Spending has skyrocketed under President Obama, but of late some are claiming that the opposite is true. Case in point: MarketWatch columnist Rex Nutting wrote, “Obama spending binge never happened,” and Politifact rated this statement “mostly true.” But Mitt Romney this week said that “Since President Obama assumed office three years ago, federal spending has accelrated at a pace without precedent in recent history.” So who has it right? Mitt Romney. What Politifact must have missed is a very important data point: President Obama signed most of the spending attributed … More
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Under current law, the U.S. Department of Defense faces significant spending cuts over the next 10 years—cuts that America’s civilian and military leaders have candidly described as “devastating” and “very high risk.” This precarious state of the Pentagon’s future fiscal affairs is due to the Budget Control Act (BCA), the controversial August 2011 deal by which Congress and the President agreed to raise America’s debt limit. The BCA placed ceilings to cap the defense budget and other forms of discretionary spending. The Obama Administration proposed in its fiscal year (FY) … More
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Under current law, the U.S. Department of Defense faces significant spending cuts over the next 10 years—cuts that America’s civilian and military leaders have candidly described as “devastating” and “very high risk.” This precarious state of the Pentagon’s future fiscal affairs is due to the Budget Control Act (BCA), the controversial August 2011 deal by which Congress and the President agreed to raise America’s debt limit. The BCA placed ceilings to cap the defense budget and other forms of discretionary spending. The Obama Administration proposed in its fiscal year (FY) … More
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The Obama Administration is piggybacking on claims made by MarketWatch’s Rex Nutting that Obama has not gone on the spending spree everyone thinks he has since taking office. As White House press secretary Jay Carney puts it, President Obama has exercised “significant fiscal restraint” and “acted with great fiscal responsibility.” Nutting writes: “Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.” So Nutting gives Obama a free pass for … More
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Europe is in bad shape, there’s no doubt about it. The sovereign debt crisis continues to roil the continent, Greece may leave the euro, Spain may have to revise its budget deficit upward for the second time because of bad loans, and France has a new socialist president pledging more spending instead of austerity. So when the G8 leaders met last week, President Obama had some words of advice to offer — “Look at me and learn from my stellar example!” OK, that’s a paraphrase, but his actual words aren’t … More
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Yesterday in the Senate, America bore witness to the glaringly obvious division in Washington, as stark as the contrast between high noon in the desert and midnight in the mountains. On the one hand is Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) failure to pass a budget over the past three years. And on the other hand is leadership from conservative senators and representatives who have put forward serious proposals to rescue America from its debt and spending crises. That division was laid bare inside the Capitol yesterday afternoon as the U.S. … More
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By Michael F. Cannon
My French is rusty, but I’m pretty sure the Fresh Prince just flipped out at the idea of a 75-percent marginal tax rate like that advocated by France’s new socialist president. Will Smith: Socialists Just Don’t Understand is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
Will Smith: Socialists Just Don’t Understand is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
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Fellow Americans: It has been over three years (1,111 days to be precise) since the U.S. Senate last passed a budget. The last time Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) fulfilled his legal responsibility, Conan was still on NBC, Tea Parties hadn’t come together and the iPad hadn’t yet been introduced. This is one of the biggest abdications of power we have seen on the part of our government in modern time. And there is no excuse. The Senate needs only 51 votes to pass a budget. Democrats have had … More
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It’s one thing to talk a good game about cutting spending, but it’s quite another thing to actually do something about it. This week, the House of Representatives has an opportunity to finally set some limits on Washington’s spending spree while also ensuring that the U.S. military has the resources it needs to defend America. Here’s the lay of the land this week in the nation’s capital. On Thursday, the House is set to take up a spending reduction plan known inside the beltway as “reconciliation.” Under the measure, Congress … More
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It’s pretty clear to most Americans that Washington is broken and spending money well beyond the country’s means. In fact, Sunday marked three years since the U.S. Senate last passed a budget. Getting the fiscal house in order clearly isn’t their top priority. But just how bad is the country’s spending and debt crisis? Heritage has the answer in its newly released 2012 Edition of the Federal Budget in Pictures. Whether you’re interested in learning how fast federal spending is growing, how big the tax burden is, what debt will … More
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