Free Republic

This is certainly not a knock against Thomas Sowell (he holds a special place in my heart), and this is not to discourage anyone from reading one of his most recognized and invaluable works, Basic Economics, but it is a giant book, and for the less-informed intellectual slowpokes of the left, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to get through it So, let’s just go with Afuera101, and use new Argentinian president Javier Milei’s budget cuts as a very simple illustration of what the first course of action should be for a political executive who wants to save an economy: slash...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This afternoon, Sen. Rand Paul introduced the Default Prevention Act, which would require the President to prioritize federal revenue to interest on the national debt. Since the current debt limit was reached on Dec. 31, 2012, it is expected that the extraordinary measures the U.S. Treasury has taken to continue funding the government will be exhausted before March. In order to remove any chance of government default, Sen. Paul’s legislation spells out which government-funded programs should be held at the highest priority to continue funding, while paying down the interest and principal on debt held by the...

Like Nero who fiddled while Rome burned, our Republican and Democrat congressional leadership, aided and abetted by the often-absent leadership of President Obama, continue to argue about politics and pennies instead of making an honest attempt to reduce the size, scope, and cost of the federal government. Last November, the American people sent a clear message to Congress – get serious about reducing government spending and the deficit, but inside the beltway it is business as usual.

Fiscal doom is confronting us. More Americans are face to face with the fact that their government has grown so large and is amassing so much debt that future prosperity is seriously jeopardized. Consequently, a greater number of politicians are openly acknowledging that reality, jumping on the fiscal conservative bandwagon. Bashing Washington (and all government for that matter) for its lack of fiscal restraint is becoming a popular sport and the opprobrium is certainly well deserved. Going unnoticed, however, are the many social factors that are contributing to our collective financial woes. While many prognosticators contend that our situation is...

The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives is promising to cut $100 billion from domestic spending this year. The Tea Party caucus’s response? I’ll see your $100 billion and raise you $2.4 trillion over 10 years. Both groups are barking up the wrong tree or, to use a more appropriate animal analogy, putting the cart before the horse. The road to real deficit reduction, not a cosmetic nip and tuck, runs through term limits. If Americans are truly interested in shrinking the size of government — one of the takeaways from the 2010 midterm election — they can...

I’ve meant, for a while, to comment on Stephen Gordon’s post from back in May about the GOP needing libertarians more than libertarians needs the GOP. I think he has some merit to his argument, but I would say that libertarians and conservatives both need the GOP and need each other. They are not always going to agree. There will be fights over the drug war, marriage, etc. But at the end of the day, both conservatives and libertarians are, or at least must be, committed to smaller government. I bring this up to point out Nikki Haley. She’s unapologetically...

The following is not parody. House Republicans are being told by their leaders to run campaigns this fall on a platform of fiscal discipline that includes cutting spending. This from a party that has given us new entitlement programs resembling Lyndon Johnson's Great Society; this from a party that has set new records in "earmarks" for pork barrel projects in their home districts and states; this from a party that under Ronald Reagan at least tried to eliminate the Department of Education, but under President Bush has thrown new money at it with no appreciable improvement in academic achievement. To...

[Update: Assemblyman Chuck DeVore just called to say that a late-scheduled session has been set in the State Assembly for 5:30 p.m. today...] The Democrats in Sacramento must be really enjoying themselves today. What could possibly be more enjoyable for them than to see Republicans boxed into a corner. In the downstairs office, you have a GOP Governor against whom almost all of the Democrats have endorsed, and across the aisle they have GOP legislators, who stand as their longtime opponents in their quest to massively grow the size and scope of state government. It is being reported in articles...

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday narrowly approved the first cuts since 1997 to benefit programs such as Medicare (search), Medicaid (search) and farm subsidies, giving Republicans a symbolic victory against ever-rising government spending. The bill, passed by a 52-47 vote, would make modest cuts to the health care programs for the elderly, poor and disabled, but leave the food stamp program untouched. The measure also would permit exploratory oil drilling in an Alaskan wilderness (search) area. The spending battle now heads to the House, where Republicans are divided over whether to cut more deeply across a broader range of...

It's only taken a decade or so, but suddenly there's momentum in Congress for spending restraint. We'll be watching the fine print, but you can tell Republicans are worried about complaints from conservative voters because for a change they're trying to act, well, like Republicans. In a first good sign, House leaders are rewriting their Fiscal 2006 budget resolution to increase the amount of "savings" to as much as $50 billion over five years. This is far from onerous, but it is better than the $35 billion Congress passed the first time around. In another miracle, they are also moving...

Bush Brings Back Big (And Expensive) GovernmentBy THOMAS HARGROVEJan 23, 2004, 08:20 Big government is back. Since President Bush took office, the federal government's domestic civilian workforce has increased by more than 79,000 jobs, nearly a 5 percent increase. And the number of government workers paid at least $130,000 annually has tripled. Much of the increase came with the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security two years ago. But the nation's war on terrorism does not account for all of the rise. The Department of Health and Human Services, for example, has added 1,445 employees since President Bill...

President Bush hopes Congress' long-awaited passage of a bill providing $373 billion for most federal agencies will help him set a conservative tone for this election year's budget fight. Four months after the Oct. 1 start of the government's fiscal year, the Senate rolled over opposition Democrats and voted 65-28 Thursday for a package that finances programs from housing and job training to space and biomedical research. The House had approved the measure in December.Bush said in a written statement that he will sign the legislation, and cast it as part of his forthcoming budget's theme of cutting federal deficits...

August 14, 2002 Should Americans laugh or cry at Bush's 'fiscal restraint'? WASHINGTON, DC -- President Bush's much-publicized refusal to spend $5.1 billion approved by Congress is such a weak-kneed attempt at fiscal responsibility that Libertarians don't know whether to laugh or cry. The reason: That $5.1 billion amounts to just one-quarter of 1 percent of the federal budget. "Was President Bush joking when he claimed he was practicing 'fiscal restraint' by preventing one more drop of water from falling into the ocean of federal spending?" asked Steve Dasbach, Libertarian Party executive director. "If so, America should laugh right along...