Cutting discretionary spending alone is not going to solve our fiscal woes. Entitlement reform must happen if we’re to maintain our economic strength. That, or raise taxes. A lot. Related articles When is $100 billion not enough? (lawafterthebar.wordpress.com) Adding up the Federal Balance Sheet (lawafterthebar.wordpress.com) The answer to why Americans are OK with more spending […]
Adding up the Federal Balance Sheet
March 31, 2011 by Daniel Burton
Do you know your net worth? If you add up all your assets (cash, property, etc) and subtract all your liabilities (debts), do you know what you are worth? As a person, your net worth on paper doesn’t really account for your intangibles, like personality, education, or dashing good looks. Just your value if you sold […]
When is $100 billion not enough?
March 18, 2011 by Daniel Burton
When it’s non-security discretionary spending cuts from the budget. That’s when. Then it’s just not solving the problem. It’s pandering for the press and for constituents. The problem, and all the talk Washington, is the deficit and getting it back to a manageable level. Republicans in an effort to keep campaign promises and reduce the deficit, are […]
Filed Under: Entitlement Reform Tagged With: Congressional Budget Office, Discretionary spending, entitlement reform, Federal Budget, federal deficit, Medicaid, Medicare, Paul Ryan, postaday2011, Social Security
Federal budget outraces CPI by four times
February 17, 2011 by Daniel Burton
Did you know that federal spending has increased faster than consumer prices? Four times faster? From 2000 to 2010, federal spending has increased 106% while prices (according to the Consumer Price Index) have only increased 26%. In other words, while the cost of stuff has risen only 26%, the government is spending roughly four times more than if […]
Filed Under: Government, Laws and Lawmakers Tagged With: Arnold Kling, Barack Obama, budget, consumer price index, Discretionary spending, Economics, F.A. Hayak, Federal Budget, Federal government of the United States, Friedrich Hayek, Government spending, Laws of Economics, Mandatory spending, postaday2011, Price Index, Road To Serfdom, Social Security, United States federal budget
The answer to why Americans are OK with more spending
January 27, 2011 by Daniel Burton
Yesterday, just before the State of the Union speech, I had an insightful conversation with a family member. This person is taking his first class in political science, something like a Polisci 101 class. He called me to ask some questions for an assignment he was working on. “What does ‘non-security, discretionary spending’ mean,” he […]
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