Radio America Online News Bureau

deficits

GOP Senate Majority in Reach, Our Spiraling Debt Crisis, CBS’s Self-Inflicted Wounds

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Listen to “GOP Senate Majority in Reach, Our Spiraling Debt Crisis, CBS’s Self-Inflicted Wounds” on Spreaker.

Join Jim and Greg as they discuss more good polling for incumbent GOP senators and two key challengers, the sobering facts and projections about our massive debt and deficits, and the no good, very bad week for CBS News.

First, they break down promising polling for incumbent GOP senators like Florida’s Rick Scott and Texas’ Ted Cruz, as well as key challenger Tim Sheehy’s growing lead over Democrat Sen. Jon Tester in Montana. The outlook for a Republican Senate majority in 2025 is improving.

Next, they groan as new numbers and projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show a $1.8 trillion deficit for this past fiscal year and an even bigger one expected for the year to come. The figures also show that just paying the interest on the debt cost taxpayers $892 billion in Fiscal Year 2024 and will be more than a trillion dollars next year. It’s unsustainable and neither party cares.

Finally, they chronicle the horrible week for CBS News. This includes network management chastising “CBS This Morning” Co-Host Tony Dokoupil for asking some tough questions of Ta-Nehisi Coates about his new book that’s very hostile towards Israel,  “60 Minutes” egregiously editing the interview with Kamala Harris, and network brass telling reporters not to say that Jerusalem is in Israel.

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Breaking Down Biden’s State of the Union

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Listen to “Breaking Down Biden’s State of the Union” on Spreaker.

We’ve had all good martinis and all crazy martinis this week. So it makes sense that Jim and Greg close the week with all bad martinis as they assess President Biden’s State of the Union address and the Republican response.
First, they note that Biden responded to criticism that he often comes off as low energy and mentally meandering by showing up angry, talking quickly, and turning the speech into more of a convention address than what the event is supposed to be. But Jim says if the Biden team was trying to invigorate the left-wing base, it may have helped him politically. They also highlight his inappropriate trash talking of the Supreme Court and his fiction over deficit spending.
Then, they take aim at Biden’s ill-conceived idea of building a pier on or near the Gaza coast to bring in humanitarian relief. And while Biden says there will be no American “boots on the ground,” if they’re anywhere close, this is a very bad idea. Jim also asserts that this move is simply Biden’s efforts to win back Muslim voters in Michigan.
Finally, they’re less than thrilled with the GOP performance on Thursday. They discuss the excellent content in the official response from Alabama Sen. Katie Britt but debate whether the emotional delivery was effective. Moreover, given the late start to the Biden speech, Jim suspects the nation’s opinion of the Republicans will be based more on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s disruptions of Biden than the actual response.

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Tax Cuts & Surpluses, Kindergarten-Level Cabinet Memo, Phillips’ Lonely Campaign Stop

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Listen to “Tax Cuts & Surpluses, Kindergarten-Level Cabinet Memo, Phillips’ Lonely Campaign Stop” on Spreaker.

Join Jim and Greg as they serve up martinis from Iowa and beyond.

First, Jim’s excellent reporting uncovers a major surplus for the Iowa government and how GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds is eyeing additional tax cuts. Meanwhile, the high taxing states like California, Maryland, New York, and Massachusetts are running significant deficits.

Then they roll their eyes at the kindergarten-level treatment White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients is forced to extend to cabinet secretaries. Zients is circulating a memo telling officials they need to tell someone if they will be unable to do their jobs for any stretch of time. But they also hammer Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin for making this embarrassing step necessary.

Finally, they have some fun with Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, after he hosts an event in New Hampshire that literally no voters bothered to attend.

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Calling Out Insane Spending, Who’s Really Coming to the Border? Politics of COVID Origins

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Listen to “Calling Out Insane Spending, Who’s Really Coming to the Border? Politics of COVID Origins” on Spreaker.

Jim and Greg cheer Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson for calling out the massive amount of deficit spending since the pandemic, how we don’t need the trillions more being pushed in Biden’s agenda, and how runaway inflation is a real danger.  He’s right, but will people listen after Republicans spent big when they had control?  They also react to a new report showing more than 33,000 people came to our southern border last month who were not from Central American countries.  And they shake their heads as NIH officials admit to Congress that the Biden administration never consulted with them before shutting down a State Department probe into the origins of the COVID pandemic.

