Sequestration 101: Watch Heritage’s Google+ Hangout at Noon ET Today
What is sequestration? And why is Washington in a panic about it? Federal budget cuts, known as sequestration, are scheduled to hit in one week…. Read More
In Congress, a Welcome Desire for “Regular Order”
As Members of Congress left town last week for the Presidents’ Day break, a refreshing and commendable sentiment followed them: nostalgia for the “regular order”… Read More
Simpson–Bowles Redux: Another $600 Billion Tax Increase
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, former co-chairs of the 2010 White House deficit-reduction panel whose plan failed, released an outline for a new proposal on… Read More
Morning Bell: Spending Cuts Are Happening, One Way or Another
Federal budget cuts called “sequestration” are scheduled to hit in just 10 days. The sequestration cuts are not perfect—they’re a blunt instrument to cut spending,… Read More
Senate Sequester Plan: They Can’t Be Serious
The Hill newspaper demonstrated a keen knack for understatement today with its account of Senate Democrats’ $110 billion sequester replacement proposal: “The bill would appear… Read More
Watch Out…The President’s Talking “Balance” Again
If you aren’t nervous, you should be. The President is, once again, talking about a “balanced approach” to fixing sequestration—the across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to… Read More
Memo to Congress: Capitulation on Sequestration Cuts Is a Path to Defeat
With current funding for government operations scheduled to run out March 27, the House is beginning work on another Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the… Read More
Cutting Federal Waste: Not a Silver Bullet, but Still Important
President Obama’s State of the Union Address tomorrow evening provides him with a chance to explain how he would put the country on a path… Read More
CBO: Tax Increase Fails to Solve Spending and Debt Crisis
While President Obama keeps calling for more taxes, today’s figures from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show the tax hike he signed into law just… Read More
Obama’s Sequester Proposal: Details AWOL
In another stunning failure of leadership, President Obama today asked Congress to delay the scheduled across-the-board spending cuts, including those that will decimate the national… Read More
Morning Bell: It’s Time to Balance the Budget
Today, the House will vote on a proposal that would suspend the debt ceiling until May 19, buying a bit more time for the overarching… Read More
Morning Bell: “Default” Is a Red Herring in Debt Ceiling Debate
Yesterday, President Obama accused his opposition in Congress of threatening to “default” on America’s loans in order to make a political point. I am not… Read More
Obama’s Press Conference: Debt Ceiling Spin
President Obama referred repeatedly to the debt ceiling debate in today’s press conference in a textbook example of Washington “spin,” or the art of selectively… Read More
EconomyNews
Generation Y: A Taste of What Is To Come for Generation Debt
You may be wondering whether anyone, after all, went over the fiscal cliff at the end of December. News reports about Congress’s last-second legislation certainly… Read More
Morning Bell: Taxes to Rise on Most American Workers
Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called it “a happy start to a new year.” That probably tells you all you need to know about the fiscal… Read More
Top 10 Heritage Images of 2012
Instagram sold for $1 billion in April, remarkable news for a company that wasn’t even around two years earlier. Meanwhile, sites like Pinterest and Tumblr blossomed…. Read More
The Eleventh Hour: Still Time Left to Stop Massive Defense Cuts
The threat of sequestration—the half-trillion dollar cut to defense set to occur January 2, 2013—has been debated and prevention plans have been discussed since before… Read More
Morning Bell: GOP Leaders Capitulate on Core Conservative Principles
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Republican leaders have done it once again. Their latest fiscal cliff proposal capitulates on core conservative principles, yielding woefully… Read More
News
Too Eager for a Fiscal Cliff Deal: Republican Leadership’s $1 Trillion Tax Hike
The latest fiscal cliff proposal by Speaker of the House John Boehner (R–OH) is infuriatingly frustrating to conservatives, again. In exchange for $1 trillion in… Read More
Fiscal Cliff: Decoupling Conservatives from Their Core Principles
There are many ways to surrender—and some congressional Republicans seem bent on exploring them all. In the debate over the fiscal cliff, the President’s position… Read More
Tax Increases Won’t Solve Washington’s Spending Problem
“We make some tough spending cuts on things that we don’t need; and then we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a slightly higher tax… Read More
White House Speeds Toward Fiscal Cliff, Declining House Republicans’ Request for Terms
Late Monday afternoon, the House Republican leadership lofted its latest offering to address the fiscal cliff. The kindest conservative response possible to this proposal is… Read More
Morning Bell: House Republicans Cave on Tax Increases and Punt Entitlements
When President Obama put forth his first offer on the fiscal cliff, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said, “You can’t be serious.” We could say… Read More
Fiscal Cliff: Where Are Your Spending Cuts, Mr. President?
The fiscal cliff debate has centered on talk of raising taxes on high-income Americans. The silence on spending cuts has been deafening. On Monday, as… Read More
Boehner’s Olive Branch: More Revenues, but Only Through Growth
Sometimes in post-election America, there is excitement about what the future will bring. This time around, the prospect is rather horrifying. America is racing, pedal… Read More
Defense Budget Competing with Entitlement Spending: A Crisis Point
Today, the threats to our national security are complex, fluid, and hard to fully comprehend. This requires a serious look at what the U.S. can… Read More
Chart of the Week: Defense Budget Cuts Gamble with National Security
The third and final presidential debate between President Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney will feature several different questions on the role of America abroad… Read More
Sequestration: Spending Cuts Needed, but Get the Policies Right
Tonight’s presidential debate is a good opportunity for President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney to tell the nation what they would do about our spending… Read More
As Spain and Greece Burn, Estonia Offers a Lesson
Over the past few days, new strikes and riots have convulsed Greece and Spain. Conventional wisdom (including from economist Paul Krugman) suggests that cuts in… Read More
News
Why Larry Summers Is Wrong About the British Economy
Harvard economist Larry Summers claims in The Washington Post that aggressive fiscal austerity in the U.K. is the primary cause of its continued economic stagnation…. Read More
