According to an analysis by USA Today, American taxpayers “are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises.” Federal obligations now stand ata record $546,668 per household, quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined. Fortunately for Americans, President Barack Obama recognizes that the federal government has a spending problem. He told CSPAN this weekend: “We are out …
Yesterday’s USA Today brought the not so surprising news that federal tax revenue has fallen drastically due to the struggling economy. The 34% decrease represents the largest plunge since the last major recession in 1981. Although revenue is down, the main driver of deficits is spending. Over the long term these deficits will become increasingly difficult to control because of escalating entitlement spending on Social Security and Medicare. As the article notes, The other deficit driver is government spending, which, the [American Institute for Economic Research] report says, is the …
Massive increases of spending by the Obama Administration, from the stimulus to its proposed budget, have created historically unprecedented large deficits that will push the nation’s debt level to unsustainable levels. It was only a matter of time before the proponents of big government began their push to substantially increase the amount of revenue raised by the federal government to close these budget gaps and pay for other big-government priorities like nationalized healthcare. The tax hike proposals offered so far—such as taxes on sugary drinks or tax hikes on alcoholic …
Kiplinger has a post up today discussing the most recent attempt to paint an amnesty as an economic stimulus. This time the focus is on Social Security. Mark Willen argues that somehow this almost broke system would be saved if only we would bring the 11 million illegal immigrants here in the U.S. “out of the shadows” and make them legal. But this is not the right approach and would instead bankrupt the United States, leaving the Social Security system in a far worse condition. It’s not that immigrants do …
The Heritage Foundation’s 2009 Federal Revenue and Spending Book of Charts is now available online. Please do keep it bookmarked for those times you need a good visual to refute liberal nonsense. For example: Liberal Myth: Bush’s Deficits Were Worse Than Obama’s. Reality: Obama’s Budget Would Create Unprecedented Deficits
No. Heritage fellow David John explains: Is the Important Year to Consider 2037, 2016, or 2009? The year when Social Security begins to spend more than it takes in, 2016, is by far the most important year. From that point on, Social Security will require large and growing amounts of general revenue money in order to pay all of its promised benefits. Even though this money will technically come from cashing in the special issue bonds in the trust fund, the money to repay those bonds will come from other …
Reuters reports: Recession Hurts Medicare and Social Security. The New York Times blares: Recession Drains Social Security and Medicare. And CNN follows suit: Recession Hits Social Security Hard. This spin all comes out of the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees annual report which is signed by Obama Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Obama Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, and Obama HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Their report blames the “economic recession” for growing shortfalls in both the Medicare and Social Security programs. But our entitlement crisis existed long before the current recession, …
So, would President Obama’s budget plan really increase deficit spending much more than other modern presidents? Well, yeah, to the tune of seven times more, measured as a percentage of economic output, than under President Kennedy over 45 years ago — as you can see in this chart. It’s one of the 37 easy-to-follow information graphics in Heritage’s updated and expanded 2009 Federal Revenue and Spending Book of Charts. How much and how fast would our national debt go up under the Obama plan? Is it true that, amid the …
We highlighted the Associated Press’ FACT CHECK on President Barack Obama’s deficit cutting claims this morning, but that was not the only area where Obama stretched the truth. On jobs: OBAMA: “We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs.” – from news conference. THE FACTS: This assertion is dubious on several levels. For starters, the U.S. has lost more than 1.2 million jobs since Obama took office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even if Obama’s stimulus bill saved or created …
In his Jimmy Carter-esque “New Foundation” speech Tuesday, President Barack Obama linked health care reform and deficit reduction claiming: “If we want to get serious about fiscal discipline … we will also have to get serious about entitlement reform. Make no mistake: health care reform is entitlement reform.” Problem is, Obama’s health care reform plan includes a Medicare-for-all like public plan that will “compete” with private plans. The idea that the path to reduced health care spending must go through expanding Medicare is laughable. former Political Science professor at the …
