Federal debt and deficit

Obama’s Lame Duck Budget

Featured image President Obama has unveiled his last budget proposal, which calls for $4.1 trillion in spending for FY 2017. In the final year of his presidency Obama is by definition a lame duck. With Republicans in control of Congress–even though it doesn’t always seem like it–he is the lamest possible duck. As always, Obama’s final budget purports to cover the next ten years. But since Obama will be gone in a »

The problem with Speaker Ryan in one headline

Featured image Yesterday’s Washington Post featured an article by Amber Phillips called (in the paper edition) “A dismal congressional session, but a flicker of hope.” According to Phillips, the “hope” lies in the “fresh face” of Speaker Paul Ryan and the bipartisanship he has already demonstrated. That the Washington Post sees hope in Ryan’s emergence tells conservatives everything they need to know about the new Speaker. Moreover, an article like Phillips’ is »

Hillary Clinton’s national debt evasion

Featured image At a political event in New Hampshire, someone asked Hillary Clinton to state with specificity what she would do as president to bring down the national debt. Instead of answering, Clinton offered a self-serving history lesson, praising her husband’s record (about which more below) and criticizing George W. Bush for starting two wars (both of which she voted for) without paying for them ( The Washington Post’s fact checker has »

GOP: Say No To Another Bad Spending Deal

Featured image There are so many things wrong with the spending deal that John Boehner announced last night. Let us itemize a few of them. First, the Left is openly crowing about the fact that the deal is a huge victory for their side. The New York Times headlines: “Obama Wins on Budget Deal as John Boehner Cleans Out the Barn.” How much more do you need to know? The sequester was »

On the Bright Side, We’ll Only be $20 Trillion In Debt

Featured image Americans everywhere are counting down to the end of the Obama presidency. The damage he has wreaked is beyond calculation. He has hobbled our economy, trashed the Constitution, eroded trust in government, politicized one federal agency after another, poisoned relations among the races, stifled opportunity for poorer Americans, weakened our armed forces, conducted a perverse foreign policy, made the U.S. a laughingstock abroad…the list goes on and on. And we »

Per Capita Federal Spending Shows 40-Year Trends

Featured image Veronique de Rugy has performed a real service by compiling the data shown in the chart below, in a manner that I haven’t seen it before. The chart depicts per capita federal spending from 1962 to the present, broken down into three categories: discretionary, mandatory and net interest, and stated in constant 2014 dollars. First the chart, then some comments about it. Click to enlarge: Shown on a per capita »

In Ignominious Finale, Cromnibus Passes Senate

Featured image As expected, the $1.1 trillion continuing resolution/omnibus spending bill passed the Senate yesterday on a 56-40 vote. The vote was bipartisan–one might say, weirdly bipartisan. The measure’s opponents included the far-left Tom Harkin and Al Franken, and the solidly conservative Mike Lee and Jeff Sessions. Notably, all senators who are seen as potential 2016 presidential candidates voted No: Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren. In my view, »

Congressional leaders to push through a $1.01 trillion dollar budget this week

Featured image As expected, congressional leaders have reached a budget deal. The government will be funded to the tune of $1.01 trillion. This amount will keep all agencies running through September of next year, except for the Department of Homeland Security. It will be funded only through late February. Mitch McConnell says that the Senate will pass the bill before it leaves town this week. Unfortunately, this means that legislators, not to »

In defense of QE

Featured image A long-time reader and professional investor responded both to the critical if tentative substance as well as the spirit of inquiry in which I posted “The Age of QE” yesterday. Our reader’s company is devoted to private equity investment and he has asked me to withhold his name for professional reasons; I thought readers interested in the subject would appreciate his response. He writes: I want to offer some perspective »

Dueling Budgets In the House: Which One Is Extreme?

Featured image Today the House of Representatives voted on the budget that came out of its Budget Committee–the Paul Ryan Budget, as it is often known in the press. The budget, which would put the United States on a path toward fiscal sustainability, passed by a vote of 219-205. No Democrats voted to move toward a balanced budget and start dealing with our $17 trillion debt. On the other hand, a few »

Barack Obama’s Credit Card: Declined!

Featured image Democrats love to say that George Bush put two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, on the nation’s credit card. That means he didn’t push for a tax increase. But what about Barack Obama? He put a trillion dollar stimulus program, multiple bailouts, Medicaid expansion, Obamacare and God knows what else on the credit card. And, oh–by the way–he also put two wars on the credit card. He wound down the Iraq »

Obama Delivers Dead-On-Arrival Budget, Lies About It

Featured image President Obama offered his FY 2015 budget proposal today. There were not a lot of surprises, as the key elements of the budget had been leaked over the last week or two. This is how Obama characterized the document in his appearance at an elementary school: [I]t enables us to meet our obligations to future generations without a mountain of debt. This is mystifying. Currently the federal government is more »

Obama Says: No More Austerity!

Featured image President Obama’s budget for the next fiscal year is slated to be released on March 4. While the budget is not yet public, the administration leaked a description of it to the Washington Post: “With 2015 budget request, Obama will call for an end to era of austerity:” President Obama’s forthcoming budget request will seek tens of billions of dollars in fresh spending for domestic priorities while abandoning a compromise »

With Debt Limit Raised, America Continues Its Headlong Descent Into Bankruptcy

Featured image Yesterday’s House vote to raise the debt ceiling was seen as a victory for President Obama and the Democrats. Nancy Pelosi reportedly told her caucus not to “gloat” over their big win. Well, no: increasing the nation’s debt by another trillion dollars is not something to gloat over. Commentary on yesterday’s vote (including mine) focused mostly on the political context. But with federal debt already well in excess of $17 »

House Votes to Raise Debt Ceiling, Restore Veterans’ Cuts

Featured image House Republicans gave up today on their effort to get something in exchange for raising the debt limit. The House passed a “clean” debt limit bill, with only 28 Republicans voting in favor. Separately the House voted to repeal the cuts to veterans’ benefits that were part of the Ryan-Murray deal; that vote was 326-90. Whether the veterans’ COLA cuts will actually be restored remains to be seen. The House »

The Galling Galston

Featured image I wonder sometimes how the reasonably sensible Bill Galston can remain in today’s Democratic Party, whose obsession with equality has elided into pure, envy-filled resentment of the successful.  There’s a reason why envy was long considered one of the seven deadly sins, and to give voice to this in punitive redistributive policy, as Democrats now so clearly wish to do, may well prove deadly to American society. Writing in the »

IMF Says: By the Way, There’s a Debt Crisis

Featured image Two summers ago, we ran the Power Line Prize contest to try to focus attention on the exploding national debt. The contest was successful, in that it incentivized the production of many high-quality videos, songs, pictures, and other media that highlighted the debt crisis, which were viewed millions of times. But like all other efforts to call attention to the debt crisis, it had limited effect, if any. Periodically the »