Free Republic

Some politicians running for federal office make it sound as if the biggest problem facing our country is that we don’t send enough of our paychecks to Washington, D.C. They propose increasing or creating new federal taxes on income, payrolls, business profits, carbon emissions, financial transactions, wealth, and more. Before they start trying to spend more and more of our money, they would do well to consider just how much they’re already spending. Looking back over the last decade, it’s clear they’ve already entered the “drunken sailor” stage. From 2010 through 2019, U.S. households sent an average of $228,000 to...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate was up to its old tricks Monday evening. It prepared to pass, without debate and under a procedure requiring unanimous consent, a federal infusion of $9 billion into state Medicaid programs under the pretext of Katrina relief. The bill, drafted in secret under bipartisan auspices, was stopped cold when Republican Sen. John Ensign voiced his objection. The bill's Democratic sponsors railed in outrage against Ensign, a 47-year-old first-termer from Las Vegas, Nev., who usually keeps a low profile. But he was not acting alone. Ensign belongs to, and, indeed, originated, a small group of Republicans who...

Congress returns to work in a few days, which means unrestrained raiding of the public purse by wasteful and unnecessary spending will likely continue. The National Taxpayers Union Foundation has compiled a useful report on the 108th Congress' misspending. While most parents would not allow such free spending by their children in college, Congress spends with few restraints and with few complaints from those who earn the money. This might be more understandable if Democrats ran the government, but overspending under Republican leadership is something like a virtue monitor succumbing to vice. NTUF finds misspending is bad and getting worse....

The pre-spin: Bush will spend about 1/2 the speech on foreign policy, 1/2 on domestic, with heavy emphasis on Social Security reform. It's said he will provide a detailed tutorial on the SS system and its problems with a few details on his personal accounts proposal. Laura's guests are said to be an Afghan voter and an Iraqi voter (too bad there's no Ukrainian wearing an orange hat!). Should we start a drinking game on how many times the pool camera swings to Hillary? Hmmm. Probably not...it would likely hamper out typing ability. Word on the blogs has it that...

President Bush says he will submit a budget that cuts the deficit in half and mantains strict spending discipline. "We will provide every tool and resource for our military, we will protect the homeland," Bush said. He said he would "maintain strict discipline in spending tax dollars." In the 17th news conference of his presidency, Bush was pushing his second-term agenda. As for Iraq, Bush accused insurgents there of trying to "disrupt the democratic process" but he cautioned that next month's elections were just the first step of a long process in creating a stable, democratic country. "The elections in...