Following the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) criticized liberals for insisting that any deal include a massive tax hike. In a speech at Heritage last week, he said tax revenue isn’t the problem facing the United States in the future; it’s the massive increase in federal spending. “It’s actually arithmetically impossible to solve this problem on the tax side alone,” said Toomey, who noted that Democrats on the Super Committee wanted to hike taxes by $1 trillion without making any fundamental reforms …
Last week’s presidential debate at the Reagan Library elevated Social Security as a national issue that could reshape the 2012 campaign. Candidates spent the week trading blows about the role of the 76-year-old social insurance program. Leaving aside the political rhetoric, one thing is certain: Social Security needs to be reformed or America will face a dismal future. As one of the three major entitlement programs — along with Medicare and Medicaid — Social Security is contributing to a very dire long-term budget outlook. Spending on the three entitlement programs …
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released its long-term outlook for the federal budget. As expected, we are going broke slightly faster than we were a few months ago. No doubt the usual bigger-government types will use this news to repeat the mantra that we need to both cut spending and “enhance revenues” (a thinly veiled euphemism for tax hikes). Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner used this oft-repeated line just this week.
If you’re following the evolving terms of the budget debate, the hip new phrase is “new revenues.” It sounds so much cooler than “tax increases.” Both parties are massaging their rhetoric in the debt ceiling fight, and the media are using the phrase “new revenues” to describe proposals to reduce the U.S. deficit. Samples: Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent tweeted, “Can someone please settle the question of whether GOP is also saying No to new revenues?” Reuters reported that Senator Max Baucus (D–MT) “said new revenues had to be part …
Instead of concentrating on the cause of the oil spill, lawmakers on Capitol Hill appear to be focused on liability limits and oil tax increases. The White House and some Members of Congress are pushing for a one-cent increase per-barrel of oil produced – from eight cents to nine. In reality, this is an indirect gas tax that will be passed onto the consumer. Currently the direct federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon with the mean state tax being 27.2 cents per gallon. The purpose of the newly …
“ObamaNation” was apoplectic over ABC News’ decision to question Barack Obama over his associations with a Louis Farrakhan-sympathetic preacher and a college professor up from the Weather Underground. But the Illinois senator’s answers on questions that dealt with policy were even more illuminating. A segment on the economy included this exchange: CHARLES GIBSON: All right. You have, however, said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, “I certainly would not go above what existed under …
