Free Republic

Jun 7, 2012 4:46pm Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke Warns Congress on ‘Taxmaggedon’: ‘If You All Go on Vacation, It’s Still Going to Happen’ The Federal Reserve Board Chairman had a stern warning today for Congress: “Taxmaggedon” is real, it’s coming and only lawmakers can save the nation from falling off this rapidly approaching “fiscal cliff.” “What is particularly striking here is that this is all pre-programmed,” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said. “If you all go on vacation, it’s still going to happen, so it’s important to be thinking about that and working with your colleagues to see how you might...

A little-noticed proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown to eliminate the second year of science as a high school graduation requirement is sparking concern among educators who fear it could deepen the academic divide among students and further erode the state's scientific and technological leadership. The recommendation in Brown's revised May budget is aimed at freeing the state from reimbursing local school districts for the $250-million annual cost of the second-year science course. The state has not made any payouts to school districts since the requirement was ruled a mandate in 2005, so California owes public school systems $2.5 billion in

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. debt will exceed the size of the nation’s economy in 25 years if the federal government doesn’t chart a “sustainable fiscal course,” the Congressional Budget Office warned in a new estimate on Tuesday. In its 2012 long-term budget outlook, the nonpartisan CBO said that extending current tax rates and rising health-care costs would push the debt to almost 200% of gross domestic product in 2037. That is under the CBO’s scenario that maintains current policies. Read CBO report.

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Fearing their own bargaining rights could be stripped away, members of New York’s powerful unions piled onto planes to Wisconsin in an effort to topple GOP Gov. Scott Walker in tomorrow’s recall election. Dozens representing, among others, health-care Local 1199 East, building-service Local 32BJ and Local 726 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, are knocking on doors, making calls and handing out fliers to support Democrat Tom Barrett over Walker. And members from around the country of the Transport Workers Union are badgering voters in the Badger State by cold-calling them using an online phone bank. Many Wisconsin...

California's fiscal and governance crisis careens from bad to worse. The latest blow: a 70% increase in the state's projected budget deficit in Gov. Jerry Brown's revised budget, to $16 billion from $9 billion. Meanwhile, S&P warns of a downgrade to the state's bond rating, already the lowest of any state, and the latest CEO survey ranks California's business climate dead last. Caught in the symbiotic financial embrace of special interests—teacher and other public-employee unions, trial lawyers and environmental extremists—Mr. Brown and the state legislature repeatedly nibble around the edges of the budget broken by costly, ineffective programs, financed by...

Raw data show Obama can’t honestly claim a good record as a job creator, but they also suggest that the wild spending growth Romney and company decry has already begun to subside under the influence of the Republican House. The outcome of the upcoming electoral battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will depend on public perceptions of the president’s economic stewardship, with particular emphasis on his performance on the all-important issue of jobs. At a May 24th campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa the president declared that “federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace...

In what a prudent observer would think is the least they should do, the pay for Gov. Jerry Brown, legislators and statewide officeholders will be reduced 5 percent, thanks to the state’s independent salary-setting commission. . . Had the people of California to do it over again, they may want to give themselves the power to raise and lower officials’ pay. Voting on Facebook by registered voters seems to us an effective tool for whipping these folks into shape in a timely manner. Bad acts in Sacramento could be cause for pay cuts instantly. That would be some motivation. ....

Balance the GOP presidential ticket? Nah! That's Democrat stuff. Mitt Romney has the chance to a make a powerful statement with his V.P. choice. Governor Scott Walker -- a boring white guy's white guy -- is about to make a very powerful statement in Wisconsin. A thumbs-up by Wisconsin voters for Walker in next Tuesday's recall election would be a huge victory for bold governmental reform. A Walker victory establishes that Republicans can enact significant reforms and survive onslaughts by public-sector labor unions, the left, and the dependent classes. For conservative reformers, a Walker recall win is the modern equivalent...

Even with Calculators on the Floor, the Senate Still Comes Up With a Zero on the BudgetBy Sunlen Miller | ABC OTUS News – Wed, May 16, 2012 You would have thought that starting the day with a vote permitting the use of calculators on the Senate floor today was a good sign that it could potentially be a productive day for the U.S. senators. But you would have been mistaken. The Senate spent the whole day today, with over six hours of straight floor speeches, debating five nonbinding budget resolutions that everyone knew in advance would not pass. And,...

The ragged-looking grass growing up around the veterans’ monument in the center of Avalon Park was getting on Ron Davis’ nerves. That’s why on Friday Davis, who lives across from the park on Revere Street with his wife Barbara, paid a contractor $175 from his own pocket to cut the grass in time for Memorial Day. “I’m not angry at the city,” Davis said. “I just got sick of looking at it.” Patrick J. Sullivan, director of Springfield parks, buildings and recreation management, said he’s also sick of looking at unkempt parks. But budget constraints have forced him to prioritize....

