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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hammered the Trump administration's new budget proposal on Thursday, framing the president's federal spending blueprint as an immoral demolition of government that's doomed in Congress. "I don't see how this budget can survive the light of day," Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol. "This budget is really a slap in the face of the future." [Snip] "This is systemic deconstruction of the federal government." [Snip] "As low as my expectations have been, this budget really goes beyond," she said. "While it may be a statement of President Trump's values, I hope...

President Trump will issue a new memorandum on Monday that requires every executive agency to conduct an internal review of how their funding is being abused and what changes they can pursue to operate more efficiently. . . . Some federal officials have said they fear the president's budget will lead to massive layoffs at the State Department and Environmental Protection Agency, among other departments.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) says President Trump deserves credit for wanting to invest in infrastructure, but argues the president's call for $1 trillion in spending isn't enough to improve America’s roads, airports and bridges. “Give Donald Trump some credit. He wants to do a very broad and very ambitious infrastructure revitalization program,” Rendell said in an interview with John Catsimatidis broadcast Sunday on 970 AM in New York. “The question is, can Democrats get together and shape that infrastructure program in a way that will work, and will there be sufficient federal investment?” Rendell said the $1 trillion...

Our big spending national government—whether Republican, Democrat or whatever—ran up a national debt approaching ten trillion dollars during the 220 and some odd years prior to Obama taking office. During Obama’s 8 year term, our big spending government nearly doubled that debt. No one’s fault (cough, cough), but we and our posterity are now staring at an unbelievable, unmanageable, unsustainable, unpayable mountain of twenty trillion dollars in accumulated debt with no let up in sight! In fact they want to continue the wholesale printing and spending of money we don’t have and they’re planning on raising the debt ceiling to...

There is an old French adage that applies to the Republicans in Congress and perhaps the Trump Administration: “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” (“The more things change, the more they stay the same”).   The appetite for ever greater government spending appears to be no different than in previous years.  This uncontrolled addiction, unless reined, in will cast a dark cloud over entire term of the Trump presidency. Rather than an outright repeal, the hierarchy of the Congressional leadership has just given birth to an amended version of Obamacare that does not eliminate subsidies but recasts them...

CINCINNATI - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, will highlight in downtown Cincinnati this morning key infrastruture projects, such as the Brent Spence Bridge, as he outlines a framework to rebuild and repair the country’s infrastructure which will create millions of construction jobs. The northern Ohio Senator will be joined by Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority President and CEO Laura Brunner, and OKI Regional Council of Governments Deputy Executive DirectorRobert Koehler. President Donald Trump previously promised $1 trillion of investment in American infrastructure during his campaign. Brown joined Senate colleagues to release a roadmap for making...

To offset the defense spending increase, the White House is seeking corresponding cuts of $54 billion in non-defense categories, including "large spending cuts" to foreign aid, the EPA, the State Department and safety programs. The official also added that most agencies would see funding reductions. “Most federal agencies will see a reduction as a result," the official said, with cuts falling most heavily on “lower priority” programs as well as foreign aid. When asked where the extra $54 billion will be spent, the official said “predominantly it will go to the Pentagon,” but declined to name specific offices.

KTXL reports that a rally was held in Sacramento, California Wednesday by proponents of a bill that would create a one payer health care system. Participants included health care unions and patients. Dr. Paul Song told KTXL, “If we make the system more efficient by having one payer, we can save billions of billions of dollars a year. Plus, we don’t really need to put any more money in - the money is there.” Bill co-author Senator Toni Atkins of San Diego says Californians shouldn’t have Washington dictate how healthcare is provided to its citizens. She tells KTXL, now that Californians...

In some circles, the myth persists that more money automatically translates into better education results. At a recent legislative hearing to explore changes to the state’s failing-schools law, one education official made a claim that collapses under a brief examination. According to MIRS News, Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, posed a question to a panel of witnesses about the relationship between funding and performance. But if the implication of his question was failing schools need more money before they can be fixed, the evidence is against him. The recently released final evaluation of the U.S. Department of Education’s $7 billion School...

Kansas Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is hoping the federal government can rescue several critical infrastructure projects that the state can no longer afford.The Brownback administration recently sent what amounts to a wish list to President Donald Trump for inclusion in his planned infrastructure initiative. It includes the following $240 million in highway and bridge projects delayed or abandoned because of the state’s ongoing budget problems: $50 million to replace a section of the Lewis and Clark Viaduct that carries Interstate 70 across the Kansas River between Kansas and Missouri.$91 million to build an I-235 interchange in Wichita.$45 million to reconstruct...

