News
Washington Times | Lot of movement, no progress on ‘fiscal cliff’: Tax increases vs. spending cuts
President Obama’s top aides floated a budget framework to Republicans on Thursday that would call for $1.6 trillion in tax increases coupled with a promise for future spending trims in order to head off the “fiscal cliff,” an offer GOP leaders immediately rejected, saying the White House needs to “get serious” about spending cuts.
Econ Comments & Analysis
Heritage Foundation | Six Bipartisan Entitlement Reforms to Solve the Real Fiscal Crisis: Only Presidential Leadership Is Needed
A high-stakes fiscal policy debate of unique size and import has just begun. Absent congressional action to the contrary, a massive slate of tax hikes and spending cuts will take effect on January 1, and that is only the first act.
Washington Times | Real solutions for the ‘fiscal cliff’
As we approach the “fiscal cliff” and Washington’s finest scramble to avert economic disaster, many ideas and proposals are being considered: Let the George W. Bush tax cuts expire, close loopholes or increase revenue. The jargon is familiar if not numbing.
AEI | Sovereign debt is not a risk-free asset
Sir, Mario Blejer says: “In most cases, sovereign debt is not a risk-free asset.” This is an understatement. The correct statement is: “In all cases, sovereign debt is not a risk-free asset.” As Anatole Kaletsky wrote a generation ago: “For at least 500 years, governments and nations have regularly defaulted.”
WSJ | This Unserious White House
The White House this week finally explained just how serious it is about averting a fiscal cliff that could throw the country back into a recession. The answer: not serious at all.
Market Watch | The hard facts about spending cuts
As lawmakers negotiate to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, the combination of tax increases and spending cuts that are due to take place on Jan.1, 2013, the silence on spending cuts is deafening.
Washington TImes | Standoff at the ‘fiscal cliff’
Democrats have painted themselves into a box with their Mediscare tactics. Because they spent the last two years frightening seniors with tales of Republicans taking away their benefits and “ending Medicare as we know it,” the left-hand side of the aisle has effectively eliminated the possibility of negotiating changes to this broken program essential to any true resolution of the looming budgetary and tax disaster.
WSJ | The Real Danger From the Fiscal Cliff
Americans are told that they face a "fiscal cliff" if automatic federal spending cuts and tax increases occur at the end of the year. I'm not in favor of jumping off a cliff, but the logic of the supposed threat needs to be questioned.
City Journal | Can California Handle a Recovery?
The New York Times has made it official: California is not Greece. The state is showing “the first signs of a rebound,” reported the Times’s Adam Nagourney this week.
Forbes | The Fiscal Cliff: How To Call The Big Spenders' Bluff
The fiscal cliff – and the hullabaloo surrounding it — is a curious phenomenon. It has been over 3 years since Harry Reid’s Senate passed a budget. The U.S. federal government is over $16 trillion in debt. And Uncle Sam is borrowing 1 out of every 3 dollars he spends.
Blogs
Political Calculations | Transforming Student Loans from Taxes Back into Debt
Taxpayers already (or will) indirectly subsidize both the housing and healthcare sectors by covering GSE losses and paying for a healthcare system that pays out more than it receives in revenues. If the continued misalignment of educational resources ultimately leads to government “forgiveness” of student loan debt, it will simply be one more example of fiscal subsidies for a narrow demographic.
