Perspectives; Thoughts; Comments; Opinions; Discussions

Posts tagged ‘spending’

Biden’s Budget Breakdown: How the Big Government Binge Overtaxes, Overspends, And Overborrows


BY: CHRISTOPHER JACOBS | MARCH 10, 2023

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2023/03/10/the-censorship-complex-isnt-a-tinfoil-hat-conspiracy-and-the-twitter-files-just-dropped-more-proof/

Biden walking into oval office
A review of the budget’s main summary tables illustrates a tax, spend, and borrow vision designed to expand government further.

Author Christopher Jacobs profile

CHRISTOPHER JACOBS

VISIT ON TWITTER@CHRISJACOBSHC

MORE ARTICLES

President Biden finally released his budget on Thursday, more than a month after the Budget Act’s statutory deadline. The document should have come with a five-word warning attached: “Hold on to your wallet.”

The budget includes thousands of pages of arcana and technical details, all of which will come to light further in the coming days. But a preliminary review of the budget’s main summary tables illustrates a familiar pattern among Democrats — a tax, spend, and borrow vision designed to expand government further. Here are some of the “highlights” (more like lowlights) from the summary document.

Taxes Too Much

Overall, the administration says the budget proposes $4.7 trillion in tax increases — a staggering sum in any season, but particularly when the economy faces recession risks. Among the highest profile revenue hikes:

  • $437 billion from “a minimum income tax on the wealthiest taxpayers”
  • $493 billion from changes to the “global minimum tax regime”
  • $238 billion from increasing the tax on stock buybacks
  • $306 billion from applying Medicare taxes to pass-through income — a “loophole” that President Biden himself spent the past six years exploiting
  • $344 billion from increasing the rate of said Medicare tax from 3.8 percent to 5 percent for those earning over $400,000
  • $1.3 trillion from increasing the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent
  • $200 billion from other “reforms” to business taxation
  • $549 billion from adopting the undertaxed profits rule regarding international taxes
  • $66 billion from “reform[ing] taxation of foreign fossil fuel income”
  • $37 billion from “modify[ing] energy taxes”
  • $235 billion from increasing the top marginal rate for high-income earners
  • $214 billion from higher taxes on capital gains
  • $23 billion from higher taxes on the retirement plans of “high-income taxpayers”
  • $77 billion from changes to estate and gift taxes
  • $50 billion from “clos[ing] loopholes”
  • $105 billion in revenue assumed by extending the IRS enforcement money included in last year’s Inflation (Reduction) Act. The proposal to extend and expand the IRS’ ability to audit and potentially harass taxpayers comes shortly after an analyst at the Tax Policy Center admitted that the Service let President Biden off the hook for failing to pay his own taxes.

Whatever anyone thinks about the merits of these individual proposals, they cumulatively would have a significant — and negative — impact on the economy. Taxing energy producers in particular would lead to less exploration and higher prices at the pump, at a time when American families are still suffering from high inflation.

These tax increases come with the added irony that Biden himself did not “pay his fair share” of Medicare taxes, according to numerous tax experts. On a budget preview call with reporters Thursday, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young refused to recognize Biden’s hypocrisy — but the American people will.

Spends Too Much

Where will all the budget’s new tax revenue go? In many cases, to more spending and an expansion of the welfare state. Among the proposals included are several from Biden’s failed Build Back Bankrupt agenda:

  • $424 billion for child care
  • $200 billion for “free, universal preschool”
  • $236 billion for a permanent extension of Obamacare insurance subsidies to the wealthy
  • $200 billion for a government-run health program in the states that have not expanded Medicaid to the able-bodied under Obamacare
  • $96 billion to double the Pell Grant
  • $90 billion for “free community college”
  • $104 billion for housing subsidies
  • $150 billion for home and community-based services in Medicaid
  • $325 billion for “national, comprehensive paid family and medical leave”
  • $429 billion for an expanded child tax credit. However, according to Treasury’s revenue explanations, the higher credit would apply for 2024 and 2025 only. In December 2021, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the 10-year cost of a permanent extension of this policy at $1.6 trillion, or almost four times the amount included in the budget.
  • $156 billion for an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit
  • $76 billion for behavioral health care
  • $1 billion to “make permanent the income exclusion for forgiven student debt.” While this number seems like a comparatively small amount, in reality it would pave the way for a future administration to pass another massive giveaway in student “loan forgiveness,” without triggering federal income taxes on the amount of debt canceled.

