Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or as it is more accurately described, President Barack Obama’s Failed Stimulus. When President Obama signed the now $862 billion deficit-spending bill into law, the unemployment rate stood at 7.6% and the U.S. economy employed 133.5 million people. At the time President Obama promised the American people that, thanks to his stimulus, unemployment would never go higher than 8.2% and the U.S. economy would support 138.6 million jobs by December 2010. At the one year mark unemployment is …
Whether it’s baseball, driving or federal budgeting, rules play a central role in determining outcomes. Lower the pitching mound five inches, and baseball teams score more runs. Put too many signs on the road, and traffic accidents go up. The federal budget process is no different and, as Heritage senior fellow J.D. Foster details, the current budgeting rules are biased in favor of higher taxes and higher spending. First enacted in 1990, PAYGO (short for pay-as-you-go) rules direct the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to establish spending and revenue baselines from …
