The President’s deficit commission met yesterday to begin its task to address the mounting fiscal crisis facing the nation. As we show in our 2010 Budget Chart Book, the estimated federal deficit in 2010 will be $1.54 trillion, and spending on entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) and interest …
Today President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform will convene for the first time at the White House. Tasked with making recommendations to Congress that would put the budget in primary balance by 2015 and “meaningfully improve” our nation’s long-term fiscal outlook, the commission meets a little …
A recent poll by Rasmussen shows that 58 percent of Americans lack confidence that they will receive their promised Social Security benefits in their entirety. The poll showed just 13 percent feel very confident they will receive their benefits. As usual, the sense of the American people is spot-on. As …
The capstone of President Obama’s the “Glut the Beast” strategy is to maneuver the country into accepting a massive new Value-Added Tax (VAT). This as yet unannounced policy has been lurking in dark policy corners for months, with no word from the President. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has decided not …
While President Obama and congressional liberals have yet to come down from the high of passing their historically horrible health care legislation, conservatives are still hard at work promoting health care reform. This is because with its numerous new taxes, mandates, penalties, regulations, and new role for government, Obamacare can …
The United States has set itself on a path of unsustainable debt levels with little political prospect to implement the policy mix that will turn this tide. What America needs is a government committed to generating real and sustainable economic growth and a real lowering of the fiscal deficits through …
In theory, the federal government has $2.5 trillion stashed away in a nondescript office building in the sleepy little town of Parkersburg, West Virginia. That is where the Treasury Department keeps stacks of nonnegotiable Treasury bonds payable to the Social Security Administration. But as the Associated Press reported yesterday, for …
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 …
The Tax Foundation recently released its annual report on the number of tax returns filed that have no tax liability, and the study shows a record number of “nonpayers” in 2008. Taxpayers become “non-payers” when credits and deductions wipe out any income tax they owe. According to the Tax Foundation …