Over and above the details of the specific proposals, the budget ignores the inescapable fact that subsidizing programs increases rather than decreases their costs. The proposals will encourage colleges, child care providers, insurance companies, and others to jack up their rates, knowing that the federal government will pay the difference. To put it another way, the budget’s spending will raise inflation, even as its tax increases will kill economic growth.

Borrows Too Much

Even with all the tax increases Biden has proposed, it still won’t begin to make up for the new spending he plans, and the cost of servicing the debt from Washington’s Covid spending binge the past several years. The budget also proves how the debt has worsened under this president:

  • Table S-2 of the budget states that, if enacted in full, the budget would reduce 10-year deficits by $2.857 trillion. But last month, the Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the 10-year budget, which showed that since last May, the projected 10-year deficit has increased by $3.082 trillion. In other words, even if all the Biden “deficit reduction” gets enacted, our nation will still be $200 billion worse off fiscally than it was just 10 short months ago.
  • The budget as proposed would lead to deficits of at least $1.5 trillion in every year of the 10-year budget window. By the last year of the budget window, they would total $2 trillion — and rising.
  • By the time President Biden intends to leave office in 2029 (assuming he gets reelected), interest on the debt will total over $1 trillion per year. By that point, we will be devoting more than 10 percent of the federal budget just to pay the interest on our debt.
  • Deficits will remain near or above 5 percent of GDP for the foreseeable future — much faster than our economy can grow, meaning that debt will continue to rise and rise as far as the eye can see.

To say this budget ignores reality is putting it mildly. Here’s hoping lawmakers can finally restore some sanity to a perpetual Washington spending spree that has grown completely out of control.

Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group, and author of the book “The Case Against Single Payer.” He is on Twitter: @chrisjacobsHC.

Advertisement

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

GOP Can’t Be Successful Until Mitch McConnell Is Gone


BY: MOLLIE HEMINGWAY | DECEMBER 21, 2022

Read more at https://www.conservativereview.com/gop-cant-be-successful-until-mitch-mcconnell-is-gone-2658993483.html

Mitch McConnell speaking, close-up
Republican voters are desperately concerned about the country and are looking for bold and persuasive leadership instead of comfort with a few small, intermittent successes.

Author Mollie Hemingway profile

MOLLIE HEMINGWAY

VISIT ON TWITTER@MZHEMINGWAY

MORE ARTICLES

Comments Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made on Tuesday show why he has become the single biggest obstacle to GOP success.

The Kentucky Republican claimed giving more money to Ukraine is “the No. 1 priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans.” The new $1.7 trillion Democrat spending bill he enthusiastically supports would give Ukraine another roughly $45 billion in assistance, bringing the total over the past eight months to more than $100 billion, a staggering figure even if it weren’t happening during a time of inflation, looming recession, and other serious domestic problems.

The comment about Republican priorities is so false as to be completely delusional. Among the many concerns Republican voters have with Washington, D.C., a failure to give even more money to Ukraine simply does not rank.

A large coalition of conservative groups, including the Heritage Foundation and the Conservative Partnership Institute, publicly opposed ramming through more Ukraine support during the lame-duck session before Republicans take over control of the House on Jan. 3, 2023. Strong pluralities and majorities of Republicans have told pollsters they want decreases, not increases, in foreign spending and global military involvement.

Many Republican voters support helping Ukraine fight Russia’s unjust invasion, but it is absolutely nowhere near their top issue, contrary to McConnell’s false claim. It ranked higher as a priority before American taxpayers gave Ukraine more than was given to their war effort by nearly every other country in the world combined. But even at the height of support for the effort, before it turned into a massive proxy war with an unclear relationship to the U.S. national interest, it was not the top issue for Republicans, coming behind the economy and the U.S. border.

