http://sbrc1.net Western United States Largest Republican Club Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:25:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/10/morning-bell-budget-why-follow-a-budget/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/10/morning-bell-budget-why-follow-a-budget/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:57:11 +0000 Mike Brownfield http://blog.heritage.org/?p=90762 Families and businesses have budgets, yet Washington doesn’t — and it hasn’t for the last three years. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) doesn’t think this major omission is that big of a deal, and the White House has no opinion on the matter. Fortunately, there are leaders in the House who see the importance of passing a budget and getting runaway spending and escalating debt under control. For Congress, the budget is an outline of how and where money will be spent across the federal government and how high … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/10/morning-bell-budget-why-follow-a-budget/feed/ 0 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/08/ryan-house-budget-committee-leads-on-process-reforms/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/08/ryan-house-budget-committee-leads-on-process-reforms/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:09:55 +0000 Romina Boccia http://blog.heritage.org/?p=90667 With debt and spending out of control, the good news is that the House Budget Committee is taking important steps toward focusing Congress on its most basic duty: budgeting. By speedily passing several budget process reform bills, Chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI) and others on his committee are moving Congress in the right direction—toward controlling spending and increasing accountability and transparency in the federal budget process. The fundamental problem with the Senate’s refusal to pass a budget for more than 1,000 days is a lack of fiscal discipline, which results in … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/08/ryan-house-budget-committee-leads-on-process-reforms/feed/ 0 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/01/federal-spending-on-health-care-doubles-in-the-next-decade/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/01/federal-spending-on-health-care-doubles-in-the-next-decade/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:18:05 +0000 Alyene Senger http://blog.heritage.org/?p=89919 The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its Budget and Economic Outlook for years 2012 to 2022 yesterday, and as Heritage’s Patrick Knudsen shows, the numbers add up to a dismal fiscal future. As the government continues its fiscal irresponsibility, 2012 will be the fourth straight year of trillion-dollar deficits. This trend is on track to continue as a result of increasing federal spending on health care, which will more than double between 2012 and 2022. The CBO estimates that by 2022, the government will spend $1.8 trillion on health care, … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/02/01/federal-spending-on-health-care-doubles-in-the-next-decade/feed/ 0 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/31/budget-outlook-getting-worse-cbo-report-shows/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/31/budget-outlook-getting-worse-cbo-report-shows/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:07:13 +0000 Patrick Louis Knudsen http://blog.heritage.org/?p=89840 The figures released today by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) once again reflect the magnitude of the federal government’s fiscal problem and the urgent need for Congress and the President to address it. Some key points: The 2012 deficit, projected at $1.079 trillion, represents the fourth consecutive year of deficits exceeding $1 trillion. Debt held by the public today is $11.2 trillion, or 72.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—nearly three-fourths of total economic output. This year’s $3.6 trillion in spending is 23.2 percent of GDP—nearly one-fourth the size of … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/31/budget-outlook-getting-worse-cbo-report-shows/feed/ 0 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/mr-president-we-cant-wait-for-the-fy-2013-budget/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/mr-president-we-cant-wait-for-the-fy-2013-budget/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:00:43 +0000 Emily Goff http://author.blog.heritage.org/?p=89113 President Obama will release his annual budget proposal late yet again. Choosing the date is not merely a convention. By law, the President must release the budget by the first Monday in February, which falls on February 6 this year. Yet yesterday the Administration announced it will release its fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget a week late, marking the third such delay in four years. Right now, when the economy is struggling, annual deficits consistently exceed $1 trillion, and Americans are demanding that Washington govern responsibly, this delay is beyond … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/mr-president-we-cant-wait-for-the-fy-2013-budget/feed/ 0 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/stop-the-madness-national-debt-threatens-our-prosperity/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/stop-the-madness-national-debt-threatens-our-prosperity/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:42:08 +0000 Rep. Doug Lamborn http://blog.heritage.org/?p=89096 I propose this simple New Year’s resolution for Congress, pass a budget before borrowing any more money. Today marks the 1,000th day without a budget from Senate Democrats. The last time they passed a budget, you had never heard of the iPad. Tiger Woods was only known for his golfing abilities. General Motors had never declared bankruptcy. You had never heard of Swine flu. Despite the lack of a spending plan, or perhaps because of that, Washington’s borrowing and spending continues out of control. The president recently asked Congress for … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/stop-the-madness-national-debt-threatens-our-prosperity/feed/ 0 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/morning-bell-state-of-dysfunction/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/morning-bell-state-of-dysfunction/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:49:03 +0000 Mike Brownfield http://blog.heritage.org/?p=89010 Tonight, Americans who tune in to the State of the Union will watch the work of a rhetorical master with a flair for illusion. President Barack Obama will take to the floor of the Capitol in hopes of laying the groundwork for a political debate on his terms–one where he stands on emotional appeals, populism, and class warfare, not the shaky ground of his crumbling record. And looking right back at him will be the U.S. Senate, which has for the past 1,000 days failed to pass a budget–a total … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/24/morning-bell-state-of-dysfunction/feed/ 0 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/20/1000-days-without-a-budget-facts-on-the-senates-failure/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/20/1000-days-without-a-budget-facts-on-the-senates-failure/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:27:34 +0000 Mike Brownfield http://blog.heritage.org/?p=88820 Tuesday, January 24, will mark the 1,000th day since the U.S. Senate has passed a budget—an egregious dereliction of duty on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D–NV) watch. By enacting continuing resolution upon continuing resolution (short-term measures to keep the government running, spending money at the current rate), the Senate has taken a pass on leading, all to the detriment of the poor and middle class. The budget process forces Congress to set priorities to protect the people’s money and put it to its appropriate use. Instead, the Democrat-controlled Senate has abdicated its responsibility. … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/20/1000-days-without-a-budget-facts-on-the-senates-failure/feed/ 0 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/17/in-europe-reducing-spending-necessary-but-not-sufficient-to-restore-economic-freedom/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/17/in-europe-reducing-spending-necessary-but-not-sufficient-to-restore-economic-freedom/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:53:55 +0000 Ted R. Bromund, Ph.D. http://blog.heritage.org/?p=88434 If the 2012 edition of Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom has bad news for the United States, the news for Europe is not much better. The 43 nations of the European region did manage to lose less economic freedom than did the United States, but a decline is still a decline. And the European decline was broad-based: Only nine countries made gains, and every one of the top 10 declined—in some cases, dramatically. The underlying driver of the declines in many cases will come as no surprise: higher levels of … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/17/in-europe-reducing-spending-necessary-but-not-sufficient-to-restore-economic-freedom/feed/ 0 http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/09/video-the-reality-of-americas-national-debt/ http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/09/video-the-reality-of-americas-national-debt/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:24:09 +0000 Josh Shepherd http://blog.heritage.org/?p=87927 America’s total debt now tops $15.2 trillion—the size of the entire economy. While this is a real concern, the greater problem is the growth of spending and debt in the future. Spending on entitlements is the real driver of future debt. In this clip from the documentary film “I Want Your Money,” Heritage expert Alison Fraser reveals why the national debt is a catastrophic crisis, stating: “We’re right on the cusp of 77 million baby boomers retiring into these entitlement programs, and that is absolutely unsustainable.” When Moody’s threatened to … More]]> http://blog.heritage.org/2012/01/09/video-the-reality-of-americas-national-debt/feed/ 0