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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Spending Cap Archive
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 A New Year’s Resolution of Thanksgiving
by John Lumbard.
“A growing body of research suggests that maintaining an attitude of gratitude can improve psychological, emotional and physical well-being. Adults who frequently feel grateful have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to studies conducted over the past...
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 Three Cheers for the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility!
By John Lumbard.
The President's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility will release its findings on December 1, but recently the two chairmen--Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles---took the extraordinary step of releasing a "draft" of the "Co-Chair's proposal". It's an end-run around the dissenting voices in the commission, and a clear statement that...
Read More Your Legislators Work for You. Make Them Do Their Jobs!
We've heard a lot of talk about fiscal responsibility in the last few months, and now it's time for the new Congress to follow through. The primary responsibility of our congresspeople is to manage our money responsibly; if they continue to pile IOUs onto the backs of little children we should...
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...
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