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You are here: Home / Archives for Government Spending

Tax day reminds Americans that federal spending and taxes are too high

April 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

George Landrith, president of Frontiers of Freedom, made the following statement on tax day, April 15th:  Taxes

Will Rogers once said, “It is a good thing that we do not get as much government as we pay for.”  That may be true, but I think we all wish we were paying for a lot less government and a lot less taxes. Our federal government is at historically high levels of spending — in recent years gobbling up nearly 25% of the total economic output.

Every year, the federal government spends more money than it did the last year. Even this year with the “sequester,” federal government will spend more money this year than it did the year before. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , , ,

Carbon Taxes and Leprosy: The opportunity of a life time? Who are they kidding?

March 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

by George Landrith   carbon tax

It is not surprising that there are liberals in Washington proposing new stealth carbon taxes. What is surprising is that a few “conservatives” support the idea. Even more inexplicable is the fact that some have called the carbon tax a “once in a generation opportunity.”

Let me see if I’ve got this right. A huge, gargantuan tax increase — one that would make everything cost more — is a “once in a generation opportunity?”

Every single day for the last 30 years and every single day for the next 30 years, liberals will crawl over top of each other to be the first one to sign-on to a new energy tax. This is a deal that liberals will always be willing to give. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The economy, jobs, and energy and carbon taxes

March 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

George Landrith, president of Frontiers of Freedom, issued the following statement:   GL Speaking 1

The economy is not some theoretical concept or ivory tower idea. A strong economy means that Americans have jobs and growing incomes. It means that families can provide their children with the care and opportunities that will provide for a bright future. Conversely a weak economy means fewer jobs and less opportunity. It means lower incomes and it means that families have to do without.

Too often big government slows the economy by taxing and spending too much. Those who support more and more government taxes and spending always argue that government can do something good with the money. But the problem with that argument is that families and businesses also can do a lot of good with that money if government doesn’t take it away from them. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

“Pay-up, or you’ll regret it!”

March 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment

by George LandrithObama Mob

Dr. Thomas Sowell, the Stanford University based economist, wrote this week that when he was teaching he would ask his students to consider this: “Imagine a government agency with only two tasks: (1) building statues of Benedict Arnold and (2) providing life-saving medications to children. If this agency’s budget were cut, what would it do?” Sowell posits that the agency would naturally cut back on medications for children. He explains that is the only result that would lead to getting the budget cuts restored. And he pointedly explains why the government wouldn’t cut back on the silly statues: “If they cut back on building statues of Benedict Arnold, people might ask why they were building statues of Benedict Arnold in the first place.”

Dr. Sowell is absolutely correct! Years ago, when I served on a local school board I witnessed this almost reflexive response every year the budget was tight. The most absurd things were never offered for cuts. They always threatened to cut the things that would most outrage the public. They talked about cutting bus routes for kids that lived far away from schools. They talked about crowded classrooms. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Sequester Madness: The White House has become unhinged

February 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment

by George Landrithsequester madness

With the sequester deadline looming, there has been a marked uptick in the hyperbole emanating from Washington. Little wonder, a Pew Research poll says that only about one in four is paying close attention to the sequester.

This must be disconcerting to the White House because it has been full-court pressing the issue — suddenly releasing criminals from prison, falsely claiming that teachers are being pink-slipped, holding campaign style events with President Barack Obama personally issuing overblown and false warnings that firemen and policemen and teachers will be pink-slipped, that air traffic will be at greater risk, that waiting times at airports will increase and that meat will not be inspected and may be tainted. The White House even announced that it won’t deploy an aircraft carrier to a hotspot because of sequester budget constraints.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The buck still stops with the president

February 25, 2013 By Leave a Comment

by Nolan Finley  The Buck Stops with Bush, Not Obama

Playing the crisis card won’t work forever for President Barack Obama. At some point, the people will expect their leader to lead.

And the president hasn’t yet demonstrated the will to do so. Instead, he answers monumental moments such as the upcoming sequestration deadline with brinksmanship and blame-gaming.

For now, the approach is working. A Pew/USA Today poll last week found decisively more voters blame [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The manufactured crisis of sequester

February 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

by George F. Willobama sequester

Even during this desultory economic recovery, one industry thrives — the manufacture of synthetic hysteria. It is, however, inaccurate to accuse the Hysteric in Chief of crying “Wolf!” about spending cuts under the sequester. He is actually crying “Hamster!”

As in: Batten down the hatches — the sequester will cut $85 billion from this year’s $3.6 trillion budget! Or: Head for the storm cellar — spending will be cut 2.3 percent! Or: Washington chain-saw massacre — we must scrape by on 97.7 percent of current spending! Or: Chaos is coming because the sequester will cut a sum $25 billion larger than was just shoveled out the door (supposedly, but not actually) for victims of Hurricane Sandy! Or: Heaven forfend, the sequester will cut 47 percent as much as was spent on the AIG bailout! Or: Famine, pestilence and locusts will come when the sequester causes federal spending over 10 years to plummet from $46 trillion all the way down to $44.8 trillion! Or: Grass will grow in the streets of America’s cities if the domestic agencies whose budgets have increased 17 percent under President Obama must endure a 5 percent cut! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Violence Against Women Act?

