With the United States engaged in a debate over debt, the common consensus among Americans is that spending needs to be reduced. A recent poll commissioned by Generation Opportunity and the polling company, inc./WomanTrend found this was especially true among young Americans who are self-identified independents. They believe less federal spending and less government interference with job creators will lead to more economic opportunity and a more optimistic future for America. The poll indicated 79% would decrease federal spending from its current level and 59% believe the United States is …
President Obama neglected to mention Millennials in his address to the nation Monday night. Ironic, since they are burdened with the responsibility of paying America’s debt. But that should come as no surprise. Young Americans are often overlooked in the political world. However, 18 to 29-year-olds have serious concerns about the future of our nation. A recent Generation Opportunity and the polling company, inc./WomanTrend study found, in priority order, young Americans believe that the national debt, increased dependency on foreign sources of energy, and America’s indebtedness to foreign powers have made …
The latest unemployment numbers, released Friday, showed that the economy created a net 18,000 jobs in June, far below the roughly 150,000 needed to keep pace with new job market entrants. The unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2 percent. Since President Obama had not yet been asked directly about June’s unemployment numbers, it was inevitable that the topic be raised in his Monday press conference on the stalled debt limit negotiations with congressional Republicans. But if the president has learned anything from the apparent failure of his policies to spur …
The Senate canceled next week’s recess to address the country’s debt crisis. It’s an issue in the headlines every day as lawmakers and the White House debate a debt-reduction plan. Why does it matter? The national debt is set to explode in the coming decades as spending on entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security skyrockets. Even the International Monetary Fund has warned United States that it must reduce its debt or face serious economic consequences. Without action, the national debt will eventually reach a staggering 344 percent …
The debt limit debate waits for the return of a recess-refreshed Congress, but if conservatives are ready for it, they can leverage the issue to enact spending caps and advance the budget the House passed last week, says former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin. “The Republicans should come back the day after the recess, pass the debt limit and attach to it caps to total spending that match the budget they just passed,” Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, said this week at The Heritage Foundation Bloggers Briefing. …
As Congress continues the struggle to tame federal deficit spending, some argue that tax hikes and defense cuts are necessary and inevitable. For example, a recent brief from the Concord Coalition on the prospects for the House Majority’s coming budget resolution for fiscal year 2012 makes the case that conservatives will be hard pressed to reduce the deficit without raising taxes or cutting national defense. The Concord Coalition looks at various deficit-cutting strategies that conservatives in the House might embrace and compares the results to those of the President’s own …
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has a powerful ally in the fight to eliminate wasteful duplication in government programs: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced the two lawmakers are teaming up for a bipartisan, House-Senate effort to eliminate overlapping and unaccountable government services that cost taxpayers more than $100 billion a year. A recent Government Accountability Office report on government waste revealed the extent of duplication. Now the two Republicans want Congress to do something about it. Cantor has directed House committee chairmen to look at the GAO’s recommendations for …
In my maiden Senate floor speech, I focused on the budget and economic issues we face and how our burgeoning debt and deficit is directly linked to the sluggish pace of job creation and economic growth in states like Ohio. As I said during the speech, I believe the twin challenges of our time are to revive the American economic miracle and stop the reckless government spending that threatens to extinguish the American dream. One affects the other. Without a growing economy and more jobs we simply cannot reverse the …
The federal government ran a budget deficit last month of $223 billion, according to recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). With deficits consistently running to levels almost beyond human comprehension, it would be easy to miss the fact that this was the largest single-month deficit on record. So, what are Congress and President Obama doing about it? The House of Representatives took the first step to get deficit spending under control by passing a Continuing Resolution to fund the government for the rest of the year for $61 …
The spending cuts included in Congress’ recently passed two-week continuing resolution are just the first steps to greater fiscal discipline, freshman Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) said last week at The Heritage Foundation. With a new deadline of March 18 to fund the government, Ellmers promised push for more spending reductions in the weeks ahead. Speaking at The Bloggers Briefing, Ellmers said the $4 billion in cuts included in the two-week CR represent only what President Obama has requested to be defunded in his fiscal 2012 budget. Republicans are just “taking …
