• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About

Radio America Online News Bureau

spending

Breaking Down the Budget Battle

May 26, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/5-25-brat-blog.mp3

President Trump’s budget proposal for the coming fiscal year is coming under fierce criticism from Democrats and the media but a House Budget Committee member who spent 20 years as a college economics professor is impressed by Trump’s goals while warning that the president will need to address entitlement spending at some point.

The Trump administration released it’s $4 trillion budget proposal while Trump himself was overseas.  It calls for robust increases in national security spending while calling for considerable cuts to various government departments.  Democrats have labeled the budget as cruel and likely to cause children to die.  Republicans warn the final appropriations bills probably won’t look much like the Trump plan.

Rep. Dave Brat, R-Virginia, spent 20 years as an economics professor at Randolph Macon College.  He believes Trump is generally on the right track.

“Overall, I’m impressed,  It’s got the big pieces in the right place,” said Brat.  “The major piece I like is the policy aimed at getting three percent growth.  That will solve a lot of problems going forward,” said Brat, while praising the policies Trump is clearly emphasizing in the budget.

“It pluses up the military.  It tries to clean out the swamp.  It reduces some bureaucracy.  It balances in 10 years.  All of these are good conservative policies,” said Brat.

Brat says the Trump plan is a great improvement over what the Democrats are proposing.  In fact, he says they have no solutions at all.

“As a visionary document, we’re moving in the right direction.  Across the aisle on the Democrat side, they haven’t even ever put forward a budget that balances, not even in a 75-year window,” said Brat.

Brat and other Republicans admit getting what they want in the appropriations process won’t be easy since Senate rules require at least eight Democrats to approve any spending bills.  But while Democrats can gum up the process, Brat is acutely aware that voters will not accept failure when it comes to fiscal discipline.

“We should compromise but we shouldn’t give away the store.  In my view, the other side has given away the store too often.  On our side, we need to clean up some of this, rearrange the (entitlement) programs so the kids get sustained benefits over their lifetimes.  We’ve got to get the economy moving and some of that requires discipline,” said Brat.

“So our side gets hit hard but we need to step up to the plate and take it.  That’s our job and the American people expect us to get it straight,” said Brat.

But what about Democrats alleging children will die as a result of the Trump budget?  That allegation was especially targeted towards a proposed $800 billion in Medicaid cuts.  Brat says that’s dishonest reporting of the facts.

“The Democrats call them cuts.  They’re cuts from the baseline.  Medicaid still keeps increasing.  It just doesn’t increase at the pace it was going at, and that pace is bankrupting the country,” said Brat.  “Lot of politics going on right now but not much substance offered by the other side.  They’re great at hurling the insults but they’re short on the economic studies,” said Brat.

He also says White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney made it very clear how he want about finding places to cut in the Fiscal 2018 budget.

“He said, ‘Look, there’s no mystery.  It’s just like running a business.  You look at each of these programs one by one by one and you compare the benefits against the cost.’  He made it very clear the safety net is not in question,” said Brat.

Brat says Democrats and Republicans need to realize that calling for a trillion dollars in cuts is just the tip of the iceberg.

“Some on the left are giving us a hard time over trying to save a trillion dollars or so, but even if we save one trillion that leaves you with another hundred trillion dollar shortfall with Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, etc,” said Brat, who says failure to address the key entitlements will make 10-year spending cuts seem like loose change.

“Either you reform them and update them or else the kids get nothing.  The left is acting like ‘draconian’ cuts are going to hurt people.  Those cuts are nothing in comparison to the mandatory piece,” said Brat.

He says the clock is ticking loudly and time is short before entitlements engulf the entire budget.

“Those mandatory programs will account for 100 percent of all federal revenues in about 15 years.  That’s not a typo.  All federal revenues will be spent only on the mandatory.  That means there’s no money for the military, transportation, running government,” said Brat.

With that kind of looming fiscal crisis, Brat says the only path forward is to get every able-bodied adult into the workforce, and that’s where tax reform and tax cuts come in.  He says the demonizing of so-called supply side economics is bizarre.

