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Chart of the Week: Cut Spending to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff
The Heritage Foundation has updated its Saving the American Dream plan as the nation moves inexorably towards the fiscal cliff set to hit at the beginning of 2013. From Amy Payne’s Morning Bell: To...
View ArticleMedicaid Is Failing the People It Is Intended to Help
Heritage’s Kevin Dayaratna finds in a recent survey of academic literature that “Medicaid’s so-called safety net cripples the very people it is designed to help.” The structural flaws in the program...
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Fiscal Cliff Threatens America’s Economic Freedom
The clock is ticking. Massive tax hikes are threatening to push America’s already declining economic freedom over the “fiscal cliff,” a politician-made economic catastrophe. President Obama’s proposal...
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Saving Medicare: New Legislation from Retiring Congressman Herger
Congressman Wally Herger (R-CA). (Photo: James Berglie/Zuma Press/Newscom) Retiring House Ways and Mean Health Care Subcommittee chairman Wally Herger (R–CA) has introduced the most complete and...
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Chart of the Week: U.S. Federal Debt and the Fiscal Cliff
In just a little over a decade, the U.S. federal debtwill exceed 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), an “economically damaging” level, according to analysis from The Heritage Foundation based...
View ArticleThe Washington Post Agrees: It’s Time to Make a Down Payment on Medicare Reform
The editorial board of The Washington Post, no organ of conservative opinion, is absolutely right: “Medicare as we know it is not sustainable,” and the “ultimate solution” is structural reform. Bingo....
View ArticleWill Debt Ceiling Baby Step Lead Toward a Balanced Budget?
The debt ceiling is bearing down on Washington. As with most such momentous occasions, plenty of partisan potshots have been exchanged, like this whopper from the White House: that House Republicans...
View ArticleMorning Bell: It’s Time to Balance the Budget
Today, the House will vote on a proposal that would suspend the debt ceiling until May 19, buying a bit more time for the overarching budget debate. This puts off the difficult decisions that are...
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Don’t Gut Our Military: $150 Billion in Commonsense Proposals to Prevent...
John Albright/Icon SMI/Newscom Unless Congress acts, March 1 will trigger a $55 billion-per-year ($43 billion in 2013, as the fiscal cliff deal delayed the cuts for two months) cut in national defense,...
View ArticleMorning Bell: How to Balance the Budget in 10 Years
Both houses of Congress have now voted to suspend the debt ceiling until May 19, buying lawmakers more time to develop a budget. The Senate would put together a budget for the first time in three...
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On Fox News: Government Waste Is Just the Tip of a Massive Federal Spending...
Senator Mary Landrieu (D–LA) recently stated, “I am not going to keep cutting the discretionary budget, which by the way is not out of control, despite what you hear on Fox News.” I got to join Fox...
View ArticleValentine’s Day Treat: Continued Marriage Tax Penalties
Valentine’s Day is supposed to be when couples come together and celebrate their relationship, but the 13 tax increases in the 2013 fiscal cliff deal unfortunately continued America’s marriage tax...
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Sequestration Will Make the U.S. Less Safe, Despite CATO’s Claims to Contrary
picturescolourlibrary/Pictures Colour Library/Newscom A February 26 article by CATO Institute Analyst Christopher A. Preble wrongly asserts that the imposition of automatic spending cuts, called...
View ArticleMorning Bell: 6 Things the Next U.S. Budget Should Do
It’s time for Congress to make a real budget—and not just any budget. It’s been four years since the U.S. had a real budget. While the House of Representatives has passed budgets, the Senate has...
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FY 2014 Budget Should Keep Defense Fully Funded
John Albright/Icon SMI/Newscom Heritage’s newly released Issue Brief “What the FY 2014 Budget Should Do” provides a blueprint for turning back Washington’s unsustainable spending and keeping national...
View ArticleMorning Bell: First Look at the 2014 Ryan Budget
At first look, the budget unveiled today by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) advances much-needed reforms and importantly accomplishes the crucial goal of balancing the budget within...
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The No-Surprise Senate Budget: Higher Spending, Higher Taxes, No Real “Balance”
After going nearly four years without producing a budget resolution, Senate Democrats today released a plan confirming their mantra about “balanced” approaches has nothing to do with actually...
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Retirement: Delaying It Brings Many Benefits
Newscom Too many healthy seniors retire early at a loss to their wealth and to society. Meanwhile, Social Security is in dire need of reform. Delaying the age of retirement for those able to continue...
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Obama Tax Hikes Will Balance the Budget (April Fool’s)
In the ongoing debate over deficit reduction, President Obama and his colleagues in the House and Senate incessantly call for tax increases as if our budget problems persisted because of taxes being...
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Budgets in Comparison: Will President Obama’s Budget Save the American Dream?
Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call Photos/Newscom When the President’s budget comes out Wednesday, it will complete the last piece of the budget puzzle, as the House and Senate have each duly passed a budget...
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Defense Budget Cuts Troubling in a Dangerous World
Newscom Cuts in President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 defense budget submission are troubling, according to Mike Rogers (R–AL), Chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, House Armed Services...
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Military: Furloughs Won’t Solve Long-Term Concerns
Newscom Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has announced that the 800,000 civilian Department of Defense (DOD) employees scheduled for furloughs will take only 11 days without pay. This amounts to half...
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Social Security Benefits and Cost of Living: Protecting Against Inflation
Adopting the chained CPI (Consumer Price Index) in Social Security to more accurately account for changes in the cost of living is a small first step toward fixing a broken program that is currently...
View ArticleMorning Bell: Time to Shrink the Monster
Does the debt ceiling affect YOU? It does—in many ways. A new video by Bankrupting America uses humor to call attention to an issue that is anything but funny, and why it matters for every American...
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Medicare Trustees Report Gives Seniors, Taxpayers a Bleak Future
Newscom The 2013 Medicare trustees report reconfirms a basic fact: Seniors and taxpayers face a bleak future. The trustees project that Medicare’s share of the economy will almost triple over the next...
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‘Tis the Season: Sequester Furloughs Start
Ryan Barber, who works for the Navy, began his furlough days on July 8. (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom) Yesterday marked the beginning of sequestration’s furlough period. Most of the...
View ArticleHurrah Too Soon: White House Budget Revision Shows $759 Billion Deficit in 2013
The President’s Midsession Review, released this week, projects the 2013 deficit to be lower by $214 billion compared with the earlier Obama budget estimate released in April. But any hurrah would be...
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A Constructive First Step to Reform Social Security
Newscom Dave Camp (R–MI), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has announced a series of hearings on bipartisan entitlement reform proposals, the first of which is using the chained Consumer...
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Morning Bell: 6 Reasons Why the National Debt Keeps Rising
Out-of-control spending by Congress and the Obama Administration has once again maxed out the latest debt limit—a nearly $17 trillion burden that harms job growth, gives special interests a pass, and...
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Social Security: Declining Fertility Rate Threatens Finances
Newscom The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently released its 2012 data on births, indicating detrimental trends that could cast yet another blow to the already daunting fiscal future of Social...
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