Congressional leadership has unveiled an a $446.8 billion “minibus” that will cover six annual appropriations bills, leaving only the defense bill to pass separately. Assuming these bills pass, discretionary spending will have jumped by 8 percent for the third consecutive year since the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007. …
Heritage President Ed Feulner writes today in the Washington Times: Nobody could have been happier to see August end than the liberals pushing government-run health care. The month, to put it mildly, was not kind to President Obama and his allies. Their worst nightmares were realized — Americans examined the …
For some, the ongoing recession means tightening the belt on gratuitous spending. Congress clearly doesn’t share this sentiment. Curiously, they seem to believe now is the perfect time to upgrade their private jet fleet. At a measly $550 million taxpayer dollars, why not? After scolding “The Big Three” auto executives …
This week’s bloggers’ briefing brought the biggest crowd yet; standing room only. What was the draw? Matthias Shapiro, mastermind of the 10,000 pennies videos that have become a viral sensation, showed the eager bunch how to utilize the overused rhetoric and statistics of the day to instead communicate the numbers …
Heritage’s J.D. Foster on the deficit: “President Obama talks about responsibility, but the budget deficit this year is approaching $2 trillion and the national debt is set to double in just four years. Imagine what he would deem irresponsible! Yes, he inherited a plunging economy and soaring deficit. But then …
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 …
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 …
