In a refreshing break from tradition, the House Appropriations Committee approved a $967 billion discretionary spending plan that would stay within the fiscal year 2014 sequestration spending levels. The measure would protect defense from further cuts and instead deliver the total savings through reductions to domestic discretionary programs. It was …
At a House Armed Services Committee hearing this week, U.S. Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos admitted that the Marines will be “very, very strained to be a one-MCO [major contingency operation] Marine Corps” under sequestration budget cuts. MCOs refer to the ability to engage in a major war or …
Minimum Wage President Obama’s budget proposes raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour. This would hurt the very workers the President wants to help. When the price of something rises, people—both consumers and employers—purchase less of it. Americans responded to the higher cost of gas by driving less. Businesses …
In the past 24 hours, cancer patients’ access to Medicare treatment has been the focus of an alarming headline. In this case, the budget sequestration—an idea originally proposed and now routinely derided by President Obama—is identified as the culprit. But policymakers and taxpayers alike may want to take a closer …
As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, earlier this month an official from the U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) warned that many activities at USDOC—such as the activities of the USDOC’s International Trade Administration (ITA) and the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service—will have to be scaled back due to …
The massive spending bill released by the Senate this week suffers the same flaws as the measure the House passed last week: It spends too much, fails to protect national defense, and is full of unnecessary, wasteful spending. Like the House bill, the Senate’s continuing resolution (CR)—which is needed to …
The House version of the continuing resolution (CR) — necessary to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year on September 30 — was Congress’s opportunity to reprogram cuts from sequestration or cut even further. Regrettably, the bill fails to deliver on both counts. Worse, because of the …
Up to 875,000 federal workers may experience mandatory unpaid leave for one day per week thanks to sequestration, resulting in a 20 percent pay cut for 22 weeks beginning April 1. But the union that represents federal workers is vowing to get that pay. National Federation of Federal Employees spokesperson …
