** 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 **
The average carried credit card balance in the U.S. is almost $16,000 per household. The average interest on that carried balance is 12.79% (source: Creditcards.com). The true cost of borrowing money is the sum of interest paid, plus the earnings foregone had that money been invested; this is what economists call "opportunity cost": the cost of the foregone opportunity to do things differently. For example, the true cost of a "Zero-percent interest!" auto loan is actually the earnings foregone had the money been invested, i.e., around 6.6%; and the true cost (the opportunity cost) of a carried balance on a credit card is the sum of the interest charged (12.79%) plus the earnings foregone (an average market return of 6.6%), or over 19%.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
$1.6 trillion deficit $8.2 trillion American Promise Austerity Balanced Budget Amendment balance the budget bipartisan reform cbo compound interest Congressional Budget Office Constitutional Amendment Contract From America debt burden default economy entitlements fair tax system federal budget Federal debt Federal deficit fiscal respnsibility fiscal responsibility Fiscal Sanity government debt Greece growth of government interest rates Investing Judd Gregg limit on federal spending Line-Item Veto national debt Pledge of Fiscal Responsibility political platform Portugal Social Security Spending Cap Spending Limit Amendment Sustainable Government Tax Reform Tea Party Term Limits The Stock Market trillion dollars unsustainable fiscal policyBlogroll
Term Limits Archive
Term Limits!
By Ralph Lockhart.
Amid all the hoopla about budget cuts, from both sides of the political fence, the media really doesn't do much to explain the entire Federal budget issue. Consider the recent talk about $38 billion in budget cuts. That's a huge number . . . . $38,000,000,000, or 38 thousand millions! But...
Read More Public Servants And Their Material Non-Public Information
By John H. Haldeman, Jr., CFA
During the 1840s, before Texas was admitted to the Union and before oil was discovered, bonds issued by the territory were deemed speculative, and traded at a large discount. Embedded in the treaty of annexation was a provision that the United States would assume...
Read More Term Limits? Again?
By John Lumbard.
It's said that fish and guests begin to stink after 3 days or so. Apparently the American public now believes, by overwhelming margins (74% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans), that even competent congressmen begin to stink after a while. Term limits are back in favor, presumably because...
Read More Term Limits
By John Lumbard.
To the right of this article you'll see the pledge that we'd like every candidate to take, promising to establish legislation that would guarantee balanced budgets in the future. We think that this sort of approach---forcing the Congress to do its duty---is necessary, even if the National Commission on...
Read More The Freshmen 50
The Internet is a big place. Yesterday Jim Schaefer stumbled upon The Freshmen 50 , which describes itself as an independent political action committe, "unaffiliated with any political party, group, or lobby", whose sole mission is to put "50 new fiscally and legislatively responsible citizens into the House Of Representatives in 2010." The founder, Brian...
Read More A Pledge of Fiscal Responsibility
For candidates for federal office:
I pledge that, if elected, I will introduce legislation to establish:
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.
Term Limits, of any durations...
Read More A Pledge of Fiscal Responsibility
(To be taken by candidates for federal office)
I pledge that, if elected, I will introduce legislation to establish:
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.
Term Limits, of any durations...
Read More $175,000 per person
“To deliver on all the government’s obligations and promises we’d need $175,000 per person right now.”
–The Concord Coalition
That’s $53 trillion. It includes both the existing debt and the future unfunded cost of entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security.
Bashing Bush/Obama might be our national pastime, but it’s the Congress that...
Read More