Federal Budget
December 22, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The Wall Street Journal’s reconstruction of Obama’s fiscal-cliff negotiations is accessible online, but is behind the Journal’s subscription paywall. Quotable quote: Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn’t reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were
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December 21, 2012 — John Hinderaker
I held off on posting today just in case the world might end, but since it looks like we will all be here tomorrow, here are some thoughts on the House’s failure to pass Speaker Boehner’s Plan B last night, and why I think that failure was a setback, if not a disaster, for the GOP. Let’s start with a dose of reality. Over the next few years, taxes are
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December 12, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama’s goal in the fiscal cliff negotiations seems clear. He wants to force the Republicans to swallow increases in the tax rates of high-earners and thereby bring in at least one trillion dollars in revenue. Alternatively, if the Republicans won’t swallow rate increases for the “wealthy,” he wants to see everyone’s taxes go up and be able to blame Republicans for it. The Republican goal also seems clear. They
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December 12, 2012 — John Hinderaker
When I talk to conservatives and even not-so-conservative independents about the nation’s current fiscal crisis, I find a great deal of sympathy with the idea that Congressional Republicans should stop negotiating secret deals. Experience tells us that 11th-hour back room agreements never end well for Republicans, and that they also blur accountability, as both parties wind up taking joint responsibility for all aspects of the deal. So the Republicans’ best
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December 10, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Knowledgeable observers have always known that the U.S. cannot come close to balancing its budget by increasing taxes on the rich, for the simple reason that we have nowhere near enough rich people, and our rich people have nowhere near enough money. Yet for the most part, this obvious fact has been obscured in press coverage of negotiations between President Obama and Congressional Republicans. At this late date, however, the
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December 7, 2012 — John Hinderaker
As Republican and Democratic negotiators look for places to cut the federal budget, welfare spending should be at the top of the list. The Senate Budget Committee reports that total spending on means-tested federal programs, if divided by the number of households living below the official poverty line, works out to $168 per day. How much is that? Well, the average American household lives on $137 per day: That welfare
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December 4, 2012 — John Hinderaker
That’s how the serpent tempts the elephant, in Michael Ramirez’s vision. Don’t worry, it’s only the rich!
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December 4, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Each of the following 20 propositions are, I think, true: 1. Either there will be a deal between President Obama and the Republicans or there will be no deal and we will go over the “fiscal cliff.” This choice can be postponed until next year, but it probably can’t be avoided altogether. 2. In all likelihood, Obama won’t agree to a deal unless the tax rates of very top earners
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December 3, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Today’s big news is a written fiscal proposal by Congressional Republicans. The press describes it as a counter to “President Obama’s deficit reduction proposal,” but that is incorrect. Obama hasn’t made an offer concrete or credible enough to be described as a proposal. The Boehner offer is contained in a three-page letter to the President, signed by six Republican House leaders along with Boehner. You can read it here. The
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December 2, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Confess: you don’t remember what, exactly, the Simpson-Bowles “Fiscal Responsibility and Reform” Commission proposed. I didn’t remember, either, but with many conservatives, including Steve Hayward, suggesting that the House pass Simpson-Bowles as its proposal to avert the fiscal cliff, I thought it would be good to refresh both my memory, and yours. You can read the Commission’s report here; it isn’t particularly long. The Commission’s proposals are good on taxes
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November 29, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Tim Geithner presented John Boehner with the Obama plan for averting the “fiscal cliff.” According to the New York Times, Obama’s plan calls for $1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years, $50 billion in immediate stimulus spending, home mortgage refinancing, and a permanent end to Congressional control over statutory borrowing limits. President Obama would also agree to a goal of finding $400 billion in savings from Medicare and other
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November 29, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Michael Ramirez foresees the “compromise” that will emerge from the secret talks between Barack Obama and John Boehner: The compromise will be a balanced approach, too; Republicans will be balanced on the precipice.
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November 29, 2012 — John Hinderaker
So now John Boehner is angry that the White House leaked a one-sided version of his latest conversation with President Obama to the press: Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Republican leaders are fuming after a late night phone call with President Barack Obama was leaked to the press, despite an agreement that it would not be, according to several GOP aides. As if this should come as a
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November 29, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Reports from Washington indicate that John Boehner and Barack Obama are negotiating the nation’s fiscal future under the cover of darkness. Boehner apparently reports to his House Republican caucus from time to time, and Mitch McConnell might have some idea what is going on, but no Republican other than Boehner seems to be playing a significant role. Washington Republicans who are most knowledgeable about the budget are apparently being shut
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November 24, 2012 — Steven Hayward
The Wall Street Journal this morning carries a feature by my pal Stephen Moore about the elfin Grover Norquist, who reminds us that Democratic promises about future spending cuts to accompany immediate tax increases are “imaginary unicorns.” Which brought to mind a useful phrase that Churchill applied to his old friend David Lloyd-George that we ought to revive and deploy just now—“the Happy Warrior of Squandermania.” Here’s the full quotation,
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November 22, 2012 — Steven Hayward
If you follow the news you’ve no doubt heard of the Higgs boson (named for physicist Peter Higgs), the mysterious subatomic particle that helps explain the Big Bang and the “standard model” of the universe. But there is another important Higgs hypothesis that you should know about—named for economist and historian Robert Higgs—that explains the big bang of endless expansion of modern government. In his pathbreaking 1988 book Crisis and
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November 22, 2012 — John Hinderaker
One story that I’ve been meaning to comment on is the GQ interview with Marco Rubio. Attention has focused mostly on the interviewer’s out-of-the-blue question, “How old do you think the Earth is?” I didn’t think Marco answered it particularly well, but the incident certainly does indicate, as many have noted, that the left’s effort to diminish Rubio in advance of the 2016 election is well underway. But I want
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