House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) is a man on a mission. He’s making the rounds on Capitol Hill to convince his colleagues, particularly those on the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, that they should avoid cutting defense spending. McKeon has a point — and it’s one that is backed up by Heritage calculations from Congressional Budget Office data. This chart reveals that even if defense spending was eliminated entirely, entitlements would continue to fuel the debt crisis. Making reforms to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is …
Providing for the defense of the United States is Congress’ constitutional obligation. Lawmakers should recognize defense is a necessity, if not the federal government’s most important responsibility. In recent years, however, defense spending has continued to decline as entitlement spending increased. Priorities are being misplaced as the gap between entitlement spending and defense spending continues to widen. This chart is part of Heritage’s 2011 Budget Chart Book, featuring infographics on federal spending, revenue, debt and deficits, and entitlement programs.
George Orwell, it’s time to turn over in your grave. In Orwell’s world of double talk and upside down reality, few stories can rival one that took place this morning on National Public Radio (NPR). The show started out with a quote from Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, to the effect that the “biggest threat we have to our national security is our debt.” True enough. Out of control spending threatens to squeeze the discretionary part of the federal budget, of which defense is …
In February, we reported that in 2010, Social Security would start running deficits in 2010. Well, Social Security deficits have officially arrived, as analyst Michael Barone lays out in the Washington Examiner: Social Security tax receipts for the first half of 2010: $346.9 billion; Social Security benefits payments for the same period: $347.3 billion. Before this year, projections have always been that Social Security wouldn’t cross that line into negative cash flow for five years or so. Now it’s a reality. Congress has been spending Social Security’s positive cash flow …
Government spending is increasing at an alarmingly quick rate. This is especially true when it comes to entitlement programs. In fact, entitlement spending will consume all tax revenue by 2052. But Congress is already spending at a breakneck pace accumulating unprecedented debt. Sen. George LeMieux noticed this and had a very interesting observation when he tweeted: Today the debt hit 13 trillion. The debt increased a trillion in less than a year. It took 191 years to amass the first trillion in debt.less than a minute ago via webSen. George …
Remember how public anger over the federal debt reaching new sky-high levels last year drove lawmakers into a flurry of discussions about budget controls? Responding to public and international pressure to do something about permanently spiraling deficits, President Obama established a flawed commission to tackle the spending problem. Congress, doing its part, voted for a massive $1.9 trillion increase in the debt limit to $14.3 trillion. That increase was so large it would allow them to spend freely during this election year without upping the limit on the federal credit …
Although the United States does have a huge deficit problem we can’t afford not to fix, the Obama administration is focusing on the wrong aspect in trying to create a new federal health program. Congress needs to address spending for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — all programs that have existed for decades — that is primed to explode. Long-term excess costs for Social Security and Medicare alone: $43 trillion. When added to the national debt, that is about $184,000 for every man, woman and child in America. We should …
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 …
The national debt is skyrocketing. In 2009 publicly held debt is projected to jump to 54.8 percent of GDP, up from 40.8 percent in 2008. A year-to-year increase of this size hasn’t occurred since World War II. While the main causes of this massive increase – $787 billion economic “stimulus” and the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) – are sure to be debated for some time, the truly frightening revelation should be not what has already taken place, but what our elected officials have planned. President Obama’s budget, …
Government benefits accounted for 16.2 percent of personal income in the first quarter of 2009 according to new figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This is the highest level since the data began being recorded in 1929. According to a recent article in USA Today government spending on benefits will be more than $2 trillion in 2009, which comes to about $17,000 per household. The dramatic increase is a result of poor economic conditions leading to increased spending mainly on unemployment, food stamps, and Social Security. USA Today reports: …
