Tag: Congress

Cutting the Full $100 Billion

11:01 pm

Keep this momentum going! The House Republican leadership was forced this week to increase its proposed budget cuts to $100 billion because of tea party movement pressure, both in the House and back at home. Key quote from this New York Times report:

The reversal was the most concrete demonstration yet that the wave of fiscal conservatives who catapulted Republicans into the House majority is reshaping the political and policy calculations being made by the party leadership.

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Bernanke headlines a day of grim warnings about the nation’s fiscal standing

12:24 pm

Fed chairman Bernanke issued a grim warning yesterday about the federal government’s overwhelming debt. Key quote:

The national debt is currently about 60 percent of the economy, or Gross Domestic Product, [Bernanke] said, adding that it is projected to reach 90 percent of GDP by 2020 and 150 percent of GDP by 2030. But Bernanke’s citation of $9.5 trillion in national debt didn’t include the $4.6 trillion owed by the government to trust funds for things such as Social Security and Medicare, which have paid out cash to the Treasury in exchange for promisory notes. The full national debt – when both forms of debt are included – is already just under 100 percent of GDP, which is currently around $14.6 trillion.

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Senate Rejects Full ObamaCare Repeal but Votes To Kill ‘1099’ Provision

7:16 pm

By a vote of 51-47, the Senate today rejected a full repeal of ObamaCare. A second vote, 81-17, did repeal the 1099 tax paperwork provision.

No surprises here. This just illustrates the need to throw more of these clowns out of office in 2012. For one thing, many of the 81 Senators who voted to repeal the 1099 tax provision had voted for it only 10 months ago. Have they finally learned to read?

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Florida Judge Rules Against Health Law.

3:38 pm

Big news! A Florida judge today has ruled the entire Obamacare law is unconstitutional. Key quote:

In his ruling, Judge Roger Vinson, a Republican appointee, said that the law’s requirement to carry insurance or pay a fee “is outside Congress’ Commerce Clause power, and it cannot be otherwise authorized by an assertion of power under the Necessary and Proper Clause. It is not constitutional.” The ruling also said that the entire law “must be declared void,” because the mandate to carry insurance is “not severable” from the rest of the law. [emphasis mine]

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US judge to rule on Obamacare today

11:47 am

Repeal it already! Another US judge is expected to rule on Obamacare today. Key quote:

The judge, Roger Vinson of the U.S. District Court in Pensacola, Florida, was expected to rule on a lawsuit brought by governors and attorneys general from 26 U.S. states, almost all of whom are Republicans. Obama is a Democrat. The plaintiffs represent more than half the U.S. states, so the Pensacola case has more prominence than some two dozen lawsuits filed in federal courts over the healthcare law.

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Congressional Budget office says Social Security Now Officially Broke

6:51 pm

And you still think NASA (or any other federal program) is going to get a lot of money? The Congressional Budget office (CBO) admitted today that Social Security is now officially broke. Key quote:

The CBO’s revenue/expenditure estimates now place the program in permanent deficit. There had been some hope that payroll taxes would recover sufficiently post-recession to put the program back into the black (the theoretical black) for at least a few more years, putting off the day of reckoning for an election cycle or more. No more: The new CBO estimates put Social Security in the red for as far as the eye can see. [emphasis mine]

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200 Economists Ask Lawmakers to Repeal Obamacare

4:45 pm

I’m not the only one saying it: Two hundred economists ask lawmakers to repeal Obamacare. Key quote:

The letter from economists said the law is “fiscally dangerous at a moment when the United States is already facing a sea of red ink. It creates a massive new entitlement at a time when the budget is already buckling under the weight of existing entitlements. At a minimum, it will add $1 trillion to government spending over the next decade,” the letter stated. “Assertions that these costs are paid for are based on omitted costs, budgetary gimmicks, shifted premiums from other entitlements, and unsustainable spending cuts and revenue increases.

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What Congress Should Cut

9:33 pm

What Congress should cut. And they find $3 trillion in only 14 paragraphs. Key quote:

None of this will be easy. Many will likely demagogue any reduction in the rate of growth of spending as a devastating “cut.” But the politics of spending has changed, and there is an expectation among fiscally conservative voters—Republicans, independents, tea partiers and even Democrats—that the government tighten its belt, just as American families have been forced to do. Some in the Republican establishment have already started complaining that this is too politically difficult. These naysayers misread today’s political climate. Should they succeed in blocking change, tea party voters will hold them just as accountable as big-spending Democrats.

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Nearly 3000 doctors surveyed believe ObamaCare will hurt care quality and doctor pay

8:20 pm

Repeal the damn bill! By large majorities, surveyed doctors believe that ObamaCare will hurt care quality and doctor pay. Key quote:

During the next 5 years, the quality of health care in this country will improve (18%) stay same (17%) deteriorate (65%).

The Affordable Care Act will result in physician reimbursement becoming more fair (9%) neither fair nor unfair (17%) less fair (74%).

Overall, the impact of the Affordable Care Act for patients will be positive (27%) neutral (15%) negative (57%).

Overall, the impact of the Affordable Care Act for physicians will be positive (8%) neutral (14%) negative (78%).

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More battles in space war

7:51 pm

More battles in the space war over NASA:

  • Bill Nelson blasts NASA’s claim that it needs more time and money to build the program-formerly-called-Constellation.
  • The NASA inspector general has urged Congress to stop wasting money on the program-formerly-called-Constellation (which NASA is still required to build because of legal language inserted in the 2010 budget appropriations bill, passed in late 2009).
  • HEFT, Lies and Videotape. Paul Spudis lays into NASA over the entire crazy situation.
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