“That term is used as a pejorative right now in D.C., supply-side tax cuts.  I taught economics for 20 years.  The demand side is all the people out there called consumers.  The supply side is also everybody out there that works for a living in business.  That’s the supply side,” said Brat.

He says it’s time for Washington to embrace the supply side again, since pumping up the demand side was a major flop.

“We’ve tried demand side stuff.  We’ve had bailouts, etc. that pumped money back into people’s pockets.  It gives you an instantaneous jolt, but if you’re serious about getting the economy growing you better incentivize business.  Trump probably won the election on that,” said Brat.

Brat believes doing tax cuts and tax reform right will set the stage for economic growth, which is the best hope for avoiding fiscal disaster in the near future.  He says tax cuts give businesses reason to hire, thereby beefing up the labor participation rate and bringing in more federal revenues through taxes.

“If we solve that one it’s huge,” said Brat.  “I think a lot of the worries go away if we get this economy rolling again.”

Standard Podcast [ 12:03 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: appropriations, Brat, budget, cuts, democrats, Medicaid, news, spending, taxes, Trump

DNC Admits Rigging Primary, GOP Flops on Spending, Trump’s Maybes

May 2, 2017 by GregC

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America get a kick out of the Democratic National Committee arguing in court that it can’t be sued for fraud because everyone knew the 2016 nomination process was rigged.  They also grumble at Republicans for giving the Democrats virtually everything they wanted on the latest spending bill.  And they express frustration with the media for running breathless headlines every time Pres. Trump says he’s considering something, but they also wonder what other things they could get Trump to publicly mull over.

Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: DNC, Martini, maybe, National, Republicans, Review, Sanders, spending, Trump

Shutdown Showdown

April 21, 2017 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/4-21-brandon-blog.mp3

Democrats are banding together in refusing to support any short-term spending measure that includes funding for a border wall, a move that could lead to a government shutdown in the near term and the implosion of the legislative filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

In December, the lame duck Congress and President Obama agreed on a spending bill to keep the federal government funded through April.  That means lawmakers must pass another continuing resolution next week to keep the government running.

And while fiscal conservatives like FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon expects Republicans to get tough on spending heading into Fiscal 2018, he says this legislation ought to be moved in order to make way for President Trump’s big ticket items.

“I don’t think any Republican is that interested in a shutdown, they’d rather kick the can and move some of these larger priorities,” said Brandon, referring specifically to health care and tax reform.

“You’re going to see the repeal of Obamacare coming back to a vote this week,” said Brandon.  “And then next week, I expect we’ll start hearing about fundamental tax reform,” he said.

But there’s a showdown already forming over this short term spending bill over whether to approve funding for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.  White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney says “elections have consequences” and the administration wants that funding in this bill.

Democrats claim Trump’s demand for that funding is a non-starter and is scuttling what they claim was excellent progress on a spending bill.  Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, R-N.Y., also feigned confusion over the request, noting that Trump repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for the wall.

Brandon says Democrats are refusing to deal, even when Republicans are offering to boost spending on their priorities in exchange for the border security funds.

“Republicans will come to the Democrats with an offer saying, ‘We’ll do this continuing resolution.  We’ll even give you some more money for some of your welfare stuff if you give us more money to build the border wall,” said Brandon.

He says if Democrats won’t play ball with an offer like that, this relatively minor spending debate could have major repercussions.

“This little CR debate could end up being one of the most important political debates for the next few years, if not decade, if not longer,” said Brandon.  “If Democrats balk at that deal and you start heading toward a shutdown, I wouldn’t be surprised if there would be an overhaul of Senate rules and a change in the parliamentary procedures.”

Yes, Brandon believes the intransigence of Democrats could lead to the obliteration of the legislative filibuster in the Senate.  And he says we should know within the next few days whether that option needs to be explored.