A majority of Americans polled a few months ago said more money should be given to Ukraine only after wealthy European countries match what Americans have already sent — something nowhere near happening.

Republicans care deeply about borders and national sovereignty, but they rank the protection of their own open border far above the protection of the borders of other countries. It is worth remembering that the longest government shutdown in U.S. history occurred in 2019 over a fight between Congress and President Donald Trump over whether to commit a relatively paltry $5 billion to protect our country’s southern border, which Congress had refused to fund.

About that $1.7 Trillion Spending Package

Another comment from McConnell also shocked Republicans. Of the $1.7 trillion left-wing spending spree McConnell is working so hard to help Democrats pass, he said, unbelievably, that he was “pretty proud of the fact that with a Democratic president, Democratic House, and Democratic Senate, we were able to achieve through this omnibus spending bill essentially all of our priorities.” As an indication of how deeply sick and broken and unserious the Senate is, no one had even begun to read the lengthy bill, which was put forward just hours before votes began.

The American people voted for Republicans to take over control of the House of Representatives, and House Republicans had begged McConnell to push for a smaller, short-term bill to keep the government funded while also giving them a rare opportunity to weigh in on Biden’s policy goals. McConnell allies dismissed House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and other House members who tried to persuade Republican senators not to support Democrats’ spending frenzy.

Budgets are policy documents, and the only leverage Republicans have is to wait a few weeks for when they will have a much stronger hand to weigh in on every issue that matters. By ramming through the $1.7 trillion package during the lame-duck session, Republicans will have significantly less ability over the next year to fight against Democrats’ destruction of rule of law in the Department of Justice, the failure to protect American borders, the destruction of the military, and Democrat collusion with Big Tech to suppress conservatives and their ideas.

The spending bill McConnell asserted was good for all of his priorities rewards the FBI with brand new headquarters and ups the funding for the DOJ to enable it to go after even more of its political opponents while protecting its political allies.

It’s perhaps worth remembering that during the 2020 Georgia runoff campaign, McConnell blocked efforts to increase funding for Americans who had their businesses and jobs shut down by government mandate during the response to Covid-19. Spending is not a problem for him, so long as the right people receive the funds.

Republicans Need a Leader Who Shares Their Goals

What support McConnell has from Republicans largely comes from doing his job well when it comes to judicial nominations. I myself co-wrote a book on the topic. He is rightly praised for his work in getting conservative judges and justices confirmed and for stopping one liberal judicial nominee, Merrick Garland. It is not praiseworthy, however, that he encouraged President Trump to nominate Garland as attorney general and voted to confirm him when President Biden did nominate him.

It is noteworthy that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has matched McConnell’s record on judges, and with far less fanfare from his allies. Perhaps Democrats demand more of their leaders than competence at only a few aspects of their job. That Schumer is capable of doing what McConnell has done shows it’s not a particularly unique skill set.

McConnell allies also like to say McConnell is good at stopping Democrat legislation. Indeed, McConnell did contribute to what few successes there were in the last two years, such as stopping the poorly named Equality Act. Certainly, he played small ball well enough to keep Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona from voting to get rid of the filibuster. Again, whatever frustration Republican voters have with McConnell should not keep them from acknowledging these limited successes.

However, Republican voters are desperately concerned about the country and are looking for bold and persuasive leadership instead of comfort with a few small, intermittent successes. They also seek leaders who don’t hate them. Frustration with McConnell’s well-known and long-established disdain for Republican voters is becoming a serious problem.

The politically toxic McConnell has continuously ranked as the country’s least popular politician, well behind Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. He is so disliked by Americans that he is underwater by an average of 35.3 points in polls gauging his favorability.

Unfortunately for Republicans, he has been the top elected Republican in the country for the last two years, a period marked mostly by inexcusable impotence, fecklessness, and muddled messaging from the GOP.

