In “S&P Cuts U.S. Ratings Outlook to Negative,” Damian Paletta at the Wall Street Journal reports that the influential firm Standard & Poor’s has just “for the first time lowered its outlook on the U.S. government’s debt to ‘negative’ from ‘stable.’” A stark warning from a credit-rating firm about the U.S. government’s fiscal problems…
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In a new article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “Grasping budget’s billions and trillions: Incomprehensibly huge numbers mask real burdens,” Independent Institute Research Fellow Emily Skarbek (Director of the Government Cost Calculator) discusses the meaning and absurdity of the $3.8 trillion federal budget and the meaningless reforms being proposed. Taxpayers might have strong feelings about…
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In “Gasoline up 100% under Obama,” James S. Robbins reports in the Washington Times that: Gas prices have doubled since Mr. Obama took office. According to the GasBuddy gasoline price tracking web site, the price of a gallon of regular gas was around $1.79 when Mr. Obama took office. Today the national average is…
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In the new article, “The Real Cost of U.S. in Libya? Two Billion Dollars Per Day,” Loren Thompson at Forbes now reports that the real cost of Obama’s war in Libya is $2 billion per day! The one thing most experts seem to agree on about the current coalition air campaign in Libya is…
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Seth McLaughlin at the Washington Times reports in “Fears rise that Japan could sell off U.S. debt” of the growing concerns that the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters and now economic crisis in Japan could trigger a major sell-off of there of its huge holdings of U.S. government debt. As of January, Japan is…
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Polling from Pew and Gallup reveals major public misconceptions about the defense budget. Fifty-eight percent of Americans know that Pentagon spending is larger than any other nation, but almost none know it is up to seven times that of China. Most had no idea the defense budget is larger than federal spending for education,…
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In�this new article on the continual spending and stretching of the budget, Dr. Emily Skarbek explains the temptations for the new Congress to spend wastefully and heighten the debt ceiling. Equating Congress and the ever-expanding budget to over-eaters, Dr. Skarbek says that small intervals of “another ten pounds” are causing an extreme obesity crisis…
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According to CBS News, on the last day of 2010 the U.S. National Debt hit a record level of more than $14 trillion or $14,025,215,218,708.52, up from $9 trillion just over three years ago and a whopping 55% increase since just before 2008. As the report states: It took just 7 months for the…
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Compared to how January 2011 might have played out, where every taxpayer in the United States would have received a smaller paycheck if the 111th U.S. Congress hadn’t acted to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, the Congress’ late action to extend those tax rates for another two years, while also throwing in…
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In an article in the Wall Street Journal, “The Right Way to Balance the Budget,” Andrew Biggs, Kevin Hassett and Matt Jensen report that new research of 21 countries over the past 37 years shows that to reduce government debt, a major reduction of spending must be adopted instead of higher taxes. On average,…
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