Free Republic

In his June 08 column, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says a major part of the reason the recession under Reagan recovered more quickly than the current recession is because of government spending. From the column: Why was government spending much stronger under Reagan than in the current slump? “Weaponized Keynesianism” — Reagan’s big military buildup — played some role. But the big difference was real per capita spending at the state and local level, which continued to rise under Reagan but has fallen significantly this time around. There are a myriad of things with which to respond to...

President Obama’s claim Friday that “the private sector is doing fine” sparked a firestorm of attacks from Republicans and prompted a quick retraction, of sorts, from Obama, who later said “it is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine.” But what has gone largely unnoticed was Obama’s complaint that it’s the government that’s hurting these days. “Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy,” he said Friday, “have to do with state and local government.” But a review of data from several government sources paints a different picture.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) introduced three amendments to the recently passed Energy & Water appropriations bill that would have eliminated a slew of business subsidies at the Department of Energy. Unfortunately, House Republicans once again teamed up with their Democratic colleagues to keep the corporate welfare spigot flowing.

Did you know that House Republicans are still defeating amendment after amendment to cut spending — even relatively small amounts? You probably didn’t realize this because, for some reason, no one is reporting it. So here are just a few of the amendments the House defeated last week. If you’re not happy with this record House Republicans are compiling this election year, let them know now! Amendments to H.R. 5325, the Energy and Water Appropriations Act, which contains more spending than last year’s bill: McClintock (R-CA) – Cuts the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy program by $1.45 billion. Rejected 113-275....

President Obama and Democrats claim that Republicans are out of touch with ordinary Americans. But it's Obama who's scandalously out of touch with most Americans. Here's proof.

OK, Democrats, you've convinced me. The last 8, 10, or 12 years (or whatever amount of time it takes to cover Bush's two terms and their aftermath) were just terrible, and we mustn't repeat or imitate such folly. Perhaps the example to follow would be that of another Democrat. Say, a Democrat president who followed a President Bush. A Democrat who entered office shortly after a financial crisis and a recession. Bill Clinton succeeded George H.W. Bush. He was elected in 1992, or just after the 1990-91 recession ended and while the Savings & Loan bailout (Little TARP) was still...

Phoenix — Maricopa County Superior Court Katherine Cooper ruled in favor of the Goldwater Institute Tuesday to enjoin provisions of a contract between the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association allowing officers to perform union work on police time. The contract grants approximately $1 million in release time dedicated to union business, including to six police officers who perform exclusively union work and collect automatic overtime. The current contract expires on June 30. A new contract continuing release time was approved last month by a 4-4-1 vote by the Phoenix City Council, with the abstaining vote counting...

The Obama campaign's early attempts to attack Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital or present him as too extreme to be president have not worked out all that well so far. The early stumbles have created a flurry of commentaries wondering what's wrong with the team that performed so flawlessly in Election 2008. The answer may have nothing to do with the Obama campaign and have everything to do with the fact that Romney appears to be a tougher target than anticipated. On the Bain Capital front, 44 percent of voters say Romney's business experience there is primarily a reason...

Remember the Credibility Gap? It was a phenomenon that rose to public awareness in the late 1960s (and even inspired a funny comedy group) when reporting showed a great difference between what government claimed and reality. It lives. According to Bloomberg: “As California Governor Jerry Brown seeks a temporary 5 percent pay cut from public employees to fill the largest state deficit in the U.S., many of those same workers are poised for raises next year . . .

A spate of recent articles -- see for example here, here, and here -- have noted Detroit’s population implosion and financial woes, along with the proposed solution of shutting off street lights in underpopulated neighborhoods to save money. (Cue the obligatory “Will the last person to leave Detroit...” joke. The last article, in particular, notes that the solution is designed to drive people away from the poorest, most sparsely populated neighborhoods.) And why? Because, supposedly, there is not enough money to pay for the services.
This is an important concept, and deserves further investigation, as it contains the answer to the...

Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler just took delivery of the world's fastest convertible. The Hennessey Venom GT Spyder will accelerate to 200mph in 15.9 seconds, eight seconds faster than a Bugatti Veyron. Tyler was the first person to ask if he could have his without a top. "Steven came to us last year and asked if we could build his Venom GT as a roadster," says John Hennessey. "We had to make a few structural changes to our integrated rollcage in order to be able to fit the removable top. This increased the weight of our vehicle by about 30 lbs...

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,...

Many in the political class, including President Obama and many members of Congress, have an interest in confusing, rather than enlightening, the public. The effort to misinform about the growth in spending and the impact of government spending on job creation reached a new level last week when the president claimed he was the most restrained spender since President Eisenhower and that spending was up only a little more than 1 percent (over what?). Presidents do not set spending levels, but they do influence them. Congress has the responsibility under the Constitution to tax and spend, and not one dollar...

Obama's Truth Team Being BrainwashedBy L. Vincent Poupard | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 8 hrs ago.. COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama's campaign staff is attempting to invigorate the Truth Team by giving "proof" the president' s reported spending spree never happened, according to ABC News. The president's Truth Team is being directed to a Market Watch report that attempts to refute the facts about the spending spree and the team is asked to report any political attacks they hear. As a political consultant, the idea of the Truth Team does not sit well with me. President Obama has come under...

Minnesota nonprofit that's on the front lines of a growing debate over student-loan debt. Bloomberg Businessweek profiles Educational Credit Management Corp., one of the 32 “guaranty agencies" that oversee student loans for the U.S. Department of Education and try to recover money. Its bill collectors can be highly rewarded. ECMC's top collector took home $454,000 in just one year, twice as much as the U.S. secretary of education. The CEO of the group made $1.1 million in 2010. The company moved from downtown St. Paul to Oakdale a few years ago.

The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. "Federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace of any president in almost 60 years," Obama said at a campaign rally Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa. A fairer calculation would give Obama much of the responsibility for an almost 10 percent budget boost in 2009, then a 13 percent increase over 2010-2013, or average annual growth of spending of just more than 3 percent over that period.

Few members of Congress have taken the task of cutting federal spending as personally as Rep. Paul Broun. Whether it’s going after the USDA’s vehicle fleet or weeding out the budget for the U.S. Botanic Garden, the Georgia Republican has been all over it. But for all the cries in the Republican House to tighten the money belt, Broun has gotten practically nowhere. The vast majority of Broun’s attempts to trim this line item or that pet project have gone down — often in flames. Since the start of the 112th Congress, he has offered more than three dozen amendments....

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...

"That is what makes it whopper of the year," syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer says of a report that federal spending, under the Obama administration, has risen at the lowest pace in 60 years. "This is an unbelievable distortion of the truth. If you compare it to what was spent in the Bush years, particularly if you take out the emergency spending that the two administrations agreed on in the end -- the bailouts -- then you have an 8% increase, which is historic. You had it in 2009 alone, increases in the agencies of 20% and 50% in some of...

...OK, now I get it – we’re playing by government rules. It’s like Chicago rules only better. Here’s all you need to know: if generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) were good enough for government work, we wouldn’t have had to invent generally accepted government accounting principles (GAGAP). But you already knew that your government operates by it’s own rules, didn’t you? Anyway, in case you were wondering why you’re just now hearing that the national deficit is actually 6 times higher than previously reported, it’s because of the golden rule. Using these special government rules, we don’t have to count...