We are a few hours away from the point at which the federal government will run out of money and have to shut down — at least in certain respects. President Obama, House Republicans, and Senate Democrats are trying to hammer out a deal as the witching hour draws ever closer. It is like a [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Budget Deficit’
Budget Chicken
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Budget Deficit, Democrats, Federal Budget, Government Shutdown, Harry Reid, john boehner, Politics, President Obama, Republicans, The Mary Tyler Moore Show on April 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Time For The President To Act Like A President
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Budget Deficit, Federal Budget, Federal Debt, Politics, President Obama on February 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The more I read about President Obama’s proposed budget, the more disappointed I am. I agree with the thrust of this editorial from the Washington Post: the President has refused to make the hard choices, and instead is proposing phony “cuts” and using budgeting gimmickry to achieve the illusory “savings” he and officials in his [...]
Sailing Through The Loopholes In The Corporate Tax Code
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged America, Budget Deficit, Carnival, Congress, Corporate Taxes, economy, Federal Budget, House Ways and Means Committee, Politics, President Obama, taxes on February 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The New York Times recently carried an interesting article on the odd state of corporate tax payments in the United States. The Times asked a research firm to analyze the tax payments of Fortune 500 companies over a five-year period, and the analysis showed significant discrepancies in the tax payments made by those companies. Although [...]
A Heap of Trouble
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Budget Deficit, Detroit, Henry Ford, High Unemployment, Model T, older population, State of Michigan on January 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Bob often writes about the problems of the University of Michigan football team, but those problems pale in comparison to the problems the state of Michigan has, and more specifically the city of Detroit. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I happened to stumble on to some pictures shown in this article of downtown Detroit and I am [...]
Federal Pay Freeze
Posted in Politics, tagged Budget Deficit, Congress, Everett Dirksen, Federal Deficit, Federal Employees, Politics, President Obama, Republicans on November 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
President Obama has called for a two-year freeze on the salaries of some federal workers. If the proposal is approved by Congress, it is estimated that it will save $5 billion during that two-year period. Unless a freeze is approved, federal workers would automatically get a pay increase (!) as a result of a 1990 [...]
Making Hard Budget Choices: Every Little Bit Counts
Posted in Ohio, Politics, tagged Budget Deficit, Congress, Congressional Junkets, Congressional Travel, john boehner, Making Hard Budget Choices, Ohio, Politics on November 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I was happy to see that presumptive incoming Speaker of the House John Boehner has announced that he plans on continuing to fly commercial when he commutes between Washington, D.C. and his district in Ohio. His approach is in contrast to that of current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has flown on an Air Force [...]
On The Taxpayers’ Dime
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Budget Deficit, Federal Debt, Politics, President Obama on August 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The AP has a story about President Obama’s themes for the upcoming midterm elections. They are pretty familiar already — don’t give the keys back to the Republicans, who are just obstructionists — but that is not what I find interesting about the article. No, the significant statement comes about two-thirds of the way down, [...]
In Defense Of The Stimulus
Posted in Politics, The Economy, tagged Budget Deficit, Congress, economy, President Obama, recession, stimulus, stimulus spending, TARP, Unemployment on July 25, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Any regular reader of this blog knows that I have been critical of the “stimulus” legislation and the government response to the current recession, which has featured lots of spending. In the interests of being even-handed about it, attached is an op-ed piece in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer from the chief economist of Moody’s Analytics that [...]
No To More State Government Bailouts! (Exhibit B)
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Budget Deficit, budgets, Illinois, Illinois Budget Problems, Politics, recession, Rod Blagojevich on July 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
For those of us who are opposed any more federal government bailouts of state and local governments, California is Exhibit A. As today’s story in the New York Times demonstrates, however, if California is Exhibit A, Illinois is Exhibit B. The article chronicles how Illinois is unable to pay its bills even for essential services, [...]
Let “Cuts” Be Cuts
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Budget Deficit, Congress, Government spending, Politics, stimulus bill, Teacher Layoffs, Teachers on July 1, 2010 | 1 Comment »
How often have we seen this kind of story? Congress needs to pass an important measure by a deadline. As it becomes clear that the bill will pass, somehow, new provisions, unrelated to the purpose of the original bill, get added in hopes that they also can ride the train to enactment. And when the [...]
Greece Fire
Posted in America, The Economy, World, tagged Budget Deficit, California, California budget deficit, Federal Debt, Greece, Greek Debt Crisis, National Debt on April 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Standard & Poor’s has cut Greece’s credit rating to “junk” status. In so doing, the ratings agency indicates that it considers it unlikely that investors who purchase the bonds will ultimately be paid the principal amount of the bonds and all required interest payments. What is the meaning of this for the United States? The [...]
Rebate Lunacy
Posted in Ohio, Politics, tagged Budget Deficit, Ohio, Politics on April 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The U.S. Department of Energy recently doled out $300 million so that states could offer rebates to consumers buying new appliances. Ohio got $10.4 million; as of yesterday 43,530 people had received rebates and $3 million remained in the program, ready to be parceled out to people buying refrigerators and dishwashers. The appliances consumers are [...]
Not Serious
Posted in Politics, The Economy, tagged Arizona, Budget Commission, Budget Deficit, California, economy, Florida, Making Hard Budget Choices, Michigan, Nevada, Politics, President Obama on February 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
After posting a piece this morning, immediately below, about why the “bipartisan budget commission” is a bogus idea that reflects badly on the capabilities of the President and the Congress, hours later I read this piece about how the President would announce today, in Nevada, $1.5 billion in new spending to “help spur local solutions” [...]
Fresh Or Feeble?
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged Budget Commission, Budget Deficit, Congress, National Debt, Peggy Noonan, Politics, President Obama on February 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Peggy Noonan usually offers interesting observations about politics and the national mood. Her most recent column is about President Obama’s decision to appoint a bipartisan budget commission and about the national mood on spending. In brief, she believes that the appointment of the commission may be viewed as a fresh approach that is helpful to [...]
Making Hard Budget Choices: A No Doubt Boring Look At NHTSA
Posted in America, Politics, tagged 2010 Federal Budget, America, Budget Deficit, budgets, Federal Debt, Federal Government, Making Hard Budget Choices, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, Politics on February 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The President recently released his budget proposal for 2010. It is a complex, difficult proposal to grasp, contemplating trillions of dollars in spending and trillion-dollar deficits extending, unbroken, into the foreseeable future. One of the problems for American taxpayers is that the federal government is so large, so sprawling, and so unwieldy that it is [...]
