Free Republic

Should the government borrow against the future? Should it guarantee higher taxes for your children and grandchildren in return for lower taxes for you? If government's moral legitimacy depends on the consent of the governed, as Thomas Jefferson argued in the Declaration of Independence, can the federal government morally compel those who haven't consented to its financial profligacy -- because they are not yet born -- to pay higher taxes? These questions are at the base of the debate -- such as it is -- in Congress these days over the so-called Republican tax reform plan. But you will not...

A SHIFT IN THOUGHT   Desperate for a legislative win, Republicans are preparing to push through a tax-cut package that analysts say could add considerably to the deficit. Voices on the right expressing concern about red ink have been few and far between. WASHINGTON—Republicans have a storied tradition of minding the nation’s fiscal store. Calvin Coolidge pushed for tax cuts, but also for spend-less-than-you-earn budgets. After World War II, the party contributed to fiscal plans that rapidly unwound a war-related surge in debt. In ​the 1990s, ​members of the GOP supported spending restraints that helped usher in a brief era...

WASHINGTON -- Speaking to a group of workers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his proposed tax-cut package "will be rocket fuel" for the U.S. economy.It was Trump's sly way of reinforcing a message that the White House has sent since it first rolled out a framework for the tax cut in April. The message: Instead of adding to the $20 trillion national debt, the GOP tax cut will pay for itself; there's no need to produce some $5 trillion in savings over the next decade to pay for the cuts.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin uttered that mantra...

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,The point is the present system cannot endure.Despite all the happy talk about "recovery" and higher growth, wages have gone nowhere since 2000--and for the bottom 20% of workers, they've gone nowhere since the 1970s.Gross domestic product (GDP) has risen smartly since 2000, but the share of GDP going to wages and salaries has plummeted: this is simply an extension of a 47-year downtrend.Last month I posted one reason Why We're Doomed: Our Economy's Toxic Inequality (August 16, 2017). The second half of why we're doomed is stagnant wages. Why do stagnating...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says there is “zero chance” Congress will allow the country to default on its debts by voting to not increase the borrowing limit. McConnell’s comments came Monday during a joint appearance in his home state of Kentucky with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. It was one of McConnell’s first public appearances since President Donald Trump publicly criticized him for failing to pass a repeal and replacement of former President Barack Obama’s health care law. McConnell did not mention Trump in his remarks, and he did not take questions from reporters after the event. But in...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says federal borrowing limit must increase by Sept. 29, giving lawmakers little time after recess to act Republicans are leaving town for an August recess after a failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. When they return in September, they’ll have just 12 working days to avert another big problem. In a letter to lawmakers Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the federal borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, needed to be raised by Sept. 29 or the government risked running out of money to pay its bills.

"Fed Chair Janet Yellen says that in looking at asset prices and valuations, the central bank is 'not trying to opine on whether they're correct'; instead, policy makers are assessing the risk of potential spillovers. As asset prices rise, there hasn't been a substantial increase in borrowing, Yellen said. [The] financial system is strong and resilient." I assume chair Yellen is referring to U.S. non-financial and non-government borrowings. Clearly, central bank Credit and government borrowings have expanded spectacularly around the globe. I suspect as well there has been a major expansion in speculative leveraging and securities Credit at home and...

The amount of money the government spends on programs and the amount it collects in taxes could change from the budget office projections, so the office warns that the Treasury could run out of funds even earlier. Currently, the federal deficit stands at $693 billion, which is an increase of $134 billion than what it projected in January. The federal government has an outstanding debt of $19.8 trillion, which includes $14.3 trillion in public debt and $5.5 trillion held by government accounts. Spending on major government programs such as Social Security and Medicare causes the amount of borrowing to increase....

How much a Constitutional Budget would cost? During this entire budgeting and continuing resolution process, there are two words that will never be put together. They are “constitutional,” and “budget.” Why? Because no one in Washington wants to be restrained by the Constitution when it comes to getting money, spending money, and especially spending money they don’t have. Which is why we are some $20 trillion in for the National Debt. But it never had to be this way. It’s one thing to talk about the Constitution. It’s quite another to actually live by it. The Supreme Court doesn’t. They...

