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America Held Hostage- the Obama Files... With a hattip to Rush ( His idea during the Clinton plague upon America ) I am starting a file on “The One,” mostly starting from the election date. Older stuff- links, quotes, quips, and sometimes pointed graphics can be found by scrolling back from these two posts: -Hillary Clinton- archives, comments, and opposition research---Sarah Palin- links, from the beginning--There is some good material in those posts that raises a lot of uncomfortable questions that everyone ought to be asking, and probably will once the “new” wears off, and we are stuck with four...

And not only through high taxes.Back in June, Princeton professor of economics Alan Blinder wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed mocking what he called “The GOP Myth of ‘Job-Killing’ Spending.”  It stuck in his craw that Republicans were saying spending itself was damaging to the economy, not merely the taxes necessary to finance all that spending.  He applied a thick layer of sarcasm to the topic:It was the British economist John Maynard Keynes who famously wrote that ideas, "both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled...

So President Obama has given his Cabinet members just 90 days to come up with, er, $100 million in spending cuts. Just how statistically insignificant is this amount? Cue Harvard economist and former George W. Bush economic adviser Greg Mankiw: To put those numbers in perspective, imagine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had to be cut? By $3 over the course of the year--approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks. The...

Here is a recurring frustration during election season: Candidates who seem attractive before the race begins suddenly sound squishier or change their positions once they hit the campaign trail.On the issue of cronyism, there is one noticeable exception during this year's campaign. In spite of what could be perceived as a political risk, one candidate has remained true to his opposition to (and his commitment to end) the terrible renewable-fuel standard, which requires blending ethanol and other biofuels into the gasoline supply, thereby driving food prices up and creating all sorts of distortions in the energy market: That's Senator Ted...

Goodbye, sequestration! (For now. Maybe.) After years of partisan discord, can Congress agree to a budget compromise? Chris Moody, Yahoo News By Chris Moody, Yahoo News 1 hour ago The bipartisan spending resolution released Tuesday after months of negotiations gives Congress a final opportunity to save face after a congressional year known best for a government shutdown, inactivity and bickering. Will they take the opportunity? The budget chiefs, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, unveiled a two-year budget blueprint Tuesday evening that would avoid the possibility of a government shutdown scenario next year....

President Bush imposed a so-called stimulus plan in 2008 and President Obama imposed an even  bigger “stimulus” in 2009. Based upon the economy’s performance over the past five-plus years, those plans didn’t work. Japan has spent the past 20-plus years imposing one Keynesian scheme after another, and the net effect is economic stagnation and record debt.Going back further in time, Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt dramatically increased the burden of government spending, mostly financed with borrowing, and a recession became a Great Depression.That’s not exactly a successful track record, but Paul Krugman thinks the evidence is on his side and that...

Why are taxes so much higher in Europe, consuming 46 percent of economic output compared to 32 percent of GDP in America? Is it because nations such as France, Greece, and Sweden have adopted the kind of class-warfare policies that Obama wants for the United States? Surprisingly, the answer is no.As explained by Veronique de Rugy, the United States actually has a more “progressive” tax code than European nations. The corporate tax rate is higher in the United States than in any European country, and the double taxation of dividends and capital gains also is far above the European average....

After failing to pass any significant legislation during most of President Donald Trump's first year in office, the Republican-controlled Congress was finally able to pass a major tax reform bill in the waning minutes of 2017. But beyond not getting in the way of the administration's efforts to crack down on abusive federal regulations, the party that never missed an opportunity to bemoan the previous Democratic administration's profligacy continued to show little interest in addressing the country's spending-driven fiscal problems. Will 2018 be any different? The country is now $20.6 trillion in debt, and a return to the annual trillion-dollar...

The United States is supposed to be the "land of the free," a country where individualism and private property are sacrosanct. Yet it's difficult to maintain this belief while watching Courtney Moorehead Balaker's newly released movie, "Little Pink House." The film portrays the real-life story of the determined families who fought to protect their homes in New London, Connecticut, during and after city officials' shameful attempts to evict them starting in 1998. Shockingly, in 2005, it was the Supreme Court that inflicted the ultimate defeat to the homeowners, who lost everything in the process. Depressing, right? Actually, the movie turns...

The state of Michigan granted more than $3 billion in combined tax breaks and cash subsidy deals to General Motors, Ford and Chrysler in the final years of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s tenure, which helped make this state among the biggest corporate welfare providers in the country, according to a recent study. Chrysler ($1.30 billion), General Motors ($1.07 billion) and Ford ($909 million) were awarded the benefits in 2009 and 2010 under the Michigan Economic Growth Authority program. The deals required the firms to “create or retain” a specified number of jobs in order to actually collect the benefits. Michigan...

