An American Promise
● A Balanced-Budget Amendment to the Constitution, with appropriate exceptions for times of war and recession.
● A line-item veto, to give the President a fighting chance to eliminate pork and earmarks.
● A limitation on federal spending, to 20% of GDP.-
*** About We Elected You ***
Have Your Say!
- John Lumbard on Problems With a Balanced Budget Amendment?
- Chris Curley on Problems With a Balanced Budget Amendment?
- John Lumbard on How to Fix the Health Care Mess
- Did Government Agencies “Raid” Social Security “Coffers”? « Joejolly’s Weblog on “The Debt The Government Owes Itself For Raiding Social Security”
- John Lumbard on The Antidote
- Gen Y on The Keepers of the Flame
- Chuck Bailey on Amendment Filed. Call Your Congressman!
- Phoebe Addington on Party On!
- FaGaurlwal on Incentives Rule!
- James Schaefer on The ENTIRE Government Runs on Borrowed Money
Topics
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Archive for July, 2010
Addressing Government Debt
By James Schaefer.
In the space of just a few months, pundits from across the political spectrum have embraced the need to get our fiscal house in order. Now the debate is about timing, the right ratio of spending cuts and tax increases, and the nature of the very-political process that's...
Read More Sustainable Government
By James Schaefer.
In a recent Opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (Tax Aversion Syndrome and Our Deficit Future), Peter G. Peterson writes about Congressional Budget Office projections that show the public debt rising from its current 60% of GDP to 233% in 30 years, and 500% in 50...
Read More Democrats Favoring a Balanced-Budget Amendment
By John Lumbard.
In March of this year, 41 House Democrats sponsored House Joint Resolution 78, Proposing a balanced budget amendment to the Consititution of the United States.
Sponsor Rep. Bobby Bright (D, AL). Co-sponsors Jason Altmire (D, Pennsylvania-4), John Barrow (D, GA-12), Robert Berry (D, AR-1), Sanford Bishop (D, GA-2), Dan Boren...
Read More A free press must be subsidized
by Michael Smith.
In a July 14 Wall Street Journal column, Columbia University president Lee Bollinger calls for a government bailout of the newspaper industry—an idea that’s popped up here and there for at least a couple of years. The moral hazards are almost too obvious to mention, but I couldn’t...
Read More Solvency
By James Schaefer
Two points are missing in Mr Barnes' otherwise excellent opinion piece (Obama's Entitlement Opportunity) in today's Wall Street Journal (July 12, 2010): None of the proposed changes to make Social Security solvent would be necessary if Congress had simply left the Social Security trust fund alone.
Instead, government has...
Read More Facts, Fiction, and Fiscal Responsibility
Today the Boston Globe published an opinion piece which argued that readers are rarely willing to alter their opinions when they are presented with contrary facts. We offered a comment suggesting that this is very much true of the Medicare debate---not one American in a thousand knows how large the future...
Read More Peter Treadway: Debt and Deflation . . . or Inflation?
By Peter T Treadway, PhD
Historical Analytics LLC
www.thedismaloptimist.com
“Show me where he sits and I’ll tell you where he stands.”
Old Washington proverb
“As the buyers become less eager and the sellers become more eager an uneasy period of ‘financial distress’ follows… For the economy as a whole, the equivalent is the awareness on...
Read More WaPo columnists look at the national debt
by Michael Smith.
In today’s Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria reports that America’s 500 largest nonfinancial companies are sitting on $1.8 trillion in cash. Why aren’t they investing? The political climate in Washington is creating fear and uncertainty. In other words, who knows which industry might catch Barney Frank’s eye next?
John, in...
Read More Simulated budget battles deal blow to federal debt
by Michael Smith.
On June 26, several thousand Americans in 19 cities participated in a “national town meeting” hosted by AmericaSpeaks, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that seeks to give citizens a voice in national decision-making. Our purpose was to tackle the federal budget. We sat in groups of 8-10 people (each...
Read More