As we approach the 1-year anniversary of the disastrous debt ceiling deal hatched late last July, it is worthwhile to reflect on what we have gained from that legislation. On August 1, 2011, the House passed the Budget Control Act with support of 72% of the Republican conference. The Senate followed suit on August 2, with support of 60% of the Republican conference. Buoyed by | Read More »
“ Once the Democrats know that the debt ceiling will invariably be raised, they have no incentive to play ball. The end result will be another raw deal that is worse than doing nothing.” There is much hullabaloo in the media about John Boehner’s shot across the bow in the upcoming battle over the debt ceiling this fall. Specifically, Boehner warned that he “will again | Read More »
When Republicans caved on raising the debt limit last year, we referred to the final Boehner proposal as a ground ball into a double play. Not only did Boehner fail to secure any transformational change in exchange for raising the debt ceiling (except for cutting the military), he actually obviated our leverage in future budget battles. As part of the debt limit agreement, Congress passed | Read More »
For the most part, last night’s debate was refreshing in the sense that the candidates were honest about their lack of conservatism. Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul affirmed their support for some aspect of earmarking (although some parsed words), Rick Santorum owned up to his support of No Child Left Behind, Ron Paul unabashedly enunciated his support for Iran’s nuclear program, and Newt Gingrich also confirmed | Read More »
When Republicans agreed to raise the debt ceiling last year, not only did they credit Obama’s credit card by $2.1 trillion, they also gave him a lifeline until after the election. At the time, it was projected that $2.1 trillion in new debt allowance was sufficient to last until January 2013, sparing Obama the embarrassment of raising the debt ceiling right before the election. Well, | Read More »
Earlier today, the House voted to disapprove of Obama’s request for an additional $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. Needless to say, they failed to garner the requisite two-thirds majority to preclude Obama from issuing more debt. The total federal debt will inexorably rise to at least $16.4 trillion by the end of the year. But wait. Didn’t we pass a Budget Control Act | Read More »
Today, the Treasury Department announced that Obama will ask for another $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, carrying our national debt to $16.394 trillion by next year. This will bring Obama’s total share of the debt to $5.77 trillion by the end of his tenure, far more than any other president. Unfortunately, there is not a darn thing we can do about it. Yet, | Read More »
I just recovered from my weekend hangover celebrating our reward for raising the debt ceiling in August. All good things are worth waiting for, and after three and a half months, we got our vote on a balanced budget amendment! And you know what? It was summarily defeated, even before it came to the Senate. Oh, and 25 of the most vulnerable Democrats now have | Read More »
Despite being dispirited by the one-sided nature of the debt ceiling deal, most of us were looking forward to reaping the rewards from its only ancillary benefit; the impending stock market rally. Much to our chagrin, the Dow dropped precipitously, losing over 800 points since the opening bell on Monday. After the initial euphoria from the debt ceiling hangover began to subside, people have been | Read More »
1) Obama gets his full lifeline, long-term debt limit increase that will take him beyond the election ($2.1-2.4 trillion), without making any transformational concession. There is no realistic roadmap to entitlement reform; not a single agency or program, domestic or mandatory, will be eliminated; Obamacare is off limits; there will be no balanced budgets, ever. We will still add trillions more to the debt over | Read More »
Over the past week, the Tea Party has been impugned and maligned with more ferocity than ever before. Amidst our push to balance the budget, downsize job-killing government agencies and programs, and preserve our AAA credit rating, we have been condemned as extremists, suicidal, and traitors. Sadly, most of these acrimonious ad hominem attacks were propagated by those who purport to share the aforementioned goals, | Read More »
On Friday, House Republicans voted overwhelmingly for a plan that would raise the debt limit a whopping $2.5 trillion. All but 22 members, including many stalwart conservatives, supported the bill because they were promised that the second installment of the debt limit increase ($1.6 trillion) would only be approved under two conditions: 1) A debt commission identifies at least $1.6 trillion in spending cuts. 2) | Read More »
Well, we really stuck it to the Democrats today. Instead of passing Cut, Cap, and Balance, a plan that will never pass the Senate and would have foisted the blame of a default upon us (supposedly), we orchestrated a plan to really own them. We came up with Boehner plan 2.0 that..well, …..will not pass the Senate – and will force a default, unless we | Read More »
Late this afternoon, the CBO reaffirmed all of our concerns with Speaker Boehner’s Budget Control Act of 2011 – plus interest (pun intended). We have asserted ad nauseam that any proposed budget plan that fails to countermand the current prodigal spending levels, including the modestly reduced spending levels of 2011, is not worth the paper it is printed on. The CBO estimates that Boehner’s $1.2 | Read More »
As a rule of thumb, any idea coming from a gang is not a good one. This holds true in the real world; it is certainly true in the gangster world of the U.S. Senate. Members of the media are agog with glee over the supposed Gang of Six deal to cut the deficit by $3.7 trillion over 10 years. There is much hype over | Read More »
“I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government; I mean an additional article taking from the Federal Government the power of borrowing.” Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Taylor of Caroline, November 26, 1798 Obama and the Democrats have no intention to cut | Read More »
There has been much ink spilled trying to determine the best political strategy for Republicans in dealing with the debt ceiling. Throughout the process, many Republicans have ceded ground to Obama by credulously buying into the premise that failure to raise the debt ceiling will spell disaster for the country. Congressman Joe Walsh (R-IL), one of those unvarnished freshmen conservatives, cuts thought the clutter and | Read More »
President Obama is intimating that the GOP’s opposition to “increasing revenue” is the sole obstacle to achieving a deficit reduction plan. We should call his bluff and put forth proposals to increase revenue. Then, there will be no excuses for opposing a Balanced Budget Amendment. Obama has complained that we are overlooking the “spending through the tax code.” He is correct. There are a lot | Read More »
The most effective proposal for dealing with the debt ceiling vote that has the backing of conservatives is the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan brought forth by the RSC. Accordingly, virtually every major conservative organization has coalesced around a pledge forcing all members of Congress to support the plan as a condition to raising the debt ceiling. The presidential candidates are also being recruited to | Read More »
Congressman Joe Walsh (R-IL), sponsor of the House Balanced Budget Amendment bill, is drawing a line in the sand and refusing to raise the debt limit. He has sent out another video message to Obama evincing his unequivocal rejection of Tim Geithner’s fallacious fear-mongering . As some members of leadership go wobbly on the Balanced Budget Amendment, we must remind them why they obtained their | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}