Rather than present a coherent and persuasive vision of what Republican control of the Senate might look like, or even demonstrating consistent opposition to Democrat policies, too often McConnell overtly or covertly helped Democrats pass their signature policy goals. He had his deputy Sen. John Cornyn negotiate a bill to restrict Second Amendment rights. He notoriously and embarrassingly caved on a promise to help Democrats get huge numbers to pass their CHIPS subsidy, giving Biden a huge win he could celebrate with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo two weeks before the midterm elections.

McConnell also famously trashed Republican candidates and the voters who selected them, refused to advocate strenuously for the candidates, and failed to develop or pursue a persuasive message to Americans for voting to give Republicans control of the Senate.

When Democrats poured $75 million — not even counting the outside spending — into defending Mark Kelly’s Senate seat in Arizona, McConnell left Republican challenger Blake Masters high and dry. Masters had only $9 million. Instead, McConnell interfered in Alaska’s Senate race even though the top two contenders were both Republican. He gave his valuable cash to weak Republican Lisa Murkowski, the candidate who did not even win the Alaska Republican Party’s endorsement! Murkowski is known for not voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, among other notable decisions.

After the disappointing midterm loss, McConnell blamed others. He also allowed a dozen Republican senators to vote for a bill that would enable assaults on Republican voters who, on religious grounds, oppose redefining marriage.

So long as Mitch McConnell is the top elected Republican in D.C., eagerly trashing Republican voters, vociferously advocating for Democrat policy goals, pushing $1.7 trillion Democrat spending packages, and weakly fighting for whatever Republican goals he can be bothered to pursue, Republicans have a major problem. This is beyond obvious.

Everyone outside D.C. knows this even if few inside D.C. are willing to acknowledge it. Until they do, the Republican Party will continue to suffer.

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist. She is Senior Journalism Fellow at Hillsdale College and a Fox News contributor. She is the co-author of Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court. She is the author of “Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections.” Reach her at mzhemingway@thefederalist.com

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

More Politically INCORRECT Cartoons for Friday March 23, 2018


Category:

Political

Tagged with:

More Politically INCORRECT Cartoons for February 14, 2018


Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Today’s TWO Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco


To Infinity and Beyond

A.F. Branco | on

For the sake of bipartisanship, 2018 government spending will be through the roof to its highest level yet.

2018 SpendingPolitical Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2018.
More A.F. Branco Cartoons at Net Right Daily.

A.F.Branco Coffee Table Book <—- Order Here!
Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated –  $1.00 – $5.00 – $10 – $100 –  it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. – THANK YOU!

Hearts Afire

A.F. Branco | on

The media and North Korea have a lot in common, they both hate Trump and want to see him gone.

Media Loves N KoreaPolitical Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2017.

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

More Politically INCORRECT Cartoons February 12 2018


Category:

Political

Tagged with:

More Politically INCORRECT Cartoons for Monday November 6, 2017


Category:

Political

Tagged with:

More Politically INCORRECT Cartoons for Thursday October 26, 2107


Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Perspective: Trump scored big, using a conventional speech to kick off an unconventional presidency


waving flag disclaimerA Perspective by  Daniel Horowitz | March 01, 2017

URL of the original posting site: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2017/03/trump-scored-big-using-a-conventional-speech-to-kick-off-an-unconventional-presidency

Donald Trump in Mesa, AZ / Gage Skidmore | Flickr

State of the Union Addresses are usually full of carefully-crafted platitudes presenting the president’s agenda in a unifying tone from a position of strength. Typically, no new ground is plowed at these events. In recent years, they have fallen flat for presidents of both parties. But given that Trump is such an unconventional president, a conventional policy speech — carefully crafted with a serious but upbeat tone — is exactly what he needed in order to recover his stalled momentum.

In many ways this was the best speech he has given to date. In fact, it was a perfect presentation of his agenda. To be clear, not all of his agenda is conservative, but that is already baked into the cake. Amidst a month of endless muddled messaging, ramblings about the media, Republican infighting, and competing factions within his own administration, last night was his only opportunity to take his message directly to the American people. It was also a time to move beyond campaign rhetoric and embrace the reality of his party controlling all of government and the need for a forward-looking message.

