Tag: budget

Detroit: the triumph of progressive public policy.

10:21 am

Detroit: the triumph of progressive public policy.

Imagine a city where all the major economic planks of the statist or “progressive” platform have been enacted:

  • A “living wage” ordinance, far above the federal minimum wage, for all public employees and private contractors.
  • A school system that spends significantly more per pupil than the national average.
  • A powerful school employee union that militantly defends the exceptional pay, benefits and job security it has won for its members.
  • Other government employee unions that do the same for their members.
  • A tax system that aggressively redistributes income from businesses and the wealthy to the poor and to government bureaucracies.

Would this be a shining city on a hill, exciting the admiration of all? We don’t have to guess, because there is such a city right here in our state: Detroit.

Read the above article and then compare it to this essay: A thought experiment: Imagining the Republican majority in the House in complete control of Washington.

The contrasts are most illuminating.

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Great Scott

10:33 pm

Great Scott.

Meanwhile, the results of the changes began coming in. In Milwaukee, the reforms saved some $11 million, an embarrassing windfall for Democratic mayor Tom Barrett, who had predicted that the city’s structural deficit would “explode.” Localities across the state have seen similar savings. There is no disputing the central fact of Walker’s tenure as governor: His reforms are working.

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A thought experiment: Imagining the Republican majority in the House ran things in Washington.

9:13 am

A thought experiment: Imagining the Republican majority in the House in complete control of Washington.

This is not an altogether quixotic exercise. A thorough review of roll-call votes cast since the 2010 electoral upheaval allows us to approximate the world view that guides the 243-member House Republican caucus. … It would: repeal Obamacare; place a firm limit on how much in taxes Washington can take from our paychecks; require federal bureaucracies to think before they regulate; restore considerable authority and decision-making power to state governments; and alter the structural DNA of two of the Big Three entitlement programs — Medicare and Medicaid. (Fundamental overhaul of Social Security, it seems, will have to wait.).

In a nutshell, the GOP House agenda would place the federal government on a fiscally sustainable path without eviscerating national security. America would reclaim its status as one of the freest and most opportunity-laden economies in the world. There would be real and enforceable limits on the power of the federal government. And our ability to defend America’s interests around the world would be robust and enduring.

Read the whole thing, especially if you have doubts about what a Republican Congress and President might do. Even if you disagree with many conservative goals, nothing described here is unreasonable, and all of it seems necessary, considering the bankrupt state of the federal government.

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The chief architect of Obamacare now admits — in complete contradiction to what he claimed before the law was passed — that Obamacare will cause medical insurance premiums to rise.

12:18 am

Surprise, surprise! The chief architect of Obamacare now admits — in complete contradiction to what he claimed before the law was passed — that Obamacare will cause medical insurance premiums to rise.

Gruber’s new reports are in direct contrast Obama’s words — and with claims Gruber himself made in 2009. Then, the economics professor said that based on figures provided by the independent Congressional Budget Office, “[health care] reform will significantly reduce, not increase, non-group premiums.”

During his presentation to Wisconsin officials in August 2011, Gruber revealed that while about 57 percent of those who get their insurance through the individual market will benefit in one way or another from the law’s subsides, an even larger majority of the individual market will end up paying drastically more overall. “After the application of tax subsidies, 59 percent of the individual market will experience an average premium increase of 31 percent,” Gruber reported. [emphasis mine]

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The White House has confirmed that the Obama budget to be announced on Monday will predict a $1.3 trillion deficit for 2012.

3:40 pm

The bigger picture: The White House has confirmed that the Obama 2013 budget proposal to be announced on Monday will predict a $1.3 trillion deficit in 2012, and only try to shrink that to $900 billion in 2013.

Numbers like this demonstrate the need for further budget cuts, even in areas that I think are important, such as space exploration. However, these numbers also illustrate one clear fact: the Obama administration is not serious about balancing the budget. That the administration has applied the knife to the Mars planetary program while allowing other less successful NASA programs to flourish proves this administration’s poor sense of priorities in these difficult financial times.

More thoughts next week.

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Ed Weiler quit NASA over Mars planetary program cuts to be announced Monday

12:53 pm

Ed Weiler quit NASA in September because of the cuts to the Mars planetary program that the Obama administration will announce on Monday.

Weiler was NASA’s chief science administrator for most of the past thirty years.

As I have already noted, the programs that NASA shouldn’t cut are its planetary and astronomy programs. Far better to dump the Space Launch System, which eats up a lot more cash and will end up producing nothing. By doing so you would not only reduce NASA’s actual budget — thereby saving the federal government money — you could simultaneously increase the budgets of the planetary and astronomy programs.

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According to scientists, Obama’s proposed budget — to be announced on Monday — will cut the planetary program severely.

12:36 am

According to scientists, Obama’s proposed budget — to be announced on Monday — will severely cut NASA’s planetary program.

We will find out if this is true on Monday. However, I suspect it is, as all the rumors have pointed that way for months.

Meanwhile, Congress is forcing NASA to spend $3 billion on the Space Launch System (SLS), a rocket that will never get finished. As I have written previously, this is a very bad use of the taxpayer’s money. Better to get rid of SLS, put half the savings into the science program (which would almost certainly increase its overall budget) and pocket the rest as budget savings.

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All NASA funding for the European ExoMars mission appears to have been cut by the Obama administration.

9:13 pm

All NASA funding for ESA’s unmanned ExoMars mission appears to have been cut by the Obama administration.

A public announcement by Nasa of its withdrawal from the ExoMars programme, as it is known in Europe, will probably come once President Obama’s 2013 Federal Budget Request is submitted. This request, expected in the coming days, will give the US space agency a much clearer view of how much money it has to implement its various projects. “The Americans have indicated that the possibility of them participating is now low – very low. It’s highly unlikely,” said Alvaro Gimenez, Esa’s director of science.

Though this story doesn’t confirm the earlier rumors that the Obama administration was going to eliminate the entire NASA planetary program, it sure lends those rumors further weight. However, the new budget should be released any day now, when we will finally find out.

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