When it comes to spending, President Obama’s proposed budget for 2011 takes fiscal irresponsibility to Greece and beyond. Ernest S. Christian and Gary A. Robbins, both former Treasury tax officials, write in the Washington Times that “the president’s planned fiscal excesses beyond 2010 cannot plausibly be attributed to the recession, blamed on George W. Bush or justified by economic principles, Keynesian or otherwise.” Growth in spending will only aggravate the nation’s currently poor fiscal outlook. By 2020, the public debt will be 91 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and …
There’s only one way to pull the economy out of the doldrums. We need more jobs. Now. As Obamacare inched its way toward passage, boosters of the radical legislation began making bold new claims about its virtues. The bill, they said, would do far more than simply fix the health care system; it would create jobs and boost the economy, too. [Oddly, they stopped short of claiming it would also help melt away the pounds as you sleep.] Not surprisingly, the early evidence is quickly proving their claims to be …
Senator Reid seems comfortable with clandestine negotiations in order to ensure passage of any type of health reform. This course, aside from being politically dubious and whimsical, is fiscally reckless, and with its passage, will continue to add to the debt that will straddle future generations with a significant amount of fiscal stress. As with the previous health reform bills, the assumptions and parameters the Congressional Budget Office must use will likely score this new bill as deficit neutral. Yet, the price tag for the overall bill will not changed, …
The Congressional Budget Office issued a report today giving the Baucus health care bill the stamp of deficit-reduction approval, but this was earned only through steep increases in indirect taxes, such as the coverage mandate. The coverage mandate included in Senator Baucus’ health care plan has significant and disturbing implications for middle-class Americans. Individuals earning up to $45,520 and families earning up to $92,640 would need to cut corners to make ends meet, all in response to the indirect tax implicit in a health care mandate. For individuals making $34,140 …
Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York and other House Democrats propose to pay for their $1.3 trillion bill to create government-run health care with a 5.4 percent surtax on 2.04 million high-income Americans — about half of them small business owners. Americans would face European-style taxes, paying top rates that – combined with local and state taxes – exceed those of economic competitors such as Germany and Japan. Taxpayers in Italy, Spain, and even France pay lower rates. And that’s not all: President Obama would have the power to increase …
Welcome to a new feature of the Foundry, Outside the Beltway, where we will semi-regularly post state and local stories of either conservatism at its best, or liberalism at its worst. Today, we start off with liberalism at its worst. Providence, Rhode Island Mayor David Cicilline wants to tax college students $150 every semester to have the privilege of studying in his city. Because the mismanaged city is running a $17 million deficit, they need to find new money, rather than new savings. And the best new money is to …
