• Tag Archives deficit

  • Paul looks to rein in government programs

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is looking to curb the size of the federal government by targeting redundant or wasteful programs.

    Paul, a Republican presidential candidate, on Wednesday introduced two pieces of legislation that he says could help scale back spending.

    One bill, backed by Republican Sens. Mike Enzi (Wyo.) and Jeff Sessions (Ala.), would limit authorizations to four years, though lawmakers could request a longer authorization for a specific program.

    The legislation would also add hurdles before Congress can authorize a new program, including identifying the objective, any areas of potential duplication with existing programs and what potential alternatives were studied.

    Enzi said the legislation would force Congress “to reexamine what we are actually funding in order to improve or eliminate government programs not delivering results.”

    Under the legislation, any program that is allowed to expire would then go through a two-year drawdown.

    Paul also introduced a separate proposal that would require the Obama administration find $10 billion in savings by eliminating and consolidating government programs within 150 days of the legislation being signed into law.

    The administration would use reports from the Government Accountability Office on overlap and duplication to help guide their decisions on which programs to cut or merge.

    It would also require the president recommend to Congress any changes that are needed to help consolidate or get rid of federal programs and require that the Congressional Budget Office report to lawmakers when a piece of legislation would create a program or office that is duplicative.

    According to the legislation, the $10 billion in savings would be put toward reduction of the deficit.

    Source: Paul looks to rein in government programs | TheHill


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  • Federal deficit to soar in 2016 after Ryan-Obama tax deal

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The tax-cut deal inked by President Obama and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan last month has put a major dent in the federal budget, helping send the deficit soaring by 24 percent, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.

    The $544 billion deficit projected for 2016 marks the first year since 2009 that the red ink has grown, and it powers the deficit back up over the half-trillion mark, where it had been for most of Mr. Obama’s tenure.

    And the rest of the decade will only get worse, the CBO said, with Social Security beginning to draw down its trust funds in 2018, and overall deficits surging back above the $1 trillion mark by 2022.

    Struck by the grim news, budget watchdogs said politicians needed to heed the wake-up call.

    “Turning a blind eye to the problem, as so many congressional and presidential candidates have done, merely means they are passing the buck to the next generation as concerns about political damage outweigh policy advantages,” said Steve Bell, senior director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

    CBO projections contained some good news, with the economy showing signs of solid growth in 2016 and 2017, finally overcoming some of the “slack” that built up during the 2008 Wall Street collapse and the Great Recession. Analysts said more people will be enticed back into the labor force, but inflation and interest rates will also rise as the economy ticks along.

    But spending and taxes remain the biggest problem for the budget, with the twin deals at the end of last year to break the sequester budget caps that had held spending in check, and to extend a series of special interest tax breaks.

    Combined, they meant the government needed more money than ever — but had less flowing in.

    Overall, spending will spike by 6 percent in fiscal year 2016, to reach $3.9 trillion. That amounts to 21.2 percent of the country’s output as measured by gross domestic product.

    By contrast the government will collect just $3.4 trillion in taxes, or 18.3 percent of GDP.

    Those trends will continue for the next decade, the CBO report. Taxes will hold steady at about 18 percent of GDP, while spending will rise from 21 percent to 23 percent — producing ever-worse budget news for the next president to handle.

    Full article: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jan/19/federal-deficit-soar-2016-after-ryan-obama-tax-dea/


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  • Obama presidency to end with $20 trillion national debt

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    When President Obama signs into law the new two-year budget deal Monday, his action will bring into sharper focus a part of his legacy that he doesn’t like to talk about: He is the $20 trillion man.

    Mr. Obama’s spending agreement with Congress will suspend the nation’s debt limit and allow the Treasury to borrow another $1.5 trillion or so by the end of his presidency in 2017. Added to the current total national debt of more than $18.15 trillion, the red ink will likely be crowding the $20 trillion mark right around the time Mr. Obama leaves the White House.

    When Mr. Obama took over in January 2009, the total national debt stood at $10.6 trillion. That means the debt will have very nearly doubled during his eight years in office, and there is much more debt ahead with the abandonment of “sequestration” spending caps enacted in 2011.

    “Congress and the president have just agreed to undo one of the only successful fiscal restraint mechanisms in a generation,” said Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union. “The progress on reducing spending and the deficit has just become much more problematic.”

    Some budget analysts scoff at the claim made by the administration and by House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, that the budget agreement’s $112 billion in spending increases is fully funded by cuts elsewhere. Mr. Boehner left Congress last week.

    “The Boehner-Obama spending agreement would allow for unlimited borrowing by the Treasury until March 2017,” said Paul Winfree, director of economic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation. “This deal piles on billions of dollars to the national debt by increasing spending over the next three years and then not paying for it for a decade — with half of the offsets not occurring until 2025.”

    The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that only about half of the increased spending in the budget deal is paid for. Rather than a spending increase of $80 billion over two years, the nonprofit group said, the actual spending hike is $154 billion when interest costs and budget gimmicks are factored into the equation.

    “Of this $154 billion, about $78 billion is paid for honestly” through Medicare reforms, reductions in farm subsidies, asset sales and other measures, the group said. “The remaining $56 billion of the legislation — mostly the war spending increase and interest costs — is not paid for at all.”

    Of course, Congress bears equal responsibility for the high level of debt. A prime reason that Mr. Boehner left office was conservatives’ displeasure with his accommodation of the president’s budget requests, aside from three years of “sequestration” spending caps that helped limit annual deficits.

    “We will be raising the debt ceiling in an unlimited fashion,” said Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who tried to filibuster the budget deal before the Senate approved it in the wee hours of Friday. “We will be giving President Obama a free pass to borrow as much money as he can borrow in the last year of his office. No limit, no dollar limit. Here you go, President Obama. Spend what you want.”

    Source: Obama presidency to end with $20 trillion national debt – Washington Times


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