Free Republic

In lieu of additional revenue obtained from auditing taxpayers, how do lawmakers now propose to fund increased federal spending on roads and bridges? Through a budget gimmick.After a conservative backlash, Republican senators negotiating an infrastructure bill have objected to an increase in funding and authority for the IRS. In lieu of additional revenue obtained from auditing taxpayers, how do lawmakers now propose to fund increased federal spending allegedly on roads and bridges? Through a budget gimmick.In short, Congress now wants to repeal a rule that 1) hasn’t gone into effect and 2) likely won’t ever go into effect, so it...

Sometimes a few facts tell important stories. The American economy now is full of facts that tell stories that you really don't want, but need, to hear. Where are we now? Did you know that annual spending by the federal government now exceeds the 2007 level by about $1 trillion? With a slow economy, revenues are little changed. The result is an unprecedented string of federal budget deficits, $1.4 trillion in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010, $1.3 trillion in 2011, and another $1.2 trillion on the way this year. The four-year increase in borrowing amounts to $55,000 per U.S. household....

Darrell Delamaide's Political CapitalWASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Deficit hysteria is rising to fever pitch in Washington as the political jockeying over the budget begins in earnest. “Fiscal nightmare,” “buried under a mountain of debt,” “awash in red ink” – these are some of the colorful phrases being bandied about by politicians, pundits and even journalists ostensibly reporting facts. Most of them are winging it on a single undergraduate course in economics, if that, but they know they’re right because everybody agrees. Yet, if you look out the window, you don’t see any red ink or mountains of debt. The only nightmare...

In a rare Saturday morning session, the House voted to cut more than $60 billion in spending for the federal government for the remainder of the year. At 4:40 a.m., lawmakers voted 235-189 to send the so-called continuing resolution to the Senate. Not one Democrat voted for the bill that would cut at least $61 billion, from 2010 levels, in spending for federal programs and agencies. Three Republicans, Reps. John Campbell (R-Calif.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.), opposed the bill that would pay for government operations on March 4, when the current funding is set to expire. For...

PHOENIX – Gov. Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday that she has billed the federal government for nearly $118 million in unreimbursed costs for imprisoning illegal immigrants who committed crimes in Arizona. If the federal government doesn't pay, it should take custody of some 3,600 immigrant criminals now in state prisons, Napolitano said in a letter sent last week to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Napolitano released the letter – and copies of two invoices sent with it – one day after President Bush proposed eliminating funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. The program is supposed to reimburse state and...

<p>Washington -- A wily Bakersfield Republican who strikes fear among friend and foe on Capitol Hill has out-maneuvered the White House and Senate Republicans on President Bush's premier domestic policy: the elimination of the tax on corporate dividends.</p> <p>It will be Bill Thomas' reduction of the tax on dividends and capital gains -- not the elimination of the dividend tax that Bush introduced with tremendous fanfare in January and has lobbied for ever since -- that will be in a $350 billion, 10-year tax cut package agreed to Wednesday that Bush will tout as his signature domestic achievement this year.</p>