President Bush’s decision to challenge lawmakers on earmarks comes only days after House Republicans made their own pledge to give up pork projects. At their retreat last Friday in West Virginia, House GOP leaders released a letter calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to issue an immediate moratorium on earmarks and to appoint a bipartisan, bicameral joint committee to reform the earmark process and eliminate wasteful spending. The two moves, while not as aggressive as some conservatives had hoped, refocus attention on an issue that has tarnished the image of Congress …
President Bush will issue an executive order tomorrow that directs federal agencies to ignore any future earmark that is not voted on by lawmakers and included in a law approved by Congress. It’s a long-overdue step by the administration to curtail earmarks, but falls short of what conservatives had hoped Bush would do. Bush’s maneuver will apply only to future earmarks, subjecting them to votes and greater transparency. However, it does nothing to block the nearly 10,000 earmarks included in the omnibus spending bill passed last month. The White House …
Conservatives on Capitol Hill are expressing mixed reactions to news that a deal has been struck on an economic stimulus package. Some staffers are expressing disappointment that Republicans agreed to government giveaways of $300 for individuals and up to $1,200 for families. Others said they were grateful that House Minority Leader John Boehner kept bad liberal policies out of the package. While many details aren’t yet know about what will end up in the bill — and how the Senate might tweak it — there were some notable items left …
The Associated Press is reporting that Democratic and Republican lawmakers have reached a tentative deal today on a stimulus package. First the good news: the giveaway does not include money for food stamps, unemployment insurance benefits or infrastructure projects. Also, although it is not mentioned in the AP story, we hear the deal does include some pro-growth tax cuts including accelerated depreciation for businesses. Now the bad: the give away does include $300 checks for everyone receiving a paycheck regardless of whether they pay income taxes or not. Also only …
Brian Riedl’s paper on economic growth and tax rebates has caused quite a stir. Over at OMB Watch, blogger Craig Jennings calls it “breathtakingly moronic” and resorts to name calling, claiming Riedl would “fail tenth-grade economics” for his analysis. (Jennings mustn’t have known Riedl studied economic policy while earning his master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton.) Unfortunately for Jennings, he diminishes his organization with language more fitting a middle school playground than a serious think tank. Meanwhile, the economic points he sneaks in between insults are simply wrong. We …
As if the rumblings from Capitol Hill suggesting President Bush is “open” to a stimulus package larger than his $150 billion offer weren’t bad enough, now Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center director Len Burman is calling for a tax increase solution to our economic woes. This while even the two leading Democratic candidates are calling for tax rebates. In today’s New York Times Burman argues that raising taxes in 2009 will ward off recession now as investors cash out of their capital gains and workers work harder now to make sure …
President Bush and congressional Democrats appear ready to put their partisan differences behind them and strike a deal on an economic stimulus package. However, before lawmakers and the White House get too cozy, conservatives are reminding Bush to consider the consequences of issuing tax rebates — repeating a mistake his administration made in 2001 when it sent $300 to individuals and $600 to married couples. Contrary to what liberals and the mainstream media will have you believe, the tax rebates of 2001 didn’t help stimulate the economy. Consumer spending rose, …
Rep. Baron Hill, a Blue Dog Democrat from Indiana, voiced concern today about the rush for Congress to pass an economic stimulus plan. During the question-and-answer portion of this morning’s hearing before the Joint Economic Committee, Hill noted that Democrats violated PAYGO rules when they passed a one-year freeze for the Alternative Minimum Tax. Hill said he feared the same would be true with the stimulus. Hill complained about how much a stimulus package might add to the budget deficit and suggested a short-term fix might not be best for …
Reports following Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Monday meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicate that House Democrats are considering a $100 billion economic stimulus package that “money for ailing state governments, higher Medicaid spending and an increase in food stamp payments.” Completely ignoring their election promise to pay for any proposal increased spending by raising taxes or cutting spending elsewhere, Democrats are also considering tax rebates of $300 to $500. Such a plan would not help stimulate the economy since tax rebates do no stimulate the economy. Tax cuts do. …
Picking up on the theme laid out by Heritage’s Mike Franc last week in Human Events, today John Fund writes in the Wall Street Journal about President Bush’s legacy on fiscal responsibility: This week President Bush will make one of the most important decisions of his remaining time in office. It won’t get headlines or lead the news, but it could play a major role in deciding whether this country ever gets any kind of grip on the constantly growing federal budget. Fund’s column comes at a critical moment. The …
