Free Republic

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) told students at Rider University that conservatives are wrong to make deficit reduction a priority. … “Bottom line is that the right wing, and I say the Tea Party, has made deficit reduction the main priority—the main economic priority, and I will tell you point blank—that I do not think it is. … I believe in economic growth, and I think the only way we get out of the recession—and we are gradually getting out of it—is by having policies in Washington that create growth and therefore create jobs and therefore eliminate the problems that we...

In his press conference this week, President Obama suggested that policymakers only need to pass another $1.5 trillion worth of deficit reduction, on top of the $2.5 trillion already enacted, to stabilize the growth of the nation’s debt and, in his words, “finish the job.” The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, two well-respected fiscal policy organizations, basically agree with the President’s math, and there is nothing to quibble about in those calculations regarding stabilizing the debt. However, that level of deficit reduction would hardly mean the “job is finished.” In fact,...

WASHINGTON -- The newly elected Republican-led House was peacefully sworn into office Thursday as GOP leaders began planning for four years of divided government. If you thought the past year was a rocky one, 2013 may make the political trench warfare battles of 2012 look like a Sunday school picnic. Soon after the smoke cleared in the wee hours of New Year's Day, when Congress had taken the government to the precipice of the "fiscal cliff," and even a bit over, it was clear that ever more contentious battles awaited incoming lawmakers. There were the automatic spending cuts buried in...

Gov. Rick Perry signed the Strong America Now pledge which binds him to tackling wasteful spending in Washington by implementing the waste elimination process Lean Six Sigma. The pledge was signed at the fourth annual Kaufmann Family Barbecue where Perry was the special guest. Perry is the eighth presidential candidate to sign the pledge, but the first who has also signed Lean Six Sigma legislation. Perry signed a Texas state bill, which formed a pilot program to improve efficiencies and quality of operations while reducing costs, as well as adopt a structured approach for identifying the wasteful use of state...

The top lawmakers on the Senate’s defense panel on Friday recommended that a special committee searching for ways to slash the deficit consider some of President Barack Obama’s proposed changes to health and retirement benefits for the military. In separate letters to the bipartisan panel, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., signaled they were open to cost-saving steps in military benefits, recommendations that have already attracted fierce opposition from powerful groups of retired officers and veterans resistant to change.

What Do YOU Think? Note: Fields marked with an * are required. Dear Friends: Over the next few months, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction will need to find a balanced approach to addressing our debt and deficit, growing our economy, and putting American’s back to work. As Co-Chair of this bipartisan commission, I am going to be working hard to bring members together around a bipartisan plan that works for families in Washington state. But I also I know that we have a difficult challenge in front of us and that we need to marshal every idea and...

Last week, in the wake of President Obama’s jobs speech, I wrote that the president seemed poised to campaign for re-election on an essentially centrist policy agenda: A short-term payroll tax stimulus, a plan for tax reform that would close loopholes while lowering corporate rates, and a long-term plan for deficit reduction modeled on the grand bargain that the White House and John Boehner were supposedly close to striking during the debt ceiling negotiations. The president’s goal in 2012, I suggested, would be to try to paint himself as the moderate bipartisan grownup, and dismiss the Republicans as extreme, intransigent,...

Flying under the radar. Maintaining plausible deniability. Leading from behind. Voting present. All these phrases have come to symbolize President Barack Obama's political career and now his presidency. He lectures others on how to live, work and vote but takes no real action himself that might be used against him in future campaigns. While many on the ideological right have called him out on this strategy for years, it is only recently that voices from the left have joined the chorus demanding actual leadership from this president.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Monday confirmed that the debt-ceiling compromise now slowly working its way through a political minefield would cut deficits by at least $2.1 trillion over 10 years. The finding, reported in a letter to Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), is fresh ammunition for supporters of the plan in the face of conservative opposition that the spending cuts are too small. Liberals are also unhappy, arguing that Democrats are caving in to the GOP by not insisting on raising more revenue by closing tax loopholes on the richest. According...

Remember Dick Morris and his triangulation? If Obama comes off as the guy who lowered the deficit, which is really a continuation of the stimulus, (that's what we are fighting to end.) Then he will win the court of public opinion on this one. He really has no other choice if Republicans actually dig in; than to take this tact. Isn't it horrible that we are not even confident Republicans will do the right thing? D.C. needs an exorcism, it is truly possessed!

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, an influential member of President Barack Obama’s deficit-reduction panel, says he won’t vote for the panel’s recommendations–but praised the proposed package of cuts and tax reforms as a good start. Speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, the future chairman of the House Budget Committee said the bipartisan panel failed to tackle the health-care challenge. “It not only didn’t address the elephant in the room–health care–it expanded it.” But Mr. Ryan did heap praise on the overall package, saying it has advanced discussions and highlighted changes on the taxes and budget front that Republicans...

I guess we really shouldn't be surprised. After all, this is what Obama and his team of globalists wanted, wasn't it? It's pretty much what he promised his hate-America base. If anyone was listening, they would have heard it. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told the BBC that the world "cannot depend as much on the US as it did in the past". He said that other major economies would have to grow more for the global economy to prosper. He also played down any differences in policy between the US and Europe regarding deficit reduction. Mr Geithner was...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryFebruary 3, 2007 President's Radio Address       Audio      In Focus: Jobs & Economy      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week was filled with more good news about America's economy. We learned that our economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. Overall, our economy grew 3.4 percent in 2006 -- up from 3.1 percent in 2005. The Dow Jones reached an all-time high this week for the 27th time in the past four months. And we learned that America created 111,000 new jobs in January, which...

According to sources on Capitol Hill, House Leadership still does not have the votes for the Deficit Reduction Act (H.R. 4241) but is working furiously to get them. This is the biggest vote of the 109th Congress – period. It is the first time Republicans are attempting to seriously address out-of-control spending since 1997 by reducing its rate of growth by saving $50 billion over five years. However, this vote has become far more about symbolism than substance (although the substance is good), and it is now about the soul of the House Republican majority. Late in September, conservatives on...