In survey after survey, most Americans tell pollsters they want politicians to address the national debt. Support for specific policies may ebb and flow over time, but what rarely changes are the promises politicians make and break in response. Image via Musée McCordAlmost all politicians pledge to spend responsibly while on the stump, but once they’re in office, voters are at the mercy of a system so complex and crisis-driven it becomes all but impossible to know who’s keeping their word.So who is?As only someone who founded and runs an organization dedicated to reforming federal spending can tell you, understanding...

This is not going to get done without you. Last week the Trump Administration announced its tax reform proposal. It’s impressive and a major departure from the tax code mess we have today. I believe it’s bold and will work to boost the economy without exploding the national debt. Remember, I have been studying tax reform proposals for decades. I served on the Kemp Commission for Economic Growth and Tax Reform in the early 1990s. I’m very familiar with, and supportive of, the Flat Tax, the Fair Tax and of course my own 9-9-9 plan.

The federal government once again hit the debt ceiling. The ceiling limits the amount of money the federal government can borrow — a number that was set at $20.1 trillion. Although the issue should have been dealt with in 2015, then-Speaker John Boehner capitulated to President Obama and postponed the debt limit until March 16, 2017. Since then, the federal debt has grown by $1,414,397,000,000 — more than one trillion in less than two years. President Trump promised during his campaign to bring back American prosperity and make Washington work for everyone — not just for the small group of...

USA Today is reporting that the government may shut down by this coming Friday if Congress does not provide President Trump with a bill to keep it going. Congress returns Monday with just five days left to keep the government from shutting down, and President Trump is adding to the pressure by demanding money for a Southwest border wall and other controversial programs that threaten a bipartisan deal. Lawmakers passed a stop-gap spending bill in December to fund federal agencies through midnight next Friday. Congressional leaders are now scrambling to reach a bipartisan compromise on new legislation to keep the...

With the national deficit rapidly approaching 20 trillion, it is truly remarkable how little attention the national deficit is receiving in the daily political debate between the Republican administration and the Democratic opposition but also by media and public. Everybody understands that an at this rate the growing national deficit is not sustainable, and will bankrupt the country. But even maintaining the deficit at current levels burdens our children and grandchildren with unfair obligations, which we did not inherit from our parents and grandparents and, therefore, should not pass on to the next generations. The almost uniform rejection of next...

The portion of the federal debt that is subject to a legal limit set by Congress plummeted by $56,758,000,000 on March 15 hitting its lowest level of 2017, according to the Daily Treasury Statement. On that same day, the federal debt hit its legal limit, according to the same Daily Treasury Statements. For the 15 days since then, according to the Treasury’s statements, the debt subject to the limit has been frozen at $19,808,747,000,000—approximately $25 million below the new legal limit. The debt was able to hit its legal limit—even on a day when it was plunging dramatically—because when the...

The annual wrangling around the debt limit was set to disappear, pundits thought, since Republican control of both the executive and legislative branch would effectively make any showdown over such a silly exercise an own goal. That’s the current view in the Trump White House at least. “We’ve spent the money. The concept of the debt limit is somewhat of a ridiculous concept,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Friday. “I am hopeful that this something Congress addresses before the [summer] break. I think everybody understands we need to raise the debt limit, and that’s something we’re going to do.”...

Who can forget when the media spent endless days of outrage hyperventilating that Republicans would “shutdown the government” in 2013? Well the media had quite the opposite reaction Monday when Democrats threatened to do the same thing, not even two months into Trump’s presidency.n a letter to Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell Monday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats warned Republicans that they would obstruct any budget that allowed funding for a border wall or took away funding from the EPA, before the current resolution to fund the government is up April 28. Schumer has made similar threats...

The US debt reduced by more than $60 Billion since the Trump Inauguration! On January 20th, the day of the Trump Inauguration, the US Debt stood at $19,947 billion. On March 8th, more than a month later, the US Debt load stood at $19,879 billion. Trump has cut the US Debt burden by $68 billion and 0.3% in since his inauguration!

President Trump has done what has seemed like an impossible task for recent administrations, and that is to actually curb government spending and reduce the national debt by $12 Billion during his first month in office. Trump announced his achievement of reducing the national debt by sending out a tweet, which quickly caused the media to scramble for stories that could diminish this financial victory. The day before Trump was sworn into office, January 20, 2017, the national debt was $19,947 billion. A month later on February 21, 2017, the US debt was reduced to $19,935 billion, a decrease of...

The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.