February 22, 2013 By 1 Comment

by Gordon S. JonesVAWA

With the Senate having acted and the House set to take up the bill as early as next week, it is time for someone to answer the question posed by the Florida Times-Union: “How in the world can people vote against the Violence Against Women Act?”

(Before engaging in the kind of politically incorrect analysis that follows, it is customary for the analyst to issue a disclaimer along the following lines: “Needless to say…” and then go on to say it. I am not going to do that. Raymond Saulnier, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors in the Nixon Administration, used to note that if you did what I am going to do here, you would be accused of being “against people, and I’ve told you many times” he would continue, “don’t be against people.” So I have been warned, but I’m going ahead anyway.) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies Tagged With: , ,

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Becoming Europe’

January 24, 2013 By 1 Comment

“Suffocating supranationalism of the European Union marches on . . . . Washington is already on the path to Brussels, Paris and Athens, but it still has an opportunity to reverse course.”

Book review by Nile Gardiner

BECOMING EUROPE: ECONOMIC DECLINE, CULTURE, AND HOW AMERICA CAN AVOID A EUROPEAN FUTURE, by Samuel Gregg, Encounter Books, $25.99, 384 pages.

“Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess,” declared Margaret Thatcher in a television interview before she became Britain’s prime minister. “They always run out of others people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , ,

Ronald Reagan’s First Inaugural Address: “We are a nation that has a government–not the other way around.”

January 19, 2013 By Leave a Comment

“We are a nation that has a government–not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth.”

by Scott L. Vanatter

The claim is made that the most important political event in history was neither the writing of the Declaration nor the crafting or ratification of the Constitution which secures our rights. It was neither of these two monumental accomplishments; it was the peaceful transition of the control of the executive office of the United States of America from George Washington to John Adams. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights, Reagan Legacy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

When Big Deficits Became Good

January 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

“The problem now is that there are not enough millionaires and billionaires to make up for the shortfall. And if interest rates rise just a bit, the debt will bury us all — fat cats and thin cats alike.”

Deficitby Victor Davis Hanson

As a senator and presidential candidate, Barack Obama said that he detested budget deficits. In 2006, when the aggregate national debt was almost $8 trillion less than it is today, he blasted George W. Bush’s chronic borrowing and refused to vote for upping the debt ceiling: “Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , ,

Norquist: Fight Against President Obama’s Overspending Is Winnable

January 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

“There is great anger that Obama could force higher tax rates on small businesses simply by saying no.”

by Grover Norquist

The 2001 and 2003 “Bush tax cuts” were enacted with an expiration date because 60 votes are required in the Senate to make a tax cut permanent. Other tax cuts such as the “patch” limiting the Alternative Minimum Tax and the Research and Development Tax Credit would lapse every two years giving politicians an opportunity to “sell the same horse” again and again to voters and campaign contributors. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , ,

Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address to the ’88 Republican National Convention

January 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

“Our party speaks for human freedom, for the sweep of liberties that are at the core of our existence. . . . Together we’ve fought for causes we love. But we can never let the fire go out or quit the fight, because the battle is never over. Our freedom must be defended over and over again — and then again.”

by Scott L. Vanatter

At the end of a Super Bowl the winning head coach can rightly point to the day’s game plan, key plays, and stats. All these and more contributed to what was accomplished by the team – led by the coach.

At the end of his time in office, a successful two-term president can rightly point to the administration’s fundamental principles and key policies. All these and more produced the real-world accomplishments – led by the president. After eight years of concrete success and indisputable accomplishment President Reagan reported to the 1988 Republican National Convention. Prior to being elected Reagan had carefully and overtly taught — yes, taught — the country the key principles on which the Founders based the U.S. Constitution and preserved American culture. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Liberty and Property Rights, Reagan Legacy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ronald Reagan, “Our Noble Vision: An Opportunity For All”

January 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

“You cannot create a desert, hand a person a cup of water, and call that compassion. . . . And you cannot build up years of dependence on government and dare call that hope.” 

by Scott L. Vanatter

Before his first term was complete President Reagan restored the American economy and revived the American spirit. The power and focus of his words and his policies returned America to its true identity and destiny.

Soaring rhetoric must be supported by real accomplishment. Otherwise the words are empty, the sentiment is trite. Too often national leaders only give lip service to the lofty principles which Reagan carefully and continually taught. Worse, when some leaders overtly deprecate the Founding principles, America fails to preserve and advance our precious freedoms. Tyranny is never more than a generation away from falling on us. Americans need to continually self-inoculate against a creeping tyranny. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Liberty and Property Rights, Reagan Legacy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Stossel: It’s the Spending, Stupid!

