RSC Budget: Cut, Cap, and Balance is Back – And Here to Stay

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 27th at 10:50 AM  | 

Last year, we were proud to be one of the first websites to publicly promote the Republican Study Committee’s Cut, Cap and Balance (CCB) plan.  What started out as an idea hatched by a few principled conservatives grew into a unifying rallying cry for the entire conservative movement.  Sadly, GOP leadership jettisoned the universally-heralded CCB plan in favor of the Budget [Out of] Control Act, | Read More »

Ryan Budget: A Good Start, but will it Matter?

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  March 20th at 04:38 PM  | 

The much-anticipated Ryan budget for FY 2013, which also contains a blueprint for the next ten years, has been released.  The headline figures of the proposal include the following factoids: it will spend $5.3 trillion less than Obama’s plan and cut $2 trillion more in taxes over the next ten years; it will spend $4.15 less than CBO baseline; spending will be reduced from 24% | Read More »

The Ever Growing and Ever Crumbling Safety Net

By: Brad Jackson (Diary)  |  February 13th at 10:00 AM  | 

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss impending elections in Greece, American’s growing dependence on the “safety net,” and why that path is unsustainable. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do | Read More »

Healthcare Doesn’t Need European Style Austerity Measures; It Needs Free-Market

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  January 17th at 04:07 PM  | 

“If our goal is to be shielded from any cost of healthcare, we will ultimately be exposed to all costs of healthcare.” Nothing typifies the inane cycle of government dependency and poverty more than the issue of healthcare.  Given that healthcare constitutes 18% of our economy and that millions of Americans are languishing under its crushing costs, it is important that we articulate healthcare reform | Read More »

Romney Fundamentally Lacks Conservative Principles on Healthcare…Or Anything Else

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 28th at 10:49 AM  | 

“His only contribution to the party has been his five-year interminable presidential campaign, despite his insistence that he never intended to run for office again after 2008.” When Mitt Romney was seeking the Republican nomination in 2008, he deflected criticism of Romneycare by blaming its disastrous effects on the liberal legislature in Massachusetts.  That was four years ago, when Romney was attempting to win the | Read More »

Mitt Romney: Leader of the Pale Pastel Wing of Party

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  December 12th at 10:30 AM  | 

During Saturday night’s GOP debate, Mitt Romney demonstrated once again why he is failing to gain traction with the conservative base.  He continues to muddle the distinction between Obama’s policies and true free-market doctrine.  Romney consistently invokes progressive policy doctrines, while tempering them with banal flavors of conservatism. We must remember that every time a candidate failed to draw a sharp intellectual distinction between himself | Read More »

Comparing the Entitlement Reform Plans of the GOP Presidential Candidates

By: Brad Jackson (Diary)  |  November 8th at 10:09 AM  | 

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech discuss the need for entitlement reform, Barack Obama’s government centered plan, and the solutions proposed by each of the Republican Presidential candidates. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at | Read More »

Unemployment Still High, Especially Among American Youth

By: Brad Jackson (Diary)  |  November 4th at 10:05 AM  | 

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss the October unemployment report, the high jobless rate among young adults, and a piece that says the left and the right are both wrong on how to fix the economy. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and | Read More »

A Conservative Look at Perry’s Economic Plan

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  October 25th at 12:11 PM  | 

When Herman Cain proposed his 9-9-9 plan, many conservatives became energized, despite their misgivings with the fine print of the plan.  It wasn’t so much the details of the proposal that excited the base, as most conservatives intuitively recoiled from a consumption tax; it was the boldness of the plan that resonated with them.  Cain’s 9-9-9 brought some excitement to a race that was defined | Read More »

Romneycare: A Microcosm of Obamacare, According to Conservative Study

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  September 15th at 10:57 AM  | 

Does government have the right to take over the healthcare sector, thereby infringing on liberty, killing jobs, reducing income, destroying investment, and driving up costs to consumers?  Well, as long as it is promulgated by state government, Mitt Romney thinks there is nothing wrong. The conservative Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University has done a comprehensive study surveying the devastation of Romneycare – and it’s | Read More »

The Entitlement Leviathan in Numbers

By: Daniel Horowitz (Diary)  |  August 22nd at 12:32 PM  | 

Immediately prior to breaking for the August recess, Congress passed a bipartisan agreement to cut spending.  Well, sort of. Leaders in both parties got together to do something evil and stupid; they agreed to the largest increase in the debt ceiling, without solving our debt problem.  They cut discretionary spending by $6.67 billion for FY 2012, from $1.0497 trillion to $1.043 trillion.  That’s a bit | Read More »

Congressman Paul Ryan Discusses a Debt Ceiling Deal, the Gang of Six and Fixing the Economy

By: Brad Jackson (Diary)  |  July 22nd at 10:07 AM  | 

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca and Congressman Paul Ryan to discuss the latest in the debt ceiling negotiations, the Senate’s Gang of Six plan, and the need to means test entitlement reform. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If | Read More »

Project Veritas. James O’Keefe. Russian drug-dealing Medicaid applicants.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  July 18th at 03:00 PM  | 

[UPDATE: I have been made aware that the individuals in this video are county employees, not state ones.] OK, let me set the background. You are a public sector employee for the state of Ohio; this probably means that you are a Democrat. You are probably aware, however vaguely and dimly, that there is a group out there who went around a few years ago | Read More »

Eric O’Keefe Talks About the Health Care Compact

By: Brad Jackson (Diary)  |  July 14th at 10:00 AM  | 

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Eric O’Keefe to discuss the Health Care Compact, Medicaid and Medicare reform and the financial danger posed by unfunded liabilities. We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so | Read More »

The Bluegrass State’s Battle with Medicaid Costs

By: Brad Jackson (Diary)  |  July 7th at 10:18 AM  | 

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Ben Domenech is joined by John Garen a professor in economics at the University of Kentucky and adjunct scholar at the Bluegrass Institute to discuss what lessons can be learned from the state of Kentucky where one in five people are enrolled in Medicaid as costs skyrocket and quality of care | Read More »