President Obama referenced a dubious statistical report at a campaign event on Thursday, claiming: “Since I’ve been president, federal spending has actually risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years.” The claim was drawn from a MarketWatch post by Rex Nutting titled “Obama spending binge never happened,” which has been resoundingly debunked and discredited by a number of experts. White House press secretary Jay Carney cited the same report on Wednesday when he told reporters that Obama “has demonstrated significant fiscal restraint” and urged members of the media not to “buy into the BS that you hear about spending...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley signed a quarter-billion dollars’ worth of tax increases into law on Tuesday. The move is meant to keep the state’s ever-expanding budget on a path toward growth. “Growth” is the last thing the private-sector economy is going to see in the Free State. According to the latest Labor Department figures, Maryland lost 6,000 jobs in April, the largest such drop in the nation. Unless the General Assembly and the governor begin to rethink their free-spending ways, Maryland soon will be in the fiscal hole like California and Greece. Like a good Democrat, Mr. O'Malley has taken...

Obama's campaign manager huddles with Senate DemocratsBy Bernie Becker - 05/24/12 06:27 PM ET President Obama’s campaign manager huddled with Democratic senators on Thursday to brief them on the campaign’s grassroots strategy, according to lawmakers in attendance. Speaking to reporters afterward, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, a former top aide to Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), said he walked the lawmakers through what the campaign was doing on the ground, and senators said the meeting did not spend much time on other hot-button issues — like the private equity experience of presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. A number of Democrats have...

I have to applaud Rex Nutting over at The Wall Street Journal‘s MarketWatch site. He wrote a piece that explains the budget figures of the Federal government in the United States and, specifically, how those budget figures are influenced by various Presidential administrations. It’s the sort of thing that you take for granted everyone knows then you realize, often with horror, that almost no one knows it. That explains a lot of the terrible thinking you see in the broader population.Nutting examines Federal spending under various Presidential administrations and discusses a fact that is well known to anyone who understands...

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed into law a package of tax increases Tuesday targeting six-figure earners, tobacco users and companies engaged in real estate transactions to cover record spending on education. In a two-hour ceremony, it was easily the most recognizable measure O’Malley (D) signed but hardly the most popular. Rather, union members, minorities and interest groups crowded the State House to celebrate more than 200 lesser-known and often narrowly tailored bills. They passed the General Assembly with little fanfare but, taken together, will color the state’s social and political identity a slightly deeper shade of blue. The bills included...

Another line in the sand has been drawn as Congress faces a daunting lame-duck year-end fiscal crisis dubbed around Capitol Hill as "Taxmaggedon." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., responded to a letter from Senate Republicans today in which they called for an immediate extension of the Bush tax cuts, with a message of his own: that's impossible before the election.

Recall that in March, 2010, when the Obamacare battle was raging, following a walk through a Tea Party rally outside the Capitol, black congressional leaders John Lewis and Emanuel Cleaver accused the Tea Party protesters there of spitting on them and calling them the “n-word.” Media outlets ran with it, but then Andrew Breitbart promised a $100,000 reward to the NAACP if anyone can show a video confirming the charge. The $100,000 was never paid.

After voting this week to raise income tax rates on the state’s highest earners, Maryland lawmakers aren’t ruling out more tax increases next year. The General Assembly passed legislation that will raise taxes on the top 14 percent of earners in an effort to balance the state’s $35.5 billion budget and cut half of Maryland’s $1 billion structural deficit, which measures expected revenue shortfalls in the future. Lawmakers could look to eliminate the remaining $500 million deficit over the next year by methods such as expanding gambling in the state, cutting spending or passing a long-debated tax increase to fund...

Q: Speaker Boehner this morning asked where is the President's plan to tackle our looming debt crisis? Can you answer that? MR. CARNEY: The Speaker knows exactly where it is. You know exactly where it is. He presented a budget that does just that -- that cuts our deficits by over $4 trillion. Q: But his own party won't even bring it up for a vote. MR. CARNEY: But where are the Republicans? Where have they demonstrated a willingness to compromise? Where have they demonstrated a willingness to do what everyone on the outside -- believe is the right thing...

The Senate on Wednesday rejected every single budget being offered this year, leaving the chamber — and therefore the federal government — without a plan to address Medicare, Social Security and the other major entitlement programs that are driving deficits and debt. In repeated votes, Democrats who control the chamber defeated four Republican proposals, including a plan that passed the House in March. The entire Senate also unanimously rejected President Obama’s 2013 budget, voting 99-0 against it, following a 414-0 vote against it in the House earlier this year. “A stunning development for the president of the United States in...