December 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“Given our growing debt, can’t they even slow the growth of government to the rate of inflation? Or inflation plus 1 percent? . . . That might balance the budget within a decade. But the spenders won’t even give me that. They want more. Always more.”

by John Stossel

Spending cap

Listening to progressive media pundits, I’d think the most evil man in the universe is Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. His crime? He heads a movement that asks political candidates to pledge not to raise taxes.I think Grover accomplished a lot. But I wish he’d convinced politicians to pledge not to increase spending.

President Obama says raising taxes to cut the deficit is a “balanced” approach.

Balanced …

But what’s “balanced” about raising taxes after vast increases in spending? Trillions for war, Medicare, “stimulus” and solar panels. Tax receipts rose — after tax-rate cuts — from $1.9 billion in 2003 to $2.3 billion in 2008, the year the recession started. That increase couldn’t keep up with the spending. The deficit doubled — actually, more than doubled — as politicians increased spending to nearly $4 trillion! Our debt, at more than $16 trillion, now exceeds our gross domestic product. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , ,

[Flashback interview] Retired Senator Malcolm Wallop: “Frontier Freedom”

December 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“America needed to define its interests. . . . The first, foremost obligation is defense of the homeland. . . . (2) We are a trading nation. We need access to our markets and we need for those markets to be reasonably secured. . . . (3) We are a communicating nation which needs access to space, access to the seas. (4) We are a studying nation. Scholarship from science is important to the whole world and those people need to be able to be safe and secure in what they do. (5) Our hemisphere is quite important. If there’s not security in our hemisphere, there’s not security in the homeland. (6) Finally we are a nation with some conscience. It means alliances are extremely important when they’re based on a national interest. We have to have the ability to sustain our presence within those alliances.”

wallop

by Rick Henderson & William H. Mellor III*

November 1, 1995

In the introduction to The Almanac of American Politics 1996 , Michael Barone asserts that the election of 1994 signaled that the nation seems to be returning to a “Tocquevillian America, to something resembling the country that French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville visited in 1831 and described in his Democracy in America. Tocqueville’s America was egalitarian, individualistic, decentralized, religious, property-loving, lightly governed.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights, National Security, Science and Public Policy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Federal Spending Up 78% After Inflation Since 1998

December 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“If we had kept government spending down to just increases for inflation and population growth, we wouldn’t be in the trouble we’re in now.”

by David Hogberg

Spending chartPresident Obama says he wants a “balanced” approach to the fiscal cliff. But critics argue the real problem is spending, which has far outstripped rising tax revenue as well as economic growth.

Federal government revenue rose from $1.7 trillion to $2.4 trillion from fiscal 1998 to 2012, slightly exceeding inflation. Revenue growth averaged 2.9% annually, despite two recessions, bear markets — and tax cuts.

But federal spending rose nearly twice as fast — 5.7% per year — surging from $1.6 trillion to $3.5 trillion over that same span.

The spending spike also exceeds growth in the population. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , ,

White House Data Debunk Myth Bush Cuts Built Deficit

December 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“After President Bush in late May 2003 signed the largest tax cut since President Reagan . . . government receipts from individual income taxes rose from $793.7 billion to a peak of $1.16 trillion in 2007, when the mortgage crisis began, a 47% jump.”

by Paul Sperry

While President Obama insists the Bush tax cuts caused the recession and record deficits, his own economists say otherwise.

He might want to consult their data for the truth.

Kicking off fiscal cliff negotiations last month, Obama said: “What I’m not going to do is extend Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% that we can’t afford and, according to economists, will have the least positive impact on our economy.”

During the White House press conference, he added, “If we’re going to be serious about deficit reduction, we’ve got to do it in a balanced way.” Obama argued voters made it clear in the election that they don’t want to go back to Republican policies that “cost” the Treasury revenues and “blew up the deficit,” as he told them repeatedly during the campaign.

The Washington media by and large share these assumptions. And they’re driving the debate over what to do about the federal budget crisis before Jan. 1, when the tax cuts and spending programs are set to expire. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , ,

Federal Spending is the Problem: Defense is Not!

December 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

defense spendingby George Landrith

With a long history of federal overspending and the recent explosion of more federal debt, it is obvious that the federal budget must be cut back to a reasonable size. We need an intervention. But the Budget Control Act — which would force an “automatic sequester” of $500 billion in across-the-board defense spending cuts over the next decade, in addition to the $487 billion in defense cuts already scheduled — is not a good solution to our spending crisis.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Clinton Era Taxes and Clinton Era Spending

December 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

by George Landrith

With the budget and fiscal crisis facing the United States and difficult economic times surely ahead for the foreseeable future, President Barack Obama has vociferously argued that Republicans must agree to tax increases. He argues for what he terms are modest tax increases on the wealthiest Americans that are equal to the tax rates during President Bill Clinton’s time in office. Why is Obama only interested in Clinton era tax rates, but not Clinton era federal spending rates? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Constitutional and Political Studies, Economic Liberty and Property Rights Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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