Free Republic

Well, it's about time. The Beltway is waking up to the realities of President Obama's budget plan, which taxes, spends, and borrows as far as the eye can see. The president's vast new commitments in the areas of health care, energy, and education have already spooked small-government Republicans and the foreign investors who help finance America's public debt. Now even some Democrats are beginning to realize that the president's fiscal policies are unsustainable in the long--and maybe medium--run. What took them so long? The realities of the modern global economy require government to play a substantial role in ensuring the...

Taxes: President Obama creates a special commission to look at tax reform, while Congress looks desperately for new revenues to pay for a vast expansion of government. Get ready for the mother of all tax hikes.Former Fed chief Paul Volcker will head Obama's six-member tax commission which will be charged with, as Bloomberg.com put it, "closing loopholes, streamlining the law and generating revenue." The way things look, the government will need the money. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says Obama's proposed budget comes up short on its estimates for spending, revenues and deficits — virtually everything. Over 10 years, the...

House and Senate Democratic leaders are looking to pass the Obama administration's $3.6 trillion federal budget for 2010 by the end of next week, but the lawmakers under them should take into account the shocking deficit impact and fight to reign in the proposal. We're not holding our breath that they will do so, despite the immense deficit predictions announced Friday by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO has projected the initiatives proposed in President Obama's budget would increase the deficit to over $1.8 trillion this year. That is 13.1 percent of GDP and significantly more than the already...

Hey,it's free money! Isn't that what they always say - they being state and local officials, and the money being federal grants? We, as in We the People, aren't supposed to notice the strings attached to federal funds, or the unintended consequences that may result from taking them. Maybe every federal grant should come with a warning label: Taking this money could have deleterious effects on your fiscal health. Consider the offer of increased federal funding for states that agree to expand their unemployment benefits. A state can't lose on a deal like that, right? Wrong. Because the states would...

Forget the pork. Forget the waste. Forget the 8,570 earmarks in a bill supported by a president who poses as the scourge of earmarks. Forget the "$2 trillion dollars in savings" that "we have already identified," $1.6 trillion of which President Obama's budget director later admits is the "savings" of not continuing the surge in Iraq until 2019 — 11 years after George Bush ended it, and eight years after even Bush would have had us out of Iraq completely. Forget all of this. This is run-of-the-mill budget trickery. True, Obama's tricks come festooned with strings of zeros tacked onto...

Moderate senators from Barack Obama's Democratic Party are forming a bloc to argue against his high spending plans to revive the economy, as the administration is increasingly forced on the defensive. As senior members of his economic team have been grilled by Congressional committees about the $3.6 trillion (£2.5 trillion) budget unveiled last week, a meeting of 14 Democrats was convened by Evan Bayh, senator for Indiana, to discuss how the president be might reined in. "I do think that before we raise revenue, we first should look to see if there are ways we can cut back on spending,"...

March 3, 2009Confused by Obama's planned obliteration of USA?By Sher Zieve Fearless Leader Obama is on a purposeful and unapologetic mission to destroy the United States of America. I have written myriad articles on this subject — both before and after the election of Barack Hussein Obama to POTUS (a position for which he still appears to be Constitutionally unqualified) — which are backed up by almost voluminous references. Prior to the 2008 general election, I even asked "Is the USA Ready for an American Stalin?" Chillingly, the answer appears to be 'yes.' Since Obama and his followers seized the...

Here is video of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs bashing CNBC's Jim Cramer who said this morning on The Today Show that President Obama's budget is a "radical agenda," adding, "This is the greatest wealth destruction I've seen by a President." I've embedded that video below again for easy reference. Cramer makes the "radical agenda" and "wealth destruction" comments at around the 3:00 minute mark of the video . . . . . (Watch Videos)

As we dig into the President's budget, more emerges: 1) Remember the President stating his budget "identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade?" It actually increases spending by $1 trillion. But he classifies as "savings" $1.4 trillion in tax increases (apparently savings for the government, not for you) and $1.5 trillion "saved" in Iraq relative to a fantasy baseline that otherwise assumes current spending levels forever. The Iraq gimmick is the equivalent of a family deciding to "save" $10,000 by first assuming an expensive vacation and then not taking it. 2) Real federal spending per household — $24,000...

