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President Vladimir Putin is set to extend his 24 years as Russia's paramount ruler in an election on March 15-17 and has promised more than 11.5 trillion roubles ($126.5 billion) in infrastructure and social spending over the next six years. "This is the programme of a strong, sovereign country that confidently looks to the future," Putin told Russia's elite including lawmakers in a speech on Feb. 29. "We have both the resources and tremendous opportunities to achieve our goals." Russia's total budget spending in 2024 is planned at 36.6 trillion roubles, with military expenditure set to exceed social spending for...

So, when will we hear someone running for election or re-election start talking about our huge debit and ways to reduce it? Now that we have the Democrat debates underway it’s time to turn our attention to carefully listen to what the potential candidates have to say. Are they talking about issues that are really important to the nation? Or, are they talking about proposed plans and schemes that will get them elected? Out here in the real world much of what we hear is a bit confusing and is difficult to understand.

(CNSNews.com) - In the six months that have passed since then-retiring House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cut a budget deal with President Barack Obama that suspended the legal limit on the federal debt until March 15, 2017, the federal debt has increased by just over $1 trillion. The Senate passed “The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015” with a vote held in the early morning hours of Friday, Oct. 30. Obama signed it on Monday, Nov. 2. At the close business on Oct. 30, 2015, the total federal debt was $18,152,981,685,747.52. By the close of business...

The president prided himself on honesty in his first budget proposal, including the real estimated costs of spending, but Obama later shifted his stance and approved the use of budget gimmickry, according to The New Yorker. When his aides suggested in late 2009 that he should abandon the honest approach on estimated spending on disaster aid, for example, the president signed off, The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza reports. Obama also approved of fanciful budget numbers on his signature health care legislation, Lizza wrote: In the December 20th memo, [Obama aides] resorted to gimmickry...On disaster relief, for example, he had estimated...

Obama delays budget for 2013 By Erik Wasson - 01/23/12 02:08 PM ET President Obama will release his 2013 budget one week late, an administration official said Monday, the third time the administration has missed the legal deadline. Under the law, the budget is to be released on the first Monday in February, but the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be releasing the 2013 budget on Feb. 13. The Obama administration also delayed the release of the budget last year, waiting until Feb. 14. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said the delay is symptomatic of a...

The date will be on or about September 30th. The issue will be the need to pass a Continuing Resolution by the House. For more than 850 days the US has gone without a budget. The House passed one not long ago; the Senate tabled it. The Administration has not offered up one either. The absence of an approved budget means that the only way the country can continue to operate is through a series of temporary extensions. The last time we went through a vote on a continuing resolution was just four months ago. That fight went down to...

As he normally does on "Inside Washington," PBS's Mark Shields Friday was waxing moronic about Republican plans to balance the budget. Not pleased by the fictional account on display, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer challenged his fellow panelist saying, "Democrats have not even produced a budget for 2012. What’s their budget?" (video follows with transcript and commentary): Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/07/03/krauthammer-challenges-shields-where-democrat-budget-whats-their-plan#ixzz1R98RVLOf

The President criminalizes capitalism... Evil speculators beware... Why we're all quitting our jobs next week (assuming we can find replacements)... The real numbers behind our budget crisis... A currency crisis, socialism, and politicians in denial... Says the Associated Press: "The Justice Department will try to 'root out' cases of fraud or manipulation in oil markets." The timing is perfect. The government, like a lazy hound dog, knows when to show up at the kitchen door. It's feeding time, gents. But do you think the Justice Department will announce a thorough investigation into the activities of the Federal Reserve? Nope. Do...

Originally posted at examiner.com as "Looming Government Shutdown Anarchy?" As the battle of the budget wages on, and the March 4th D-Day moves inexorably closer, and with the Continuing Resolution passed in the House of Representatives early this morning, including two amendments by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to defund Obamacare, the media is increasingly raising the specter of a possible government shutdown. What every Republican, every patriot, every person conceivably affected needs to understand is how this will impact average Americans. Will airports shut down because air traffic controllers have gone on leave? Will those mean Republicans throw granny out...

“I guarantee that if we locked all the Congressmen in a room and told them that they would lose $10,000 in yearly pay for each day the budget went unbalanced, the budget would be balanced in a week”- Emanuel Creekus Just so we don’t get another obamacare fiasco and get a simple bill like the one proposed by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, one that folks have read before signing into law, lock them in a room for a month and then start deducting 10k per day for every day the bill is not passed. I promise you, not even...

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. President Ronald Reagan- January 1981 Americans may be longing for a return to...

The latest Rasmussen tracking poll reflects America, growing weariness over the size of President Obama's budget. By a 46% to 41% margin Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Obama's massive $3.6 Trillion dollar budget (13% are undecided). Three-quarters of voters are concerned that the budget spends too much. Notable within the results is the fact that the closer one is following the budget, the more likely that the person has a negative opinion of if. In other words, to know the budget is to hate it. More Below:

The latest estimate of the growing costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the worldwide battle against terrorism -- nearly $15 billion a month -- came last week from one of the Senate's leading proponents of a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq. "This cost of this war is approaching $15 billion a month, with the Army spending $4.2 billion of that every month," Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska), the ranking Republican on the Appropriations defense subcommittee, said in a little-noticed floor speech Dec. 18. His remarks came in support of adding $70 billion to the omnibus fiscal 2008...

By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Democrats trying to head off the opening of an Alaskan wildlife refuge for oil exploration lost the year's first skirmish Thursday as the Senate Budget Committee voted to clear the way for drilling. By a 12-10 vote, the Republican-led panel voted to forbid Senate filibusters against legislation later this year allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Filibusters, a procedural delay, require the votes of 60 of the 100 senators to end — a margin that drilling supporters would probably find difficult to achieve. The vote kept intact language in the...

IMF gives US cautious thumbs-up The IMF is as worried as anyone about US budget deficits The International Monetary Fund has given its blessing to continued rock-bottom interest rates in the US, saying the Federal Reserve still has time before it needs to making money more expensive. Strong consumer spending, the IMF says, should combine with business investment to keep the recovery ticking over - albeit nowhere near the 5.6% quarterly growth rate registered between January and March. But it has also cautioned that US spending needs to fall and tax receipts rise to minimise the risk of severe damage...