Here are my quick observations on the policy aspects of the speech, divided into what conservatives should consider good and bad..

THE GOOD

1. Immigration:

Coming into the speech, rumors were swirling in the media that Trump would embrace some sort of amnesty. Not only did that not occur, but Trump reclaimed the term “immigration reform” and used it to describe what the word truly means: finally restoring our immigration system to its historical values before Ted Kennedy destroyed it. That means only admitting immigrants who love our values, do not become a public charge, and do not threaten our way of life. It also means implementing a sane legal immigration system that is not based on chain migration. He put Democrats on defense so that they will have to explain why they oppose merit-based immigration.. For those of us who’ve worked on this issue for years, this speech was just what the doctor ordered.

2. Refugees:

Trump spoke to the morality, not just the legality, of his immigration moratorium, which we called on him to do earlier this week. As Trump said,

“It is not compassionate, but reckless, to allow uncontrolled entry from places where proper vetting cannot occur. Those given the high honor of admission to the United States should support this country and love its people and its values.” He also charted a completely new path on the entire premise and goal of refugee policy: “The only long-term solution for these humanitarian disasters is to create the conditions where displaced persons can safely return home and begin the long process of rebuilding.”

3. Obamacare:

Earlier today, I laid down the gauntlet for Trump to finally speak directly to the problems of Obamacare. I argued he needed to call for full repeal and hold Democrats accountable for creating this disaster but then blocking its solution. Trump did not disappoint in the macro-messaging. The guiding principles he laid out on health care were sound. He actually touched on the central point missed by GOP congressional leadership — that we should focus on lowering costs rather than expanding coverage as an end to itself, saying: “The way to make health insurance available to everyone is to lower the cost of health insurance, and that is what we will do.” Unfortunately, he contradicted that messaging by hinting at a pre-existing condition mandate and refundable tax credits — two elements of the establishment plan that will actually keep prices high. Nonetheless, the overall plan was as good as we can hope for from any Republican at this moment and needs to be bolstered by allies in the administration.complete-message

4. Foreign policy:

Although the details were a little sparse for a speech this long, he made it clear that the era of nation building is over. “My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America,” said Trump in a very effective punchline. At the same time, President Trump spoke to defending American security without apologizing and waging an unflinching war against radical Islamic terror. And thank God, as this is the first time in years a president has mentioned our alliance with Israel without pushing the odious “two state solution.”

5. Drugs and crime:

Although crime is a policy mainly dealt with on a state level, I’m glad Trump used his “job” as ‘citizen in chief’ to address rising crime rates. This is one area of Trumpism that is actually more in line with traditional conservatism, even though it deviates from the current dogma among “right-leaning” policy elites. The same is true for the drug epidemic. He let the liberal open borders crowd own the disaster that is taking place in our communities thanks to drugs pouring over the border.

THE BAD

1. No mention of life and religious liberty:

While we’ve come to expect social conservatism to take a back seat, it’s a shame that these issues didn’t even receive the traditional obligatory mention, especially given the persecution that is taking place at the hands of the sexual identity lobby and the courts. He could have easily woven in respect for the conscience and private property decisions of others into this unifying speech and would have been a good ambassador for the cause. He won with overwhelming support from evangelicals and other faith-based groups in this country. It’s a shame they were left out tonight. Then again, the rest of the party is just as bad on this issue, so it’s not as if Trump is changing the party’s true position. Nonetheless, conservatives need to fight harder to address fundamental rights and judicial reform.amen

Let our policies stand on their own merits and the media’s desire to destroy them will be that much harder.

2. Ivankacare, porkulous, spending, and debt:

As always, there was no mention of balancing the budget, the threat of debt, or the need to cut spending. In addition, President Trump promoted “Ivankacare” and the full blown $1 trillion porkulous he calls an infrastructure rebuilding package. Conservatives should not back down in their opposition to these bad ideas. We don’t need another massive entitlement; we need to repeal Obamacare so that mothers don’t have to work more to pay for a second mortgage. Likewise, the talk of “crumbling infrastructure” is a dubious left-wing talking point. And to the extent there are problems with our infrastructure it’s because of the inefficient, failed federal monopoly on highway spending. Trump said, “the time has come for a new program of national rebuilding.” He is right, it’s time to devolve transportation and education spending to the states in order to improve those important functions.amen

Moreover, Trump must remember that we cannot have economic growth with such long-term debt. Also, the trade deficit he speaks of is only a problem because of our fiscal deficit and the misallocation of investments pouring into this country.

