Free Republic

The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to spend over one trillion dollars in 2015 — but HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has never once testified before the Senate’s Budget Committee on either Obamacare’s costs or the president’s budget at large. “The Department of Health and Human Services is projected to spend over $1 trillion in FY2015 under the president’s budget, and health care costs — which today comprise nearly 30 percent of all federal spending — are growing more rapidly than other areas of the budget, especially over the long-term. It would be good for members of the...

As part of its campaign to step up efforts to address climate change, the White House on Wednesday announced the creation of a new website to serve as a one-stop location for the enormous amount of climate data housed at different federal agencies. In the administration’s most high-profile effort, the Environmental Protection Agency in September proposed rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. The president also plans to ask Congress for $1 billion in his 2015 budget to establish a “climate resiliency fund” that would finance research, preparation and infrastructure to adapt to extreme weather driven by...

When it comes to federal government spending, we are almost back to normal.  According to the Office of Management and Budget, the federal government spent 20.8% of GDP in fiscal 2013.  That is not a rosy-scenario, computer-generated prediction, but an actual count of dollars already spent.That is the lowest level since President Obama was inaugurated, and down from the peak of 24.4% in 2009 – a drop of over $600 billion in today’s dollars.  It is almost back to the pre-Obama level of 20.2% of GDP in 2008.  And it matches the 24-year average from 1975 through 1998. It is...

Ugghhh. Via The Hill: President Obama on Thursday urged Congress to “do even more” on conservation projects after signing legislation protecting a 35-mile stretch of Lake Michigan’s coastline.“There are currently dozens of conservation proposals before Congress — many supported by Democrats and Republicans — that would protect important lands across the country and help grow our economy,” Obama said in a statement.The Sleeping Bear Dunes conservation law was the first public lands designation by Congress in more than five years — the longest lawmakers had gone without making a wilderness designation in nearly 50 years.While urging lawmakers to take up...

President Dad-Jeans #Normcore is in town this afternoon ahead of an exclusive $32,400-a-head fund-raiser, and he's spending the intervening hours as a man (from out of town) of the people. At the Gap. On 42nd Street. Basically, Obama is channeling The Office's Michael Scott, who once said, "I always like to come to New York a little bit early and hit some of my favorite haunts," like Sbarro for "a New York slice." According to the White House pool report, "President Obama is doing a little shopping for his wife and daughters." But also, politics: In his State of the...

The Health and Human Services inspector general (IG) will launch an investigation into the failed ObamaCare exchange in Maryland, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) announced Monday. “Maryland officials ignored early warning signs and chose to waste and abuse federal taxpayer money by opening up what they knew was a flawed exchange to the public,” he wrote in a statement. “I have confidence that the nonpartisan and independent HHS Inspector General will thoroughly investigate and bring to light how hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted on one of the worst exchange roll outs in the country,” he added. An official with...

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz grilled Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on his department's budget during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing: "The Department of Defense continues to spend billions of dollars unnecessarily on alternative energy research programs at DoD. The Navy recently spent $170 Million on algae fuel, that costs four times as much as regular fuel," Cruz said. He continued by describing other similar projects in contrast to cuts in the funding for additional combat troops in the United States' armed services.

Washington, D.C. may have the highest number of certified green buildings in the country, but research by Environmental Policy Alliance suggests it might not be doing much good.The free-market group analyzed the first round of energy usage data released by city officials Friday and found that large, privately-owned buildings that received the green energy certification Leadership in Energy Design (LEED) actually use more energy than buildings that didn’t receive this green stamp of approval.LEED is the brainchild of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a private environmental group.

Fresh off the first family’s sixth annual winter vacation to the Hawaiian island of Oahu – billed to American taxpayers at a cost of $4 million – Michelle Obama and the first daughters Malia and Sasha will now jet off to China for over a week of much-needed sightseeing. President Barack Obama won’t be making the trip. But don’t worry, America: The first lady’s mother, Marian Robinson, will be tagging along on the federal dime. The theme of the March 19-26 trip will be education, reports the Chicago Tribune. The first lady and her entourage will spend several days in...

Sunday, March 02, 2014 The Coming Collapse of the Welfare State Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog In 1935, the year that FDR signed the Social Security Act into law, the birth rate was 18.7 per 1,000. In 1940, when the first monthly check was issued, it had gone up to 19.4. By 1954, when Disability had been added, the birth rate at the heart of the Baby Boom stood at 25.3. In a nation of 163 million people, 4 million babies were being born each year. By 1965, when Medicare was plugged in, the birth rate...

