Free Republic

The stakes for 2012 couldn't have been set out more clearly than two recent speeches by a pair of women who aren't making the decisions these days in Washington. Speaking at Tufts University -- right in the midst of the negotiations over the 2011 budget -- ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi whined: "To my Republican friends: Take back your party, so that it doesn't matter so much who wins the election -- because we have shared values about the education of our children, the growth of our economy, how we defend our country, our security and civil liberties, how we respect our...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — A government shutdown would lead to homeless wandering the streets, a national unemployment problem, a vicious power grab by Wall Street’s elite, and a rush by Americans to hoard precious assets such as gold and silver. So what else is new? By those measures, the government’s been closed for months. The gridlock in Washington is manifesting itself in the worst way possible this week, with both sides dug in and President Obama warning of dire consequences if the government grinds to a halt this weekend — from the furloughs of 800,000 federal employees to the freezing...

U.S. businesses are bracing for layoffs and disruptions along their supply chains if the federal government shuts down later this week because of an impasse over the federal budget. (snip) Especially hard hit are small and midsized businesses that rely on steady flows of revenue from federal contracts to provide a wide array of products and services such as information technology consulting, building construction and maintenance, or food service at national parks. (snip) Should the government close, the Treasury could provide a several-hundred billion dollar cushion by borrowing from Social Security, federal pensions and other funds, says Gary Hufbauer, a...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Warning of economic repercussions, the Obama administration said Wednesday that a government shutdown would halt the processing of tax returns and limit small business loans and government-guaranteed mortgages during peak home buying season. Obama's administration sought to put the prospect in terms people would care about, even saying the beloved Cherry Blossom parade in the nation's capital would be wiped out.

Republicans would cut $12 billion in one-week stopgap planWASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A budget deal that would keep the government running past Friday is closer than ever, President Barack Obama said Tuesday, as top congressional Republicans and Democrats planned another round of negotiations aimed at hammering out a spending plan for the next six months. Clock ticking toward shutdown As the click ticks toward this Friday's possible U.S. government shutdown, WSJ's Jerry Seib looks at proposals being weighed by Republicans and Democrats, along with efforts to raise the country's debt ceiling. • See MarketWatch's Economy and Politics page | | “We...

House Speaker John Boehner says congressional leaders and President Barack Obama did not reach a budget agreement following a White House meeting. Boehner says Republicans are rallying behind a short-term cure. Obama met with Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the top House and Senate appropriators Tuesday in hopes of breaking an impasse in talks to set spending levels through the end of September. Without an agreement by Friday, the government would be forced to shut down. Boehner said he told Obama that House Republicans are preparing a short-term measure that would keep the government running for another week...

The president seems to have forgotten that he got shellacked in November, and fits of pique aren't exactly leadership. What part of "I won. You Lost" does he not remember? The Speaker will have to patiently explain to the American people confronting closed parks and museums next week that President Obama refuses to negotiate and is willing to sacrifice everyone's convenience for the benefit of Planned Parenthood, the taxpayer subsidy for NPR and PBS, EPA's carbon regs and the continued jam down of Obamacare.

A visibly frustrated President Obama said Tuesday that Democrats have agreed on how much to cut from the budget and that he won't accept another temporary spending bill that House Republicans are rallying behind to prevent a government shutdown this weekend.  "We've already done that twice," Obama said in a surprise appearance at the White House briefing room. "That is not a way to run a government. "I can't have our agencies making plans based on two-week budgets." Obama said both sides are closer than ever to a deal and that politics shouldn't stand in the way of preventing a shutdown...

There was no deal reached over the budget after President Obama hosted Democratic and GOP leaders at the White House.Speaker John Boehner's office said a meeting between congressional leaders at the White House Tuesday morning did not resolve the standoff over funding the government for the rest of the year. The Ohio Republican's office said "no agreement was reached" on a long-term spending bill during the talks despite a "good discussion." Read more: The Hill

“Federal employees are being held hostage because these plans are not being made available,” said William R. Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees, whose members include civilian Defense Department workers. “It’s disrespectful to hold these folks in limbo until the last minute.”He called “inexcusable” the government’s decision not to tell federal workers who would be sent home and who would be told to keep working.It was some of the strongest rhetoric that federal unions have used against a White House that has generally had the support of government unions. As a shutdown has loomed for weeks, with...

