Free Republic

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus secured nearly $450 million in earmarks from recently passed government funding legislation, with the average member getting almost twice as much as far-left “Squad” members. The taxpayer watchdog OpenTheBooks released a report this week cataloging the pork-barrel spending totals for more than a dozen Republican members who voted against the $1.66 trillion in fiscal year 2024 spending as part of two packages in March. The report found 17 current Freedom Caucus members, as well as now-former member Randy Weber (R-Texas). secured $25 million per member — far higher than the $13.9 million that...

In the intricate dance of economic forecasts and fiscal warnings, the recent release of the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) 10-year Budget and Economic Outlook has cast a shadow over the nation’s financial landscape. Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, steps into the spotlight with a resounding call for action as he decodes the ominous projections and highlights the pressing need for a bipartisan fiscal commission. As the digits on the deficit ticker continue to climb, Peterson’s warning resonates as a siren in the night, alerting us to the impending storm of unsustainable national debt. Over the...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said “the U.S. is on an unsustainable fiscal path” in an 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley released Sunday. “The U.S. federal government’s on an unsustainable fiscal path. And that just means that the debt is growing faster than the economy. So, it is unsustainable. I don’t think that’s at all controversial,” Powell said when asked if the national debt is a danger to the economy.

It‘s Biden’s Fiscal Inferno! Insane open borders, insane green spending, wars in Ukraine, Gaza and growing restlessness around Taiwan. Inflation. And a demented 81-year old President in charge. The U.S. government ran a budget deficit of $381 billion so far into the 2024 fiscal year, which represents a 13% increase from this same time period last year. The deficit is $44 billion higher than it was at the end of November 2022, according to the latest data released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The national debt in January of 2020 was $17.2 trillion, according to historical data from...

[Arthur]Burns, former Fed Chair, was infamously literally assaulted, being shoved up against the wall, by Nixon because he was not sufficiently "nice" in his decision-making at the time. "Nice", of course, meant lower rates. What followed was the second and extremely destructive run of inflation that defined Carter's Presidential term after Ford lost to him and, I might add, which was not his fault. Such is the nature of all economies; they take time to process what happens at a policy level whether intentional or not, simply because producing things doesn't happen instantly and thus when you change something on...

During an appearance on Monday’s broadcast of “Hannity,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said he rejected funding for Ukraine until the border was secured and the fiscal house was in order. “Fiscal responsibility and border security, I think, have got to be Republicans’ top two priorities,” FNC host Sean Hannity said. “That would have worked. Why didn’t that pass?” “Well, you’ll have to talk to the ones who voted against it,” Roy replied. “Look, the reason it didn’t pass was because some people didn’t want to have anything that continued moving in the direction with something like a continuing resolution. But...

On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” White House National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard asserted that we’re “on a sustainable fiscal path” due to the deal brokered between Congress and the White House on spending a few months ago and defended the spending on legislation passed by the Biden administration. Co-host Sara Eisen asked, “I’m sure politically there’s blame on both sides, but the toll that you talk about, the way I’m hearing it from investors is, it comes after this big standoff over the debt ceiling, the dysfunction and the inability for both sides to be...

"If we are going to save our country, Republicans need to get a lot worse at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Passing the FRA would be a good start and set the stage for additional victories to come."

During an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, White House Council of Economic Advisers member Heather Boushey argued that fiscal policy isn’t too loose because “we have seen those ongoing declines in the inflation rate” and a soft landing is “where we are right now.” She also stated that with the spending plans put into place by the Biden administration, “the money hasn’t started flowing yet, in large part.” Co-host Guy Johnson asked, [relevant exchange begins around 3:45] “We have had 500 basis points of hikes on the monetary side and we’ve still got an unemployment rate of 3.4% and it’s...

Online grocery prices continued to rise by double-digits in March, as inflation continues to bite.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Tuesday unveiled a 2023 state budget proposal that includes significant cuts to climate investments — even as a relentless storm system battered California’s coast. California is now facing an estimated budget gap of $22.5 billion for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which the governor attributed to declines in both withholding and capital gains taxes. EQUILIBRIUM & SUSTAINABILITY Newsom’s 2023 budget proposal includes climate cuts, to tackle fiscal shortfalls BY SHARON UDASIN - 01/10/23 2:57 PM ET SHARE TWEET FILE – California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers a speech after taking the oath of office on Friday, Jan....

