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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balance the budget Archive
Balanced Budget Amendment Pros and Cons
In recent weeks there has been a debate in the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal regarding the merits of a balanced-budget amendment, or BBA. First came an opinion piece by Senators DeMint (SC) and Snowe (Maine) in favor of an amendment (so far this year 48 senators have co-sponsored...
Read More Don’t Throw Rocks at the Firemen
When people are in trouble they're not always willing to accept help. Whether you're talking about an alcoholic resisting intervention, a drug addict, a wife who protects her wife-beating husband, or a homeowner who refuses to leave the flanks of an erupting Mount Saint Helens, there's never been a shortage of...
Read More 20 by ’20: A Limit on Federal Spending
By Dennis Canfield.
“… It's time to try something new.” - President Barack Obama, introducing his $3.8 trillion budget for 2011---which proposes that our federal government spend 25 cents of every dollar earned by every American, rich and poor alike. This is new. Before World War II, our government typically spent 10% less...
Read More Tax Brackets and Balanced Budgets
By John Lumbard.
Washington has abruptly backed away from a proposal to extend the Bush tax cuts for middle and low-income taxpayers, while bumping the rates for higher-income taxpayers back to the levels of the 1990s. Both parties were using the debate to score political points---they were trying to box their opponents into positions...
Read More Join Americans for a Balanced Budget Amendment
By John Lumbard.
As the months have rolled by we've worked to simplify our message, because nobody wants to stop partying long enough to think about bipartisan fiscal responsibility. Most Americans are for it---probably by a massive majority---but most haven't even thought about practical ways to ensure that the Congress does...
Read More Taking the Long View
By James Schaefer.
In America nearly everyone has the opportunity to acquire substantial retirement savings; it's simply a matter of applying self discipline (and some common sense) consistently over a very long period of time. Starting at age 22, saving a million dollars -- or more -- in retirement accounts is fairly...
Read More Americans For A Balanced Budget Amendment
Alan Parks is the founder of Americans For A Balanced Budget Amendment (http://www.balanceourbudget.com/), which collects signatures and builds support for the constitutional amendment that came within one vote of passing the Congress back in the mid 1990s. It can be done.
Alan tells us that he commissioned a survey, with dollars from his own pocket,...
Read More The Safe Withdrawal Rate
By John Lumbard.
The “safe withdrawal rate” is the amount of cash a retired person can withdraw from an IRA or other investment account without someday running out of money. It’s not an easy figure to calculate, because you need to project your investment returns and your cost of living...
Read More Candidates Calling for a Balanced-Budget Amendment
Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota: http://www.timpawlenty.com/balancedbudget. If you sign the petition you WILL be given an opportunity to decline fund-raising e-mails . . . . There is also an opportunity to put up a comment. Our contribution:
"Greater freedom for the American people will only become possible if we restrict Congress's freedom to intervene...
Read More Hope Springs Eternal . . .
We noted with interest an article in this morning's New York Times, on public sector pensions (States Take Aim at Pension Costs). To successfully address the debt crisis, sacrifices will need to be shared across both the private and public sectors, and they will need to include entitlements, benefits, services,...
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