Free Republic

In the final year of World War II, the U.S. spent about 38% of its GDP on its military. When adjusted for inflation, the military budget over those four years of war came to a staggering $4.1 trillion in 2020 dollars.And as Visual Capitalist's Pallave Rao and Joyce Ma detail below, almost 80 years later, modern day military spending isn’t much of a far cry from World War II budgets. The top spenders have continued to increase their military capabilities, while war in Ukraine has caused countries in the region to re-evaluate their budgets as well.In 2022, global military budgets...

AU.S. family of four needs to earn a minimum of $85,000 a year on average to "get by," which is nearly three times the federal poverty line and $27,000 more than the estimated needed annual average 10 years ago, according to a new poll When asked, "What is the smallest amount of money a family of four needs to make each year to get by in your community?", the average answer respondents gave was $85,000, according to a Gallup Poll released Friday. In 2013, the average answer was $58,000 annually. The poll also found that 30% of respondents said a...

Top Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol say they are working on a plan to send more state money to local governments across the state, but the city of Milwaukee this week added a bit of urgency to that work. On Monday, Milwaukee’s Steering and Rules Committee proposed cutting the city’s entire sixth police district to find the money to pay Milwaukee’s skyrocketing pension payment. "The gloomiest days are ahead of us when really we should be building for the future," Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic said. Milwaukee is also looking at deep cuts to its fire department, as well as other city...

The 47-year-old news anchor — who muscled her way into the evening slot in 2019 as she fled a reportedly strained relationship with co-host Gayle King on “CBS This Morning” — now stands vulnerable to the network’s bean counters as her ratings have stayed stubbornly stuck in third place, according to sources close to the situation. Insiders likewise pointed to O’Donnell’s hefty pay package that is in the ballpark of $8 million a year and a three-year contract that’s slated to expire next spring.

The federal and state governments will increase Medicaid and welfare spending, and some Democratic governors and legislatures will cut the police and military budget as a fall guy in a sense.......

The decade that just ended saw a period of uninterrupted economic growth. In the decade to come, we'll pay for squandering it. Since the so-called Great Recession officially ended in the third quarter of 2009, the United States has enjoyed 42 consecutive quarters of solid if unspectacular economic growth. That's the longest run of uninterrupted growth since government economists began tracking the business cycle in the 1850s, far outpacing the average economic expansion of 18 months. Employment has increased by 12 percent, the jobless rate reached record lows, and America's gross domestic product (GDP) has increased by more than 25...

The Department of Energy announced this week that it’s withdrawing the Obama administration’s energy-rationing mandate for certain lightbulbs. Opponents criticized the rule change, arguing that the move would be bad for consumers and the climate. The reality, however, is that families and businesses will be better off, and the change will have a negligible impact on the environment. The Energy Department’s decision to withdraw energy-efficiency standards for candle-shaped, globe-shaped, three-way and reflector lightbulbs is a victory for consumer choice. Whether it’s buying a lightbulb or a new car, families have different preferences and needs. They consider the various trade-offs in...

In this Policy Tip Sheet, Matthew Glans examines gasoline taxes, how they have become less effective over time, and why states can no longer rely on them to fund state transportation projects. Problem Gasoline taxes are an unreliable funding source for state transportation projects, road construction, and maintenance due to declining gasoline prices and more fuel-efficient vehicles. In 2015, Daniel Vock, writing for Governing, analyzed state gas tax data reported to the U.S. Census Bureau and found two-thirds of state fuel taxes failed to keep up with inflation. Moreover, gasoline taxes are regressive and produce widespread economic consequences. Increasing fuel...

A new government report has given us a glimpse into our nation’s fiscal future, and the outlook is grim. Absent major reforms, America’s debt will only continue to balloon. The Congressional Budget Office released its updated long-term budget report on Tuesday, which projects the nation’s fiscal situation for the next 30 years. Despite the strong economy, the nation remains in a precarious and unsustainable budget position, just as it was last year. Debt held by the public is set to rise to nearly one and a half times the size of the economy in the coming decades. The report also...

The results are in: she only wanted to try that hot new restaurant. A new study published Friday in the Society for Personality and Social Psychology journal found that a quarter to a third of heterosexual women have gone on a date with a guy they weren’t interested in — just for a free meal. “Foodie calls,” can happen when money’s tight, the grocery store is out of a favorite frozen meal, or a must-try entree is just too extravagant to justify — when the tab comes out of your own bank account. Two studies, the first conducted with 820...

