We all agree that a temporary payroll tax cut without permanently restructuring Social Security, along with its funding source, is a ludicrous idea.  Sadly, Democrats would rather play politics by introducing this inane stimulus measure, in an attempt to get Republicans to vote against a tax cut.

For far too long, the extension of the payroll tax cut was coupled with more entitlement spending, in the form of 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and extension of Medicare ‘doc fix.’  We have long advocated that Republicans should decouple the tax cut from the spending in order to preclude a situation where conservatives, who oppose more entitlement spending, would be forced to vote against a tax cut.  Today, House Republicans announced that they will decouple the two issues and pass a clean payroll tax cut extension until the end of the year.  They are leaving out the entitlement spending extensions and daring Senate Democrats to oppose their clean tax cut – one that they have “championed” for the past few months.

Going forward, Republicans must stand strong against pressure to slip the entitlement spending into the payroll tax cut deal.  Once they are free from the burden of shooting the hostage (the tax cut), they should negotiate hard for the rest of the package.  They should be guided by the following principles:

Read More →

We all agree that a temporary payroll tax cut without permanently restructuring Social Security, along with its funding source, is a ludicrous idea.  Sadly, Democrats would rather play politics by introducing this inane stimulus measure, in an attempt to get Republicans to vote against a tax cut.

For far too long, the extension of the payroll tax cut was coupled with more entitlement spending, in the form of 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and extension of Medicare ‘doc fix.’  We have long advocated that Republicans should decouple the tax cut from the spending in order to preclude a situation where conservatives, who oppose more entitlement spending, would be forced to vote against a tax cut.  Today, House Republicans announced that they will decouple the two issues and pass a clean payroll tax cut extension until the end of the year.  They are leaving out the entitlement spending extensions and daring Senate Democrats to oppose their clean tax cut – one that they have “championed” for the past few months.

Going forward, Republicans must stand strong against pressure to slip the entitlement spending into the payroll tax cut deal.  Once they are free from the burden of shooting the hostage (the tax cut), they should negotiate hard for the rest of the package.  They should be guided by the following principles:

Read More →

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss impending elections in Greece, American’s growing dependence on the “safety net,” and why that path is unsustainable.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Greece’s Laos Party Calls For Immediate Elections
Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
Ben: Our course remains unsustainable

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Ben on Twitter
Follow Francis on Twitter

Subscribe to The Transom

The hosts and guests of Coffee and Markets speak only for ourselves, not any clients or employers.

Download audio here

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss impending elections in Greece, American’s growing dependence on the “safety net,” and why that path is unsustainable.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Greece’s Laos Party Calls For Immediate Elections
Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
Ben: Our course remains unsustainable

Follow Brad on Twitter
Follow Ben on Twitter
Follow Francis on Twitter

Subscribe to The Transom

The hosts and guests of Coffee and Markets speak only for ourselves, not any clients or employers.

The budget season has officially commenced today with CBO’s release of its annual budget and economic outlook.  Here are some of the major takeaways from the report:

FY 2012 Budget

The topline figure that the media will focus on is the projected $1.070 trillion budget deficit for FY 2012, down from $1.3 trillion last year.  However, as CBO notes several times throughout the report, the reduction in this year’s deficit is predicated on several assumptions.

1)      Revenues:  The entirety of this year’s deficit reduction comes from higher projected revenues, roughly $220 billion.  CBO is forced to score current law, which assumes that the payroll tax cut will expire at the end of February.  Another 10-month extension, which is almost a forgone conclusion, would cost over $100 billion.  Also, the CBO baseline does not include a likely AMT patch, and extension of many annual “tax extenders,” such as the credit for research and development.  It’s very likely that the extensions will wipe out the entire revenue gain from this year over 2011, thereby eliminating the reduction in the deficit.

2)      Outlays:  CBO is projecting $3.601 trillion in spending, up just $3 billion from last year.  Obviously, this projection does not account for a full-year extension of unemployment benefits and doc fix, which could add as much as $70 billion to this year’s spending total.

3)      Defense:  Outlays for defense will be reduced by another $20 billion.

When these factors are accounted for, it is clear that non-defense discretionary spending will not decrease significantly, while mandatory spending will continue to rise.  If you assume the alternative scenario, in which most of the temporary tax and spending measures are extended, the deficit should be about the same as last year; around $1.3 trillion.  In other words, there will be slightly more revenue this year, but increased spending as well.

Read More →

The budget season has officially commenced today with CBO’s release of its annual budget and economic outlook.  Here are some of the major takeaways from the report:

FY 2012 Budget

The topline figure that the media will focus on is the projected $1.070 trillion budget deficit for FY 2012, down from $1.3 trillion last year.  However, as CBO notes several times throughout the report, the reduction in this year’s deficit is predicated on several assumptions.

