Free Republic

"Tax reform means, 'Don't tax you, don't tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.'" -Russel B. Long A new Marist poll (page 19) shows a majority support raising taxes on people making $250K and up to close the deficit. The same poll suggests we should establish an an individual mandate on MC Hammer pants because we are apparently also saying "can't touch this" to entitlements.What the hell is wrong with you America? Have we become a nation of teenagers? Rich people aren't our parents so put your damn hands away and get a job.Crap, I know I know...jobs...

Things have certainly changed in the last three weeks. In late March, Senator Dick Durbin dismissed the idea of Social Security reform, arguing that the entitlement program “does not add a penny” to the deficit, and called efforts to include it in entitlement reform a “deal killer.” Suddenly, Durbin has awakened to the danger of allowing Social Security to proceed unchanged, according to ABC: And while other top Democrats say Social Security should be untouched, Durbin says Social Security changes should be made now. …Durbin criticized a resolution put forward by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a liberal independent from Vermont, that...

Bassett official: Waiver extension for federal-state health reform 'good news'By Denise Richardson - Staff Writer The Daily Star Tue Apr 19, 2011, 03:30 AM EDT The federal government has extended a deadline that officials said jeopardized hospital projects, including three in the Bassett Healthcare Network. The extension overall is good news, Bassett spokeswoman Karen Huxtable said Monday. Work associated with the Bassett-Fox affiliation to establish clinical programs wasn't held up, she said, but the extension does mean that some remaining funds are now secured. In January, U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and other federal lawmakers sent...

Lost in the reaction to Rep. Paul Ryan's "Roadmap for America's Fu ture" budget resolution -- which seeks to reform "entitlements," abolish ObamaCare, retire the national debt and put the country again on a sound financial footing -- is the plan's moral underpinning. Simply put, Ryan is asking Americans to grow up, stop whining and take back control of their destinies from the nanny state. Finally, somebody has started an adult conversation in Washington. "Our debt problem is not just a fiscal challenge involving dollars and cents," the Wisconsin congressman said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference...

This time on Banter, Apoorva and Stu sit down with AEI Resident Scholar Andrew Biggs to chat about Paul Ryan’s new budget plan, entitlement reform, and a special piece of fan mail for Andrew.

WASHINGTON -- In the last three months, the biggest battle here has been about carving a relatively tiny amount of money out of this year's $3.7 trillion budget. But while Republicans, Democrats and the White House bickered over whether to cut anywhere from $61 billion to $33 billion -- or else shut down the government -- a far bigger battle looms in the months ahead over the fiscal 2012 budget and trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. House Republican budget leaders were expected to unveil their budget proposals Tuesday that called for spending reductions in the...

Bottom line, if you want to give a gift to a teacher, this book is a good option. It’s also a good choice for anyone with a general interest in improving education. “Faces of Learning” consists of statements by 50 teachers, thinkers, and community leaders. It is a buffet of opinions and personal anecdotes. The book, published by Wiley, was put together by Sam Chaltain, an education crusader. You can read about Sam and his activities on facesoflearning.net. “Faces of Learning” indicates an important trend--individual citizens trying to reform public education from the outside. My take on the Education Establishment...

The Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee said his party's budget proposal for 2012 would cut deficits by more than $4 trillion over the next decade, vowing to tackle costly entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid. The proposal, set to be unveiled Tuesday, would serve as the Republicans' official response to President Obama's proposed $3.7 trillion budget for 2012. The White House claims its plan would cut deficits by $1.1 trillion over a decade. But Ryan, R-Wis., in an interview with "Fox News Sunday," accused Obama of "punting" and said Republicans' plan would exceed the fiscal goals set by the...

House Republicans will adopt a new approach to their investigations of the healthcare reform law this week with a public grilling of a powerful lobby group that supported the overhaul. On Friday, two House Ways and Means subpanels will demand that AARP answer questions about its business practices and political endorsements. Republicans have accused the seniors lobby of endorsing healthcare reform to make more money from its endorsement of Medigap insurance policies. The continuing debate over a spending bill funding the government will also spark more friction on the healthcare front. Lawmakers have less than two weeks to come up...

Why can't teachers who have been chronically absent from work be the first to go? Or the ones who have been convicted of crimes? Or the ones who are languishing—with full pay and benefits—in some "reserve pool" because no school will hire them? Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently said that "last in, first out" policies hit low-income kids hardest because the poor are more likely to attend schools where teachers have less seniority.

