Families and businesses have budgets, yet Washington doesn’t — and it hasn’t for the last three years. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) doesn’t think this major omission is that big of a deal, and the White House has no opinion on the matter. Fortunately, there are leaders in the House who see the importance of passing a budget and getting runaway spending and escalating debt under control. For Congress, the budget is an outline of how and where money will be spent across the federal government and how high …
With debt and spending out of control, the good news is that the House Budget Committee is taking important steps toward focusing Congress on its most basic duty: budgeting. By speedily passing several budget process reform bills, Chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI) and others on his committee are moving Congress in the right direction—toward controlling spending and increasing accountability and transparency in the federal budget process. The fundamental problem with the Senate’s refusal to pass a budget for more than 1,000 days is a lack of fiscal discipline, which results in …
Earlier this year, the Obama Administration trumpeted the recently passed United Nations regular budget as a triumph of fiscal discipline. To some degree, it is justified in that claim. The initial appropriations for the 2012–2013 budget (at $5.15 billion) are $263 million lower than the final expenditures for the 2010–2011 budget, and nearly $44 million lower than the 2012–2013 budget originally proposed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. This is only the third time since 1960 that the initial U.N. regular budget appropriation was lower than the final appropriation for the previous …
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its Budget and Economic Outlook for years 2012 to 2022 yesterday, and as Heritage’s Patrick Knudsen shows, the numbers add up to a dismal fiscal future. As the government continues its fiscal irresponsibility, 2012 will be the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar deficits. This trend is on track to continue as a result of increasing federal spending on health care, which will more than double between 2012 and 2022. The CBO estimates that by 2022, the government will spend $1.8 trillion on health care, …
The figures released today by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) once again reflect the magnitude of the federal government’s fiscal problem and the urgent need for Congress and the President to address it. Some key points: The 2012 deficit, projected at $1.079 trillion, represents the fourth consecutive year of deficits exceeding $1 trillion. Debt held by the public today is $11.2 trillion, or 72.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—nearly three-fourths of total economic output. This year’s $3.6 trillion in spending is 23.2 percent of GDP—nearly one-fourth the size of …
In discussing the Department of Defense’s upcoming budget request, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stated “our approach was to use this as an opportunity to maintain the strongest military in the world, to not hollow out the force.” In reality, America’s enemies will quickly determine that the United States will not be able to cover its responsibilities worldwide. The Secretary’s projections, which account for only preexisting Obama Administration cuts, include a reduction of Army ground forces from 562,000 to 490,000 troops—despite the fact that U.S. military readiness is already in a …
The future is not bright for the U.S. military. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave America a glimpse of the half-trillion dollars in defense spending cuts requested by the Obama Administration and detailed how the U.S. military’s capabilities would be affected in practical terms. The result is a slashed and burned military that woefully lacks the forces it needs to meet America’s security challenges on a global scale. On the ground, in the sea, and in the air, American forces will shrink drastically — the Army will shrink by 72,000 …
I propose this simple New Year’s resolution for Congress, pass a budget before borrowing any more money. Today marks the 1,000th day without a budget from Senate Democrats. The last time they passed a budget, you had never heard of the iPad. Tiger Woods was only known for his golfing abilities. General Motors had never declared bankruptcy. You had never heard of Swine flu. Despite the lack of a spending plan, or perhaps because of that, Washington’s borrowing and spending continues out of control. The president recently asked Congress for …
The President’s State of the Union address tonight will no doubt grab most of the day’s headlines as the president lays out his goals for the coming year. But today is an important one for another reason — it marks the 1,000th day since the United States Senate has passed a budget. While the House has put forth (and passed) its own budget, the Senate has failed to do the same for more than two years. To help illustrate how extraordinary this failure has been, our new video highlights a …
Tonight, Americans who tune in to the State of the Union will watch the work of a rhetorical master with a flair for illusion. President Barack Obama will take to the floor of the Capitol in hopes of laying the groundwork for a political debate on his terms–one where he stands on emotional appeals, populism, and class warfare, not the shaky ground of his crumbling record. And looking right back at him will be the U.S. Senate, which has for the past 1,000 days failed to pass a budget–a total …
