The Politics of ObamaCare Funding
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Should (a) the “Cadillac tax” on employer-sponsored plans not be implemented as scheduled in 2018, and should (b) half of the Medicare savings provisions be repealed or otherwise not implemented the law will increase the deficit by up to $500 billion in its second decade.
That doesn’t look good. Raise your hands …
Union Power, By the Numbers
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A look at the top 10 political donors.
That’s five unions to two businesses and three other groups. Five out of ten is half, by my always-suspect English-major math. And who are those other groups? ActBlue is a Democratic clearinghouse, the trial lawyers are super-lopsidedly Democratic, and four out of five of the Realtors’ …
World War 2, Fiscal Austerity, and Economic Growth
I was wrong last night. I was attempting to argue a point about stimulus spending and whether or not government spending actually helped an economic recovery. To offer some support for my position, I tried to relay from memory a point that David Henderson made over at EconLog. To wit, Keynesian economists predicted that the end of government spending after World War 2 would precipitate a massive rise in unemployment and a return of recession.
The Power to Tax is the Power to Govern
[B]etter luck next time kids. Your Aldermen, County Board members, state Assemblymen, state Senators, and Governor long ago gave up the right to actually govern this state. As a result, they’re powerless to help you now.
A Deficit Neutral Health Bill Isn't Enough
Greg Mankiw explains the spending problems with the healthcare bill through a short, imagined dialog between two friends. Here’s the kicker:
Even if you believe that the spending cuts and tax increases in the bill make it deficit-neutral, the legislation will still make solving the problem of the fiscal imbalance harder, because it will …
Don't Be Fooled. Our Economy is Still Stuck in Neutral
The Myth of the Recovery
The gains on Wall Street have been goosed largely by government spending and guarantees, not the usual private sector–funded growth. And federal spending cannot continue indefinitely without deficits and debt service spiraling out of control. John Silvia, chief economist for Wells Fargo, says, “We have seen a recovery, but …
Making your flex spending account a little less useful
”Let me be clear. If you like the health plan you have, you can keep it.” President Obama has made this claim multiple times about healthcare reform. But it’s simply not true. Let me offer one small example.
My wife and I enjoy our Flex Spending Account. We put in enough money each year to cover …
Why are voters angry about President Obama's spending?
President George W. Bush was the biggest spending U.S. President since President Lyndon Baines Johnson. He ”he presided over an 83-percent increase in overall federal spending, which includes defense, domestic, entitlements, and interest. Even without TARP and Fannie/Freddie, spending was up a huge 70 percent under Bush over eight years. By contrast, total spending under …
Estimating health care reform costs
Jon R. Gabel writes in the New York Times today, saying that we shouldn’t fear the cost of health care reform because the CBO has a long history of underestimating the savings from reforms.
In the early 1980s, Congress changed the way Medicare paid hospitals so that payments would no longer be based on …
President Obama's $14 Trillion Deficit
Just in case you’re case curious, the current projected 10-year U.S. budget deficit is now $9.1 trillion. That’s on top of the $11.7 trillion of debt that the U.S. currently owes. The Wall Street Journal has further information on the rather grim news.
CBO predicts that debt held by the public as a share …