Yesterday, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the President’s fiscal year 2012 budget and implementation of Obamacare. The Secretary’s remarks highlighted the need for fiscal responsibility and health care reform that gives greater power to individuals and more flexibility to the states. Unfortunately, none of these goals can be achieved under Obamacare. Sebelius told the committee, “We can’t build lasting prosperity on a mountain of debt. And we can’t win the future if we pass on massive debts to …
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) promised during his campaign that he would balance the Empire State’s budget without increasing taxes or borrowing. Left untouched, the state’s $135 billion budget would otherwise result in $10 billion in deficit spending. This week, Cuomo appears to have taken the first step to making good on his promise. He unveiled a budget proposal that would, on paper, reduce New York’s spending by $3.5 billion from what was spent last year. (This is, however, a deceptively high estimate based on accounting gimmicks. The actual …
Today, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and budget director Peter Orszag released a joint memo asking government agencies to create lists of ineffective programs with the intention of enacting future budget cuts of 5 percent. This initiative follows in the footsteps of proposed legislation that would give the president greater power to cut spending by requiring Congress to vote on line-item spending rescissions requested by the president. To have a significant impact on federal deficits, larger steps will need to be taken, but both ideas take small steps …
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 over a month after Congress approved a new $2.5 trillion health care entitlement that the Obama administration now confirms will increase our nation’s total health care spending. This is a now familiar pattern for the White House: first enact record …
Last January, Senators Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) introduced an amendment which would have taken the first steps toward restoring fiscal responsibility in Washington. While the amendment failed to attain the necessary 60 votes for passage, it did gain strong bipartisan support, with 16 Democrats joining all but one Republican voting for the measure. Fortunately, all hope is not lost. The amendment, which would cap discretionary spending increases at two percent per year, is expected to come up for a second vote tomorrow. The spending caps would mark …
Just last week Congress revived PAYGO legislation which is supposed to force legislators to offset any new spending with spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. While this won’t come as a shock to most Foundry readers, The Hill reports that “the ink is barely dry on the pay-as-you-go law, and Democrats are seeking to bypass it to enact parts of their job-creation agenda.” The problem with PAYGO is not its intent–serious efforts to reduce the deficit should be met with genuine interest by all conservatives–the problem is its inevitable implementation. …
A year ago, President Obama warned the American people that the financial crisis was dire and required a whole new approach to government spending. Obama argued that the government must help America spend its way out of the recession, and his economists, using Keynesian multipliers, argued the “stimulus” would keep unemployment below 8.2 percent (PDF). Conservatives were skeptical, and pointed out that many of the government jobs would take a year or more to materialize, but Obama replied that we must be patient and keep spending. Conservatives pointed out that …
Ten democratic Senators recently issued an important call to action for Majority Leader Harry Reid to support efforts to get America’s long-term fiscal imbalance under control. One can only hope Senator Reid listens. As the letter notes, America is already $12 trillion in debt and, in the next decade, will dig itself even deeper by adding $10 trillion in deficits. In the coming months, Congress will be required to increase the debt limit so that America can continue to afford to pay its bills. But the true disaster starts in …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UoSvb8yYwI[/youtube] Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a newly minted freshman from Utah, brought his laid back, candid style to Heritage at Tuesday’s blogger briefing. Chaffetz won his seat using social media and demanding fiscal discipline from Washington. We have to adhere to the Constitution, to fiscal discipline, to limited government, accountability and strong national defense. We weren’t actually executing on those. More and more you started asking people about fiscal responsibility and they wouldn’t necessarily associate Republicans directly with that issue. It’s because they had been fiscally irresponsible on that issue in my opinion, and I argued to …
While America debates rising deficits, rising debt, and reckless spending bills, the mood in Washington is understandably sour. For the Americans fortunate to have jobs in this recession, there is still a sense of anxiety about what is around the economic corner. For their jobless friends and family, there is only the hope that the White House and Congress are doing everything in their power to turn the economy around. And how are President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner responding to this mission? By using taxpayer dollars to hire “Humor …
