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By Contributor Few people would select the first option. It doesn’t take Russia launching air strikes in Syria (to cite only one recent example) for most to admit that tensions are rising. So why in the world are we cutting defense spending? And not by small amounts. The U.S. military — which is smaller today than it was on 9/11 — has had to contend with cuts amounting to more than $180 billion over the last four years. And there’s no relief in sight. In fact, President Obama is preparing to veto a bipartisan bill that would...
Frustrated voters sometimes denounce their representatives as “good for nothing,” but are they being fair? Consider the budget gimmicks some politicians come up with. When it comes to fiscal gymnastics, who can deny their creativity? Case in point: a plan to fund the mismanaged Highway Trust Fund by tapping the dividends that the Federal Reserve pays member banks. Seriously, stick with me here, because this is a doozy. Here we have federal highway spending, operating at a deficit. Duh, it’s run by politicians. Of cours...
One of the lessons I learned in my first management course is you can’t improve something unless you can measure it. So let’s apply that to government. As ambitious government programs go, it’s hard to top the “Great Society,” which recently marked its 50th anniversary. President Lyndon Johnson, after all, vowed “to give every citizen an escape from the crushing weight of poverty.” That’s a tall order. So five decades, nearly $22 trillion and roughly 80 welfare programs later, it’s fair to ask how we’re doing. The short an...