“Over this weekend is the test to see whether Democrats will mildly work with the Republicans or if they decide to shut the government down because you have eight or nine Democrats who can’t vote for a short, short continuing resolution.  That sends the signal that politics has changed.  If Republicans are going to move their legislative agenda, you might see a change in Senate rules,” said Brandon.

While Democrats and some in the media might paint Trump and Republicans at fault for an impasse on the spending bill, Brandon says the GOP approach to this standoff proves which party really refuses to budge.

“I’m the one who’s been told, as a conservative Republican I’m the one who won’t deal.  What I think is going to come out here is that Democrats decide, ‘We’re not going to deal.’  That means either that you’re going to have government that is absolutely paralyzed or you’re going to have to change some things so you can start moving some legislation,” said Brandon.

Brandon appears to welcome the idea, noting that if Democrats want to obstruct on a relatively minor issue, forcing the GOP to kill the filibuster would grease the skids for aggressive action on health care and tax reform.  He says drawing the line over one of Trump’s top campaign promises makes sense and could trigger wins for conservatives on major issues.

“Republicans need to do something on immigration and the border.  They’ve been screaming about it for so long, it has to get done.  They’ve been saying we’re going to do something on fundamental tax reform.  It has to get done.  You’ve got to grow the economy.  Finally, we been promising the American people for seven years we’re going to repeal Obamacare,” said Brandon.

“If you get all of those things done, this Trump presidency has been a success in the early part,” he added

Brandon says getting those things done is also key to the GOP having midterm success next year.

“Democrats will try to make the 2018 election based on a referendum on Trump.  I’d like to make the 2018 election a referendum on three or four percent economic growth,” said Brandon.

But while Brandon says the big ticket items are more important than fights over short-term spending provisions, he expects a robust Republican effort to rein in spending when it comes time to fund the government for Fiscal Year 2018.

“We’re $20 trillion debt.  It;s time to get that under control.  The way to do that is to hold the line.  You don’t add new spending and at the same time you grow the economy.  If you have two or three years of three and four percent growth, almost every one of our problems gets better,” said Brandon.

Standard Podcast [ 9:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: border, government, news, Schumer, shutdown, spending, Trump, wall

Three Martini Lunch 12/22/16

December 22, 2016 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/3-Martini-Lunch-12-22-16.mp3

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America groan as conservative House Republicans are reportedly prepared to be less demanding on reining in spending once Trump is in office.  They also shake their heads as more revelations suggest the Germans should have had the Berlin terrorist out of the country a long time ago.  And they discuss three hate crime allegations that turned out to be hoaxes – the latest in a series of fake news.

Standard Podcast [ 22:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: asylum, conservatives, crime, Germany, hate, hoaxes, Martini, National, Review, spending, Terrorism, Trump

Three Martini Lunch 12/6/16

December 6, 2016 by GregC

http://dateline.radioamerica.org/podcast/3-Martini-Lunch-12-6-16-1.mp3

Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America groan as Rush Limbaugh says Donald Trump’s trillion dollar infrastructure bill could be a big success – just like FDR.  They also get a kick out of Democrats getting really excited over the prospect of a 78-year-old Joe Biden running for president in 2020.  And Jim unloads on a “faithless elector” from Texas, who says he cannot cast a vote for Trump.

Standard Podcast [ 19:10 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Share

Filed Under: News & Politics, Podcasts Tagged With: Biden, elector, faithless, FDR, Limbaugh, Martini, National, Review, Rush, spending, Trump

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6

Primary Sidebar

Recent

  • DeSantis Right on Crime, Western Water Woes, Flunking Constitution 101
  • Iowa Chooses School Choice, Adams’ Border Complaints, Schiff’s Senate Run
  • McCarthy Rejects Schiff & Swalwell, Santos Plays Victim, Pence’s Classified Papers
  • Afghanistan Accountability, U.S. Arsenal Vanishing, Lightfoot’s Crime ‘Solution’
  • Dems Target Sinema, Klain Leaving White House, Tank Fight

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in