 

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Congress Kicks Spending Can Down the Road Again

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Listen to “Congress Kicks Spending Can Down the Road Again” on Spreaker.

While the impeachment hearings attracted most of the news coverage on Capitol Hill this week, both the House and Senate agreed to a continuing resolution to keep the government funded until December 20.

But while shutdown theater was avoided for another month, Congress is yet again failing to go through an orderly appropriations process, by which congressional committees go line by line through spending bills for each department of government.

In recent years, regardless of which party controls the House and Senate, members have funded the government through continuing resolutions that temporarily keep spending levels intact or by voting on giant take-it-or-leave-it omnibus bills that give members no chance to make changes.  The omnibus bills invariably result in higher spending.

Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar says too often the Speaker of the House, whether Republican or Democrat, unilaterally decides what federal spending is going to look like.

“We have put way too much power into the hands of the speakers.  We need to have a process that’s generated from the members from their different committees.  The chairmen should be picked by members of the committees so they are beholden to the members, not beholden to leadership,” said Gosar, a member of the House Freedom Caucus.

On Thursday, before approving the continuing resolution, the U.S. Senate voted to table, or delay, Sen. Rand Paul’s push for the “Penny Plan,” which calls for eliminating one penny of each dollar in federal spending.  More than half of Senate Republicans voted to put off consideration of the plan.

Gosar is not surprised.

“A lot is said when your leader actually says, ‘Nobody loses office by spending money,'” said Gosar, apparently referring to Senate Majority Leader Mich McConnell.  “It shows people are not serious about the process here.”

Listen to the full podcast to hear more of Gosar’s ideas for returning to more responsible spending.  He also explains why he believed Republicans lost the majority in the House of Representatives because of their unfulfilled promises and not because of President Trump.

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Sanford Ends Campaign, Fight for Fiscal Sanity Continues

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Listen to “Sanford Ends Campaign, Fight for Fiscal Sanity Continues” on Spreaker.

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford ended his Republican presidential bid this week but he is more determined than ever to warn the nation of impending financial disaster.

Sanford challenged President Trump in the GOP presidential primary knowing full well his odds of winning were very low.  But he launched the bid anyway, seeing it as an opportunity to highlight the fiscal cliff our nation seems determined to fly off of.

So why is Sanford ending the campaign?

“All the oxygen was being sucked out of the room by impeachment, said Sanford, in an interview Radio America’s Greg Corombos.  “I’m not into wasting my time or anybody else’s.  It was a long shot.”

But Sanford still plans to play a leading role in getting America to pay attention to the nation’s debt and spending problems.  It comes at a time when the U.S. is running deficits nearing a trillion dollars under a Republican president.  Most Democrats running for president would greatly expand the role of government and the amount of money to be spent.

And don’t even get him started on plans for government-run health care.

“It’s financial insanity.  This is why I thought it was so important to try to raise my hand and say, ‘I can’t do this. I know I’m not going to become president but can we at least have a conversation about the fact that we’re literally walking off the plank financially?'” said Sanford.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Sanford explain what awaits younger generations if Washington doesn’t chart a different course, what approach is doable and would actually work, and what it will take for lawmakers to take the tough votes to rein in spending.

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Would A GOP House Actually Repeal Obamacare?

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Listen to “Would A GOP House Actually Repeal Obamacare?” on Spreaker.

Congress is currently engulfed in impeachment hearings, subpoenas, and talking points. But House Republicans say if they regain the majority in 2020, they will reduce the debt and repeal Obamacare.

Should they be believed this time?

Republicans made Obamacare repeal the centerpiece of their campaign messaging from 2010-2016.  After winning the House, the Senate, and the White House, Republicans tried to move on Obamacare.  Ultimately, GOP leaders did not push a straight repeal.  Instead they looked to repeal key mandates and make other reforms.  The legislation passed the House but died in the Senate.

The individual mandate was ultimately neutered in tax cut legislation, when the Republicans voted to fine people zero dollars for refusing to purchase health insurance.

However, costs are still rising and Americans are deeply frustrated with their coverage.  So would Republicans actually move to repeal Obamacare?  What other provisions ought to be part of any plan to remove Obamacare but still cover pre-existing conditions, bring down costs, and address other major concerns?

Greg Corombos asks Chris Jacobs, a longtime health policy expert and the author of “The Case Against Single-Payer.”

