Blogs

According to a new report to Congress, a record 72.6 million Americans enrolled in Medicaid for at least a month in 2012.  That's just shy of one-in-four of the 314.3 million total population as reported by the Census Bureau.  

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Just two months into FY 2013, the government has racked up nearly $300 billion of red ink – nearly $5 billion per day of deficit spending – a virtual guarantee of the fifth consecutive year of deficit spending in excess of a trillion dollars.  With the economy barely expanding, the federal government is spending 4 percent more than the FY 2012 level.  Spending on the big three entitlement programs is up by more than 8 percent over just last year.  Interest on the debt is up 5%. 
 

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At times, it feels like we are all being overwhelmed with statistics. Each and every day brings a new report that we're told contains the most important indicator of where we stand as a country. Many of these reports are important and we should absorb the information they contain if we are to be thinking Americans who act based on facts – not feelings.  

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Make sense of this if you can.  On the very day that the Labor Department released the June jobs report showing the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2% and new jobs for the month was an anemic 18,000, Nancy Pelosi says that whatever Congress and the White House finally agree on to reduce the deficit, it must "not harm our economic growth." 

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Editor's note:  Politico.com asked me if "closing tax loopholes" as proposed by Barack Obama to raise revenue amount to a tax increase?  My answer is below and can also be found in the Arena on their website.

Whatever a politician chooses to call it, when the government takes more money from a business or and individual, it is a tax increase. Additionally, how can government - even a president - determine what is a "fair" portion to confiscate of income earned by someone else? 

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