The Congressional Budget Office projects that the federal budget deficit will exceed three-quarters of $1 trillion in 2013. The U.S. economy continues to badly underperform, leaving millions of Americans out of work, depressing wage gains, and restricting opportunities. Despite a broad consensus favoring deficit reduction, some worry that reducing the budget deficit too…

The federal government has once again hit its statutory debt limit. For the next few weeks, Washington will be funding its budget shortfalls through the Treasury Department’s traditional “extraordinary” measures. This confirms the bad news that government continues to overspend to the tune of over a trillion dollars per year. The good news is that hitting the debt limit…

In his first press conference after the election, President Barack Obama said, “What I’m not going to do is extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent that we cannot afford and according to economists will have the least positive impact on the economy.”[1] The good news is that President Obama apparently truly believes what he is saying. The bad news is that…

Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School and until recently the top economist in the Romney campaign, opined in the Financial Times on November 13 that Congress and President Obama should seek to raise taxes on the well-to-do by means other than raising tax rates. Hubbard suggested scaling back the deductions available to upper-income taxpayers. This…

“You are what your record says you are.” So says Bill Parcells, three-time Super Bowl–winning coach. Athletes, coaches, and commentators can spin the numbers with the best of politicians, but in the end, you are what your record says you are. The record on President Obama’s economic policies is simply dismal. Despite a massive surge of deficit spending pushing publicly…

Tax reform proposals like Heritage’s New Flat Tax, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp’s plan, and Governor Mitt Romney’s plan are susceptible to unfair attacks by the media, think tanks, and politicians. President Obama, for example, completely misstates the facts regarding Governor Mitt Romney’s tax reform proposal by citing an unfair think tank analysis.[1]…

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts a recession for 2013. Forecasters rarely anticipate a recession. Almost by definition, recessions surprise. Some unexpected force or forces conspire to so disrupt the economy that it contracts. What makes this recession different, and predictable, is that the disruptive force is Washington policies and, even more,…

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Federal Open Market Committee announced a third round of quantitative easing (QE) on September 13. The intent is to stimulate the economy, which has been languishing and is now slowing further under President Obama’s economic policies. Two key arguments in support of QE3 are that it will put downward pressure on long-term interest…

The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee announced today that it would pursue $40 billion in additional monthly stimulus in the form of quantitative easing. Meanwhile, it will maintain its previous program of exchanging about $45 billion monthly in short-for-long-term securities. Quantitative easing, or QE, is purchasing long-dated government bonds and similar debt…