After quietly increasing the federal debt limit from $12.1 trillion to $12.4 on Christmas Eve, the US Senate is beginning debate today on yet another increase. Hoping to avoid making the skyrocketing debt levels an election issue; this time around they want to pass an increase large enough to feed their appetite through 2010. While the ever increasing mountain of debt is not welcome news to many, there is a glimmer of hope that the nation will someday return to a fiscally sustainable track. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Senator Claire …
The health care reform wallowing through Congress includes a ploy reminiscent of the “liar loans” prominent during the recent real estate bubble before its collapse. The bill cuts imaginary Medicare spending and uses the funds for real spending elsewhere. Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) has blown the whistle on this charade. Health care reformers are not amused. “Liar loans” describe so-called no documentation mortgage loans used to finance home purchases in the worst of the real estate bubble. In qualifying for loans, borrowers were on their honor not to misstate their …
Today, the House of Representatives passed the $32.2 billion Interior-Environment Appropriations conference report, including a continuing resolution to fund the remaining portions of the federal government at FY2009 levels until December 18th. This bill, a 17 percent increase over last years levels, represents Congress’s continued disregard for mounting federal debt and deficits. At a time when the President’s own budget projection sees federal deficits topping $1 trillion through 2011, and the White House budget is set to send publicly held debt to 99 percent of GDP by 2019, now should …
The latest video from Political Math does well in explaining how mandatory spending, consisting mostly of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, will crowd out other spending from the federal budget. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70lkobYY0Hc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
“We’ll Need To Raise Taxes Soon” opines Roger Altman, a former Deputy Treasury Secretary under President Clinton, in a Wall Street Journal editorial today. Of course, he comes to this conclusion because deficits are high, excessive entitlement spending continues to darken the budget outlook, and, well, that’s the solution he most desires. Of course, he’s wrong, again. President Obama and his congressional allies have accomplished a remarkable bait-and-switch. Remember the Obama directive to his cabinet to hunt down budget savings? Nothing. Remember going through the budget line by line? Nothing. …
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 …
President Obama today is promoting a Pay-as-You-Go (PAYGO) statute requiring that tax cuts and entitlement expansions be collectively deficit-neutral. Congress is likely to take up the proposal later this month. Since 2007, Congress has had a PAYGO rule mandating that each new tax and entitlement bill be deficit-neutral. Because it is merely a congressional rule, lawmakers can (and do) waive it easily. By contrast, a PAYGO statute—which existed from 1991 until 2002—would operate differently. Instead of requiring that each tax and entitlement bill be deficit neutral, this law would keep …
