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There is a great debate among the supporters and critics of 2017 military budget. Supporters say that Obama should have to cut down the military budget because it is better for country and nation is not liable to waste it valuable resources for imaginable enemy. Similarly, according to critics, US should have to make increments in its military budget when the danger of ISIS and Russian war aggression is growing upon the head of Americans. On the other hand, militant groups could also threaten the internal security of US bases including Randolph Air Force Base, Christi Naval Station and other...

Fiscal Policy: House Republicans have a budget plan that would balance the budget in 10 years entirely through spending cuts. But it’s not likely to go anywhere because of the $30 billion in extra spending this year.

It has been an annual rite in Washington since the modern budgeting system began in 1974: The president sends his budget to Congress and lawmakers hold hearings on it. But not this year. The chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees announced, for the first time since their panels were created more than 40 years ago, that they would not have hearings on the president’s budget or allow administration officials to testify. They decided this before President Obama released his budget, refusing to contemplate any budget from Obama — sight unseen. This declaration, like the Senate Republicans’ vow that...

The NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters have learned Hartford city leaders are looking into the possibility of asking the state for help dealing with their troubled finances. Multiple sources familiar with the Hartford's financial situation tell the Troubleshooters that legislation could be finalized as soon as today that would open the door for state oversight. Those sources told the Troubleshooters, a meeting is set for tonight in the mayor's office to review a draft oversight board statute that would then be submitted to the Connecticut General Assembly. Over the past couple of weeks, Mayor Luke Bronin has said that every option is...

A U.S. government that once famously spent $2.6 million to encourage Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly is capable of almost anything. Members of Congress often use these stories about absurd taxpayer-funded studies to make fun of the bureaucracy. Instead of just mocking silly studies, maybe they should put a stop to them.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama began peddling his national healthcare system. On more than one occasion, he pointed to Canada and the United Kingdom as examples of a workable national healthcare system. When I first heard him point to them, I instantly thought of Rachel, a work acquaintance who lived and worked in the United Kingdom. She was experiencing abdominal pains and having problems eating for months before England’s National Health Service doctors finally diagnosed the problem to be her gall bladder. The doctor said it needed to be removed. However, from the time they wrote the...

<p>The state budget deficit will hit $900 million next year, according to new numbers released Thursday, generating alarm among lawmakers of both parties and intensifying language on the part of Republican leaders.</p> <p>"Those are just incredible numbers. What's happening is really shocking,'' said Senate Republican leader Len Fasano of North Haven. "People should be scared."</p>

Is there anybody more "all over the map" on healthcare than Donald Trump?...

Barack Obama's last budget is nothing if not is a grandiose visionary document. No one -- least of all, Congress -- paid much attention to it, because no one cares where this lame-duck president wants the country to go fiscally. But the $4.1 trillion Obama manifesto deserves some inspection, if only because it is crammed with so many awful ideas. Americans should be very clear about what the progressive left wants to do next if they retain the White House, and Obama has proudly shown his hand. I should say at the outset that Republicans have been no fiscal...

While the rest of the world focused on the New Hampshire primary, the White House dropped a budget bomb. Congress will get a $4.1 trillion spending plan for FY2017 from Barack Obama, complete with a massive $2.8 trillion tax hike and a set of assumptions that boggles the imagination nearly as much as the topline spending number:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO “The budget that we're releasing today reflects my priorities and the priorities that I believe will help advance security and prosperity in America for many years to come,” Obama told reporters at the White House. “It adheres...

President Obama’s final budget proposal, which increases government spending by $4.15 trillion, got a chilly reception Tuesday in Congress. Many Republicans already are dismissing the spending plan outright. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., snarkily tweeted a survey asking what the mountain pictured on the cover of Obama’s budget proposal symbolized. Options: debt, regulations, taxes, or all of the above.

Budget: What is the federal government’s most important function these days? Based on the Obama budget released today, it’s not defense, or roads, or education, or the environment. It’s cutting checks.

The Obama Administration has put forth its FY 2017 NASA budget proposal, according to GeekWire. The overall spending level is $19 billion, an almost $300 million cut from the current fiscal year. Much of the money comes out of the development for the Orion deep space vehicle and the heavy lift Space Launch System, the very basis of the space agency’s plans for exploring deep space beyond low Earth orbit.

Gov. Tom Wolf warned lawmakers on Tuesday that Pennsylvania's finances are a ticking time bomb amid a record-long budget gridlock, as he sent them a spending proposal for the coming fiscal year with no full plan in place for the year that began back in July. The first-term Democrat delivered an approximately $33.3 billion plan for 2016-17 to the Republican-controlled Legislature as he tries again to break down resistance to a multibillion-dollar tax increase that has held up passage of a budget for the current year. Wolf delivered his message in a blunt, 25-minute speech that prompted objections from most...

President Barack Obama is sending Congress his eighth and final budget, proposing to spend a record $4.1 trillion on a number of initiatives. They include launching a new war on cancer, combating global warming and fighting growing threats from ISIS terrorists. The new spending plan, for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 -- just 3 1/2 months before he leaves office -- is facing heavy fire from Republicans who hope to capture the White House. The proposal had dim prospects of winning approval in a Republican-controlled Congress. In all, Obama's budget would increase taxes by $2.6 trillion over the...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning to cut 50 percent of the budget for aerial surveillance along the U.S.-Mexico border, agents revealed at a congressional hearing Thursday. In an effort to understand why DHS is cutting funding, Texas's Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, wrote a bi-partisan letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson. "Any decrease in aerial observation is not only imprudent, but contradicts the very mission of border security enforcement," the letter states. The lawmakers' letter also asks for detailed information about the reduction aerial-based border security, also known as Operation Phalanx. Abbott and...

A senior defense official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans, said the advances made by Russia and China do "force a competition that has to be confronted in the next decade." Almost half of the new investments Carter will propose are related to what officials see as a growing threat from Moscow, where President Vladimir Putin has demonstrated his willingness to employ Russian military might from Ukraine to Syria. Despite repeated cease-fire agreements, the conflict in Ukraine continues there between Russian-backed separatists and the government in Kiev. If approved by Congress, the budget plan...

President Barack Obama will pitch some new proposals to expand access to retirement savings accounts and revisit some old ones when issuing his budget next month. [...] The White House says Obama's proposals, if enacted, would provide more than 30 million people access to a retirement account. The biggest chunk of that increase would occur through legislation requiring employers that don't offer a retirement plan to automatically enroll their workers in an Individual Retirement Account. The employers that did so would get a tax credit of $3,000 to help them offset the administrative expense. The proposal was also part of...

By Wallace Bruschweiler and William Palumbo Over the last several years, the American people have witnessed one perplexing political shenanigan after another - a never-ending story. Instead of standing up for principles, for democracy itself, our elected leaders routinely sell-out the same country to which they swore an oath to protect. The most recent enormous sell-out was the passage of a budget that served only the government, not the country. It began with the election of a new Speaker, whom many hoped would serve the country better than his predecessor. Instead of a political savior, we got yet another total...

When a veteran or member of the armed forces dies, he or she is entitled to a ceremony that includes the presentation of a U.S. flag to a family member and a bugler blowing Taps. Most of the time, there is a three-volley rifle salute if requested by family members. But now, if the deceased served in the Air Force, the three-volley salute is not an option because the Air Force can no longer support riflemen for funeral services for veteran retirees. [....] “To me, without the 21-gun salute, it just does not make it complete a proper military burial,”...