Boehner, Obama Fail to Reach Budget Deal After Meeting By JARED A. FAVOLE And DAMIAN PALETTA WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) on Tuesday said no budget deal was reached after meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, raising the stakes ahead of a possible government shutdown at the end of the week. The White House earlier said it ordered top officials at multiple federal agencies to ensure contingency plans were ready for a potential partial shutdown. "While there was a good discussion, no agreement was reached," Mr. Boehner's office said in a summary of the meeting that...

The Congressional Budget Office has revised its scoring of the 2011 budget submitted by President Obama. This version is very similar to the one released earlier this month, with some minor adjustments. This projection should serve as a warning that the United States faces real economic trouble. Based on their numbers the United States will be running an annual deficit of approximately $975 Billion Dollars/Year. This doesn't even include Obamacare which according to a new Republican projection will add another $64 Billion/year to the deficit. To put that into perspective, during the heavy spending Bush years the highest deficit was...

The Obama Budget: Spend, Entitle, Borrow [James C. Capretta] Last Friday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its analysis of the president’s 2011 budget submission to Congress. This report hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves. When the administration released its budget in early February, the news seemed bad enough. By its own reckoning, the Obama administration’s budget plan would result in massive deficits and borrowing if adopted in full. According to the administration’s estimates, the president’s budget plan would produce deficits totaling $10.1 trillion over the period 2010 to 2020, and by 2020 federal debt would reach $18.6 trillion....

The Congressional Budget Office completed its scoring of the budget submitted by President Obama. Its projection is a warning that the United States faces real economic trouble. Based on their numbers the United States will be running an annual deficit of approximately One Trillion Dollars/Year (over 60% higher than the President's projection). To put that into perspective, during the heavy spending Bush years the highest deficit was $459 billion dollars. Once Barack Obama became President, and was able to get his hands on the second half of the 2009 budget, deficits started exceeding the trillion dollar level. Obama's budget above...

Rasmussen has released its Superbowl Sunday version of its Presidential approval ratings and their report only tells part of the story. The report shows the president's approval index down to a -17, but what it doesn't show is that the depth of President's recent slide is a direct result of the bloated budget he sent to congress almost a week ago. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove which gives Obama a...

Why does Camelot lie in ruins? Intellectual error of monumental proportion has been made, and not exclusively by the politicians. Error also lies squarely with the economists. The "academic scribbler" who must bear substantial responsibility is Lord Keynes... James M. Buchanan, in The Consequences of Keynes The President's State of the Union Address helped him to a huge bounce in his approval ratings. On the day Obama made his SOTU speech Rasmussen reported his approval index at a -15. But as they say, the polls giveth and the polls taketh away. On Monday, the day the budget was officially released...

President Barack Obama will submit a $3.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2011 to Congress today. One might hope that given last year's $1.4 trillion budget deficit was an all-time high and the President promised a spending 'freeze' in last week's State of the Union, this budget might signal a change in direction from the White House. No such luck. President Obama's new budget is full of billions of dollars in new spending for failed government programs, higher taxes on American families and businesses, and deficit spending for as far as the eye can see. At the very least, the...

What fun is it to be President if you can't take care of your friends. Matthew Vadum has uncovered a special $3.83 billion slush fund the President's new budget sent to congress yesterday. The money would come from the the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, which is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) $48.5 billion fiscal 2011 budget. CDBG grants, which are awarded to states and localities, then pass to groups such as ACORN. How is more funding of ACORN possible when Congress passed a ban on funding the group and its affiliates just last...

In the end, nothing hurt George HW Bush's chances for re-election than the rallying cry he made during his acceptance speech at is first nomination convention. And I'm the one who will not raise taxes. My opponent now says he'll raise them as a last resort, or a third resort. But when a politician talks like that, you know that's one resort he'll be checking into. My opponent, my opponent won't rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes and I'll say no. And they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll...

Last year, President Obama swept into office on a promise to confront tough choices--and then released a budget proposing the largest debt-and-spending spree in American history. With Washington having committed itself to more government than its taxpayers could realistically afford, basic fiscal responsibility suggests that the President scale back his expensive proposals. Instead, this year's budget is even more fiscally irresponsible. Over the 10 years in which both budgets overlap (FY 2010-2019), this year's budget would spend an additional $1.7 trillion and run up an additional $2 trillion in budget deficits (see Table 1).[1] In fact, this year's proposal shows...