I remember when the spending fights in Washington were over billions in spending. That was roughly a decade ago. But last week, America’s national debt surpassed $30 trillion.
On Friday, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) sent a letter with 20 of his colleagues to President Trump urging him to oppose any additional coronavirus relief packages while our country awaits the full impact of the last three phases, including the most recent $2.3 Trillion CARES Act. Among the signers of the letter are Republican Study Committee Chairman Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), renowned budget hawk Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), and others.
Today, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives are meeting to negotiate the final text of the Farm Bill, H.R. 2. The Farm Bill is an $860 billion spending bill that funds U.S. agricultural activities. This will impact farmers across the nation and it is important for the conferees to consider much-needed reforms that will last for years.
Following the release of the Treasury Department’s monthly statement of federal revenue and outlays, FreedomWorks Chief Economist Wayne Brough commented:
With another year comes another federal budget season, kicked off by President Obama’s budget proposal. Although his plan was shockingly delivered by the date required by law (for only the second time under Obama), perhaps the president and his team should have taken a few extra days to think it through. The proposal they released today is so shockingly tone-deaf and immune to fiscal realities that it would be comic if we weren’t talking about the actual future solvency of the United States government.
Being tasked with a response to the State of the Union address isn't easy. The message, usually given by a fresh face, is carefully crafted to fluff up a party's priorities for the coming months, as well as offer Americans a distinction between their agenda and what the president offered them earlier in the evening.
In addition to proposing an onslaught of spending increases and tax hikes in his sixth State of the Union address, President Barack Obama will, according to The New York Times, "effectively declare victory over the economic hard times that dominated his first six years in office and advocate using the nation’s healthier finances to tackle long-deferred issues like education and income inequality."
President Barack Obama has tipped his hand on how he plans to pay for his budget-busting spending increases. Media reports indicate that he plans to roll out several tax hikes totalling $320 billion in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, including raising the capital gains rate and imposing a tax on big banks' liabilities.
President Barack Obama faces a Republican-controlled Congress that opposes most, if not all, of his legislative agenda. And with just two years left in his presidency, he staring down irrelevance, without many, if any, real legislative accomplishments embraced by the American people. In some way, these sorts of problems can be liberating, but, as he so frequently tells Republicans, there is still an expectation that he live in some sort of a reality.
Recently, I attended a speech that attempted to lay out a case that Ronald Reagan would not have been a Tea Party President. The speaker, a conservative not terribly familiar with the Tea Party movement, made an interesting case.