3. The protectionist trade policies:

Nothing new here, but still very problematic. Much of the appeal of “buy America” and “stopping companies from going overseas” stems from the general feeling that we have lost our economy and sovereignty. But were Trump to really propose a solid agenda ending venture socialism — taxation, regulation, and subsidization — along with his virtuous immigration ideas, those problems would go away over time and trade won’t have to be the bogeyman. Furthermore, enactment of true free market policies is the best way to keep companies in America.

Overall, there was really nothing new regarding Trump’s non-conservative views, and I believe they were overshadowed by the solid parts of his speech on immigration and Obamacare. It’s something we must continue to work on as we fight to defend his good policies.

President Trump must now harness the energy from this successful speech and deliver specific policies to Congress on taxes, immigration, and health care. He must whip GOP leaders into shape, get everyone in his administration on the same page, stay on message, and let his policies speak above the rancor of the media. Trump should focus relentlessly on his policies (hopefully the more conservative ones) and back them up with a series of policy speeches while simply ignoring the media. Yes, the media is the enemy, but we must not be our own worst enemy. Let our policies stand on their own merits and the media’s desire to destroy them will be that much harder.

Category:

Opinion, Political

Tagged with:

Cruz accuses McConnell of working for Dems


waving flagBy  Susan Ferrechio (@susanferrechio) • 10/29/2015

URL of the original posting site: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/cruz-accuses-mcconnell-of-working-for-dems/article/2575308

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the top Republican in the Senate is working hard for Democrats, not the GOP. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican presidential candidate, conducted a 90-minute takedown late Thursday of his own Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who he characterized by name as a weak leader unwilling to fight for conservative causes. Cruz, a Tea Party conservative, frequently bucks Senate GOP leaders and has on at least one other occasion criticized McConnell in a Senate floor speech.

But late Thursday, he took on McConnell with renewed antipathy, using pie charts to demonstrate that the Kentucky no more rinosRepublican has bolstered the Democratic agenda rather than conservative goals during his ten-month tenure. “Why is a Republican majority leader fighting to accomplish the priorities of the Democratic minority?” Cruz asked.

Cruz criticized a broad budget and debt limit deal the Senate is scheduled to vote on early Friday, arguing that the accord gave President Obama and Democrats all that they wanted, with nothing in return for Republicans seeking to rein in spending and shrink the debt.

Many conservatives have waved off as insignificant a provision in the bill that aims to cut the cost of the nearly insolvent Social Security Disability Insurance program with heightened fraud scrutiny.

The legislation increases spending by $80 billion over two years, breaking budget caps. It also suspends the nation’s $18.1 trillion borrowing limit until March 2017.

“This means that Republican majorities in both parties will be extracting nothing significant from President Obama,” Cruz said in opposition to the bill. “This deal means that Republican leadership will have fully surrendered.”AMEN

Cruz’s drubbing didn’t stop with the budget.

Using pie charts, Cruz made the case that McConnell has helped to pass legislation opposed by the majority of Senate Republicans but supported by the majority of Democrats.

Climate change legislation and an amendment to revive the Export-Import were among the measures brought to the floor despite opposition from a majority of Republicans, Cruz noted. The provisions passed with mostly Democratic support.

Cruz said McConnell should employ an old GOP House rule to bring to the floor only legislation that has a majority of Republican Senators backing it. He said the established congressional leaders aren’t looking out for ordinary Americans but rather big corporations, who cut them checks for them at D.C. cocktail parties and reward them later with million-dollar jobs.

