden on American Households

    April 15, 2012 at 9:16 am

    16 Comments

    Though the economic downturn has temporarily lowered overall tax revenues, the tax burden on Americans is still high.

    Americans who are scrambling to pay their taxes by Tuesday’s deadline are in store for more depressing news: The tax burden on American families has risen dramatically and will continue to climb into the future without action from Congress. This week’s chart outlines the growth of taxes over the past … More

    Welfare Money Being Used to Post Bail?

    April 13, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    15 Comments

    Man behind bars sits in jail

    Welfare cash may have been used to get a Massachusetts drug dealer “out of jail free.” The Boston Herald reports: Kimball Clark, 45, was locked up Friday on drug-dealing charges—again—when he was overheard using his one phone call to ask the person on the other end of the line to … More

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    Morning Bell: 3 Things You Should Know About the Supreme Court and Voter ID

    Yesterday, the Supreme Court handed down one of its first major decisions of this term, striking down Arizona’s measure requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration. Media reports are already off base in interpreting this decision, says Heritage legal expert Hans von Spakovsky. Here are three things to know about … More

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