President Obama celebrated his 48th birthday yesterday, but instead of being showered with gifts, he handed the American people the biggest present of all: one trillion dollars in new debt. Since Obama was inaugurated in January, the national debt has grown over one trillion dollars to a whopping $11.669 trillion. In contrast, it took 2.5 years to add $1 trillion in debt during the last administration. And this “gift” to the American people doesn’t even include the costs of other legislation Obama would like to pass, such as cap and …
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 coming out of Washington in a way that people can digest. Through his use of visualizations, Shapiro puts real value to seemingly unfathomable amounts of money like millions, billions, and trillions of dollars. We’ve posted these videos before, but they …
Yesterday’s USA Today brought the not so surprising news that federal tax revenue has fallen drastically due to the struggling economy. The 34% decrease represents the largest plunge since the last major recession in 1981. Although revenue is down, the main driver of deficits is spending. Over the long term these deficits will become increasingly difficult to control because of escalating entitlement spending on Social Security and Medicare. As the article notes, The other deficit driver is government spending, which, the [American Institute for Economic Research] report says, is the …
Employment took another hit in march, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with job losses climbing another 0.4 of a percentage point to 8.5 percent, the highest level since 1983. What should we do? Heritage scholars James Sherk and J.D. Foster have an idea: These discouraging numbers underscore that Congress should not embark on an anti-growth taxing and spending frenzy. Unfortunately President Obama’s budget currently before Congress would do just that, increasing spending by more than $1,000,000,000,000–one trillion dollars–over the next decade. This is precisely the wrong time to …
