Free Republic

Sequestration chatter isn’t going away any time soon, and one of the expected headlines is making the rounds again this week. Air traffic control towers at nearly 150 airports across the nation are going to sit empty, forcing pilots to figure out safe landing procedures by a combination of the seats of their pants and furiously cracking open fortune cookies. In other words, you’re all going to die. The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday told 149 regional airports across the country it would begin closing their air traffic control towers in April, but said it would spare another 40 towers...

All too often political leaders have been afraid to tell the truth about the costs associated with pension, health care and other entitlement obligations. It is time for politicians to own up to these fiscal challenges. As is the case in Illinois, the truth is often sobering. I know the feeling. When I became governor in Wisconsin, the state faced a $3.6 billion deficit, was hemorrhaging jobs and had high unemployment. While I'm not an expert on the fiscal challenges facing Illinois, based on media reports I've read and stories I've heard from visiting your state, there are major budgetary...

To get to city hall, you drive up I-75, past the empty Silverdome where the Detroit Lions used to play, and into a nondescript concrete municipal building. The city clerk was laid off a few days ago, but the door to her office hangs open. The mayor, Leon Jukowski, gives me a brief tour of the desks where people no longer work. Cubicles sit empty, little tchotkes and calendars left behind when their owners were laid off. “At one time we had 800, 900 city employees,” says Jukowski. “We have 150 now. And we have the same services that we...

PolitiFact, FactCheck, and WaPo All Confirm: The $105 Billion Obamacare Slush Fund Exists SLY to put it nicely for the 3 jokers to hide teh funding in the bill. Why on earth would the House vote to repeal ZERO-care but vote to fund the monstrosity? If the dems had done the budget back in the fall there wouldn't be the possibility of government shutdown in the first place. They didn't want the budget to affect the Nov election and they don't want to commit to it now. It was supposedly to their advantage so that they can say the "Republicans...

The Capitol's political machinations have become increasingly convoluted as the state's fiscal crisis has deepened, with the latest deal, another mélange of gimmicks aimed at once again postponing the day of reckoning, typifying the trend. In the aftermath of last week's dealmaking, confusion, conflict and angst, politicians are chanting the mantra of reform. "We will be tackling tax reform, to rid our system of its volatility and reliance on capital gains," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. "And we will take on pension reform to cut down on unfunded liabilities and save the state billions of dollars." The president pro tem of...

I won’t go as far as Nathan in actually asking people to vote for Fred Thompson in Iowa, but I will say that I hope they vote for him. While I have a few areas of substantial disagreement with him, I tend to agree with him on Social Security, national security, taxes, budget reform, and the second amendment. To be honest, I like the campaign he’s running. I know I probably won’t get a lot of agreement on that, but let me say it again: I like the campaign that Fred Thompson is running. I like that he has put...

An Irresponsible President Deficits? Let the next White House worry. SHEER COINCIDENCE: Last Monday, the Social Security and Medicare trustees released their annual depressing report. On Tuesday, congressional negotiators handed President Bush a "victory" -- his assessment -- in agreeing to extend his capital gains and dividend tax cuts. Mr. Bush and his fellow tax-cuts-above-all proponents would like you to believe that the two events are unrelated. But taken together they underscore the terrible fiscal predicament that Mr. Bush has chosen to bequeath to his successor. According to the new estimates, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted in...

All of the press commentary on President George W. Bush’s 2007 budget proposal has paid virtually no attention to one of its most significant initiatives. And it is no wonder: how could a move to improve the way the government analyzes tax policy compete with cutting outdated programs, making the United States more competitive, and winning the global war on terrorism? This little-noted initiative, however, may be historically important. Buried deep in the President’s proposals for the Department of the Treasury is a plan to create a Dynamic Analysis Division within the Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis. This division would...

This article appeared in the February issue of The American Spectator. To subscribe, please click here. "Can we, who man the ship of state, deny it is somewhat out of control?" Ronald Reagan asked this question less than two minutes into his first address to Congress in 1981, excoriating a government willing to mortgage the future of its citizenry via a national debt of $1 trillion. Reagan invited the American people to visualize this "incomprehensible" sum not as a string of numbers but as the cold, hard cash it actually was. "If you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in...

Ersatz Congressional BudgetingPaygo rule leads to government growth. ©2004 Copley News Service, 6/14/2004 It looks like Congress won't pass a budget this year. "So what?" you say, and rightfully so. The federal government will go on without interruption. As a former member of the House Budget and Appropriations Committees, I can say with some experience that congressional budgeting is playacting anyway, and all the political hand-wringing is just stagecraft. The ersatz congressional budget lacks the two defining characteristics of real budgeting: binding budget constraints and enforceable spending priorities. What euphemistically is called the congressional "budget" doesn't actually authorize the expenditure...

Gov. Schwarzenegger Announces 'California Recovery Plan' 11/18/2003 Calls on Legislature to Repeal SB60, Pass Workers Compensation Reform, Structural Budget Reforms SACRAMENTO Gov. Schwarzenegger unveiled his "California Recovery Plan," and called on the Legislature to repeal SB60, pass meaningful workers compensation reform and structural budget reforms so the state no longer spends more money than the state receives. "I will not shrink from the challenge or shirk my responsibility to the people of California. So today I want to detail my California recovery plan." said Schwarzenegger. Gov. Schwarzenegger laid out three separate reform packages as part of the "California Recovery...

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT STATE OF CALIFORNIA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- P R O C L A M A T I O N by the Governor of the State of California WHEREAS, an extraordinary occasion has arisen and now exists requiring that the Legislature of the State of California be convened in extraordinary session; now therefore, I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by Section 3(b) Article IV of the Constitution of the State of California, do hereby convene the Legislature of the State of California to meet in extraordinary session at Sacramento,...