The new Congress has made spending reduction a priority. This week, Members are getting to work on that promise. Yesterday, by a vote of 245–189, the House passed legislation to fully repeal Obamacare. The new health law represents unsustainable new spending, including an expansion of Medicaid and the creation of a new health entitlement. On paper, this massive growth in government is paid for by burdensome new taxes and unrealistic cuts to Medicare. But at the end of the day, Obamacare will explode the deficit, and its repeal is the …
On March 16, 2006, when our national debt stood at $8.27 trillion, a young Senator from Illinois announced his intention to vote against raising our nation’s debt ceiling to $9 trillion, explaining: The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I …
In advance of today’s vote on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform’s report, there has been increased attention on the nation’s fiscal health and the serious dangers posed by our out-of-control national debt. But while this issue has garnered increased scrutiny, some continue to ignore the real cause of our debt and deficit problems—rampant spending—focusing instead on raising taxes. The debt commission’s recommendations are a perfect example. Heritage today put out a comprehensive WebMemo analyzing this problem with the report, noting that while it contains modest reforms, it …
Last week, the co-chairs of the President’s deficit commission released a report of possible proposals for the commission’s final report. Recommendations included cuts to discretionary, mandatory, and defense spending as well as tax increases. The report was a good start to the debate and will gauge the readiness of lawmakers and private citizens to make the difficult decisions needed to reduce the deficit. However, the co-chairs’ proposal does not go far enough in addressing entitlement spending and also includes burdensome tax hikes and irresponsible cuts in defense. Heritage expert Alison …
Reducing budget deficits by cutting government spending has a stronger record of economic stimulus than either reducing the deficit with tax increases or increasing government spending. That’s what Harvard economists Albert Alesina and Silvia Ardagna have found in their recent research. They examined 107 instances of large reductions (at least 1.5 percent in one year) in budget deficits as well as 91 instances of large increases (over 1.5 percent in one year) in budget deficits over the past 40 years. They found that when an economy expands following deficit reduction, …
Last spring, President Obama proposed $11.3 billion worth of discretionary spending cuts. Today’s Washington Times notes that Congress accepted $6.9 billion worth of these cuts, a 61 percent success rate. In a $3.6 trillion federal budget, that comes to just 0.2 percent of the federal budget. But there is a larger issue:100 percent of the savings from these “cuts” were automatically shifted into new spending. Total federal spending was not reduced by one dollar. Here’s why: By the time President Obama released his proposed cuts, Congress and the White House …
On July 20th, The Heritage Foundation launched the Four Percent For Freedom Petition calling on President Obama and Congress to halt defense spending cuts. If Congress passes Obama’s budget, America will spend less on defense than before the September 11th attacks. This puts our men and women in uniform at risk. In total, 112,623 Americans signed the petition to call on Obama and Congress to protect America by maintaining a minimum defense budget of 4% of GDP. Obama’s budget will put defense spending at historical lows but this type of …
The federal government is estimated to run a 2009 budget deficit of $1.845 trillion. While it is true that President George W. Bush handed President Barack Obama a $1,186 billion deficit for the year, Obama has only added to that total to the tune of $659 billion. Worse, President Obama’s budget shows average deficits of $855 billion over the next decade, which would double the publicly held national debt by 2019. And that does not even count Obama’s budget-busting health care spending. But don’t worry; the Obama Justice Department just …
