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    Small Business Owners to Congress: Fix the Debt with Entitlement Reform

    The National Small Business Association’s economic report finds, “The growing national debt is the number one thing small businesses thin[k] Congress and the administration should address.” Small businesses employ the majority of American workers and are vital to the innovation that grows the American economy. After a severe recession, the … More

    How to Fix the Medicare Physician Payment Problem

    The congressional formula that determines the annual Medicare payment update for physicians, the sustainable growth rate (SGR), was supposed to cut Medicare doctors’ pay each year starting in 2002. But that congressional formula is so flawed and unworkable that every year since 2003, Congress has stepped in to stop it … More

    No, Obamacare Does Not Lower Health Care Spending

    Obamacare supporters tend to give credit to the law where credit is not due. In the latest attempt, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D–WA) tried to link lower projections for Medicare and Medicaid spending to the Affordable Care Act. During today’s hearing on the recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) … More

    Hospices Reveal Obamacare’s Impact

    Two hospice care centers are struggling to make ends meet, and Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare are to blame. Hospices—health care facilities for the terminally ill—along with other Medicare providers are facing Medicare pay cuts. Of the $716 billion in payment reductions, hospice care was hit by a $17 billion payment … More

    5 Bipartisan Health Care Reform Options

    Addressing our nation’s overspending problem cannot be done without reforming entitlements, especially Medicare and Medicaid. As Washington remains clearly divided over how to get it done, Senator Orrin Hatch (R–UT) has outlined 5 health care reforms that are bipartisan. These reforms have had the support of both parties in the … More

    CBO: Tax Increase Fails to Solve Spending and Debt Crisis

    While President Obama keeps calling for more taxes, today’s figures from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show the tax hike he signed into law just last month will provide no lasting improvement in the federal government’s fiscal outlook. This is because spending continues to grow, driving deficits back toward the … More

    Don’t Gut Our Military: $150 Billion in Commonsense Proposals to Prevent Sequestration

    Unless Congress acts, March 1 will trigger a $55 billion-per-year ($43 billion in 2013, as the fiscal cliff deal delayed the cuts for two months) cut in national defense, known as sequestration, which will weaken the United States’s ability to defend itself. But this does not have to happen; Congress … More

    Morning Bell: Obama’s Second Inaugural Address, Translated

    Members of Congress—who are about to debate raising the debt ceiling tomorrow—should have paid attention yesterday. The President was very clear that he sees no urgency about reducing the debt and cutting the deficit. In fact, in his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama was honest about his intentions to … More

    Will Debt Ceiling Baby Step Lead Toward a Balanced Budget?

    The debt ceiling is bearing down on Washington. As with most such momentous occasions, plenty of partisan potshots have been exchanged, like this whopper from the White House: that House Republicans who are demanding spending reductions in exchange for increasing the debt limit would compromise the full faith and credit … More

    Chart of the Week: Growth of Government Assistance Adds to National Debt

    More than 41 percent of the U.S. population is “enrolled in at least one federal assistance program,” adding tens of billions of dollars to the national debt each year, according to new research by The Heritage Foundation’s Patrick Tyrrell and William W. Beach. That means that a startling number of … More