USA Today reports that the difference between what the federal government under President Obama will have spent in 2012 and how much it will collect in taxes and other revenue sources will be $1.33 trillion: The budget, an outline of which was released by the White House Friday night, will show a higher deficit…
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In the following, insightful, new video, Independent Institute Research Fellow Benjamin Powell reveals “Why Washington only cut $38 billion” recently from federal spending because as public choice economics shows, special interests prevail over the average citizen by utilizing the political process to redistribute wealth and power from the many to the few (and costs…
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How much has the recent debate over federal spending changed things in Washington D.C.? Consider that at the beginning of the year, both the President and the members of his political party believed that any cuts to their previously proposed levels of spending would be unthinkable. After all, it was only two months ago…
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In a new article, “How Can Anyone Take This Seriously?”, Independent Institute Research Editor Anthony Gregory slams the absurd squabbling in Congress over 2% of the federal deficit while the U.S.’s gigantic spending and debt crisis plunges onward. The U.S. is running deficits somewhere between one and one and a half trillion dollars, and…
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In a new article for the Wall Street Journal, “We’ve Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers,” Stephen Moore discusses that “More Americans work for the government than in manufacturing, farming, fishing, forestry, mining and utilities combined.” If you want to understand better why so many states�from New York to Wisconsin to California�are teetering…
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In a characteristically informed and appropriately scathing attack on the welfare state, Walter Williams asserts a cautiously optimistic view of the recent trend in political discourse as it has become more popular to call for limits on the arbitrary powers of the state. “For the first time in my lifetime�and I’m approaching 75 years…
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Politicians have been advocating a value added tax (VAT) for decades, and with the huge projected federal deficits interest in a VAT seems to be increasing lately. Last Spring Paul Volker was suggesting one, and David Theroux recently noted in his blog Paul Krugman�s support. Alice Rivlin and Pete Domenici suggest a 6.5% �debt…
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In the new article on runaway spending from the Pentagon, “How Many More Trillion$ for Defense?”, Independent Institute Research Fellow Winslow Wheeler explains the dire need for effective budgetary controls over the Pentagon.� As it stands the Pentagon “is literally ‘unauditable.’” �Since Sept. 11, 2001, Congress and the Defense Department have added more than…
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In this new article on United States transportation infrastructure and spending, Gabriel Roth explains the� wasteful spending endemic to the central planning approach taken to transportation.� Rather than a leaky bucket, Roth proposes using market forces based on local transportation needs: “President Obama�s recent announcement of a $50 billion ‘up-front investment’ for ‘renewing and…
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In a new article in Defense News, Winslow Wheeler reports on the trillions of dollars of wasteful spending by the Pentagon, and the poor state of the armed forces that result: “You�d think all that added money would give us larger forces, a newer hardware inventory and better trained people. Instead, the windfall made…
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