<p>MADISON -- A new audit shows huge cost overruns at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, with dozens of projects costing double or triple their original estimates.</p> <p>The Legislative Audit Bureau report finds that estimated costs for 19 major projects completed between 2006 and 2016 were $1.5 billion, double the initial projection. The audit also finds that the estimated costs of 16 ongoing major highway projects have increased by $3.1 billion.</p>

A Look Into the Opaque Crystal Ball for Infrastructure Initiatives in the First 100 Days of the Trump Administration President Donald J. Trump's "America's Infrastructure First" plan is one of the Trump Administration's priorities during his first 100 days in office. Throughout the campaign, President Trump heralded his plan to build and restore highways, tunnels, airports, bridges, and water systems across America and promised a $1 trillion investment in the infrastructure sector over a 10-year period. Leaders from both parties acknowledge the nation's deteriorating infrastructure, and there have been expressions of support from both sides of the aisle for some...

President Trump has promised to eliminate regulations and rebuild the nation’s aging infrastructure. Federal agencies are awash with regulations and provisions based on the presumption that government is, and should be, the sole provider of infrastructure. But now that we understand the merits of public-private partnerships, which can provide more accountable public-purpose infrastructure, these numerous regulations and provisions serve as major obstacles preventing the improvement of highways and other infrastructure. Back in 1995, Reason Foundation published a policy study itemizing a number of these regulatory barriers. Sadly, most of them still exist today. If a state or municipal facility has...

More than a year after Texas voters approved routing billions in state sales taxes to roads and bridges, some lawmakers are questioning whether the first payment of $5 billion should move forward as planned. Texans voted in 2015 to boost funding for state’s public roadways and bridges, which have strained under the state’s growing population. Proposition 7 — loudly cheered by top Texas leaders and supported by 83 percent of voters — changed the state constitution to route some taxes collected on car sales to the State Highway Fund. But in an unusually tightfisted legislative session, some Texas lawmakers are...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has promised to revitalize America’s aging roads, bridges, railways and airports, but a plan put forward by his economic advisers relies on a transportation financing scheme that hasn’t been tried before and comes with significant risks. The plan was set out just before the election by billionaire leveraged buy-out specialist Wilbur Ross, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, and conservative economics professor Peter Navarro, whom Trump has tapped to head his National Trade Council. They recommended the government allocate $137 billion in tax credits for private investors who underwrite infrastructure projects. Ross and Navarro estimate that...

Larry Hauth has a farm in Coffey County and a daughter in Wichita. Good roads are kind of important to him. So he’s disturbed by the ongoing and accelerating trend of the state taking money out of the highway fund to balance the rest of its budget. “One of the things Kansas has going for it, compared to our surrounding states, is our road system,” Hauth said. “When they built them in years past, they were thinking ahead. I don’t think we’re thinking ahead right now. We’re trying to tread water, at best.” Gov. Sam Brownback wants to take nearly...

Most voters support President Trump’s plan for major spending and staffing cuts in the federal government, but many still worry he won’t shrink the government enough. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 54% of Likely U.S. Voters favor a proposal that would cut spending up to 10% and cut staffing up to 20% in some federal government agencies. Twenty-seven percent (27%) oppose such cuts, while 19% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fiscal Policy: President Trump hasn't released a detailed budget plan yet, but already some Republicans are signaling their disinterest in making deep cuts to federal spending. The biggest obstacle to the conservative parts of Trump's agenda could be his own party. Trump hasn't been shy about wanting to see big changes in federal spending. Shortly before taking the oath of office, news came out that he is aiming for 10% spending cuts and a 20% cut in federal staffing. On his first full day in the White House, he announced a halt to hiring federal workers and a freeze on...

Officials say the Obama administration in its waning hours defied Republican opposition and quietly released $221 million to the Palestinian Authority that GOP members of Congress had been blocking. A State Department official and several congressional aides said the outgoing administration formally notified Congress it would spend the money Friday morning. The official said former Secretary of State John Kerry had informed some lawmakers of the move shortly before he left the State Department for the last time Thursday. The aides said written notification dated Jan. 20 was sent to Congress just hours before Donald Trump took the oath of...

President Donald Trump’s reported plan to gut federal spending by $10.5 trillion over the next decade includes eliminating three of iconic agencies defended as cultural mainstays by many Democrats. The next administration is working on plans to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The Hill reported Thursday. Combined, the three departments cost around $741 million in 2016, and is a small part of a host of budget reforms needed to cut more than a trillion a year from the federal budget. Eliminating funding to the Corporation...