Fiscal Policy
Power Line on Taking the National Debt Seriously Stephen Spruiell on Obamacare Dissected: Ten things that probably will be in the health-care bill (but shouldn’t) Kevin Williamson on Real Health-Care Reform: Ten things that ought to be in the health-care bill (but probably won’t) Veronique de Rugy on Elinor Ostrom and the Essence of Economics…
This was the reaction last hour by Glenn Beck’s producer Stu upon being told that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had requested (on Friday – do you suppose they were trying to minimize media attention?) that Congress raise the national debt ceiling. It is critically important that Congress act before the limit is reached so that…
Given the numbers reported in this Los Angeles Times story from today…California’s two huge government pension funds reported whopping annual losses today of about one-quarter of their portfolios. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest in the nation, today posted a preliminary drop of $56.2 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30. The…
A defined benefit pension system, like any retirement system, only works if there’s enough money in it to fund what needs to be paid out. Seems straightforward, right? Alas, not if you’re a progressive. That’s why they simultaneously push ideas like these, via a recently recycled Pat Crowley post at RI Future…87% believe all workers…
According to numbers put out by the Congressional Budget Office…President Obama’s economic stimulus package will increase the debt burden on American taxpayers by over $6,100 per household ($719 billion in debt, divided by about 117 million households) by 2011.The total package of spending and revenue changes enacted by Congress between January and March of this…
Steve Peoples serves reminder in today’s Projo that the passing of a supplemental budget hardly even qualifies as round one in Rhode Island’s continuing fiscal crisis…The business-backed Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council analyzed both sets of out-year figures and concluded that the legislature’s projections — showing an average annual deficit of $462 million through 2014…
Commentators on the evolving Obama presidency: Charles Krauthammer: Obama proposes a European U.S. Not a great speech, but extremely consequential. If Barack Obama succeeds, his joint address to Congress will be seen as historic — indeed as the foundational document of Obamaism. As it stands, it constitutes the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by…
Turning debate into bickering over legislation that would increase departmental budgets by eight percent, Rep. James McGovern (D, MA) offered this irrelevancy: “The same people who drove the economy into the ditch are now complaining about the size of the tow truck,” said Rep. James McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts, pointing out the large increase…
One of the most unenlightening debates that has resulted from the financial crisis has been the one where advocates of defined benefit pension plans argue that the market crash proves that 401(k)-style plans can’t work and therefore we need to increase the number of people in defined benefit plans, while advocates of 401(k)s argue that…
We all should be vitally interested in the goings-on in Washington, DC, regarding the Stimulus Package that’s making its way through Congress. The news reports may make it seem complicated and far away, but it won’t be long before the effects of what our lawmakers do to us on this matter come right home to…