** 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 **
** Building A Million Dollar Retirement Portfolio **
Most of the millionaires in the U.S. are small business owners, and their wealth is tied up in their businesses. They drive used, American-made sedans; they live in modest homes in middle-class neighborhoods. Most of them are first-generation wealthy; they did not inherit their wealth, but earned it the hard way, through adding value in a business, or by saving diligently. Source: "The Millionaire Next Door", by Thomas Stanley and William Danko.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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limit on federal spending Archive
Whence We Came
By James Schaefer.
The original colonists of America and Canada were risk-takers -- by definition, a self-selecting group of people -- willing to leave behind family and culture and language and all that stood for civilization to cross an ocean in search of a better life.
No government handouts awaited them.
That entrepreneurial spirit...
Read More Cut, Cap, and Balance, Explained
Budget proposals are coming fast and furious in Washington these days. Most of it is political chatter, but there HAVE been a number of proposals that aspire to responsible government for the long term. Today's top story in that regard is "Cut, Cap, and Balance" which would smooth over some near-term...
Read More Dominique Strauss-Kahn
By John Lumbard.
What does the allegedly-amoral head of the International Monetary fund have to do with budget deficits in the U.S.? Ever since the fall of 2008 Americans have been losing trust in their leadership and institutions. The arrest of "DSK" pulls one more pillar out from under the...
Read More Battling Against the Truth
By John Lumbard.
Spending more than you have feels pretty good, so the resistance to balanced budgets---or anything close to balanced budgets---is not surprising. Still, it's always a bit of a shock to read carefully-thought-out opinions, written by smart people, that are nonsensical efforts to bend reality to justify the status quo.
Today...
Read More Speech On Boston Common
By John Lumbard.
"In the last 75 years there's been a dramatic change in our nation's Congress. Our legislators used to say and believe that they represented the interests of all Americans, and were working to do what what’s best for the nation as a whole. Now they say that...
Read More The Farmer and the Lottery
By James Schaefer.
The farmer wins the lottery and is being interviewed by a news reporter. "What are you planning to do, now that you've got all this money?" Replies the farmer,"Well, I guess I'll just keep farming 'til the money's gone."
Today farmers enjoy so much taxpayer support that it's fair...
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 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 Party On!
By John Lumbard.
When we launched this blog the federal debt was 12-and-something trillion, and we were fretting about the first trillion-dollar budget deficit. Really, I shouldn't have been surprised to see the $14 trillion number at the top of our home page, but it touched a nerve anyway. And...
Read More