As Democratic presidential hopefuls argue about whether to pursue single-payer or keep private insurance but add a government-run public option, Jacobs explains why he believes those candidates are debating distinctions without a difference.  He reveals why a pubic option would also eventually lead us to government-run care.

Listen to the full podcast here.

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Tracking Your Tax Dollars

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Listen to “Tracking Your Tax Dollars” on Spreaker.

Over the first ten months of Fiscal Year 2019, the United States is running it’s largest deficit in history. Fiscal restraint was laughed out of Washington by both parties a long time ago, but what exactly is happening with your tax dollars?

OpentheBooks.com recently studied where nearly $170 billion from the Small Business Administration went over a five-year span.

In this podcast, OpentheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski details the questionable recipients of much of this money and how little of it went to mom and pop business owners struggling to survive.  But he also discusses one way in which the federal government is starting to crack down on spending.

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Remembering Rep. Walter Jones

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Listen to “Remembering Rep. Walter Jones” on Spreaker.

Longtime North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones died on Sunday and is being remembered for his fidelity to God, his constituents, and the Constitution.

Jones was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 as part of the Republican Revolution, but just two years after unsuccessfully running as a Democrat.

Mainstream media outlets are summing up Jones as the member who once wanted to rename french fries as “freedom fries” after French opposition to the war in Iraq but later recanted his support and became a fierce critic of overseas military operations without congressional authorization.

His aversion to deficit spending led him to oppose many spending bills pushed by Republican House leaders.  At one point, former House Speaker John Boehner stripped Jones of a plum committee assignment for bucking his party too often.

Former Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who is now president and CEO of the Heartland Institute, also lost a committee assignment for defying GOP leaders.  He calls Jones a “man of honor.”

“He stuck by his principles, which unfortunately is not a very common trait these days in many areas of politics,” said Huelskamp.

Huelskamp says Jones always focused on whom he was serving.

“There were two things he always focused on in representing.  One is to represent “them,” and that would be his constituents, and one is to represent Him.  That would be Jesus Christ.  He always kept “them and Him” in mind.

“Often times it was to the consternation of the Republican Party in Washington because he didn’t follow the party line,” said Huelskamp.

Huelskamp says his friend also had a deep reverence for the the document every lawmaker vows to defend.

“When he talked about the responsibilities of Congress, he wasn’t just talking about the House and Senate.  He was talking about what Walter Jones’ responsibilities are in the Constitution.  He took that to heart and was a fantastic member of Congress, particularly because of his commitment to his constitutional oath of office,” said Huelskamp.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Huelskamp discuss Jones’ change of heart on the Iraq War and other dust-ups with GOP leaders.

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Both Parties Ignoring Massive Debt & Waste

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Listen to “Both Parties Ignoring Massive Debt & Waste” on Spreaker.

President Trump never mentioned the national debt, the federal deficit. or wasteful spending in his State of the Union message, and Democrats also dodged the issues in their response.  A leading fiscal watchdog says that was a big mistake.

“I really think the president missed an opportunity here to take his own party to task on spending,” said Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and Founder of OpentheBooks.com.

Andrzejewski joined dozens of other conservative allies in taking out an ad in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, imploring Trump to address the issue.  The letter included many former lawmakers and public officials, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III.

The base of his party wants the president to hone the budget.  They want him to go after waste, fraud, corruption, and abuse,” said Andrzejewski.

Trump is hamstrung on the issue in multiple ways:  He refuses to reform entitlements and Democrats now control the U.S. House of Representatives.  Andrzejewski says the president is also facing stiff resistance within his own administration to his call for five percent spending cuts.

“We hear that the cabinet secretaries aren’t serious about the five percent cuts.  That’s the purpose of coming back to this topic to encourage the president to really make this a signature part of his administration,” said Andrzejewski.

Andrzejewski says Trump could also pressure Congress to cut way back on the $600 billion spent every year on grants.  Those grants include $1.4 to teach sex education to California prostitutes, and nearly a million dollars each for Cornell University to study where it hurts most to get stung by a bee and Harvard to breed pugilistic mice.

He also says taxpayers lost $136 billion on mistaken payments and that the average pay and benefits for a federal bureaucrat now exceeds $100,000.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Andrzejewski explain other bad habits in Washington that cost us money and how citizens must be the ones to demand better.

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