Shutdown Means Streamlining
There are a lot of myths about the looming government shutdown. The biggest one is that it is, in fact, a government shutdown. The country will not descend into anarchy,…
Texas and Medicaid Hypocrisy
Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) linked to this instructional video produced by Texas State Rep.Lois Kolkhorst, the Republican chairwoman of the House Public Health Committee. In the video, Kolkhorst says…
CBO Report Confirms That Deficit Reduction Leads To Economic Growth, Helps All Families
On February 5, the Congressional Budget Office released a report titled, "Macroeconomic Effects of Alternative Budgetary Paths". Full disclosure: even to us policy wonks, this report sounds a bit…
House GOP: “No Budget, No Debt Hike”
Update on the Debt Ceiling fight:House Republicans appear to be listening to the grassroots. Today G…
FreedomWorks Busts Myth Of Debt Ceiling And “Not Paying Our Bills”
The repeated refrain from the likes of Paul Krugman and Jay Carney is that we MUST increase the debt limit so that we don't default on the full faith and…
Spending at Gun Point
In the days leading up to President Obama announcing his gun control plans, and now that he has, the focus of Republicans and Conservatives has been squarely…
Opposition Grows As Jack Lew Proves He Doesn’t Understand Budgets
Jack Lew, President Obama's choice to replace Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary, has been in Washington DC a long time. Anyone in public service that long will have quite…
Fiscal Cliff Walking
Last night, in a last ditch effort to avoid the "fiscal cliff" the House passed a bill that sought to prevent tax hikes for all but the top 2% of…
A Simple Plan to Avert the Fiscal Cliff
What should Congress do on the Fiscal Cliff? 1) Lock in $1.2 trillion in ten-year sequester savings. 2) Extend ALL current tax rates for one year. 3) Reform taxes and…
The Prodigal Uncle
I’m trying to help a relative get out of a bad fix.He makes $50,000 a year, but Sam has $54,000 (!) of debt on his credit cards. Worse still, he…