The new Congress has made spending reduction a priority. This week, Members are getting to work on that promise. Yesterday, by a vote of 245–189, the House passed legislation to fully repeal Obamacare. The new health law represents unsustainable new spending, including an expansion of Medicaid and the creation of a new health entitlement. On paper, this massive growth in government is paid for by burdensome new taxes and unrealistic cuts to Medicare. But at the end of the day, Obamacare will explode the deficit, and its repeal is the …
On March 16, 2006, when our national debt stood at $8.27 trillion, a young Senator from Illinois announced his intention to vote against raising our nation’s debt ceiling to $9 trillion, explaining: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I …
This morning, The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal released the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom, and while the news is good for many countries, it is depressing for the United States. All told, 117 countries, mainly developing and emerging market economies, improved their Economic Freedom Index score. Meanwhile the U.S. dropped to 9th place, remaining “mostly free,” weighed down by the burden of President Obama’s spending spree. Of course, we should all celebrate the improving lot of many impoverished people across the globe. The data in this year’s …
As 2010 draws to a close, The Foundry will be posting a series of Top Ten lists highlighting some of The Heritage Foundation’s most influential work. The Top Ten Heritage Charts are below, sorted by pageviews with the 10th most popular chart on top, and the most popular chart at the bottom. Turns out the most popular chart of 2010 is the same as the 2009 (with updated info) most popular chart. If we left out your favorite, let us know in the comments. 10. Recent Spending Hikes Are Not …
Some in Washington seem to believe that the way our nation currently funds infrastructure projects is the only way. For example, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) told Politico: Let’s look at transportation. How do you handle that without earmarks, since that’s a heavily earmarked bill? How do you handle a Corps of Engineers project? I think, right now, we go through a period where we have gone one step further than we meant to go, and there are some unintended consequences. But as the chart to the right demonstrates, the federal …
Following the Democratic Senate’s recent failure to push through a massive, 1,924-page omnibus spending bill stuffed with runaway spending and pork, cooler heads seem to be prevailing. The Senate now appears poised to pass a basic continuing resolution that would freeze fiscal year (FY) 2011 discretionary spending at FY 2010 levels until March 4, when the next Congress will have the opportunity to pare back spending. Last week, a Heritage Foundation analysis stated that an acceptable continuing resolution should (a) spend no more than last year’s level, (b) not shift …
Two hundred and thirty-seven years ago last night, a group of colonists disguised as Indians boarded British merchant ships and dumped an estimated £10,000 worth of tea into Boston Harbor. This Boston Tea Party, which John Adams described as the “grandest event which has ever yet happened since the controversy with Britain opened,” was not just a protest about taxation. Our forefathers did not destroy tea because of a simple tax dispute. The 1773 Tea Party were protesting the process by which the British government taxed them. They were fundamentally …
Update – 9:00PM: Earlier this evening, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) decided against proceeding with the omnibus bill, promising instead to pursue a short-term continuing resolution. As we reported this week, Congress is considering a new $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. This 2,000 page monster is the result of a refusal by Congress to pass a budget and a partisan desire to bind the hands of the next Congress with an expansive spending bill rather than a short-term continuing resolution. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) office has demonstrated how a simple, one-page …
As recession-weary Americans continue to tighten their belts, not even trillion-dollar deficits can persuade Senate Democrats to stop their spending spree. In a single 1,924-page bill—which was crafted in secret and will be voted on before anyone has read it fully—Congress is set to spend a staggering $1.1 trillion on discretionary programs for fiscal year (FY) 2011, plus an additional $160 billion in emergency war spending. To put this in context, non-emergency discretionary spending has already surged by $217 billion (25 percent) in the past three years—plus an additional $311 …
Gallup released a poll this morning showing that the American people dislike this 111th Congress more than any other Congress. Specifically, a full 83% of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job while only 13% approve. That is the worst approval rating in more than 30 years of tracking congressional job performance. Why do Americans so despise this Congress? The reckless way it spends other people’s money, for starters. One would have thought that after getting “shellacked” at the polls this November, Congress would have gotten the …
