The federal debt is worse than you think

Debt figures tell part of the story. When the Great Recession hit, the federal debt was equal to about 40 percent of GDP. But to fight the recession, Congress enacted an $800 billion dollar stimulus bill. Stimulus spending, combined with already enacted spending and tax policy, resulted in four years of trillion dollar deficits. As a result, the debt ballooned to 78 percent of GDP in 2013, almost twice the pre-recession level. --snip-- What's the word for our fiscal situation? Stunning? Shocking? Desperate? In recent testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, Boston University Economics Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, in effect, told the Committee that all of these terms are pathetically inadequate to describe our true fiscal situation.

Read more at the Brookings Institute Read More......

Fed Chair: ‘Deficits Will Rise to Unsustainable Levels’

Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen, referencing the Congressional Budget Office's long-term budget projections, told the Joint Economic Committee of Congress today that under current policies the federal government’s deficits “will rise to unsustainable levels.”

In the 10-year budget projections it released in April, the CBO estimated that the federal government will run $7.618 trillion in deficits from 2015 through 2024. At the same time, the CBO projected that the federal government’s debt held by the public would rise from $11.983 trillion at the end of fiscal 2013 to $20.947 trillion by the end of 2024.

Read more at CNS News Read More......

After CBO Report: The new cultural meme in America. Are we ready for this?

By Angela Graham-West (Wife of Allen West)
The latest economic report from the Congressional Budget Office, released Tuesday, says the health care law will cause Americans to work fewer hours — enough to be the equivalent of 2 million fewer jobs in 2017. The latest number is nearly three times as high as the budget office’s previous prediction. ✧ This was then followed by a nervous rush by the Left to justify the need for “less work”, For “hanging about,” for “discovering our passions,” for smoking a big fat (now legal) joint, and for relying on the sweat of YOUR NEIGHBOR’S BROW and not your own to finance these “internal endeavors.”

Read more at Allen B. West Read More......

Merkley: We Didn’t Understand What Our Bill Would Do

In a telephone interview, [Oregon senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat] said that he and other supporters of the 2010 law failed to understand that it didn’t have strong enough “grandfather” provisions ensuring that people could keep policies that existed at the time. Linking to pertinent data, Jim Geraghty at NRO adds, If only he had listened to 1) the Congressional Budget Office: 2) Representative Eric Cantor (R., Va.); or 3) Senator Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.). Read full article at National Review Online… Read More......

Fiscal Cliff Deal: $1 in Spending Cuts for Every $41 in Tax Increases

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama cuts only $15 billion in spending while increasing tax revenues by $620 billion—a 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts.

When Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush increased taxes in return for spending cuts—cuts that never ultimately came—they did so at ratios of 3:1 and 2:1.

“In 1982, President Reagan was promised $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes,” Americans for Tax Reform says of those two incidents. “The tax hikes went through, but the spending cuts did not materialize. President Reagan later said that signing onto this deal was the biggest mistake of his presidency.

"In 1990, President George H.W. Bush agreed to $2 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax hikes. The tax hikes went through, and we are still paying them today. Not a single penny of the promised spending cuts actually happened.”

Read more at Breitbart.com Read More......

Brent Bozell calls out GOP leadership on Fiscal Cliff

ForAmerica's Brent Bozell writes the Republican Leadership of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate challenging them on putting tax raises on the table.  The question he asks is, "If you now claim a tax increase on small business is the correct course of action, were you lying all along when you claimed this tax increase would decimate the economy?" See full letter at ForAmerica... Read More......

Heritage/Morning Bell: How Obamacare Robs Medicare and Hurts Seniors

The rhetorical Medicare wars have heated up this week, after President Obama declared in his Saturday radio address that his proposed reforms "won't touch your guaranteed Medicare benefits. Not by a single dime." ✧ This is incorrect. Obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and uses these "savings" from Medicare to fund other entitlement expansions mandated by Obamacare. Medicare becomes a cash cow for Obamacare, and the Medicare "savings" from payment cuts are not put back into making Medicare solvent. Such massive payment cuts do impact Medicare benefits, as well as seniors' access to those benefits. Read more at Heritage/Morning Bell... Read More......

