Fiscal Policy
Various sources tweeting from Captiol Hill are saying there will be no debt ceiling vote tonight.Robert Costa from National Review Online: Top GOP member confirms no vote tonight, still working on whip count and changes. Weary mood among leadership. Not lost, but no slam dunkHowever, there’s some kind of activity with the House Rules committee…
0. Just like any other organization, the Federal Government is subject to laws of economics, probability and mathematics that it can’t change. 1. Every organization, including the Federal Government has a cash flow, related to but different from an annual summation of revenues and expenditures. For example, your local bridge club may have $600 in…
The Republican “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan for addressing the tendency of government budgets to increase towards infinity passed the House yesterday. President Obama has said he would veto at least an earlier version, and Rhode Island Representatives James Langevin and David Cicilline both voted against it. Title I of the bill is the cut,…
At the conclusion of the Providence Republican City Committee’s event on “Rhode Island Rising Pension Tide” last Thursday, I was able to ask presenter Gary Morse (no relation) a few questions about specific numbers and predictions for the future. Question: I’ve heard the claim made the pensions are superior to 401(k)-type plans, because aggregating all…
This staggering item stands out from Mark Steyn’s (characteristically excellent) column of today. When the 44th president took office, he made a decision that it was time for the already unsustainable levels of government spending finally to break the bounds of reality and frolic and gambol in the magical fairy kingdom of Spendaholica: This year,…
At a forum sponsored last evening by the Providence Republican City Committee, Gary Morse (no relation), the primary advisor to 2010 Republican Gubernatorial candidate John Robitaille on the subject of pension issues, delivered a talk titled “Rhode Island’s Rising Pension Tide”. The Providence Republicans promised that this would be a non-partisan forum, and Mr. Morse…
Good evening. I will be liveblogging the presentation being made by Gary Morse (no relation) this evening on the subject of Rhode Island’s pension problems, sponsored by the Providence City Republican Committee… Gary Morse speaking: Rhode Island is number 50 in unfunded pension liability. Mr. Morse wants to dispel the notion of the greedy state…
It’s tedious to follow the debt ceiling/budget deficit wrangling, I know. Around here, we have the ProJo trumpeting tax increases as the “obvious fix” and telling the Republicans “to do what grownups do” while explaining that “the health-care reform law passed last year would have begun to kick in its projected savings for the government”…
Steve Malanga looks at the national problem of cities in over their heads (particularly because of pension promises) and uses Providence (and New Haven, CT) as examples: Cities are also running out of fiscal alternatives to deal with their deficits. Like states…many cities have used one-shot revenue deals, hidden borrowing, and other gimmicks to bolster…
The bill being heard today by the House Finance Committee that would give municipal bondholders a “first lien” on local government treasuries (H5376), introduced on behalf of the Rhode Island Department of Revenue and already passed by the Senate Finance committee (S0614), should not be passed into law. Peder Schaefer of the Rhode Island League…