Fiscal Commission to Produce Sensible Solutions to Debt/Deficit Dilemma Soon

Rainbows and Unicorns to Appear Shortly After

No, I'm just kidding. In fact, according to a Congressional Quarterly (subscription) article published yesterday, it looks like expected Republican congressional electoral gains this fall may completely gridlock what are already complicated negotiations within the commission over addressing our nation's problematic mid- to long-term fiscal issues.

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Curtailing Deficits without Touching Defense Spending is Silly

'Did you call me silly?'

In their newly released, talking-point-heavy "Pledge to America," House Republicans say they are offering "a plan to stop out-of-control spending and reduce the size of government" if voters put them back in charge in November. One area of government the plan doesn't call for reducing, however, is the Department of Defense (DOD). In fact, the new conservative governing proposal explicitly exempts the DOD budget from their proposed cuts to bring federal spending back to "pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels."

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GOP 'Pledge' Is Simply a Way of Shutting Down a Large Part of Government

As Yogi Berra's redundant saying goes, "It's déjà vu all over again." Back in 1994, congressional Republicans unveiled what they called the "Contract with America." The Contract was chock-full of policy proposals intended to shrink the size of government, kneecap agencies' ability to protect the public, and decrease the burden on taxpayers, especially the rich.

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Putting a Better Face on Economic Stimulus

The latest economic data on the Recovery Act from the Congressional Budget Office indicate that, by at least two important metrics -- gross domestic product (GDP) and unemployment -- it is in fact working (see here, here, here, and here for more). Yet, only 33 percent of Americans think the Recovery Act "helped the jobs situation."

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CBO Monthly Budget Review, August 2010

People try to pull me down / They talk about me like a dog / Talk about the clothes I wear

Uh oh, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released its Monthly Budget Review (MBR) for August. The report states the federal government has racked up just under a $1.3 trillion deficit so far this fiscal year, which, for those of you paying attention, only has one month left. Are we going to break the $1.3 trillion barrier this year? Sadly, yes.

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The Real Significance of Orszag's Column

The man, the myth, the legend...

Peter Orszag's first opinion piece in the New York Times has certainly made a splash, hasn't it? Media outlets are hyping that the former head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has come out in defiance of the White House to argue that Congress should extend all the Bush Tax Cuts. Take a closer look at Orszag's column, though, and one will recognize this meme as a silly controversy distracting from the real issue raised in the piece.

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Tax Cuts for the Rich will Make Rich People Richer

Letting the '01-'03 tax cuts for upper-income households expire may or may not adversely affect job creation*, but at the end of the day, it's important to keep in mind that these tax cuts for the rich are just another means to transfer large piles of cash to people who already make boatloads of it.

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CBO Monthly Budget Review, July 2010

We don't have two nickels...

On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its Monthly Budget Review (MBR) for July. The review provides an assessment of the federal budget through the first ten months of fiscal year 2010. According to the CBO, we have racked up a roughly $1.2 trillion deficit so far, which is about $90 billion less than the deficit last year at this time.

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Is Ben Nelson this Confused on Other Policy Issues?

'Can you tell me where I'm going?'

Connor Kenny, an editor at OpenCongress, put a great piece up on the Huffington Post yesterday. It was an analysis of the nonprofit's recent scorecard on how each senator has voted on extending unemployment benefits over the past two years. Along with discovering "a few head scratchers," the report finds "at least one irrefutable truth": "[Sen.] Ben Nelson [D-NE] has a whacked-out definition of 'fiscal responsibility.'"

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The '01 - '03 Tax Cuts Are Expensive


(click to enlarge)

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