Adopting the chained CPI (Consumer Price Index) in Social Security to more accurately account for changes in the cost of living is a small first step toward fixing a broken program that is currently accelerating its own demise by paying excess benefits. Fifty-seven million Americans receive Social Security benefits, and …
What is the goal of immigration reform? As Heritage President Jim DeMint put it yesterday, “Any immigration reform should improve the lives, the incomes, and the opportunities” of those who are lawfully in America. The Gang of Eight’s amnesty proposal does the opposite by burdening taxpayers with supporting unlawful immigrants. …
Some proponents of comprehensive immigration reform (including amnesty) are trying to find support for their position in Heritage Foundation papers from long ago. In the first paper they point to, from March 2006, Heritage rejected amnesty but also considered the economic effects of immigration. Since that time, there are two …
Congress rammed Obamacare through without many Members even reading the bill. Now it’s applying that same frantic, complex, pie-in-the-sky legislating to immigration. The similarities are frightening. 1. Extreme Costs The Government Accountability Office now projects that under the most realistic scenario, Obamacare will add $6.2 trillion to the primary deficit …
Reports that the federal government will put a little bit of money toward the massive federal debt for the first time in six years make for an interesting tidbit, but Washington’s spending and debt problem is only getting bigger. The Wall Street Journal reports, “The Treasury Department said that it …
Now that the “Gang of Eight” has introduced a comprehensive immigration bill in the U.S. Senate, the cost to taxpayers of implementing amnesty for an estimated 11 million unlawful immigrants has come into focus. The core problem with amnesty is clear: It encourages more unlawful immigration in hopes of future …
Outside the President’s general, grow-the-government, increase-the-debt, tax-the-rich budget themes lies a commonsense proposal to use a more accurate measure of inflation when calculating government benefit growth rates and changes in income tax brackets. The purpose of inflation-based adjustments is to account for changes in prices over time. But current inflation …
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 …
When the President’s budget comes out Wednesday, it will complete the last piece of the budget puzzle, as the House and Senate have each duly passed a budget according to law. Never mind that the President’s budget is supposed to lead Washington budget discussions, rather than follow. The key question …
