Category: government spending

State, Local Governments Now Flush With Cash Even Without Federal Aid

What a difference two years—and $5.7 trillion in federal money—makes in fostering dramatic reversals of fortune for state and local budget managers. In spring 2020, governments were confronted with cascading costs in managing the public health response to the COVID-19 outbreak, spiking unemployment, and steep revenue declines resulting from business disruption and restrictions. Two years…


The Most Dangerous Virus Today Is Runaway Government Spending

Commentary When I came to Washington, D.C., in 1985, Ronald Reagan was president. I was working for the Reagan budget office. We did something we weren’t very proud of at the time. We introduced the first $1 trillion budget in American history, which was unthinkable. One trillion dollars. There are 12 zeroes in a trillion….


More Government, Less Religion—the Progressive Doctrine

Commentary One great mystery is the persistent refusal of those on the left to abandon what is clearly not true. That is, that the means for reducing the burden of poverty is more government spending. It all really started in the 1960s under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He declared in his State of the Union…


Congress Is Back to Serving Pork

Commentary Pork is being served in Washington again. Big juicy slices to the lobbyists with the deepest wallets and the campaign contributors who write the biggest campaign reelection checks. It is the way of the swamp. It is the currency of the Washington Beltway. It explains how people get so rich in politics. The two…


NTD Business Leaders (Sept. 12)—Arthur Laffer: Government Spending and America’s Economic Future

Dr. Arthur Laffer is known as the father of supply-side economics. He designed the famous Laffer Curve that showed that higher taxes don’t necessarily mean higher tax revenue for the government. A chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget in the 1970s and later an economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan and President…


On a Collision Course With National Disaster

Commentary If I were leading President Joe Biden’s central committee and my goal were to destroy America as founded and ensure that it lose its distinction as the world’s freest and most powerful nation, I doubt I could concoct a superior strategy than adopting the Biden administration’s message and policy agenda. The administration is creating…


The Berenstain Bears Could Curb the ‘Stimulus’ Crowd’s Enthusiasm

Commentary “Besides,” added Papa, “sometimes the price of things goes up, like gas. The price of gas for our car went up twenty cents just last week! Maybe the same thing happens with teeth.” – Jan & Mike Berenstain, “The Berenstain Bears and the Tooth Fairy,” p. 8. Sister Bear has just lost a tooth. It had…


Now Come the Taxes

Commentary The front-page headline in Monday’s Wall Street Journal said: “Biden weighs how to pay for Agenda.” Who purchases something they know they can’t afford, and then worries about paying for it later? Only government. After less than two months in office, President Biden and a majority Democrat Congress have engaged in record spending with…