Chinese Prostitutes and Brazilian Cotton Farmers

"Stimulus dollars went to fund a study on teaching Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly....Every year, Uncle Sam gives about $150 million to Brazilian cotton farmers."

Chinese Prostitutes and Brazilian Cotton Farmers - Stossel's Take Blog - FOXBusiness.com

America's Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb

"Defusing the ticking bankruptcy bomb that is threatening to explode American prosperity will require first creating another economic boom to restore traditional American prosperity. Only surging economic growth will produce the booming revenue base essential to avoiding national bankruptcy, and reduce dependency sufficiently to enable the necessary slashing of government spending."

The American Spectator : America's Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb

Other People's Money

"Politicians don't spend your money as carefully as they'd spend their own."

Other People's Money - Stossel's Take Blog - FOXBusiness.com

Any Way You Stack It

"If you stack up 14.3 trillion dollar bills, the pile would stretch to the moon and back twice."

Any Way You Stack It, $14.3 Trillion Is A Mind-Bender : NPR

Stossel Awards Heritage An “Emmy"

"It’s not every day that a think tank wins an Emmy. But last week on John Stossel’s Fox Business program, The Heritage Foundation brought home the award for its “Saving the American Dream” plan to fix the debt, cut spending and reward prosperity."

Stossel Awards Heritage An “Emmy” for Best Budget Plan | The Foundry

Drunken Sailors to Sober Up or Walk the Plank

"The black day – with the red ink – arrived this week: America reached the limits of what it can borrow. But the world didn’t end, the economy didn’t grind to a halt, and the dollar didn’t collapse."

Drunken Sailors to Sober Up or Walk the Plank | The Weekly Standard

Ideological Underpinnings of the "Great Society"

By: Robert Higgs
From: Mises Daily

The surge of federal economic interventions that occurred during Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency — the much-ballyhooed Great Society, whose centerpiece was the War on Poverty — differed from the four preceding surges, each of which had been sparked by war or economic depression. No national emergency prevailed when Johnson took office following John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. The nation was not engaged in a major shooting war, and the economy was on the mend after the mild recession of 1960-61. For the most part, the Great Society represented simply the culmination of economic, political, and intellectual developments stretching back as far as the 19th century.

Read the entire article HERE.

Fiscal Fight

"In 1850, French economist Frederic Bastiat defined legalized plunder as forcibly taking the property of another through legislation so beneficiaries could live at the expense of others. Since mans nature is to avoid pain - and it is in the nature of some men to avoid labor by resorting to plunder - government should use its collective force to stop this fatal tendency. But Bastiat failed to see that it is man who runs government and it is mans nature to want to expand his power."

Fiscal fight could change Beltway culture - Washington Times

Mission Accomplished! Right?

Now that Osama Bin Laden is dead, can we please bring our troops home?

Not so fast! Bin Laden's body had yet to sink to the bottom of the sea before our 'leaders' began re-justifying their "War on Terror."

The "War on Terror," the "War on Drugs," and the "War on Poverty" are all un-winnable wars with unclear objectives. However, they do allow the Federal government to destroy personal liberty, ignore habeas corpus, torture, invade foreign countries, increase taxes, and pit one class against the other. Instead of "Just say no to drugs", let's "Just say no to unconstitutional wars."

Photo Credit: here

Sleepwalking Towards Disaster

"There is now, according to S&P, 'at least a one in three chance' that American debt will be downgraded from its top-notch status over the next two years – which would be a first in modern times."

America appears to be sleepwalking towards disaster – does no one care? - Telegraph

Fast Train to Nowhere

From the NY Times, a brief but illuminating history of railroads and "hothouse capitalism,” where government takes the risk and private investors take the profit.

Fast Train to Nowhere - NYTimes.com

The Nanny State Can’t Last

"Last week, Congress and the administration refused to seriously consider the problem of government spending. Despite the fear-mongering, a government shutdown would not have been as bad as claimed."

» The Nanny State Can’t Last Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

US Going Same Route as Greece, Portugal

"(We've had) forty years of political promises to give people certain entitlements, certain benefits. And we've now come to understand that the United States is in a very difficult position than it was in the early post-World War II period. We're not the dominant economy. And our pace of growth has moderated. Ourability to finance this is all limited."

US Deficit Spending: US Going Same Route as Greece, Portugal: Economist - CNBC

US Debt Crisis: Finding a Solution

"Veronique de Rugy explains that cutting spending is better for the economy in the long run, but there are a variety of possible plans that could balance the budget by the end of the decade.

“We don’t need to cut spending, just hold it steady, and automatically, you end up with the balanced budget by 2020,” said de Rugy.  “The real problem is the explosion of spending that happens after 2021.  You can have a balanced budget by 2020, and it will be balanced for 5 minutes.”"

US Debt Crisis: Finding a Solution | Mercatus

This Is Going to Hurt

"In the end, the only real way to bring the federal budget into long-term balance is to reform entitlement programs, as Ryan has proposed doing. But here again, the public is reluctant to support cuts. According to the most recent Gallup Poll, two-thirds of Americans oppose cutting Social Security benefits. Even self-professed supporters of the Tea Party oppose cutting Social Security by 2 – 1. Nearly as many voters, 61 percent, oppose cutting Medicare."

This Is Going to Hurt | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

Nick Gillespie Talks Government Debt

"Reason.tv editor in chief Nick Gillespie appeared on Freedom Watch to talk about government debt."

Nick Gillespie Talks Government Debt on Freedom Watch With Judge Napolitano - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Unsustainable Budget Threatens Nation

"The unsustainable long-run budget outlook is a growing threat to our well-being. Further stalemate and inaction would be irresponsible."

Opinion: Unsustainable budget threatens nation - 10 ex-chairs of the president's Council of Economic Advisers - POLITICO.com

To Increase Job Creation, Reduce Government Spending

"The combination of lower government spending and fewer regulatory burdens would increase the space in which the American people could discover opportunities to create mutually beneficial exchanges.  At the end of the day, those are the basis of economic activity, job creation, rising incomes, and an expanding tax base essential to restoring balance to federal, state and local budgets."

To Increase Job Creation, Reduce Government Spending - Charles Kadlec - Community of Liberty - Forbes

The Fiscal Illusion and How to Face It

"In this case, the sorry truth is that our savings aren’t worth as much as many of us think, and a rude awakening is coming. One way or another, some of our savings will be taxed away to make good on governmental commitments, like future Medicare benefits, which we currently are framing as personal free lunches."

The Fiscal Illusion and How to Face It - Economic View - NYTimes.com

White House Cuts the Budget....by 2%

The White House's proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year includes spending cuts of $1.1-trillion over 10 years (or $110B/yr). Two-thirds of this $1.1T (or $730B) are from spending cuts, the rest ($336B) is from projected revenue increases (which really isn't a spending cut at all is it?). Now for the easy math...

Current annual budget = $3.7T
(optimistically then, $37T over the next 10 years)

Proposed savings over these next 10 yrs = $730B

730,000,000,000 / 37,000,000,000,000 = .02 (or 2%)

Not really much to write home about....

See the article here.