The House version of the continuing resolution (CR) — necessary to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year on September 30 — was Congress’s opportunity to reprogram cuts from sequestration or cut even further. Regrettably, the bill fails to deliver on both counts. Worse, because of the Obama Administration’s decision to spread […]
China has fallen behind Japan as the largest foreign holder of U.S. securities. The Department of the Treasury’s new numbers are good only through June 30, 2012, but it puts Japan at $1.84 trillion and China at $1.59 trillion. There are lots of things to say about this, but one stands out: The loose talk […]
Is our republic coming to an unceremonious end? History may not be on America’s side. Lawrence Lessig’s Republic Lost documents the corrosive effect of money on our political process. Lessig persuasively makes the case that we are witnessing the loss of our republican form of government, as politicians increasingly represent those who fund their campaigns, rather than […]
The U.S. Postal Service plans to end Saturday mail delivery as soon as August to cut financial losses, a change Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said it can make without Congress’s approval if necessary. The service, which lost $15.9 billion last year, said it would continue six-day deliveries of packages, deliver mail to post-office boxes and keep open […]
In advance of Wednesday’s vote on suspending the debt ceiling, six Republican congressmen joined The Heritage Foundation’s Bloggers Briefing to discuss conservative viewpoints on the budget deal. Not all of the congressmen who spoke were persuaded of the debt extension. Representative Justin Amash (MI) was the first to state he planned to vote no. “I’m […]
The debt ceiling is bearing down on Washington. As with most such momentous occasions, plenty of partisan potshots have been exchanged, like this whopper from the White House: that House Republicans who are demanding spending reductions in exchange for increasing the debt limit would compromise the full faith and credit of the United States government. […]
This week started with President Obama Monday demanding lawmakers raise the U.S.’s $16.4 trillion debt ceiling, warning Republicans not to insist on spending cuts in return. The same day, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke advocated getting rid of the debt limit altogether. The Washington Post reports in a conversation at the University of Michigan Bernanke said the debt ceiling […]
Here is a video reminder of Obama in 2008 promising to cut the deficit in half. Obama goes on about how the USA cannot sustain the deficit spending, and that Americans were already paying the price of those deficits. Obama went on about how deficits increase the risk of another crisis as the debt rises, […]
The last head of state of the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, has warned the US of an imminent Soviet-like collapse if Washington persists with its hegemonic policies. Speaking at a Thursday conference on the future of the Middle East and the Black Sea region in the Turkish city of Istanbul, Gorbachev […]
Big-time global corporate powerhouses and influential Sacramento lobby shops ramp up to privatize California’s roadways. It slipped under the public’s radar, but a couple of years ago, Caltrans formed a unique contract that effectively privatized a major Northern California roadway traversed by millions annually. And now, more privatized highway projects might be approved over the next […]