WSJ: Why the Stimulus Failed

New research on what actually happened to a trillion dollars - For readers who want to know, an important account is offered in a pair of new Mercatus Center working papers by the George Mason economists Garett Jones and Daniel Rothschild, who did field research on what they call the supply side of the stimulus.

The Keynesian theory was that a burst of new government spending would take up some of the slack in aggregate consumer demand. This was justified in 2008, again in 2009, and is still defended now based not on real-world observation but on abstract macroeconomic models that depend on the assumptions of the authors. The Congressional Budget Office's quarterly studies—often cited to claim the stimulus created tens of thousands of new jobs—are based on such a model. By informative contrast, Messrs. Jones and Rothschild interviewed actual people who received stimulus dollars and asked how they spent the money. Read more at the Wall Street Journal... Read More......

TA: Why Hasn't Anyone Signed Up For the High-Risk Health Insurance Pools?

THE ATLANTIC, 6/2/2011 by Megan McArdle - "I've predicted that lots of parts of Obamacare will not work the way they're expected to. But here's one I wouldn't have predicted: the high-risk pools, which were meant to tide people over until 2013, have signed up just 18,000 people as of March. ∴ There were supposed to be millions of people who were uninsurable because of pre-existing conditions. We heard lengthy testimony about their terrible plight. I don't think it's too strong to say that this fear--that you could get sick and no one would insure you, that's right, you, Mr. & Mrs. Middle-Class Voter--was one of the main reasons offered for the health care overhaul. It was estimated by Medicare's Chief Actuary that around 400,000 would sign up (the CBO estimated 200,000, but only because they assumed that HHS would use its authority to limit enrollment in order to stay within the $5 billion budgeted for the program). So where are all the uninsurable people?" Read more at The Atlantic...

Maybe the health care crisis was invented. Read Pattern of Corruption: Robert Creamer's Blueprint Read More......

WaPo: Obama abdicates on the budget

WASHINGTON POST, 4/24/2011 by Robert Samuelson (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - "If you’ve wondered why it’s so hard to subdue budget deficits, you should consult a new study from the Congressional Budget Office called “Reducing the Deficit: Spending and Revenue Options” (free at www.cbo.gov). You’ll learn from its 240 pages that the deficits definitely can be curbed. The CBO presents 105 policies (it doesn’t endorse them) that would shrink deficits by trillions of dollars over the next decade. You’ll also learn — surprise! — that most choices are political poison. ∴ Suppose we increased the federal gasoline tax by 25 cents a gallon, from 18.4 cents to 43.4 cents. That would raise $291 billion from 2012 to 2021, estimates the CBO. Or we could advance the ages for early and full Social Security benefits; one suggestion is to raise them (now 62 and 66) by two months a year until reaching predetermined targets (say, 64 and 70). The CBO reckons the decade’s savings at about $264 billion. How about slowly moving Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67? The savings: $125 billion. ∴ Are we finished? Nowhere near..." Read more at the Washington Post... Read More......

CBO Chief: Nation's Debt Is "Unsustainable"

BENZINGA.com, 4/8/2010 by N.J. Beachum - Doug Elmendorf, the head of the Congressional Budget Office, stated today that the fiscal path of the U.S. is unsustainable and requires major intervention. ∴ Elmendorf pointed to an estimate that found that the national debt would swell from 53% of GDP to 90% of GDP by 2020 if Pres. Obama's 2011 budget is enacted as is. ∴ Increasing taxes, cutting spending, or a combination of the two are the only options on the table - and even then, major initiatives would need to be enacted. For example, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker suggested that Congress consider a value-added tax. Read more at Benzinga... Read More......

