It’s really simple, folks. Everything boils down to Obamacare. Do we really believe that Obamacare will make private health insurance unaffordable? Do we really believe Obamacare will bankrupt the nation and relegate the next generation of Americans to a dimmer future of less freedom and opportunity? Do we really believe Obamacare will create incorrigible dependency? Dow we really believe that Obamacare will lead to a | Read More »
In August 2011, Obama hatched a deal to grant himself a free $2.1 trillion increase in debt, which would take him past the 2012 elections, thereby sparing him the embarrassment of another debt limit request during the campaign season. He knew that such a request was so bold it needed to be ensconced in a deal that would give voters the impression he was committed | Read More »
The time for equivocation over defunding Obamacare is over. The time for recalcitrance to fulfill the budgetary is long overdue. Now is the time for action. Over the past two years, we’ve heard a variety of excuses in defense of Republicans for failing to cut spending in any consequential way. Well, come March 1 those excuses are obsolete. The sequester is something that Republicans agreed | Read More »
Throughout the past few years, we’ve noted that there’s too much focus on the dollars and cents of the budget. Even Obama and Democrats are talking about billions in spending cuts. It’s beginning to sound like an Old McDonald song: “a few trillion here and a hundred billion there; here a trillion there a billion, everywhere a spending cut.” However, once we cut through the | Read More »
We’ve all been waiting to see the updated CBO Budget and Economic Outlook for 2013 and the next ten years. Most of the news articles are focusing their headlines on the deficit and debt numbers projected in the CBO report. But remember that the reason why CBO deficit projections always understate the reality is because they overstate the amount of revenue they expect to come | Read More »
It’s a done deal. Republicans in the House will overwhelmingly support a bill (HR 325) today which will suspend the debt limit law until May 19. The bill will also call on the Senate to pass a budget by April 15 – with the threat of cutting off pay for a dereliction of this duty, as prescribed by the 1974 Budget Act. In return for | Read More »
Republicans came into their annual retreat at Williamsburg, Virginia looking for a starting point in the upcoming debt and budget battles. It appears that they have emerged from the retreat with a full blown plan. They will pass a bill this week that will suspend the debt ceiling law until May 18. The debt limit increase will be tied to a requirement that the Senate | Read More »
Please take note of this. Democratic Senators are a funny bunch, sometimes. Point out that they’re mandated, Constitutionally, to pass a budget every year? They yawn. Remind them that it’s rank hypocrisy to lecture people on fiscal responsibility when they won’t show any? You get a shrug in response. Observe that shenanigans like Senate Democrats not doing a budget since 2009 is one major reason | Read More »
During the last debt ceiling fight, some pundits in the media and on the left wished for the “Gephardt rule” when the House automatically raised the debt ceiling when they passed a budget. Josh Green at the Atlantic praised it in 2011, saying we should ”bring [it] back.” Now he is at Bloomberg and at it again and again and again. These pundits, and this is my first point, misunderstand what they are | Read More »
I am in favor of not raising the debt ceiling unless the President and Democrats come up with meaningful spending cuts and reforms. Contrary to a lot of the Democrats’ spin, the federal government will not default if the debt ceiling is not raised. Only if Little Timmy Geithner decides to not pay certain debts will the government default. It is his choice. But I | Read More »
Because apparently math is hard. The White House has informed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that it will miss the legal deadline for sending a budget to Congress. Acting Budget Director Jeff Zients told Ryan (R-Wis.) late Friday that the budget will not be delivered by Feb. 4, as required by law, a House aide said.
During the fight over the FY 2011 budget in 2011, conservatives were told to stand down and wait for the debt ceiling. At that point, “we would begin to cut trillions,” promised GOP leaders. They wound up caving on the debt ceiling in return for nothing. Then they said we would fight for the FY 2012 budget. Well, once we agreed to lock in the | Read More »
Well, we really stuck it to the rich at 1:39 in the morning. Whew, now we can breathe a sigh of relief. The 40 Republicans who voted for Obama’s stimulus bill had to swallow hard voting for over $100 billion in new spending just in 2013, but at least those of us who are not super rich won’t see our taxes increase this year. Oh | Read More »
Surprise surprise, they have a deal to avoid the politicians’ cliff. Who didn’t see that coming? Here’s an enigmatic riddle for you: what happens when Republicans publicly obsess about the degree of tax increases they are willing to accept without a commensurate demand for spending cuts? You get tax hikes and no spending cuts! In fact, we will spend even more as a result of | Read More »
At least Esau got a bowl of lentil soup for selling out his birthright. What will Republicans get? It’s amazing how events in politics seem to repeat themselves more often than Charlie Brown and the football. It seems like it was yesterday that we were advocating against Boehner’s trial balloon vote to raise the debt ceiling at the end of July. Back in 2011, it | Read More »
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