“President Obama has introduced his budget for next year. He proposes that the government spend $3.83 trillion in fiscal 2011. To put that number into context, let’s take a trip down memory lane.”
Chris Edwards shows that President Bush busted the budget every year in office, and that President Obama is acting like big spender Bush on steroids @http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11182
“President Obama didn’t even get past the title of his budget before starting the lies. “A New Era of Responsibility,” President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget proposal, would increase the current year deficit to a new record $1.56 trillion. That’s an increase in the size of the deficit of $300 billion since his fiscal 2010 budget last spring. The new budget proposal would also increase the fiscal 2011 deficit to $1.267 trillion, an increase by the same $300 billion figure over his proposal last year, and more than double the national debt from its current $12 trillion to more than $25 trillion over 10 years.”
“Of course, it’s possible Obama and his budget officials weren’t lying in the title of their budget but were instead shooting for irony. If that was the case, they certainly succeeded. But it’s not funny.”
Thomas R. Eddlam looks at President Obama’s record spending proposal @ http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/usnews/politics/2868-obamas-budget-building-record-deficits-higher
“If President Obama is serious about controlling spending, he can’t exempt the Pentagon. In announcing a three-year spending freeze, he exempted all security-related funding. This exemption applies to the budgets of the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, foreign aid and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Because the budgets of these agencies, particularly that of the Pentagon, are responsible for a large and increasing share of the discretionary portion of the federal budget, the president’s spending freeze will have a marginal effect. ”
“Rather than exclude these accounts from the freeze for fear of appearing weak on defense, the president should mandate that the baseline defense budget also be frozen.”
Lawrence Korb makes the case for a military spending freeze @ http://thinkprogress.org/2010/01/27/spending-defense-freeze/
“A Swiss court just threw a wrench in the gears of an IRS effort to impose bad U.S. tax law on an extraterritorial basis, ruling that Switzerland-based UBS does not have to hand over data to the American tax authorities. This ruling nullifies an agreement that the Swiss government was coerced into making with the U.S. government last year.”…
“This battle is part of a broader effort by uncompetitive nations to persecute “tax havens.” Creating a tax cartel for the benefit of greedy politicians in France, Germany, and the United States would be a mistake. An “OPEC for politicians” would pave the way for higher taxes, as explained here, here, and here.”
Daniel Mitchell of The Cato Institute celebrates a Swiss Court decision @ http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/01/22/a-victory-for-fiscal-sovereignty-and-human-rights/
Bloomberg News reports on the Swiss decision against the US IRS @http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ahda1JxPJaU8
“How resilient is the ghost of Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary who ably assisted the Castro brothers’ sadly successful mission to turn Cuba into an island hellhole? His legend survives even a lackluster, long-winded biopic released in 2008 and now just out on DVD.”
“More important, Che’s legend survives the facts of his own life. Born in 1928 and gunned down in 1967 by drunken Bolivian soldiers, Che rarely missed an opportunity to make life miserable for those who opposed him. During the fight against the Batista regime, Che ordered the summary executions of dozens of real and suspected enemies, becoming the very thing he said revolutionaries must be: a “cold-blooded killing machine.” As a leader in post-Revolution Cuba, Che became known as the “butcher of La Cabaña” prison, where he oversaw hundreds of murders of political prisoners and “counter-revolutionaries.” ”
Nick Gillespie show how Che’s violent life undercuts his mythic image @ http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/22/exorcising-the-ghost-of-che-gu
“Last December, Congress approved a $290 billion increase of the debt limit to support the government’s borrowing through February. This lifted the total amount the federal government can borrow to $12.4 trillion.”
“But today Congress wants to go into even more debt. According to news reports, on Wednesday, Democrats proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion (roughly the size of our GDP) to support the federal government’s borrowing through 2010.”
Veronique de Rugy calls on Congress to kick a bad habit cold turkey @ http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/21/the-governments-endless-appeti
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is a prominent advocate of limited government and personal freedom. He backed Ron Paul for President in 2008 and spoke at the Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis.
Mitchell Lambert interviewed Gov. Johnson for Republican Liberty Caucus @ http://www.rlc.org/2010/01/19/interview-with-governor-gary-earl-johnson/
“Fifty-eight percent of those polled by The Washington Post recently claimed they preferred smaller government with fewer services, with only 38 percent favoring a larger government with more services (and, yes, it is a terrific struggle not to place ironic quotations marks around the word “services”).”
“This is the highest number for the “smaller government” category since 2002. And a full year into President Barack Obama’s term, most polls and state elections tell us that the electorate is walking—maybe sprinting?—back from the progressive economic policies that now dominate Washington.”
David Harsanyi looks at How the Democrats misjudged the American People @ http://reason.com/archives/2010/01/20/the-idea-is-the-problem
“Happy anniversary, Mr. President. Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts is a rude ending to a year marked by falling poll ratings and growing opposition to his signature policy initiatives.”
“President Obama took office on a wave of good feeling. The country was glad to be rid of George W. Bush and appreciated Obama’s promise to move beyond old battles. But Obama and his team overinterpreted their victory. A desire for change didn’t translate into support for a sweeping statist agenda. Beginning with his February 24 speech to Congress, Obama began to overreach.”
“His administration sought to use the financial crisis to implement an agenda that wouldn’t have been plausible in calmer times. “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste” was Rahm Emanuel’s keynote. Robert Higgs in Crisis and Leviathan and Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine had examined how crises often lead to dramatic changes in policy, but never before had senior officials declared the shock doctrine as their strategy.”
David Boaz of The Cato Institute on President Obama’s anniversary @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11150
“Scott Brown’s stunning upset in the Massachusetts special election may have done what the best policy arguments could not – defeat the Democrats’ plans for a massive government takeover of the U.S. health care system.”
“Democrats will undoubtedly offer a variety of excuses for Brown’s win. The Democratic nominee, Attorney General Martha Coakley, was a poor candidate. The “political climate” was bad. The dog ate their ballots. But in reality, there can be no denying that this election was a clear cut rejection of the Democratic health care bills.”
“There were no blurred differences on this issue. Scott Brown made his opposition to the bill a centerpiece of his campaign. He promised to be the 41st vote to sustain a filibuster and kill the bill, even signing autographs as “Scott41.” Coakley, on the other hand, pledged to vote for the bill.”
Michael Tanner on Massachusetts voters rejecting Obamacare @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11151