A budget-buster in the making

WASHINGTON POST, 11/23/2009 by David S. Broder (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - It's simply not true that America is ambivalent about everything when it comes to the Obama health plan. ∴ The day after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gave its qualified blessing to the version of health reform produced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Quinnipiac University poll of a national cross section of voters reported its latest results. ∴ This poll may not be as famous as some others, but I know the care and professionalism of the people who run it, and one question was particularly interesting to me.

It read: "President Obama has pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our federal budget deficit over the next decade. Do you think that President Obama will be able to keep his promise or do you think that any health care plan that Congress passes and President Obama signs will add to the federal budget deficit?"

The answer: Less than one-fifth of the voters -- 19 percent of the sample -- think he will keep his word. Nine of 10 Republicans and eight of 10 independents said that whatever passes will add to the torrent of red ink. By a margin of four to three, even Democrats agreed this is likely. Read more at the Washington Post...

John writes, "Maybe we are getting the picture with respect to the costs of this thing." Read More......

CBO: Health bill would cost $829B

The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that the latest version of the Senate Finance Committee proposal would expand coverage to 94 percent of all eligible Americans at a 10-year cost of $829 billion. Read more at Breitbart...

"A celebration of the deficit effects masks who pays the bills," said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee. "This package includes hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes and fees. Most Americans with health insurance will see their premiums increase."

The LA Times reports, "[T]he bill would expand the percentage of Americans with health insurance from 83% to 94%, according to the estimate." Read More......

The Great 'Prevention' Myth

WASHINGTON POST, 8/14/2009 by Charles Krauthammer (Hat tip: John H. Detweiler) - In the 48 hours of June 15-16, President Obama lost the health-care debate. First, a letter from the Congressional Budget Office to Sen. Edward Kennedy reported that his health committee's reform bill would add $1 trillion in debt over the next decade. Then the CBO reported that the other Senate bill, being written by the Finance Committee, would add $1.6 trillion. The central contradiction of Obamacare was fatally exposed: From his first address to Congress, Obama insisted on the dire need for restructuring the health-care system because out-of-control costs were bankrupting the Treasury and wrecking the U.S. economy -- yet the Democrats' plans would make the problem worse. Read more at the Washington Post and find out why 'prevention' does not save money as Obama claims... (not that we're opposed to preventive medicine).

John says, "No matter how simplistic we make things, they are never simple." Read More......

Inside the Monstrous Obamacare Bureaucracy

CREATORS.COM (A Syndicate of Talent), July 2009 by Michelle Malkin - If you think government is too big and too costly, wait until Obamacare kicks in. The Congressional Budget Office put the price tag of the House Democrats' health care takeover plans at $1.5 trillion over 10 years. But the CBO's fine print included a telltale caveat:

"We have not yet estimated the administrative costs to the federal government of implementing the specified policies, nor have we accounted for all of the proposal's likely effects on spending for other federal programs."

You don't need an accounting degree or clairvoyant powers. The administrative costs and spillover spending effects will be astronomical. Look at existing federal programs. In 1966, the Office of Management and Budget put the total taxpayer costs for Medicare at $64 million. In 2011, Medicare costs are expected to balloon to nearly $500 billion. Medicaid cost $770 million in 1966. By 2011, that program will cost taxpayers an estimated $264 billion. The Virginia-based Council for Affordable Health Insurance estimated that the administrative expenses of both programs last decade were 66 percent higher than those of private sector health insurance companies. Read more at Creative.com... Read More......

Health Care: Is the 'Public Option' Inevitable or Imperiled?

REASON ONLINE, 6/29/2009 by Peter Suderman - Just a few weeks ago, progressive health-care reform looked like a done deal. And the so-called "public plan"—a government-run insurance option beloved by the Democratic Party's most liberal faction—was to be the legislation's centerpiece. ∴ But thanks to some inconvenient analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and increased public worries about government spending in general, reform efforts are now in disarray... Continued at Reason Online... Read More......