Along with several other states, Minnesota has returned to a budget surplus after some sharp deficit years. Whether that is because of luck or good policy is a matter of divided opinion. But there reportedly is about $1 billion on the table. Already there are many suggestions on how to "use it" -- ranging from tax cuts to new spending. This is premature, fiscally irresponsible and dangerous to the state economy. This surplus is not a long-lasting "structural" one, and that should be taken into account. We should first build up a reserve fund for the day we go back...

In the face of a stagnating economy and national debt topping $17 trillion, many policymakers in Washington, D.C. are seeking ways to reduce spending. Given that many states increasingly rely on federal spending to craft their state budgets, the necessary federal spending reductions could pose a serious fiscal threat to states that fail to prepare. What’s more, those federal funds come with serious strings attached, which often hamper state autonomy and effectiveness in policymaking. A recent report from State Budget Solutions based on Census data reveals that on the whole, states received 31.6 percent of their total revenue from the...

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.4 percent annualized rate in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday, revising down its initial estimate of a 3.2 percent increase in the nation's economic performance. The drop in fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth was largely due to a smaller-than-expected boost from Americans buying bit-ticket items such as autos. Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy, slowed to a 2.6 percent rise from 3.3 percent in the third quarter. Export, inventory accumulation and government spending also contributed to the downward revision in GDP. Capital Economics' Paul Ashworth now...

A team of researchers from Penn looked at the condition of higher education and came to about the same conclusion that academics usually come to when pressed to make a self-examination: Universities need more money. “The years before 2000 saw relatively few attempts to compare states’ performance in higher education,” Joni E. Finney, Laura W. Perna and Patrick M. Callan write in their report. “The Measuring Up series of state report cards, published from 2000 to 2008, called attention to how state higher education systems stacked up against the best–‐performing states and, later, against international standards.” “These state reports focused...

Metro Transit crews work to get a light rail train back on track after it derailed Wednesday while traveling north on the Green Line at Cedar Street and 12th Street in downtown St. Paul. (Pioneer Press: John Autey) A Central Corridor light-rail test train rolled off the tracks on Cedar Street in downtown St. Paul on Wednesday afternoon. The minor derailment occurred as the northbound train, which was not carrying passengers, attempted to navigate a turn at 12th Street just before rush hour. It was leaving downtown headed toward Minneapolis. Crews working on the derailment hooked up another train to...

The schools will never have enough money. That should be clear by now. Trying to get a handle on what public education costs us is like trying to get a handle on Bigfoot, a large, out-of-focus monster that has never been successfully photographed. Remember, as the union activists from the St. Paul Federation of Teachers dutifully put on their red T-shirts to tell us of their current distress, that we just went through something similar as recently as 2012. That time, we were told we had to vote for a levy increase so the kids could have better access to...

The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will spend $175,000 for a study on the “swimming abilities” of fish in the Northern Rockies, the agency announced on Thursday. The FWS, a bureau within the Department of the Interior, will award a grant for the study that will produce a “fish swimming video.” The grant announcement, entitled “Cooperative Research Program on the Swimming Abilities of Native Stream Fishes in the Northern Rockies-Upper Great Plains Regions of Montana,” estimated the project’s cost at $175,000.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer and others who perpetually lobby for increased K-12 education funding claim Michigan's education spending has been cut under Gov. Rick Snyder. These assertions persist despite the fact that the state-provided portion of per-pupil spending in Michigan is $7,545, up from the $6,844 level of the fiscal year 2011 budget, which was the final budget signed by former Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Local and federal sources supply about $6,000 more per student. The mathematical misdirection used to argue that Gov. Snyder has been cutting K-12 funding appears to be based on not counting state dollars that the...

When the $787 billion federal stimulus was signed into law exactly five years ago this Monday, the U.S. economy was losing almost 800,000 jobs per month. Now? More than 4.2 million jobs have been added since March 2009. Also at this time five years ago, the unemployment rate was 8.3% and would climb to a high of 10.0% just months later. Now it stands at 6.6%. But on this fifth anniversary of the stimulus – passed mostly along party lines in response to financial crisis and Great Recession – Democrats and the White House have responded so far with …...

The latest budget battle in Washington has Democrats and Republicans once again at loggerheads. Democrats think Republicans should get nothing in return for another debt ceiling increase. Republicans think they should get less than nothing. The House GOP leadership has longed to stop the gory budget showdowns of the past few years. That means giving up on further cuts and passing a clean debt ceiling increase; a cringeworthy proposal, but one that should have attained enough Democrat and establishment Republican support to pass the House. Instead, the GOP found a creative way to make it worse. Republicans attached a provision...