Voters say they dont want spending cuts

Taxpayer advocate proposes spending cuts
The new House Speaker, Rep. John Boehner, has said cutting spending will be a priority for his chamber. And the Watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense has some ideas on where he can look. The group this week sent both House and Senate leaders a list of Spending Cuts that would total roughly $148 billion over five years.  House Republicans said recently that a vow to lop $100 billion off the federal Budget this year was based on the idea that President Obama’s Budget would be passed. But ...

GOP: Serious on Spending Cuts?
For those tracking how serious Republicans are about changing Washington’s spending culture, here’s two items worth noticing. First, three spending subcommittee chairmen — Republican Reps. Mike Simpson (Idaho), Frank Wolf (Va.), and Robert Aderholt (Ala.) — told The Hill that they think the ban on Earmarks should be temporary.  Simpson made the case that lawmakers, with their knowledge of their own districts, are better qualified to make certain spending decisions, w...

Gov. Jerry Brown's budget may hit legal roadblock
(01-13) 04:00 PST Sacramento - -- Cutting various state programs as proposed this week by Gov. Jerry Brown could prove more difficult than anticipated after the Legislative Analyst's Office said Wednesday that it might take a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to approve the cuts. The news comes less than three months after voters approved Proposition 25, which lowered the requirement to pass a Budget to a simple majority. Yet that measure might not be as useful as many backers once hoped, be...

Floridas Budget Hole Deepens to $3.62 Billion
Florida’s Budget Deficit got a little larger Wednesday, with a state Economist adjusting previous projections up slightly to $3.62 billion. And it could get larger still. “Just kind of tuck that number in the back of you mind, because as you guys meet and make policy decisions, that number is going to be changing,” Amy Baker, chief Economist for the state Office of Economic and Demographic Research, told legislators during a Budget Committee meeting. Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake...

Gov. Jerry Brown's budget may hit legal roadblock
(01-12) 04:00 PST Sacramento - -- Cutting various state programs as proposed this week by Gov. Jerry Brown could prove more difficult than anticipated after the Legislative Analyst's Office said Wednesday that it might take a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to approve the cuts. The news comes less than three months after voters approved Proposition 25, which lowered the requirement to pass a Budget to a simple majority. Yet that measure might not be as useful as many backers once hoped, be...

HOPE Scholarships Provide College Tuition and Vocational Training to Poor Youth
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Thousands of poor youth in Developing Countries now have opportunities to escape Poverty through education and vocational training with the HOPE--Helping Overcome Poverty through Education-- Fund provided by Children International, a U.S.-based humanitarian organization. Currently, nearly 8,420 HOPE Scholarships have been awarded to youth ages 14 to 18 to continue their education, according to Children International's latest HOPE Fund report. The r...

Budget to put Texan self-sufficiency to the test
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — There is one enduring political value in Texas: The state does not mollycoddle. In the best of times, it spends as little as possible providing aid to the unemployed, the sick and the injured. Texans have consistently elected lawmakers who will add to the Public Safety net only when threatened with a federal Lawsuit. Now that the state must overcome a $15 billion Budget shortfall, life for those who rely on the state for employment or support is likely to get even toug...

California Reintroduces Its Own Dream Act
The DREAM Act is back, in California at least. Today Assemblyman Gil Cedillo re-introduced the DREAM Act which would allow undocumented youth who are accepted to college the ability to apply for institutional Financial Aid and state grants from the state’s public universities, state and community colleges. Cedillo’s new strategy is to split the bill in two. The San Jose Mercury News reports that one bill would allow undocumented immigrant Students who are California residents to appl...

Texans Dont Want Perry for President
Gov. Rick Perry delivers his state of the state address in Dallas. Oct.13, 2010. AUSTIN, Texas - A poll released today finds most Texans approve of GOP Gov. Rick Perry's work. The poll found 51 percent of Texans approve of his job performance. Nearly two-thirds think he should not run for president. The poll was commissioned by the Dallas Morning News, the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Austin American-Statesman. The poll also found that Tex...

ND advocates want broadened child insurance access
Supporters of broadening access to a Health Insurance program for North Dakota Children are making a push in the Legislature. The coverage is available for Children of low-income families who may not be eligible for other programs. A family of four that makes about $35,000 a year is now eligible for coverage. The proposed change would increase the income limit to about $55,000. The North Dakota Senate's Human Services Committee held a hearing on the bill Wednesday. Democratic Sen. Tim Mathern of...

How the Term Tax Expenditure Leads to Bigger Government
The Center for American Progress has a new weekly feature examining “tax expenditures” in the Internal Revenue Code.  As I’ve written before, there ain’t no such thing as a tax expenditure. Or a tax subsidy.  Targeted Tax Breaks are bad because, on balance, they expand government’s control over the people.  But they are not “expenditures” or “Subsidies.”  Using either of those terms implies that the money not col...

Report: Arizona Was The Only State To Cut Childrens Health Insurance In 2010
Report: Arizona Was The Only State To Cut Children’s Health Insurance In 2010 Yesterday, the Kaiser Family Foundation released its 50-state survey of Medicaid programs around the country and found that despite tight Budgets, “nearly all states maintained or made targeted expansions or improvements in their Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) eligibility and enrollment rules in 2010.” “This stability in large part reflects the temporary fiscal rel...

Pennsylvania subsidized health insurance for low-income people to end
Pennsylvania's subsidized Health Insurance for low-income working people will likely end next month, officials on Gov.-elect Tom Corbett's transition team said Tuesday, leaving more than 40,000 people with less palatable options and dashing the hopes of more than 400,000 on the Waiting List. "AdultBasic is not sustainable," said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the transition, referring to the Insurance program that began eight years ago under Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, and was expande...

