Budget and Deficit

It is time to rethink our goals and achievements—or lack thereof—with foreign aid.

As the national debt clock ticks away in Tampa, it forces us to begin to ask, what comes after "trillion."

With the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney’s companion on the Republican presidential ticket, it’s clear math will play a major role in the fall campaign. But who’s got the right math?

Romney’s bold pick of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan as Vice President makes it clear the 2012 election is about the country's financial future, and with Ryan on the ticket, President Obama will be dragged kicking and screaming into the Medicare reform debate.

In a normal election year, Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst would have coasted to a Republican senatorial nomination victory.  But this is not a normal election year, and Texans are sending Washington a warning.

What dissenting governors—as well as many others—want is more flexibility to address the problems of the uninsured in creative ways.

In reaction to Gov. Rick Perry's declaration Monday that Texas should decline to expand Medicaid and leave creation of a health insurance exchange to the federal government, Dr. Merrill Matthews is quoted by Dallas Morning News reporter Robert Garrett that if enough states push back, maybe they can get the flexibility to try and actually fix the broken Medicaid system. 

The "Penny Plan" does what everyone knows needs to be done—sets the federal government’s fiscal house in order and restrains government to a reasonable share of GDP.

Criminals scam Medicare and Medicaid — and taxpayers — out of billions of dollars a year; the federal government is addressing the problem, but too slow and too late.

For the third time, the chief actuary has released an alternative (read: realistic) scenario for Medicare’s future budget. Although unprecedented, somebody has to tell the truth.