Lawmakers in Washington are quick to talk the talk of fiscal reform these days. Solutions to the nation’s abysmal financial outlook are at the tip of everyone’s tongue, and even Democrats have conceded that maybe conservatives were right when pointing out that the United States doesn’t have a tax problem …
Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its Social Security Policy Options report, which highlights some of the proposals made by policymakers and legislators to restore the Social Security program to long-term sustainability. Social Security, which provides living assistance to retired workers and those with disabilities, is in need of …
Last night the House passed a “budget enforcement resolution” setting discretionary spending levels for fiscal year 2011 at $1.12 trillion. This is approximately $7 billion less than President Obama’s budget and $3 billion less than the Senate proposal. However, the resolution isn’t newsworthy so much for what it contains but …
At this point, Americans on every imaginable side of the deficit debate agree that federal spending is out of control. Something must be done—but the question is, what, and how, and by whom? Lawmakers on Capitol Hill talk about deficit reduction an awful lot—so why haven’t they done anything about …
Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released its annual long-term Budget Outlook, which provides a look at mandatory federal spending on health care after passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. One may have expected to see drastic changes after the passage of Obamacare. After all, this legislation was …
Adding automatic enrollment to a 401(k) retirement savings plan builds retirement savings. It especially helps lower and moderate income workers, but employees at all income levels start to save earlier, save more, and have better investment choices than similar plans without that mechanism. This simple fact is true despite some …
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their annual Long-Term Budget Outlook today, and the updated projections—which include the effects of Obamacare—paint a grim picture. If Obamacare really did bend the cost curve down, CBO shows little evidence of it in this report. In fact, CBO openly admits that “projections understate …
Despite its failure last week, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is continuing to push his tax-extenders bill. Bundled together with the many egregious pieces of this bill is a $2.5 billion Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) emergency fund. This provision ties right into the current administration’s philosophy on government welfare: …
In New York, facing a $9 billion deficit, state legislators put welfare on the chopping block to head off a government shutdown. Lawmakers in New Jersey avert their own shutdown in a ninth-hour budget deal that manages to save $22 million for adults on welfare. Meanwhile, in budget-busting California, welfare …