Would you be shocked to find out that the corporatist, corrupt Export-Import Bank has ties to the Clintons and their notorious foundation? During a hearing about the soon-to-expire bank before the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday, Representative Duffy [WI - Chairman of Oversite Committee] exposed just such connections: [VIDEO - 5:20] This is a perfect example of the unhealthy marriage between the private sector and government. This is what political privilege looks like, and it’s corrupting and unfair. I testified yesterday before the Senate Banking Committee on the need to end Ex-Im as well – here’s my testimony.

Cutting taxes is great, but as I said, it must be done alongside genuine spending restraint — meaning serious changes to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are consuming an ever-growing share of the budget. Doing one without the other would just kick the can farther down the road, an exercise that politicians are very good at. The good news for the candidates is that a plan to cut spending isn't that hard — on paper, at least. Cato Institute's Dan Mitchell calculated that we could balance the budget by 2021 by capping spending growth at...

Republicans want tax reform, but their refusal to cut spending forces them to look into all sorts of revenue raisers. Some are good, such as eliminating the deductions for state and local taxes. Others are counterproductive, such as the threat to significantly decrease the tax deduction on 401(k) accounts, potentially reducing the overall levels of savings for the millions of Americans using them. Instead, they should keep the deduction intact, hence encouraging savings -- and in addition create universal savings accounts. There are rumors that they are considering such a move. First, let me complain about the no-good proposal to...

It's that time of year again, when millions of Americans travel to visit friends and family for the holidays. The experience will be a headache for many, thanks in part to the government's security theater, though also due to unfriendly airline practices. But believe it or not, it can get worse.22 High-profile public relations disasters, often dealing with overbooked flights, show that the airline industry has room to improve customer service. However, it has improved on many metrics since the industry was deregulated in 1978, most notably on affordability. Even taking into account recent fee increases, the post-deregulation cost of...

Myth 1: Spending cuts will derail the economy. Fact 1: The academic literature shows that successful cases of fiscal adjustment relied overwhelmingly on spending cuts, not tax increases..... Myth 2: We can’t balance the budget without raising taxes. Fact 2: We can balance the budget simply by holding spending constant..... Myth 3: Paul Ryan’s plan will dramatically cut spending. Fact 3: Ryan’s plan reduces spending between FY2011 and FY2012. After that it reduces the growth of spending. But overall spending grows by $1.1 trillion over 10 years under Ryan’s plan.....

This week, the so-called "Big Six" Republican tax leaders unveiled more of their plan to reform the tax code. As usual, it'll be light on details, but we're told to expect a cut in the corporate income tax rate to 20 percent -- as opposed to the 15 percent rate President Donald Trump has promised. That's unfortunate. With Republicans being the worst negotiators, this rate will only go up once Democrats and the Republicans who behave like Democrats have their say. Even though the United States has the highest corporate tax rate of all developed countries, some lawmakers still believe...

Austerity is destroying Europe, we are told. In fact, this “anti-austerity” slogan was a big reason for the victory of newly elected socialist François Hollande to the presidency of France. Interviewed in The Economist a few weeks ago, Hollande’s campaign director said “We are not disciples of savage spending cuts.”But then, I look at the data and I am asking: What “savage” spending cuts?Look at this chart. It is based on Eurostat data which you can find here. Following years of large spending increases, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, and Greece — countries widely cited for adopting austerity measures...

Earlier in the day Christie discussed the Parsippany Board and Seitz at a town hall meeting in Toms River. “Let me tell you about the new poster boy for all that’s wrong with the public school system that is being dictated by greed,” the governor told the audience. “This contract is the definition of greed and arrogance. I’m going to be speaking out loudly and clearly every day I can about Lee Seitz. If Lee Seitz wants to try to put his greed and his arrogance ahead of the taxpayers of New Jersey, you elected me to stand up to...

It’s been a long time since economic policy was forged in the states. Last May the Obama administration forced South Carolina not just to take its share of federal stimulus funds, but to spend the money on new programs rather than paying down the state’s debt. I was horrified. Obama, I felt, had killed fiscal federalism. Then I realized that fiscal federalism has been dead for a long time. Fiscal federalism is the idea that states should set their own economic policies rather than following directives from Washington. Libertarians have a particular attachment to the concept. If states can differentiate...

The Mother of All Big Spenders: Bush spends like Carter and panders like Clinton. by Veronique de Rugy and Tad DeHaven July 28, 2003 Veronique de Rugy is a fiscal policy analyst and Tad DeHaven a fiscal policy researcher at the Cato Institute. The Bush administration's newly released budget projections reveal an anticipated budget deficit of $455 billion for the current fiscal year, up another $151 billion since February. Supporters and critics of the administration are tripping over themselves to blame the deficit on tax cuts, the war, and a slow economy. But the fact is we have mounting deficits...