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| November 15th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget If Americans needed any further proof that the Obama Administration is one of the most political on record, or that, for all the recent demagoguing, it really cares only about re-election, not about job creation, then you need look no further than its cynical Keystone XL oil pipeline decision last week.
Over the last several months, radical environmentalists along with Hollywood celebrity activists descended on the White House in protest, urging President Barack Obama to block the construction of the $7 billion pipeline that would bring in more than 700,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf coast. Last week, they got their wish.
So, block the XL pipeline if you think the environment will be better served by shipping Canadian oil an extra 6,000 miles across the Pacific in oil-consuming super tankers and then refining it in less-regulated Chinese refineries. In addition, be aware that replacing the Canadian oil means the U.S. also must import more oil by tankers, which are less efficient than pipelines. Continue reading…
| November 15th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget The head of China‘s biggest ratings agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating, is warning that it may downgrade the US’s sovereign debt rating again because of Washington’s failure to tackle the federal budget deficit.
Dagong, which has maintained a pessimistic outlook on US fiscal policy, has been leading the charge to downgrade US debt over the last 12 months, lowering the US rating from AA to A+ a year ago.
In August it downgraded US debt again, to A. Days later, Standard & Poor’s followed in its wake, becoming the first western agency to downgrade US debt after the threat of a default was narrowly avoided following weeks of political squabbling in Washington over whether President Obama should be allowed to raise the US debt ceiling. Continue reading…
| November 8th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget The Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government regulator for Fannie and Freddie, approved $12.79 million in bonus pay after 10 executives from the two government-sponsored corporations last year met modest performance targets tied to modifying mortgages in jeopardy of foreclosure.
The executives got the bonuses about two years after the federally backed mortgage giants received nearly $170 billion in taxpayer bailouts. Continue reading from The Politico.
| November 8th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget Despite bipartisan promises to cut spending after the 2010 elections, Washington politicians are still voting to make the government even bigger and more expensive than ever.
Even though the federal government is nearly $15 trillion in debt, it’s spending at record-high levels. Federal spending has gone up 5 percent in the first nine months of this year alone.
Just last week, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate passed three new spending bills to increase 2012 funding above 2011 funding levels. The bills will increase spending for the Department of Agriculture by $6.4 billion; for the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development by more than $2 billion; and for the Commerce, Justice, and State departments by more than $694 million. Continue Reading from National Review Online.
| October 11th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget Families were more dependent on government programs than ever last year, says the Wall Street Journal.
- Nearly half — 48.5 percent — of the population lived in a household that received some type of government benefit in the first quarter of 2010, according to Census data.
- Those numbers have risen since the middle of the recession when 44.4 percent lived in households receiving benefits in the third quarter of 2008.
Continue reading from NCPA….
| October 11th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget The Obama administration passed another fiscal milestone this week, according to new data released by the Treasury Department. As of the close of business on Oct. 3, the total national debt was $14,837,099,271,196.71—up about $44.8 billion from Sept. 30. Continue reading…
| October 10th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. “As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world,” said Sanders. “This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else.” Continue reading…
| October 7th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget, Energy Crippling drought and booming industry don’t go hand-in-hand — or at least they can’t for long.
That’s what Texas industry leaders and policymakers are remembering right now as the state grapples with the question of how to maintain economic growth in the midst of its worst dry spell on record.
The bone-dry conditions of the past ten months have destroyed an estimated $5.2 billion worth of crops and livestock in Texas and have helped spread wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and millions of acres of land.
The state’s oil industry hasn’t taken an equivalent hit — yet. But oil companies are looking for innovative ways to secure the millions of gallons of water required for oil and natural gas drilling, which grows more difficult as municipalities begin to place limits on local water withdrawals. Continue reading from Stateline…
| October 7th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget Putting the country’s financial position into perspective, The Financial Post’s Matt Hartley reported this stunning factoid Thursday night: Apple has more cash than the U.S. Treasury.
That’s right. The Treasury Department said Thursday that it has an operating balance of $73.768 billion, compared with the $76.156 billion in cash that Apple recorded on its latest earnings report. Continue reading from Washington Post.
| October 5th, 2011 by Cindy in Economy/Budget The size of government is of particular interest these days, with many Americans believing that rising government spending is crowding out the ability of individuals and businesses to control their own well-being and improve the economy. Indeed, Gallup reported last week that, on average, Americans think the federal government wastes 50 cents of each dollar it spends. But how much does the federal government really spend, asks Andrew G. Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
- On paper, the Congressional Budget Office reports that in 2010, the federal government spent $3.456 trillion, an amount that is equal to 23.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
- That’s one-quarter higher than the historical norm of around 19 percent of GDP.
But direct spending isn’t the only spending Washington does.
Continue Reading from NCPA…
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