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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debt burden Archive
This Week In Fiscal Irresponsibility
By John Lumbard.
This is shaping up to be a big week for debt and deficits. The U.S. Senate is deep in discussions and negotiations regarding Senate Joint Resolutions 3,4,5, and 10. The President is going to deliver a speech Wednesday afternoon at George Washington University (apparently without TV coverage) that...
Read More Senator Udall (D – Colorado) Speaks
By John Lumbard.
Republicans are threatening to shut down the government over $100 billion in spending cuts---remember when that was considered big money?---while Democrats try to turn the event to their political advantage. Wouldn't it make more sense to take a stand on principle and a permanent change for the...
Read More The Keepers of the Flame
By James Schaefer.
At long last, the topic of entitlement reform -- "the topic" -- has been broached (see Weekend Interview with Paul Ryan).
These entitlements -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Prescription Drug Benefit -- are the promises that politicians have made to American citizens for decades. We think of them...
Read More The Grand Bargain
By John Lumbard.
In the weeks before the 2008 elections Barack Obama mused that the nation needs to strike a "grand bargain" if it's going to balance the federal budget. You won't give up your benefits and tax breaks unless I give up mine, and the same can be said...
Read More The Scott Adams Challenge
By James Schaefer.
Scott Adams, the author of Dilbert, recently had a feature article in the Wall Street Journal, entitled "How to Tax the Rich", and he asked readers to think up incentives that might allow our biggest taxpayers to feel a bit better about dropping hundred-thousand-dollar checks into the ravenous maw...
Read More Amendment Filed. Call Your Congressman!
Senators Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) have introduced a Balanced-Budget Amendment to the Constitution that---are you sitting down?---includes a 20% of GDP cap on federal spending! It requires a 3/5 vote of both houses to run deficits or overspend, but in other respects is very much like a bill...
Read More The ENTIRE Government Runs on Borrowed Money
By Ron Olive.
(To the Editor of the Wall Street Journal)
Sir:
In “Revenues Are Rising” (Review & Outlook, January 12th), you tell us that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, federal receipts “have climbed by $44 billion, or nearly 9%, to $531 billion” during the first quarter of fiscal...
Read More Incentives Rule!
By John Lumbard.
In December the Boston Globe ran a front-page story on the “dangerous incentives” created by a program that offers cash to the parents of children taking psychotropic drugs for ADHD and other behavioral conditions. The number of children on these drugs has predictably swelled, and a program...
Read More Hair of the Dog
By John Lumbard.
Unemployment claims are down. The trade deficit is rising. The Fed is printing money. A new cut in payroll taxes (less FICA taken out of your paycheck) and an extension of unemployment benefits will mean growing federal budget deficits---and a big new stimulus for the economy. We’re...
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...
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