Category Archives: Federal deficit

Many members of Congress have yet to read the memo about the problem of government overspending. The National Taxpayers Union Foundation offers this week a list of the most expensive measures included among the 1,900 House and 900 Senate bills filed to date during the 113th Congress. Of course, other members of Congress are pursuingContinue Reading

Steve Forbes warns readers in the latest issue of Forbes magazine that the federal government has several ways to target your retirement savings in the future. When the Cyprus bank crisis hit, this column warned that the precedent set by seizing people’s savings would not be lost on Washington politicians. Hardly had the digital inkContinue Reading

Coming up with new ways of wasting money is a long-standing Pentagon tradition. Two cases getting national press attention: • The Littoral Combat Ships. Bloomberg describes problems with the Navy’s new types of ship that’s suppose to be able to do, well, everything, in coastal waters: U.S. Navy leaders were warned last year that aContinue Reading

A new Forbes column from Peter Ferrara offers praise to the Republicans who run the U.S. House of Representatives. House Republicans are proving effective in restraining the runaway federal spending desired by President Obama and Congressional Democrats. That does not remotely mean that the House Republican majority has solved Washington’s spending, deficit and debt problems.Continue Reading

Jim McTague‘s latest “D.C. Current” column in Barron’s tells us that — you might want to sit down to prepare for this shocking news — politicians continue to make the wrong moves with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Here’s the financial equivalent of the popular Twilight vampire franchise: Politicians are sucking the blood out ofContinue Reading

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute explains in his latest National Review Online column why everyone’s favorite Keynesian cheerleader continues to miss the boat. Krugman continues to insist that European countries’ austerity has been devastating, and that spending cuts must therefore be resisted. The “case for keeping [the U.K] on the path of harsh austerityContinue Reading

Thomas Donlan of Barron’s writes in the latest issue about a “modest proposal to study the possible sale of the Tennessee Valley Authority.” The president’s budget message calls for a “strategic review of options.” It declares, “Reducing or eliminating the federal government’s role in programs such as TVA, which have achieved their original objectives andContinue Reading

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute focuses his latest National Review Online column on congressional Republicans’ questionable dedication to trimming the fat in the federal budget. Too many Republicans don’t really want to cut spending — or, at least, not spending that benefits their own constituencies. Recall that during last year’s presidential campaign, Mitt Romney’sContinue Reading