1)      Revenues:  The entirety of this year’s deficit reduction comes from higher projected revenues, roughly $220 billion.  CBO is forced to score current law, which assumes that the payroll tax cut will expire at the end of February.  Another 10-month extension, which is almost a forgone conclusion, would cost over $100 billion.  Also, the CBO baseline does not include a likely AMT patch, and extension of many annual “tax extenders,” such as the credit for research and development.  It’s very likely that the extensions will wipe out the entire revenue gain from this year over 2011, thereby eliminating the reduction in the deficit.

2)      Outlays:  CBO is projecting $3.601 trillion in spending, up just $3 billion from last year.  Obviously, this projection does not account for a full-year extension of unemployment benefits and doc fix, which could add as much as $70 billion to this year’s spending total.

3)      Defense:  Outlays for defense will be reduced by another $20 billion.

When these factors are accounted for, it is clear that non-defense discretionary spending will not decrease significantly, while mandatory spending will continue to rise.  If you assume the alternative scenario, in which most of the temporary tax and spending measures are extended, the deficit should be about the same as last year; around $1.3 trillion.  In other words, there will be slightly more revenue this year, but increased spending as well.

Read More →

Nothing typifies the inane cycle of government dependency and poverty more than the issue of healthcare.  Given that healthcare constitutes 18% of our economy and that millions of Americans are languishing under its crushing costs, it is important that we articulate healthcare reform from a position of strength.  We must demonstrate how it is socialist interventions in the marketplace that are responsible for high costs.  We must demonstrate how our policies will bring costs under control.

When discussing entitlements, conservatives must remember that the goal of healthcare reform is not to merely cut its costs to the federal budget; it is to alleviate the burden of government-run healthcare on the entire healthcare sector.  Any proposal to tweak the outlays for programs such as Medicare, without fundamentally reforming their anti-free-market structure, will only achieve minor savings, cause pain for those suffering from healthcare inflation, and incur the wrath of the largest voting bloc.

Medicare is socialized medicine for those over 65 in all but name only.  Its very presence in the market as the 800-pound gorilla has a counterintuitive effect of driving up the cost of healthcare, thereby forcing people to remain dependent on its broad shoulders.  Unless Medicare (along with Medicaid) is reformed as a defined contribution voucher system, instead of an open-ended market distorting behemoth, any attempt to raise the eligibility age or cut benefits would severely squeeze older healthcare consumers.

Now we learn that such a proposal would fail to stem the unsustainable trajectory of Medicare costs.

Last week, CBO published a report which suggests that a plan to gradually raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 would save $148 billion over 10 years.  That may sound like a large sum, but when compared to projected outlays, it is infinitesimal.  According to the most recent CBO budget outlook, Medicare outlays will top $7.4 trillion over the next 10 years, with a 75-year unfunded obligation of $35 trillion.  And that is probably a conservative estimate.  Thus, pulling the trigger on raising the retirement age and incurring the wrath of seniors will only reduce outlays from $7.4 trillion to $7.25 trillion.  We’ll be broke before we reach that point anyway.

Read More →

Nothing typifies the inane cycle of government dependency and poverty more than the issue of healthcare.  Given that healthcare constitutes 18% of our economy and that millions of Americans are languishing under its crushing costs, it is important that we articulate healthcare reform from a position of strength.  We must demonstrate how it is socialist interventions in the marketplace that are responsible for high costs.  We must demonstrate how our policies will bring costs under control.

When discussing entitlements, conservatives must remember that the goal of healthcare reform is not to merely cut its costs to the federal budget; it is to alleviate the burden of government-run healthcare on the entire healthcare sector.  Any proposal to tweak the outlays for programs such as Medicare, without fundamentally reforming their anti-free-market structure, will only achieve minor savings, cause pain for those suffering from healthcare inflation, and incur the wrath of the largest voting bloc.

Medicare is socialized medicine for those over 65 in all but name only.  Its very presence in the market as the 800-pound gorilla has a counterintuitive effect of driving up the cost of healthcare, thereby forcing people to remain dependent on its broad shoulders.  Unless Medicare (along with Medicaid) is reformed as a defined contribution voucher system, instead of an open-ended market distorting behemoth, any attempt to raise the eligibility age or cut benefits would severely squeeze older healthcare consumers.

Now we learn that such a proposal would fail to stem the unsustainable trajectory of Medicare costs.

Last week, CBO published a report which suggests that a plan to gradually raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 would save $148 billion over 10 years.  That may sound like a large sum, but when compared to projected outlays, it is infinitesimal.  According to the most recent CBO budget outlook, Medicare outlays will top $7.4 trillion over the next 10 years, with a 75-year unfunded obligation of $35 trillion.  And that is probably a conservative estimate.  Thus, pulling the trigger on raising the retirement age and incurring the wrath of seniors will only reduce outlays from $7.4 trillion to $7.25 trillion.  We’ll be broke before we reach that point anyway.