Eight million Britons will be paying the higher rate of tax and two million the 45p rate within five years after Jeremy Hunt's brutal 'stealth raid'. The scale of the pain set to be caused by 'fiscal drag' was laid bare as experts digested the implications of the Chancellor's bombshell Autumn Statement. The respected IFS think-tank pointed out that the tax burden is set to reach a new post-war peak, and will be the equivalent of £100billion a year higher by 2027-28 than it has been for most of the past 70 years.

Biden's apologists try to downplay inflation worries by noting that it's largely confined to specific goods such as used cars. But the latest report shows inflation spreading to every sector of the economy, particularly where inflation can harm people of low income. Gasoline, for example, is up 42% from last year. Bacon, beef, pork, and eggs are all up by double digits. Children’s shows are up 12%; electricity 5%; rents 2.9%. Inflation is outpacing hourly wage gains, which have risen 4.6% compared to inflation of 5.4%, which means real paychecks are falling, not rising, under Biden. Maybe this is why...

That was fast. Last Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio ­informed the United Federation of Teachers that the city couldn’t afford a $900 million bonus for union members. It took 24 hours for the union to knock this threat down — and wring a better deal from out-of-work taxpayers. The state must step in. How did New York City end up on the hook for a near-billion-dollar payment during the worst fiscal crisis ever? You can thank de Blasio. In Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s final term, the global economy melted down — and Bloomberg told teachers that if they wanted raises, they...

It's that time of the year again when we find out how deep in the red our country is thanks to the 2018 edition of the Mercatus Center State Fiscal Rankings. The study authors, Eileen Norcross and Olivia Gonzalez, find that when you rank states by their fiscal health, you can identify the best and worst state. But the scariest finding is that no state is really fiscally healthy. Norcross and Gonzalez are very transparent about each decision behind the study methodology. They use states' own audited financial data to create five different indices (cash solvency, budget solvency, long-term solvency,...

The global debt level is reaching shocking new heights. The Institute of International Finance recently estimated the current total world debt is roughly $247 trillion—a truly unprecedented figure.But as frightening as the global debt has become because of the dangers it poses to the world’s economic stability, Americans should be far more terrified of what this problem might mean for them, especially if the globe endures another major financial collapse before the United States can get its fiscal house back in order. Put simply, America is on the verge of experiencing an absolutely catastrophic period of economic change, and it’s...

The announcement by NASA that launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is going to be delayed over another year, now May 2020, felt like déjà vu. When the JWST was first proposed in 1997, it was supposed to launch in 2007 and cost half a billion dollars. Now the launch date is 13 years later and the cost is at least $8.8 billion. NASA will have to go back to Congress for more money if the huge space observatory exceeds previous cost caps. In the meantime, NASA is convening an independent review board that will examine the problems that...

In the first quarter of 2018, the financial and investing industry went into overdrive detailing the upside of the 2018 tax cuts and the positive impacts of a "business friendly" executive and congressional branch on business in America. The stock market hit record highs and the Federal Reserve proclaimed such good times as to raise their economic outlook and increase the likelihood for interest rate hikes. From January 1, 2018 through March 28, 2018 (Q1), real GDP likely grew $110 billion (a 2.5% rise on an annualized basis). However, the fly in the ointment...according to the Treasury, from Jan 1,...

For months, Democrats promised to use their leverage on government spending to protect young immigrants at risk for deportation after President Trump canceled the program. More recently, they have demanded Congress pass universal background checks for gun buyers in the wake of another deadly school shooting. Now, with Congress less than two weeks from a funding deadline, Democrats are showing little willingness to corner Republicans on those issues. Their lack of appetite to provoke another showdown represents a shift after two previous fights resulted in brief government shutdowns and risks alienating the party’s liberal base crucial in midterm elections. But...

With all the talk about a possible government shutdown due to an impasse on immigration reform, no one seems to be paying attention to a story of even bigger long-term consequence. Congress is preparing a two-year budget that blows past bipartisan spending caps to the tune of $216 billion through 2019. These are the latest stunning tallies from an analysis by Congressional Quarterly. (See chart). That may be a best-case scenario. The budget watchers at Freedom Works estimate that when hurricane disaster relief, funding for the border wall, added Obamacare money for the bankrupt insurance markets, and other last-minute spending...