In order to solve the budget impasse, Dick Durbin says that everything has to be on the table. In almost literally the next breath, Durbin then says Social Security reform will kill any budget deal, because even though budget talks can’t be serious without entitlement reform, Congress will refuse to address one of the Big Three entitlement programs. If you think that’s incoherent, wait until you find out why: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy It’s very hard, very difficult, when you get into the entitlements, but you can’t have a serious conversation about...

Sweeping legislation that would dramatically loosen the state’s already liberal gun laws narrowly passed the House Judiciary Committee this morning. The committee chairman, Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, said that one of his requirements before he would hear the bill in committee was that more work be done to ensure the bill does not apply to private property. However, Farnsworth heard the bill even though no such changes or amendments had been made to the bill prior to today’s hearing in order to allow those changes to be made in the future. This week marks the last week House committees will...

Teach the children or hit the bricks! by Jack Furnari for BizPac ReviewScientists can measure the rate at which subatomic particles make spontaneous transitions between matter and antimatter. Three trillion times per second.  We know how far the Triangulum Galaxy is from Earth. Three million light years.  Pi has been taken to 2.7 trillion decimal places using only a personal computer.  Human beings have been able to measure and catalog everything and anything, except, according to the Democratic Party and the teacher's union, the performance of teachers...  Click here to read more.

Tea Party activist Bob Guzzardi reports that the Pennsylvania State Senate is preparing to unveil, tomorrow, a revolutionary education reform package that could very well make the recent shrieking in Wisconsin by the special-interest child haters sound like whispers. Among the reforms that Bob says will be addressed in a series of bills will be: --Empowering school districts to furlough teachers if the economic conditions should warrant it -- Allowing districts to suspend non-essential reports to the state Department of Education in years state education funding declines -- Requiring a two-thirds vote by school boards to raise property taxes --Allowing...

Breaking news: Barack Obama chooses not to lead … again. TPM DC’s Brian Beutler reports that the White House strategy on Social Security will be to wait until everyone else has decided to act before discussing its own approach to reforming what is perhaps the most straightforward of entitlement reforms. This will surprise, well … no one: The White House will not prominently inject itself into congressional negotiations on Social Security reform until after key legislators in both the House and Senate unveil their plans to reduce projected long-term deficits, according to administration officials.That won’t please Republican leaders on Capitol...

EXCERPT (the actual plan ): There is a better way that is proven to work in the real world. Workers could be allowed to save and invest what they and their employers would otherwise pay into Social Security in personal savings, investment and insurance accounts. Studies show that at standard, long term, market investment returns, for an average income, two earner couple, over a career the accounts would accumulate to close to a million dollars or more. Even lower income workers could regularly accumulate half a million over their careers. Those accumulated funds would pay all workers at all income...

TALLAHASSEE -- Opponents tried one last time — and failed — to make changes to a bill that would dramatically reform the way public school teachers are evaluated, paid and hired. Now the fast-track legislation is one step away from the desk of Gov. Rick Scott, who has indicated he will sign it. The Florida House moved along Senate Bill 736, which would tie teacher pay to student test scores, eliminate so-called tenure for new hires as of July 1 and end layoffs based on seniority. The chamber will take a vote on the proposal Wednesday afternoon. “There is one...

In truth, it was a long time coming — that moment Mariano Cardoso Jr. retreated to the secluded stairway on the 11th floor of Capital Community College. He had received the letter from immigration officials last month, the one full of jargon that he didn't totally understand, but that instinctively made his heart sink. But really, the realities of his undocumented status had been closing in from the moment his parents brought him to the U.S. from Mexico as a baby. To the days he was growing up in the Bronx and he first heard the words: undocumented. Illegal.To the...

WASHINGTON – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell warned on Friday that GOP senators will not vote to increase the government's borrowing limit unless President Barack Obama agrees to rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, laying down a high-stakes marker just weeks before the debt ceiling is reached. In an interview with The Associated Press, McConnell complained that Obama has refused his offers — both public and private — to work on a bipartisan plan to tackle the nation's massive benefit programs, which threaten to overwhelm the budget in coming years. "There will be no entitlement reform without President Obama,"...

Recently, the Heritage Foundation hosted Bulgaria’s Minister of Finance/Deputy Prime Minister to talk about some of the astounding reforms that have helped Bulgaria through the financial crisis. Dr. Djankov outlined the achievements and goals of Bulgaria since his self-described “center-right” government took control of the country in late 2009. Amid a fiscal crisis and rising debt and deficits, Bulgaria has dramatically decreased their deficits and produced major economic growth in a very short period of time. Minister of Finance Dr. Djankov directly attributes these gains to major reforms that have take place that include: - Reducing minimum capital investment required...