Read More →

We need to make sure we tone the rhetoric down – now Americans would agree to that statement as we enter the Presidential Election for 2012. But, there’s a slight problem here – the messenger that made this statement is Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Debbie as we all know is the “Mouth” for the Democrats; she’s the DNC chairman. She’s more like a “rambler” – when asked a legitimate question she acts dumber than a door knob and just starts rambling in a nonsensical jumble of words.

How sad that on the anniversary of the terrible atrocity in Tucson, Debbie mentions Gabby Giffords whom all Americans love and she insinuates that the Tea Parties are in some way to blame for the tragedy. This shows the environment in the Democratic camp; they’re not just struggling, they’re desperate. This speech by Wasserman accentuates the problems in the Democrat base.

They have a fallen leader, who many Democrats want to replace with Hillary Clinton. Many of them are worrying about job security. Debbie’s speech at the Politics and Eggs Forum is indicative of a chair person who’s lost her chair.

Out of one side of her mouth she’s saying tone down the rhetoric and out of the other side she’s blaming the Tea Parties for the act of an insane man too sick to stand trial for the massacre in Tucson, Az. Speaking of sick, how sad that Debbie used Gabby Giffords to exploit her political rhetoric. She used a young woman who has had the fight of her life as an excuse to spew venomous rhetoric about the tea parties.

One would think she owes Gabby Gifford and the tea parties an apology on National TV – but the “mouth” has taken center stage and refuses to apologize to Gabby or the tea parties.

Politifact in Florida shows the top ten fact-checks of 2011 and Schultz made the top ten, which is nothing to brag about – once again she’s been caught red handed.

During an interview with Wolf Blitzer she pretty much told him he was stupid and didn’t know what he was talking about, here’s what Wolf said, “The wealthiest Americans, they pay the most in taxes already — 50 percent of Americans don’t even pay any federal income tax.”

Shultz said, “That’s actually not true.” Politfact shows her statement false and Wolf’s statement was 100% correct about the wealthiest Americans paying the most in taxes and that 50 per cent of Americans don’t pay taxes.

Here’s a taste of what we can expect from Democrats in the remainder of the 2012 Presidential Campaign.

Politicfact has compiled some blatant misstatements by the “Mouth” (Debbie Wasserman Schultz).

December 2011 – Debbie denied that unemployment went up under Obama. Unemployment was a tad over 7% December 2008 and the official U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent in April, 2011. If those who have quit looking for jobs were counted, unemployment would be well over 15%.

Debbie lied about Paul Ryan’s Medicare restructuring saying it would end Medicare as we know it trying to scare senior citizens. Debbie’s pretend pitty party for seniors was a lie! Remember Schultz voted to cut Medicare and Medicaid when she voted for Obamacare. Debbie, Pelosi, Reid and Obama actually have dangled “Granny” over the cliff and they have no intention of rescuing her.

Debbie called the GOP agenda “anti-women” and “a war on women,” she is angry because many think Planned Parenthood should not be funded by the Government. Planned Parenthood should either fly on its own or close its doors – they claiming huge profits, so taxpayer’s should not be supporting them.

Here’s what Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said: “The truly ‘anti-woman’ organization here is Planned Parenthood and the party that continues to defend its taxpayer funding when it has raked in more than $300 million in profits over the past four years. Fifty-four percent of Americans don’t want to be coerced into contributing to an organization they don’t believe in just by paying their taxes—nor should they be.”

Why the Democrats have allowed Debbie Wasserman Schultz to hold the DNC chair position remains a mystery. Even some Democrats from Florida asked her to step down or step up. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is another Joe Biden with big hair and a dress. Like Biden she’s so gaffe – prone that most news media believe she’s good for a few laughs because she’s just plain clueless.

But then again, how does one defend a Commander in Chief who has the worst track record in of our Nation’s history?

May God Bless America
As Always,
Little Tboca

An important video to watch, from a recent Overland Park seminar sponsored by the Union of Patriots (their Facebook page is here).

First, here is a speech by Rep. Charlotte O’Hara, the only legislator willing to publicly criticize a needless $160 million project by Sam Brownback that is deeply intertwined with ObamaCare.  Overland Park Rep. O’Hara was removed from a health care committee by Speaker Mike O’Neal after O’Hara criticized Gov. Sam Brownback on a radio program.  This video is from KansasWatchdogTV.

The next video begins with a video message from Rep. John Rubin, followed by a strong presentation by Union of Patriots board member Steve Shute of Gardner, Kansas – “Steve Shute – The Clear & Present Danger of Obama Care.”

Here, you can read the letter to Gov. Brownback from the Union of Patriots group.  Learn more at “Our Letter to Governor Brownback regarding Kansas ObamaCare Exchanges.”

Read More →