Arizona is one of two states to reject Federal healthcare aid
Arizona is one of just two states that have rejected Federal Aid to maintain healthcare services for low-income people, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Along with New Jersey, Arizona turned down a temporary boost in Medicaid funds from the Federal Government because this would temporarily prevent them from making adjustments to tighten Medicaid eligibiity. This "maintenance of effort" requirement followed by the other 48 states and the District of Columbia expires in June, ...

The Wealthy As An Object of Disdain.
Mark Yzaguirre allows for the existence of un-derserving rich: [I]n a Global Economy, there are very wealthy economic players who didn’t gain their wealth by risking their personal capital or other voluntary business transactions. Trillions of dollars of investment worldwide, including in the US Stock Markets and other investment vehicles that middle-class Americans rely on for their well-being, is provided by sources that didn’t become wealthy via Libertarian means. Jihadist oil barons fro...

A Brief Visual History of U.S. Taxes
Tax reform might be The Issue of 2011. Or, like most years, it might linger on the sidelines of the national debate, but never press its way into the limelight. Either way, the Senate Finance Committee is hearing the case for Tax Reform today -- and who better to hear from first than the head of the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress' official oracle and arbiter of tax policy. You can download the full Testimony here, but I wanted to pass along four easy charts from the presentation that expl...

The Special Council for Tax Reform and Fairness gives its recommendations
 The Special Council for Tax Reform and Fairness gave its recommendations to Georgia lawmakers on Friday. The plan is being touted in the media as a Tax Increase. The plan would put a tax on groceries, Cigarettes, and other consumable products and work to reduce income taxes by 1/3 over a three year period starting in 2012.Governor Deal also stated his intentions to reduce teacher Furloughs by cutting back on some government’s jobs. (AJC, 2011) The state of Georgia, like many oth...

Are Labor Unions Done-for? (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – State and municipal officials on both sides of the political spectrum are increasingly taking on Public Employees Unions--promising to cut Pensions, freeze salaries, and inhibit Collective Bargaining--to address Budget shortfalls. But the antagonism against labor unions is not limited to the Public Sector, or to public officials. As The New Yorker's James Surowiecki points out, a Gallup Poll during the Great Depression--when unions gained newfound power--found that more...

Federal Eye: Bill proposes 10 percent cut in federal workforce
A Texas Republican congressman wants to cut the federal Workforce by 10 percent in the next decade, impose a three-year pay freeze across federal agencies and Capitol Hill and trim government printing and vehicle costs. Rep. Kevin Brady's bill, the Cut Unsustainable and Top-heavy Spending, or CUTS Act, is the first detailed series of spending proposals introduced in the Republican-controlled House that target government operations and the federal workforce. Democrats and federal workers have ...

An older, bolder Jerry Brown deserves kudos for his budget plan
It's a different Gov. Jerry Brown we're seeing these days — a subtle but significant difference between Brown I and Brown II. The Brown who was Governor at age 36 would not have been as bold — as calmly willing to stick his neck way out — as the 72-year-old version. The contrast—along with a stark stylistic difference between Brown and predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger — was evident at a news conference Monday. The new Governor unveiled his cuts-taxes-and-shuffle r...

ITT to break itself up, fueling share rally
Atlanta (Reuters) - U.S. manufacturer ITT Corp (ITT.N) plans to split itself into three publicly traded companies to take advantage of growing water management and industrial markets as its defense unit braces for U.S. Military Spending cuts. The diversified conglomerate is the latest in a string of companies that have moved to split up their operations, including Fortune Brands and Motorola. ITT Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Loranger said the break-up had been considered for six months an...

An older, bolder Gov. Jerry Brown deserves kudos for his budget plan
Gov. Brown is showing a willingness to take big risks in his share-the-pain plan to close the Budget gap It's a different Gov. Jerry Brown we're seeing these days — a subtle but significant difference between Brown I and Brown II. The Brown who was Governor at age 36 would not have been as bold — as calmly willing to stick his neck way out — as the 72-year-old version. The contrast—along with a stark stylistic difference between Brown and predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger...

Tom Rooney Focuses on Federal Spending
As he starts his Second Term in Congress, Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney is increasingly visible as he focuses on federal spending. “We can’t sustain a $14 Trillion Debt,” said Rooney on Wednesday at a teleconferenced town hall event that went out to more than 50,000 homes across his South Florida district, which stretches from Port Charlotte, around the northern side of Lake Okeechobee, toward Port St. Lucie and Jupiter. Rooney represents parts of Charlotte, Glades, H...

Defense budget changes raise questions and concerns
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawmakers and industry executives began raising concerns this week about new Pentagon cost-cutting measures, saying the moves could have Unintended Consequences and might prove difficult to implement. Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered "a brilliant preemptive strike that kind of frames the whole defense Budget debate for Congress and for industry for fiscal 2012," said Byron Callan, sell-side analyst with Capital Alpha Partners. "But there's not a lot of detail on t...

Illinois Taxes Rising; Wisconsin Hopes To Benefit
Illinois lawmakers have voted to increase the state's Income Tax almost 67-percent to help reduce the state estimated 15-billion dollar Budget Deficit.  Illinois Governor Pat Quinn supports the move, and promises to sign the measure.. Illinois is a fiscal mess. The state is months behind in paying it's bills and it's not just vendors and social service agencies waiting to be paid, but schools and local governments, too. The state's been borrowing so much and racking up such a huge Debt that Ill...