Free Republic

The front-page headline in Monday's Wall Street Journal said: "Biden weighs how to pay for Agenda." Who purchases something they know they can't afford, and then worries about paying for it later? Only government. After less than two months in office, President Biden and a majority Democrat Congress have engaged in record spending with insufficient money to pay for it. That may be about to change. Bloomberg.com reports the president wants to raise individual income taxes, as well as taxes on corporations (and expand the estate tax) to pay for another round of spending on infrastructure and programs and policies...

Ten to 20 years from now, we will not be talking about impeachment, and believe it or not, we won't still be talking about Donald Trump either. We will be talking about our debt crisis. For all the good that came from this era, the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations will all be remembered as the ones that caused the crisis that will hammer our children and grandchildren. To understand where we are, it's helpful to review the past few years of this issue's development. At the Bush White House, where I worked for eight years, we knew we had...

American immorality and contempt for liberty lie at the root of most of the political economic problems our nation faces. They explain the fiscal problems we face, such as growing national debt and budget deficits at the federal, state and local levels of government. Our immorality and contempt for liberty are reflected most in our widespread belief that government ought to forcibly use one American to serve the purposes of another American. Let's examine it. Suppose there is an elderly widow in your neighborhood. She does not have the strength to mow her lawn, clean her windows and perform...

Ever heard of the Agriculture Risk Coverage program? How about the Price Loss Coverage program? You’re paying for them. Along with the Conservation Technical Assistance program, the Biological and Environmental Research program, and the USDA Catfish Inspection program. The list goes on, but why have I highlighted these particular entries? Because of the millions we can save annually by eliminating their federal funding. Not that these are the only programs worth targeting, of course. There are many other specific steps we can take to finally put the government on the diet it should have been put on years ago. I...

Americans are addicted to living beyond their means, at least when it comes to the functions of government. That's why the federal debt tripled over the past decade and under President Barack Obama's budget plan would keep growing indefinitely. Why not? If you don't have to pay for all you get, you're likely to take more than you need. The problem is hardly confined to Washington. State and local governments can't get away with endless budget deficits because of restrictions on their authority to borrow money. But if you think that keeps them from piling up obligations on future taxpayers,...

The President is a whirlwind of tax ideas these days. Last week, he proposed to punish individuals who were trying to save money for college by taxing the profits in Section 529 plans that were designed to encourage individuals to save for college. Last week, he also proposed to tax capital gains on death to go along with the current 40 percent tax rate on taxable estates. This change would subject hundreds of thousands of small business owners and savers currently exempt from estate taxes to a 28 percent tax on the increase in value of their assets over their...

Time is money. And the Millennial generation, which is now making headlines for its low savings rate, seems to have missed that lesson completely. Astoundingly, a new study by Moody's Analytics says most adults under age 35 have a savings rate of negative 2 percent! In fact, Millennials are taking on so much debt, and saving so little, that their net worth is actually declining as a group. It's become a lifestyle habit to spend all you earn -- and more. Just look around the fancy restaurants, the chic hotel bars, the designer clothing stores -- and you will see...

WASHINGTON - The federal government has grown obscenely fat over the years, and under President Obama it's gotten much fatter, eating into our economy and the very foundations that made America great. It has outgrown our incomes and now threatens us with suffocating debt, costly regulations, punishing mandates, and a punitive tax code that's invaded every nook and cranny of our society and our daily lives. You don't hear much about this growing crisis, certainly not in the national news media which never saw a federal domestic program it didn't like. Even a lot less in Congress which enacts our...

For staggering sum of $47 trillion dollars, one would think that perhaps this administration could afford a soundtrack under their reckless spending, like the 1970’s Bionic Man had when his binary powers took over. An original-score sound bed would add drama and color to the spending. The theatrical effect would be that it would make us feel like the spending was doing something. Instead, all Obama got us was the royalty-free laugh track. Through 2023 the Office of Management and Budget reports that the accumulated spending by the federal government since the One took over will be $46.5 trillion under...

Do you think the federal government has a spending problem? In private negotiations, President Obama reportedly told Boehner, "We don't have a spending problem." When Boehner countered that "we have a very serious spending problem," Obama eventually replied to Boehner, "I'm getting tired of hearing you say that." Two days after the State of the Union, Democrat Iowa Senator Tom Harkin stated, "I want to disagree with those who say we have a spending problem." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recently took up the refrain, telling Chris Wallace on Fox News, "It is almost a false argument to say...

In an interview with Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal, newly re-elected House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) opened up about President Obama’s utter unwillingness to cut a single dollar from federal spending. In a stunning admission, Obama reportedly told Boehner, “We don’t have a spending problem.” Boehner added that President Obama continues to maintain that America’s federal deficit is caused not by governmental overspending but by “a health-care problem.” Said Boehner, “They blame all of the fiscal woes on our health-care system.” Boehner told Obama, “Clearly we have a health-care problem, which is about to get worse with Obamacare....

Finance officials are now trying to piece together why the balance sheets for "special funds" are off by $2.3 billion -- money that appeared to be right under their noses amid California's financial meltdown. The fund that gives restitution to violent crime victims was off by $29 million. The one that provides children with low-cost health insurance was $30 million out of balance. The fund that rewards people for recycling bottles and cans was $113 million off. "Where are these dollars?" asked state Senate budget chairman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who said it was a "big problem" that the special...