Free Republic

"On Feb. 13, President Obama released his fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, which includes $3.67 trillion in new spending. That’s a 3.7 percent decline from 2012 levels, after adjusting for inflation. Discretionary programs—like education, the military, and environmental protection—account for $1.15 trillion, or 31 percent, of the new budget. That includes around $73 billion for education, a 2 percent increase over last year. A poll by the Pew Research Center found that 62 percent of Americans support increasing education funding—the strongest support for any type of spending—even when asked in the context of how the federal government should reduce budget...

Barack Obama's quest for a "balanced approach" is the lifeblood of his political success -- and also its biggest myth. Witness the coverage of the purportedly centrist president's 2014 budget proposal. "Obama sends Congress $3.77T spending plan, riles both sides," says one prominent headline; "President Obama's risky 'goodwill' gambit," begins another fairy tale. "Obama Budget Is Meant to Draw GOP to the Table," claims The New York Times. Nearly every story stresses that the budget has drawn critics from both the left and the right. Obama, you see, is so moderate he's willing to wrangle with the socialist Sen. Bernie...

Take President Obama and his Cabinet of Liars, please. We all know what dirty tricks they played to try and stop the sequester's automatic budget cuts from happening. They spent weeks trying to frighten the America people into believing the country would collapse into chaos and suffering if the federal government's sequester-forced spending cuts went into effect. The campaigner in chief and his chorus of toadies did everything they could to make sure the puny spending cuts -- which would have merely taken the federal budget back to its 2012 level -- would cause the most pain to the most...

If you’re reading this, it means you survived the sequester. Of course, as President Obama reminded us last Friday, “this is not going to be an apocalypse as some people have said.” Some people? Just ten days earlier, the President said, “And that’s why it’s so troubling that just 10 days from now, Congress might allow a series of automatic, severe budget cuts to take place that will do the exact opposite. It won't help the economy, won't create jobs, will visit hardship on a whole lot of people.” He went on to warn that “if Congress allows this meat-cleaver...

Here we go again. And again. And again. ... For in Washington, every day is Groundhog Day. And now, once again, the country is speeding toward the dreaded ... Fiscal Cliff! Not to mention Catastrophe, Chaos and Collapse. Or maybe Stalemate, Train Wreck, Dysfunction or whatever your favorite clich may be. So quick, get the scare headlines back in type. The Great Tax vs. Spend Debate is on again, if it ever went away. With each side blaming the Coming and Constant Crisis on the other. . . But wait, haven't we seen this movie before? Like in 2011, 2012...

WASHINGTON - House Republican leaders seized the high ground this week in the furious battle to curb federal spending, forcing Senate Democrats to produce their first budget in nearly four years. It was a political high wire act, but House Speaker John Boehner pulled it off without a hitch. In one master stroke, he reunited most of his rebellious Republicans behind his budget strategy, and divided the Democrats. When the smoke cleared in the latest budgetary skirmish Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has dictatorially ignored previous House budgets, agreed to accept the GOP's limited debt ceiling suspension as...

Today we witnessed something truly remarkable. Barack Obama managed to out-do himself by uncorking what very well may have been the most dishonest, demagogic, and bitterly partisan speech of his presidency. I render that assessment as someone who has sat through and analyzed countless Obama lectures, some of which earned very high marks for deceit and ideological invective. Indeed, today's Occupy-inspired rant takes the cake. It was a depressing and enraging preview of the next seven months, over which this president will unleash a barrage of sophistic and pernicious arguments deliberately designed to sow discord and divide Americans. He will...

House GOP Budget to Target Tax Rates By NAFTALI BENDAVID House Republicans, seizing on what they hope is a potent campaign issue in the midst of a muddled political and economic landscape, will introduce a 2013 budget Tuesday that cuts tax rates and provides for two individual brackets of 10% and 25%. The budget would end the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was originally aimed at the wealthy but which ensnares a growing number of middle-class taxpayers each year. The plan would nearly eliminate U.S. taxes on American corporations' earnings from overseas operations. The proposal, to be offered by Rep. Paul...