Sparty

Last month the president created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  The purpose of the commission is to recommend ways to reign in the out of control deficits projected over the next decade.  First of all, isn’t the federal budget the responsibility of Congress and the president?   I am sure the members of [...]

According to this article, Social Security will run a deficit over the next two years, as revenue from workers will fall short of the payments to retirees.  The system is expected to run “surpluses” again in 2012 until 2016, at which time it will run perpetual annual deficits unless Congress fixes it. What made me comment on the article [...]

The main argument made by Democrats for health care reform is there are anywhere from 35-50 million people without health insurance.  The Democrats insist the reason for this is insurance costs too much.  Mark Perry at Carpe Diem links to a video from Reason T.V. which punches holes in this argument. It seems to me [...]

I generally disagree with Eugene Robinson around 99% of the time, but his recent column about the California wild fires in the Washington Post was very good one.  I echo his conclusion, though I would have mentioned that errors of these “good ideas” are the result of government intervention: In the end, the least — and, [...]

The Labor Department said today second quarter productivity rose 6.4%.  That is certainly good news for the economy.  Economic growth and wealth creation comes when individuals produce more goods and services with the same amount of inputs.  As well, the higher than expected productivity numbers help ease some of the fears of higher inflation from [...]

I saw on the news last evening Representative Henry Waxman’s committee is writing a health care bill.  My first thought was why is the House Energy and Commerce Committee involved in health care legislation?  Didn’t this committee just get done writing the 1,300 page cap and trade bill?  The purpose of congressional committees is to create [...]

Last week BLS reported the unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June–much higher than the Obama administration’s prediction at the time of passage of the stimulus plan.  I thought the purpose of the nearly $800 billion stimulus package was to prevent such unemployment numbers?  The website Instapundit links to a chart released by the Obama [...]

The Heritage Foundation had an article today call The End of Federalism, which discussed how 42.5% of state revenue came from the federal government.  The author Conn Carroll writes: The costs of the loss of federalism to the American people are real. As Reagan outlined above federal aid to states blurs the lines of government [...]