Cruz also targeted now former Speaker John Boehner, who retires Friday. Boehner wrote much of the budget deal Cruz opposes. “The lame duck speaker, on his way out, will no doubt land in a plush easy chair, in the Washington D.C. cartel, and will soon be making millions of dollars, living off the cartel,” Cruz said. GOPNoSpineCartoon

Cruz said Americans are onto the scheme and are tired of Republicans making promises on the campaign trail, only to shy away from big fights once elected. “That frustration is driving every day, the growing rage from the American people,” Cruz said.AMEN

McConnell has traditionally chosen to avoid responding to Cruz’s attacks and has discouraged other GOP lawmakers from defending him on the Senate floor. Most Senate Republicans support McConnell and have privately and publicly accused Cruz of using floor diatribes to raise campaign cash from the conservative base and support for his presidential bid. 

Jim Manley, a former top aide to Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Cruz had taken an unprecedented step in attacking McConnell Thursday night. “I have never, EVER, seen anything like it,” Manley said on Twitter. “McConnell should not dignify with a response, but wow.”

Delusional Mental Illness Gibberish In God We Trust freedom combo 2

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Congress paddles toward a shutdown


waving flagBy Alexander Bolton – 06/16/15

Congress is slowly paddling toward a government shutdown. The fight over government spending that has dominated much of the decade, calmed for two years because of a bipartisan deal, is roaring back to life. Democrats are adamant that Republicans back off their plans to increase defense spending without doing the same for nondefense programs. They argue the GOP is using a budget gimmick to funnel more money to the Pentagon without raising spending limits on healthcare and social welfare programs.

To try to force the party’s hand, Senate Democrats say they will block every annual spending bill unless Republicans agree to a budget summit. Republicans, for their part, say they have no intention of caving to Democratic demands. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) say they won’t convene a budget summit and warn Democrats could earn the wrath of voters by blocking bills to fund the military.

Unless someone blinks, none of the 12 annual spending bills will be approved by this summer — leaving Congress on the brink of a shutdown in late September.

The finger-pointing has already started.Offical Seal

“Democrats once thought it was insanely radical for Republicans to oppose too much spending, but now think it’s perfectly reasonable to shut down the government when the spending bills don’t spend enough,” Boehner stated in a Monday memo to reporters. “We’re headed for another shutdown,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) said of Republicans last week. “They did it once, they’re going to do it again.”

Democrats appear eager to return to shutdown politics, which have benefited their party in the past. When the government shut down for 16 days in 2013, Republicans largely got the blame. “If our Republican colleagues want to keep quietly paddling toward a government shutdown, that’s their choice,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said earlier this month.

Don Stewart, McConnell’s spokesman, said Democrats will get the blame for a shutdown because they’re taking the funding bills hostage. “It’s hard for someone who’s vowed to filibuster and block spending bills to blame someone else for shutting down the government,” he said.  Still, Republicans are wary of the issue, given its history on Capitol Hill.Party of Deciet and lies

One likely way out is passing a continuing resolution (CR) at the end of September that would keep current funding levels in place. Some Democrats believe McConnell is angling for such a solution. The GOP leader has spent much of the year making the case that Republicans can govern ahead of a 2016 election in which his members face a difficult political map. Twenty-four Republican senators will be up for reelection, many of them in states won by President Obama in the last two presidential elections. “I think he sees that as the endgame. Everything else is just going through the motions,” said a Democratic leadership aide. “McConnell has already resigned himself to a CR.”

This would keep the GOP’s reputation for governing intact and spare the Senate leader from having to side with defense hawks who want to boost spending over fiscal conservatives in his conference who don’t want to lift the budget caps. A stopgap measure would extend current funding levels set by the accord reached at the end of 2013 by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), at the time the respective heads of the Senate and House Budget panels. Their deal halted the automatic spending cut known as sequestration. But extending it for another year would not offer any relief because the spending cap set by the 2011 Budget Control Act for fiscal 2016 is slightly higher than the top-line number set by Murray and Ryan for fiscal 2015.

McConnell, as usual, is playing his cards close to the vest, offering little hint of his next step after forcing Democrats to vote on the popular defense appropriations bill later this month. He and Boehner could agree to high-level budget talks later in the year, but only after forcing Senate Democrats to vote against a series of appropriations bills, giving ammunition to the argument that Democrats are obstructionists.

