Our Time for Choosing

 America's Refounding, ECONOMICS, NEW AMERICA, PATRIOTS  No Responses »
Feb 152010
 

by Andrew Mellon
BigGovernment.com, February 15, 2010

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.  We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

Ronald Reagan spoke these words some forty-six years ago in his famous “A Time for Choosing” speech.  Tragically, today in America it appears the time for choosing is fast passing. As each day goes by our debt grows more untenable; our security more imperiled; our economy more shackled; our government more tyrannical. Continue reading »

China’s debt bomb

 CHINA, ECONOMICS  No Responses »
Feb 082010
 

By ARTHUR HERMAN
New York Post, February 8, 2010

LIFE CHINA WORKERS‘He who pays the piper calls the tune”: That old saying captures perfectly America’s growing dependence on our No. 1 creditor in the world, Communist China.

By their carelessness Congress and the Obama administration are steadily handing over control of America’s economic and financial future to a handful of Chinese officials and generals in Beijing. Those who think the Chinese won’t use that control if they feel they have to are ignoring history — and the Chinese.

The ancient military strategist Sun Tzu said that the best strategy was to render an opponent’s army helpless even before the battle began. America may still have the biggest and best military in the world. Continue reading »

Is Uncle Sam Bankrupt?

 ECONOMICS, NEW AMERICA  No Responses »
Jan 292010
 

by Laurence J. Kotlikoff
NCPA, January 29, 2010

When it comes to nondisclosure, the United States government is the father of all financial malfeasants.  Indeed, Uncle Sam has been misrepresenting the nation’s finances for decades.  In the process, he has run up an undisclosed bill that makes the financial bailout and economic stimulus spending look paltry.

Federal Financial Obligations. According to David M. Walker, former chief comptroller general of the United States, the federal government’s current liabilities to Medicare, Social Security and the federal debt total $56.4 trillion.  To put this in perspective:

  • The average Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefit payment per retiree is currently $30,250 – or about 80 percent of per capita U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Continue reading »

The Spending ‘Freeze’ That Isn’t

 ECONOMICS  No Responses »
Jan 282010
 

Since 2008, the ratio of outlays-to-GDP has risen by about 14%.

By EDWARD P. LAZEAR
Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2010

LazearIn last night’s State of the Union address President Obama proposed a three-year “spending freeze” on what amounts to one-sixth of the federal budget. Our biggest entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicare, would be excluded. These changes are optical rather than substantive. Given the spending agenda that is already in place, we can expect to see large increases in the proportion of GDP that is spent by our government for years to come.

Since 2008, the ratio of federal spending-to-GDP has risen by about 14%. From 2008 to 2009 we saw the greatest annual increase in spending in the last 30 years. In the name of stimulating job growth, the share of federal spending is now 24% of the economy, up from 21% in the last year of the Bush administration. Continue reading »

CBO: ‘U.S. fiscal policy is on an unsustainable path to an extent that cannot be solved by minor tinkering’

 ECONOMICS, NEW AMERICA, PRESIDENT  No Responses »
Jan 272010
 

By Walter Alarkon and J. Taylor Rushing
The Hill, January 26, 2010

Congressional Budget OfficePresident Barack Obama’s proposal to freeze government spending is turning out to be a tough sell on Capitol Hill.

His liberal base warned Tuesday the three-year cap on most non-defense discretionary spending could hamper an economic recovery. Conservatives dismissed it as insufficient and just for show. Continue reading »

The Spender-in-Chief’s Fiscal Freeze Follies

 ECONOMICS, NEW AMERICA, PRESIDENT  No Responses »
Jan 272010
 

by Michelle Malkin
Townhall.com, January 27, 2010

There are more loopholes in President Obama’s proposed “spending freeze” than in an Olympic volleyball net. Gargantuan government entitlements (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) are exempt. A half-trillion in unspent stimulus money is exempt. Foreign aid is exempt. The Democrats’ proposed $154 billion jobs bill (Stimulus II) is exempt. Continue reading »

An Economic Time Bomb

 ECONOMICS, PRESIDENT  No Responses »
Jan 262010
 

Even if Congress does nothing, tax hikes will hit hard a year from now.

By Pete Du Pont
Wall Street Journal, January 26, 2010

money on fireWeather-wise it has been a very cold January, and politically the Scott Brown Senate victory has chilled Washington even further for Democrats. But if the Democratic economic policies continue nevertheless, this year will be nothing like the bitter economic January we will be living in a year from now.

Government spending has already hugely increased, and so has the size and scope of government, but next year there will also be substantial tax increases for a great many Americans. The first reason will be the expiration of the Bush tax cuts . The top personal income tax rate will rise next Jan. 1 to 39.6% from 35%, a hike of nearly one-eighth. The dividend tax rate will rise to 39.6%, more than 2½ times the current 15%. And the capital gains tax rate will rise by a third, to 20% from 15%. If the House health care bill had passed, all three of these rates would have risen to 45%. Continue reading »

Liberalism Is Dead

 CONSTITUTION, NEW AMERICA, PRESIDENT  No Responses »
Jan 192010
 

By James Lewis
American Thinker, January 19, 2010

WhigsThe name “liberalism” has now drifted so far from its moorings that it has turned into a lie. Anybody who uses “liberal” these days is trying to put one over on you. It’s like Florida swampland peddlers talking about their “beautiful lakeshore.” You can stop listening at that point, because nothing you’re going to hear is true. Liberalism used to mean something. Today, it’s pure Florida swampland, complete with snapping alligators.

Consider: Martha Coakley, the Democrat candidate for U.S. Senate for “Teddy Kennedy’s seat” in Massachusetts, Continue reading »

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