Design-bid-build may still be the No. 1 project delivery method for U.S. construction, but other processes are rising that could challenge DBB’s stake in how some projects are carried out.One such arrangement, public-private partnerships (P3), is gaining steam with talks from Washington, D.C., about employing the method for President Donald Trump’s $1.3 trillion infrastructure spend. While more states and local entities are successfully turning to P3s to tackle major infrastructure overhauls and new projects, the method still runs up against a perception problem. Some elected officials are hesitant to employ P3s because they don’t want to let a private firm...

N.C. Senate Republicans were visibly upset with Democrats for prolonging the budget debate with amendments during an after-midnight session Friday morning. As the clock approached 1 a.m., Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue was summoned to the front of the chamber to talk privately with Senate leader Phil Berger. The Senate had rejected five amendments from Democrats to fund their spending priorities, but each time one proposal was shot down, another one was filed. Senate Rules Chairman Bill Rabon abruptly called for a recess, stopping the proceedings for nearly two hours. GOP leaders headed to a conference room with legislative budget...

Earlier today President Donald Trump signed HR244 into law. The provisional spending bill that funds government through September 30th, the end of fiscal year 2017. There has been a great deal of anxiety amid punditry about the spending outline itself, and the spending priorities as determined by both houses of congress. Some of the criticism is warranted, most is not. The basic principle the entire professional political class seem to overlook is the reasoning for the CR itself. Congress has been unable to fulfill its budgetary obligation since 2007. In fact, the last federal budget (fiscal year Â’08) was signed...

Cutting taxes isn't enough -- spending must be reduced Many Republicans still believe that tax cuts will unleash so much new economic activity that the tax revenue from that new activity will pretty much make up for any revenue foregone by cutting taxes. Columnist Megan McArdle notes that the GOP has been down this road before, most notably in the 1980s:

As more people begin seeing through the fog of political “talking points”, the next response from those suffering from battered conservative syndrome is to say: well, do nothing, and allow ObamaCare to simply self-destruct. Unfortunately, this is not an option. At least it’s not a reasonable option. To understand how battered conservatives are being lead around, used and abused, it is very important to understand the abusers. There are many. On October 21st, 2015, the Freedom Caucus backed Paul Ryan for Speaker of the House of Representatives. (LINK) A week later, October 28th, 2015, the same Freedom Caucus voted to...

Get ready folks, we are going to hear more parseltongue and fake news catch phrases in the next several weeks and months surrounding the federal budget, it already began today. As we have discussed numerous times, President Trump is going to propose a $10 trillion spending cut over ten years – or $1 trillion per year. This is entirely reasonable considering the scale and scope of government.

(New York, NY)— President-elect Donald J. Trump today announced his nomination of U.S. Congressman Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Congressman Mulvaney brings a wealth of experience on economic, budgetary, and fiscal issues to his new role. Rep. Mulvaney has long been a strong voice in Congress for reining in out-of-control spending, fighting government waste and enacting tax policies that will allow working Americans to thrive.

State Government: Illinois' new sheriff can be forgiven if he's feeling as underappreciated as the marshal Gary Cooper played in "High Noon." Let's hope his movie ends as happily. Gov. Bruce Rauner is fighting almost single-handedly against an entrenched, corrupt political class of lawyers, lobbyists, social service providers, media and teachers unions whose rallying cry is to smother reform and maintain business as usual in Springfield...... Years of overspending have many state and city of Chicago bonds selling at junk status. Illinois is now called "the deadbeat state" because it's two to three months behind in paying billions of dollars...

CONCORDIA Two school districts plan to end the academic year early to save money, citing financial pressures caused by reduced state aid for this academic year. The Concordia school district will release students May 15, rather than May 21. And the Twin Valley School District, which includes Bennington and Tescott, will dismiss May 8, rather than May 20. Concordia Superintendent Bev Mortimer said students have hugged her in thanks for the early release. “They remember me as the snow day lady,” she said. “We are popular with the kids but not the parents.” Kansas school districts are facing financial pressures...

When it comes to making their state’s economy more competitive, governors have a wide variety of policy options available. But which governors have the best track record on economic growth? The Cato Institute’s Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors analyzes each governor’s fiscal policies from January 2012 to August 2014. Governors who keep tax rates competitive and maintain reasonable levels of spending received an “A,” while governors who increased taxes and spending received an “F.” In this report, four governors earned an “A” for pro-growth policies: Governor Pat McCrory of North Carolina, Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas, Governor Paul...