Passing off the Carbon Tax as "climate revenues," Obama hides largest tax increase in bloated big-government budget CHESAPEAKE, Va., March 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- While some media outlets are reporting more than $1 trillion in new taxes in the Obama budget, Grassfire.org has identified more than $1.6 trillion, and possibly as much as $2.2 trillion. "The President's 'carbon tax' is the single biggest tax-increasing item in his budget, and the largest in history," says Steve Elliott, President of Grassfire.org. According to Grassfire.org researchers examining the official published documents on the budget, the $645 billion in carbon taxes pushes the total tax...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/28/Keeping-Promises/ THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 5:43 am Keeping Promises In the Weekly Address this morning, President Obama explains how the budget he sent to Congress will fulfill the promises he made as a candidate. On fiscal responsibility, a fair tax code, a clean energy economy, real health care reform, and education, this budget sets out a new vision for our country. But having put his priorities on paper and having stood behind them, the President recognizes that there are those who will fight against change every...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr09-014.cfm www.hud.gov/news/ For Release Wednesday February 25, 2009 HUD ALLOCATES MORE THAN $10 BILLION OF RECOVERY ACT FUNDING ONE WEEK AFTER BILL SIGNING Nearly 75 percent of HUD Recovery funds allocated today WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today allocated nearly 75 percent of its funding, or $10.1 billion, made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Recovery Act includes $13.61 billion for projects and programs administered by HUD, 75 percent of which was allocated to recipients today - only one week after President...

You have to hand it to the new administration: when they promised change, they meant it. Unfortunately, the change they promised is not the change they are focused on implementing. In his appeal to voters, candidate Obama promised to change the way business was done in Washington. But in their first month in office his team has shown itself devoted to hardball, insider and partisan politics, assembling an administration thick with veteran insiders, including several of the lobbyists they claimed had to be driven from the temple. But as we know, this is the quintessential end justifies the means crowd....

Dear Mr. Robinson: Thank you for writing to me about the current state of the economy, and the actions Congress has taken to address this severe economic crisis. As you know, on February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (H.R. 1) into law. This important legislation represents a significant investment by the Federal Government in an effort to create jobs, improve our Nation's aging infrastructure, and assist struggling states. I agree that this bill is not perfect and understand your concerns, especially as our Nation faces an expected budget deficit of over $1.2...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator John McCain said on Tuesday night he believed an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system was possible this year after President Barack Obama called for such a timetable. In his speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Obama said that due to rising costs, revamping the healthcare system "must not wait, and it will not wait another year." McCain, who is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said in an interview after the speech that he felt an accord was reachable this year. "I do think it's...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama-Address-to-Joint-Session-of-Congress/ THE BRIEFING ROOM Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 9:01 pm Remarks of President Barack Obama -- Address to Joint Session of Congress Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery Address to Joint Session of Congress Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States: I’ve come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here. I know...

Note: Photos included. Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/02/23/Help-is-on-the-way/ THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 11:57 am Help is on the way $15 billion of funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be available in just two days, the President announced this morning, just a week after the act was signed into law. "By the time most of you get home; money will be waiting to help 20 million vulnerable Americans in your states keep their health care coverage," he told a gathering of the nation's governors in the State Dining...

(CNN) -- Kevin Fernandez says he'll do whatever it takes to make sure his family is happy and healthy -- even if that means never taking a day off from work. Fernandez has a full-time job with FedEx corporate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he trains managers from around the country. He also spends every weekend and up to two other nights working at a local grocery store. He says working 7 days a week takes its toll. "It's very hard," he said. "Like right now, I'm holding my 6-week-old baby, and there's only a few nights a week I actually...

This is VERY Frightening.

Federal Spending Was on ‘Starvation Diet’ During Bush Years, Says Democratic Senator Monday, February 09, 2009 By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Claire McCaskill (D.-Mo.) said yesterday that some of the spending in the $819-billion stimulus passed by the House of Representatives last week represented important federal spending priorities needed to “make-up for a starvation diet under the Bush Administration.” McCaskill indicated that the question wasn’t whether all the money approved in the House bill should be spent but whether it should be included in the stimulus bill that Congress is rushing through this month in an effort...