Democrats argue it will take at least two months to hash out a deal on a top-line spending number, which means a stopgap is the intended outcome. “If you wait until the end, you’re going to get a [continuing resolution,]” New York Sen. Charles Schumer, the third-ranking Senate Democrat, said at a press conference last week. “That’s what they want,” added Reid, who was standing next to his deputy.

GOP aides and strategists say McConnell will do everything in his power to avoid a shutdown — though he is unlikely to make his move until after the August recess. “If it has to go up until the brink of a shutdown, we’re likely to see a CR situation happening. I find it very unlikely that the Senate Republicans would allow a shutdown to occur on their watch,” said Ron Bonjean, a GOP strategist and former Senate leadership aide.

The chore for McConnell and Boehner could be further complicated once the government needs to raise its debt limit. That’s likely to happen this fall. “I made it very clear after the November election that we certainly are not going to shut down the government or default on the national debt,” McConnell said earlier this year in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “We’ll figure some way to handle that, and hopefully it might carry some other important legislation that we can agree on in connection with it,” he said.

Another agreement to lift the spending caps when Republicans control both chambers of Congress would not go down well with Tea Party conservatives. The first Ryan-Murray deal was somewhat more palatable because Democrats controlled the Senate at the time. One conservative GOP aide said McConnell has weakened his own negotiation position by promising in advance not to let a government shutdown happen. The aide argued that Democrats can feel confident of winning concessions on spending increases by creating an impasse that threatens a shutdown.freedom combo 2

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

US No Longer in Top 10 of Most Economically Free Countries


The following article is more evidence of the importance of the 2014 elections. So, why is the media, even FOX, so focused on the 2016 elections?

Jerry Broussard (MrB)

<><><><><><><><><><><><>

 

WWW.LASTRESISTANCE.COM

http://lastresistance.com/4381/us-longer-top-10-economically-free-countries/#Hs0W1ORs3RdeuQuC.99

Posted By on Jan 14, 2014

ball and chain

The Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation released their 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, and, unsurprising to most of us, the United States has dropped out of the top ten most economically free countries. This is due in part to our escalating economic regulations and out-of-control debt, but it also has to do with growing freedoms in other parts of the world. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The most improved players are in Eastern Europe, including Estonia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. These countries have gained the most economic freedom over the past two decades. And it’s no surprise: Those who have lived under communism have no trouble recognizing the benefits of a free-market system. But countries that have experimented with milder forms of socialism, such as Sweden, Denmark and Canada, also have made impressive moves toward greater economic freedom, with gains near 10 points or higher on the index scale. Sweden, for instance, is now ranked 20th out of 178 countries, up from 34th out of 140 countries in 1996.

 

The U.S. and the U.K., historically champions of free enterprise, have suffered the most pronounced declines. Both countries now fall in the “mostly free” category. Some of the worst performers are in Latin America, particularly Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia. All are governed by crony-populist regimes pushing policies that have made property rights less secure, spending unsustainable and inflation ever more threatening.

I think it’s important for us to realize that the United States is being plunged into an economic quagmire that European and Eastern nations have already suffered through and are exiting. While we extol the virtues of government regulations, universal blah blah blah, and socialist utopias, former socialist states are abandoning these same ideologies in favor of the laissez-faire economic policies that traditionally characterized the US. And why are formerly socialist countries abandoning socialist policies? Because they just don’t work. I don’t know how long it will take for us to figure that out. How many other countries need to destroy themselves pursuing socialism before everyone just agrees that big government top-down economic controls paralyze economies and dissipate economic potential? Seriously. This is frustrating.

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS, THIS VIDEO IS EYE OPENING!


This 3 minute 40 second video clip may be the most important clip you have ever watched …

This is probably the most intelligent presentation of the truth you have seen in a long time …

Please take the time to view this clip and then share it with others

View Video Clip Here!!

Category:

Political

Tagged with:

Tag Cloud

%d bloggers like this: