Free Republic

The administration of Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat who has been in office since 2011, projects a budget deficit of more than $5 billion over the next two years, thanks to generous pension benefits and the burden of servicing its big debt, plus falling tax revenue due to the exodus of large employers and residents reaching retirement age. Its budget woes, as well as concerns that they will be repeated year after year, helped lead General Electric in 2015 to consider moving its headquarters out of the state. Last year, it did exactly that. The state’s population is falling: Its...

>In covering the President’s proposed budget this week, network reporters unanimously claimed it “cut” or even “slashed” federal spending. An MRC analysis of ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news coverage since Monday (May 22) finds that not a single reporter ever told viewers that overall federal spending would actually RISE under President Trump’s planned budget — just not as much as forecast under the budget baseline Trump inherited from President Obama back in January. In 13 news stories from May 22 to May 25, network journalists made 30 references to “cuts” in federal spending, either referring to specific...

President Trump has released his fiscal 2018 budget proposal and it seems the world may end because of it – maybe as early as Memorial Day. Republicans and Democrats couldn’t wait to get to the nearest microphone or reporter to wail about draconian budget cuts to this or that department. Both Parties are nauseatingly hyperbolic. This we expect from the socialist Dems, but some of the Republicans are equally insane. The Huffington Post reports of Lindsey Graham going off the deep end over proposed cuts to the State Department. “Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that if ‘fully implemented,’ President...

President Donald Trump on Thursday lectured a group of leaders from member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization over not contributing their "fair share" in defense spending. Standing beside Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Trump blasted the nearly two-dozen member countries that have not met their "financial obligations" to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years," said as the other leaders stood in awkward silence. "We should recognize that with...

Michael Medved interviews House of Representatives Majority Whip and representative for Louisiana's 1st congressional district, Steve Scalise. Steve responds first to a statement by Rachel Maddow that the House Republicans haven’t done anything since they took office. Then the discussion focused on this administrations work to help the middle-class and lower class get work, leave the dependent lifestyle, and the like.

I like Medved's take because he (unlike many other commentators) takes calls which are negative to his view. A good short article on Trump's budget is over at POWERLINE talking about the projected GDP (http://tinyurl.com/ltjnux5). The WASHINGTON TIMES notes that this budget is shocking! (http://tinyurl.com/mfd3yfq). To which I say.... Shock Away!

The aggressively pro-abortion journalists at CBS have suddenly discovered a need to protect society’s “weakest members.” But it’s not a turn towards respecting the pro-life position. No, the hosts of CBS This Morning on Wednesday conveniently used this talking point as a way to decry Donald Trump’s proposed budget.  Talking to Ohio Governor John Kasich, Charlie Rose demanded, “Governor, what do you say to those who say a society and a civilization can measured by how it treats its weakest members?” Earlier this year, CBS decried Republicans for their effort to defund Planned Parenthood. But that’s apparently not what CBS reporters have...

Tuesday Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said President Donald Trump’s budget was dead on arrival. In a statement, McCain said, “President Trump’s $603 billion defense budget request is inadequate to the challenges we face, illegal under current law, and part of an overall budget proposal that is dead on arrival in Congress.” McCain was asked by MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt, “Can I ask you about president’s budget? Is it dead on arrival?” He replied, “Yes. and the commitment to rebuilding the military cannot be fulfilled with this level of spending. It is $30 billion too short.”

RUSH: I mean, yeah, the Democrats are doing what they’re doing, and it’s undeniable. But Trump’s budget. This is absurd. This is outrageous. McCain and Lindsey Graham pronouncing it dead on arrival before it shows up. The media — you wouldn’t believe — the media is accusing Trump of outright indecency by suggesting economic growth of 3%, such a thing is not possible. It’s irresponsible to make people think that it is. That Trump’s budget’s gonna kill people with all these cuts. There aren’t any cuts in the Trump budget. As always, all there are is reductions in the rate...

What's sad is that the Democrat hysterics happen ever two years, the media repeats it, people freak, and the unimaginable never happens. Repeat. President Trump has unveiled his proposed budget and the Democrats are repeating the c-word....

We’re used to hearing politicians vow to cut spending. We’re also used to them not following through. So it’s hard to blame voters for feeling cynical. Year after year, their elected representatives kick the can down the road. They pass continuing resolutions -- Washington-speak for “business as usual.” Then the next campaign starts, and so do the promises. Meanwhile, the sky doesn’t fall. Should they even worry? In a word, yes. As the annual budget battle in Washington gets underway, it’s time to remind ourselves (and the politicians) about the price of inaction. President Trump inherited a national debt of...

The media fools telling you that simply don't know how the tax code works. For the past 18 hours or so, the mainstream media has joined online lefty sites with the seemingly big news that the 10-year Trump budget plan contains a $2 trillion “math error” that makes the premise of the entire thing totally laughable. What they’re telling you is that the White House counted the same positive numbers twice - once assuming that economic growth would render tax rate cuts revenue neutral, and then counting the same economic growth as the cause of an entirely different $2 trillion...

Big Government: President Trump's budget is taking its share of hits for supposedly indulging in fanciful accounting, unrealistic assumptions and proposing massive cuts to vital safety-net programs. How much of that is true? You decide. Trump's budget plan proposes to balance the federal budget in 10 years and do so entirely through spending restraint. That alone is enough to raise the hackles of the Washington, D.C., swamp creatures. But critics have other complaints. The main ones: It relies on unrealistic economic projections. Critics say Trump's budget numbers rest on a rosy scenario of future economic growth. The New York Times...

President Trump's fiscal 2018 budget proposal would completely eliminate 66 federal programs, for a savings of $26.7 billion. Some of the programs would receive funding for 2018 as part of a phasing-out plan. Here are the programs the administration wants on the chopping block. Agriculture Department — $855 million · McGovern-Dole International Food for Education · Rural Business-Cooperative Service · Rural Water and Waste Disposal Program Account · Single Family Housing Direct Loans Commerce Department — $633 million · Economic Development Administration · Manufacturing Extension Partnership · Minority Business Development Agency · National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Grants and Education...

“The National Science Foundation last year used your taxpayer money to fund a climate change musical. Do you think that’s a waste of your money?” asked the director of Office of Management and Budget director, Mick Mulvaney, during a White House briefing on Tuesday. He also noted the cuts to climate change research, saying that, under President Barack Obama, the “pendulum went too far to one side” and the government spent too much on climate science. “Does it mean that we are anti-science? Absolutely not,” he said. “We are simply trying to get things back in order to where we...

The Trump administration’s 2018 budget to be released tomorrow will include a range of proposed spending cuts. The budget will call for cuts to food stamps, Medicaid, and other entitlement programs. These reforms come on top of proposed cuts to discretionary programs released in March. There is more good news. The budget will propose cuts to the fat benefit packages received by federal workers. An April CBO report found that benefits for the government’s civilian workers were 47 percent higher, on average, than for comparable private-sector workers. One cause of the excess is that federal workers receive both a defined-benefit...

The Budget He knows folks. He knows its coming, and yet he's going to take it out of your ass, and he has the entire GOP with him in doing it too. What's "it"? The medical cost explosion, which has run about 9% compounded for the last 30 years or so and which shows exactly no sign of slowing down, as I've noted repeatedly. In fact Obamacare only got one year of flat spending in Medicare and Medicaid. One. After which it went right back to where it was. As I have repeatedly shown by the numbers just taking one...

Donald Trump, whose populist message and promises to help American workers propelled him to the White House, is set to issue a budget proposal on Tuesday that instead takes aim at the social safety net on which many of his supporters rely. Rather than breaking with Washington precedent, Trump’s spending blueprint follows established conservative orthodoxy, cutting taxes on the wealthy, boosting defense spending and taking a hatchet to programs for the poor and disabled – potentially hurting many of the rural and low-income Americans that voted him into office. The budget proposal underscores the wide gulf between campaigning and governing,...

This budget will separate the men from the boys. As Trump releases a Reagan budget, the Republican posers are going to have to piss or get off the pot. As he finally does what they’ve promised to do, we’ll see where people really stand. Because the Trump budget is what Republicans have preached and campaigned on for decades. And now he’s called their bluff. It charts a course to balance. It fights welfare dependency. It builds our military and strengthens our borders. It pushes back against suffocating regulation and the agencies that impose it. It pulls the federal government out...

This week, while Donald Trump ensnares himself in the most serious threat to his presidency to date, Congress is, to some extent, continuing with the typical business of government. A series of hearings during “Infrastructure Week” are focusing on the administration’s rumored infrastructure plan.Although the White House has been talking up private infrastructure investment as a replacement for public funding, a panel of experts told Congress that, even with perfectly executed public-private partnerships, the federal government still needs to provide its own support — especially for projects, like transit lines, that aren’t guaranteed to generate toll revenue for profit-seeking investors.This...