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According to the Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions, but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion. ... "No American political leadership has ever willfully and deliberately mortgaged our country to foreign interests in the manner we have witnessed over the past four years," said Tanner. "If this recklessness is not stopped, I truly believe our economic freedom as American citizens is in great jeopardy." [CNSNews] I wonder if there are any implications... "The facts are...

Lately I have irked some fellow conservatives by attacking the idea that a national retail sales tax can replace our current federal tax system, while at the same time endorsing a value-added tax as a new tax on top of our current system. To many of my friends, it looks as if I have switched sides. For their benefit, I would like to explain myself and assure them that I am still a conservative in good standing. On tax reform, I have been a supporter of the flat tax ever since I read the first article about it by Hoover...

WASHINGTON - The Republican-run Congress is showing its desire to spend billions of extra dollars for highways, welfare and civil servants even as party leaders promote tight spending restraints in the $2.4 trillion budget they are writing. The House overwhelmingly approved a nonbinding measure Wednesday backing a 3.5 percent pay raise next year for the government's civilian workers, the same amount President Bush (news - web sites) proposed for members of the military. Should that increase become law, it would cost $2.2 billion more than the 1.5 percent raise for civilians that Bush recommended. House leaders were hoping for approval...

<p>The outcome suggests that Schwarzenegger is not as good a negotiator as he thinks he is, or at least those skills weren't evident in this round. He was smart to demand more than he needed and then scale back from there. And he was smart to abandon the concept of a formula-driven spending cap. But in the end, he swung too far in the other direction. This looks as if his only bottom line was ending the negotiations with a deal, any deal. And now, to make it worse, he has begun to try to sell this package as more than it is. He should just admit the truth: this is the best he could get from the Democrats. It's a harmless first step but not nearly enough to achieve the goal he set for himself and the state. More work will have to be done.</p>

Medicare--I ask for your help...as Majority Leader and as a physician. I know the liberal bias in the media is trying to discredit the momentous achievement by President Bush and Senate Republicans in passing a Medicare bill that will benefit millions and millions of seniors and individuals with disabilities who don't have access to prescription drugs. These drugs are life-saving. It is a challenge to overcome this bias. The only way you are going to get the facts straight up, without the media filter, is straight from the source. As you know, I have been working on this for 6...