Yesterday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest Long-Term Budget Outlook and the news is grim. The preface opens, Under current laws and policies, rapidly rising health care costs and an aging population will sharply increase federal spending for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Unless increases in revenues kept pace with escalating spending, or spending growth was sharply reduced, soaring federal debt would weigh heavily on economic output and incomes.” Make no mistake, the pressure put on the federal budget by out of control entitlement spending is massive …
Ben Bernanke made an important point while testifying before the House Budget Committee: lawmakers must reduce the federal deficit and return the nation to fiscal sustainability. The deficit, set to hit $1.8 trillion this year, is not expected to dip under $500 billion per year during the next decade, even under President Obama’s unusually optimistic economic forecast. Chairman Bernanke notes, “With the ratio of debt to GDP already elevated, we will not be able to continue borrowing indefinitely.” Put simply, the country is on a fiscally unsustainable path and action …
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 …
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 …
The Tax Foundation released its “2009 Survey of U.S. Attitudes on Taxes, Government Spending and Wealth Distribution” yesterday. Some interesting findings include: 56 percent of respondents think taxes are too high; Only 14 percent are willing to pay more than $10,000 a year in total taxes for the government services they receive from all level of governments—federal, state and local; 34 percent prefer decreased government services and lower taxes, 36 percent want services and taxes to stay the same, only 10 percent want more services and higher taxes; 44 percent …
The President’s Budget The Actual Cost: The $634 billion in the President’s budget is only a “down payment” on health care reform. Experts believe that the actual cost of Obama’s health care plan could reach $1.6 trillion over 10 years. This is in addition to the trillions of dollars Obama has already spent on health care this year through the stimulus and SCHIP. Details, Please: On such an important piece of the President’s budget and agenda, there is little detail on what the Administration expects to spend with the $634 …
Liberal author Robert Kuttner doesn’t believe in the entitlement crisis. His argument – reflecting conventional far left thinking on the issue – goes something like this: Conservatives exaggerate the entitlement problem by using shady figures. Social Security is just fine, so don’t worry about it. Medicare is a problem, but only because of rising health care costs. Once the country embraces socialized medicine the costs will fall, thus solving the problem. History proves this correct because the government ran up heaps of debt during World War II setting the country …
President Obama will host a three-hour “Fiscal Responsibility Summit” at the White House Monday to “underscore how big the problems are.” Sixty members of the House and Senate, and representatives from various think-tanks and advocacy organizations from across the political spectrum will attend in an effort to sort out the nation’s fiscal woes. The basics of the long-term entitlement problem are generally agreed upon. In April of 2008 members of the politically diverse coalition know as the Heritage-Brookings Fiscal Seminar published the paper, “Taking Back Our Fiscal Future.” In it, …
Maintaining and modernizing our armed forces doesn’t just protect America, it fulfills the Constitution’s mandate to “provide for the common defense.” Yet the defense budget appears to be one place where President Barack Obama and Congress are looking to offset massive new spending elsewhere – “stimulating” or otherwise. “The Pentagon faces a $100 billion annual shortfall in its procurement and modernization accounts,” warns Kim Holmes, Heritage’s vice president for defense and foreign policy studies. “The question facing Mr. Obama is not whether to trim a few expensive and unnecessary weapons …
