Government Spending

I read this recently in a story posted on Yahoo.com: “Confronting bipartisan criticism, President Barack Obama conceded Saturday his proposed budget is not his 'ideal plan' but said it offers 'tough reforms' to the nation's benefit programs while closing loopholes for the wealthy ...”  Just think about it: If our austere president gets his way Medicare and Social Security will be cut - again. If that happens, the elderly could have their time cut short because they lack the ability to get proper medical care.

Well, Congress has done its work - some might say “dirty” work, and the Senate has recessed for a month, no doubt to rest and recreate after the harrowing ordeal to which it has subjected itself. If ever there were an example of self-flagellation, the attempts to get the debt ceiling raised is it. This exercise in futility was not something that just suddenly sprang up and caught everyone with their pants down.  Congress and the administration knew for months ahead of time that the debt ceiling would have to be raised, yet everyone sat on their hands and did nothing until the very last minute.

Voters in Kentucky and across the nation sent a new wave of fiscally conservative Republicans to Washington last November with a clear mandate: Get our financial house in order. Now, with Congress's passage of crucial cuts in government spending as a condition to any increase in the nation's debt ceiling, we are starting to turn things around. That's why the liberal Democrats who control Washington are worried right now. They're afraid that you - the people who sent us to Congress - might be winning the debate to reduce the size and scope of government.

Dear Editor, The April 23 edition of The Advocate-Messenger had two letters, one lamenting the high prices for food products and the other promoting more of the same by supporting Sen. Obama for president. Anytime that a politician promises something, rest assured that he/she will not be paying for it - we, the taxpayers, will be footing the bill. We keep sending incompetent, self-serving, career politicians to Washington as legislators who believe their effectiveness and re-election is based on how many government spending programs they can propose and shepherd through the legislative process.

The political classes are arguing about two important questions: Should government be in the stimulus/bailout business, and how effective is fiscal policy (tax and government spending policy)? I leave the "should" question for another day and consider the "effectiveness" issue today. Tax and spending policy effectiveness is measured by the size of their respective "multipliers. " The multiplier measures the number of dollars of Gross Domestic Product stimulated per dollar of tax reduction or dollar of government expenditure increase.

Nicholasville Republican Matt Lockett, 35, has tossed his hat into the ring in an attempt to unseat Democratic incumbent and Woodford County resident Ben Chandler in next year's 6th Congressional District. According to his Web site, www.mattlockett.net, Lockett is a Paducah native, and earned a political science degree with a minor in business administration from Murray State University. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.

April 20, 1958 - Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Solle and children of Louisville are visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. M.C. Redwine, at their home on South Maple Street. - Harry S. Truman today proposed a five-billion dollar tax cut for low and middle income taxpayers to fight the economic recession. He also urged a big increase in government spending. - Saturday will mark the formal opening of the Winchester Country Club for the 1958 season. A buffet dinner will be served followed by a formal dance.

FRANKFORT - After a slow start, a number of bills introduced to protect Kentucky families from runaway government spending, substance abuse related crimes and to restrain government spending began moving through the Kentucky Legislature this week. House Bill 413 was introduced by House GOP Caucus Chairman Dr. Bob DeWeese of Louisville, providing for an amendment to the Kentucky Constitution to suspend legislative compensation in the event the Legislature does not fulfill its constitutional responsibility to adopt a balanced budget.

How is it that I can find out at 4 a.m. from my bank's Web site how some of my money performs, yet I can't find during business hours how an even greater portion of my money - taxes extracted from my wallet by government - gets spent? Maybe politicians realize that if Internet-savvy Kentuckians found out how most of their hard-earned money gets squandered by bureaucrats, they might react as if discovering someone used their ATM password to clean out their bank accounts. The only thing that would make that scenario worse: not knowing you got fleeced until the bounced checks and overdraft charges piled up to the point the cops came knocking on your door.

Last week, President Barack Obama’s bi-partisan commission on deficit and debt reduction jump-started the national conversation on hard fiscal decisions with the surprise early release of the co-chairman’s report. It has good news and bad news for just about every American — but even worse news for all of us if we don’t face the reality of the situation we’re in. Ironically, the Democratic co-chairman, former President Bill Clinton advisor Erskine Bowles, said that the report was largely the product of him having listened more intently to Republicans.

I read this recently in a story posted on Yahoo.com: “Confronting bipartisan criticism, President Barack Obama conceded Saturday his proposed budget is not his 'ideal plan' but said it offers 'tough reforms' to the nation's benefit programs while closing loopholes for the wealthy ...”  Just think about it: If our austere president gets his way Medicare and Social Security will be cut - again. If that happens, the elderly could have their time cut short because they lack the ability to get proper medical care.

FRANKFORT - After a slow start, a number of bills introduced to protect Kentucky families from runaway government spending, substance abuse related crimes and to restrain government spending began moving through the Kentucky Legislature this week. House Bill 413 was introduced by House GOP Caucus Chairman Dr. Bob DeWeese of Louisville, providing for an amendment to the Kentucky Constitution to suspend legislative compensation in the event the Legislature does not fulfill its constitutional responsibility to adopt a balanced budget.

With members of the Republicans' tea party faction wanting the government to default so they could make a point and liberals among the Democrats describing discretionary spending cuts as satanic, it's a small wonder that the two parties were able to come to any agreement on raising the debt ceiling. Fortunately, after all the revolutionary rhetoric on the right and reactionary stridency on the left, the wiser gray heads in Washington showed they're the ones who are still in charge.

Well, Congress has done its work - some might say “dirty” work, and the Senate has recessed for a month, no doubt to rest and recreate after the harrowing ordeal to which it has subjected itself. If ever there were an example of self-flagellation, the attempts to get the debt ceiling raised is it. This exercise in futility was not something that just suddenly sprang up and caught everyone with their pants down.  Congress and the administration knew for months ahead of time that the debt ceiling would have to be raised, yet everyone sat on their hands and did nothing until the very last minute.

Voters in Kentucky and across the nation sent a new wave of fiscally conservative Republicans to Washington last November with a clear mandate: Get our financial house in order. Now, with Congress's passage of crucial cuts in government spending as a condition to any increase in the nation's debt ceiling, we are starting to turn things around. That's why the liberal Democrats who control Washington are worried right now. They're afraid that you - the people who sent us to Congress - might be winning the debate to reduce the size and scope of government.

Individual citizens have less privacy than the government they fund. But, as singer-songwriter Bob Dylan crooned: “The times, they are a-changin'.” At least they are in Frankfort, where approval of sweeping transparency requirements was an important accomplishment of this year's Kentucky General Assembly session that largely got lost in the Medicaid rancor. In 2009, Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, could not even get a hearing for his proposed bill designed to make state government more transparent.

Unemployment is more than 9 percent nationally, nearly 10 percent in Kentucky, and our nation is more than $14 trillion in debt. You would think we had more than enough proof to demonstrate that the economic policies of this administration and its Democratic allies in Congress are failing. Yet, they still don't seem to get it. Now, because government spending is out of control and we have borrowed way beyond our means, Congress is forced to act to avoid having the United States default on its debt.

As Washington settles in for a long summer of trench warfare over the looming vote to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, you may be feeling a sense of deja vu. That’s because we have, indeed, seen some variation of this all year: one side threatening to withhold its votes unless it sees massive cuts to the federal budget; the other criticizing draconian budget-slashing; and both sides fretting about the other’s fiscal irresponsibility. Yet once the debt ceiling has been dealt with, we’ll see some variation of this debate again in the fall.