By Andrew P. Napolitano
The president's men trash the Constitution to pursue antagonists
The federal budget deficit will be nearly $1 trillion this year, our national debt is headed toward $17 trillion, Congress' approval polls are a dismal 13 percent, and our lawmakers are on a two-week spring break.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he asked Democrats to bring forth "a thoughtful budget" that tabled tax hikes and worked toward balancing spending with cutting. What he got, however, was a far cry from that.
Forget passing a Senate budget. Senate Democrats and Republicans can't even agree on basic numbers such as what it means to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion — a disagreement that underscored the difficulty of agreeing on a 10-year budget.
Budgeting has never been at the top of President Obama's list of priorities. For the fourth time in five years, the White House missed the statutory deadline Monday for submitting its annual spending blueprint to Congress. Mr. Obama isn't in a rush to let the world know that his intention is to keep spending the country into the red.
Congressional Republicans are preparing to let $85 billion in automatic spending cuts begin to bite March 1, saying they have become convinced that letting the "sequesters" take effect is the only way they will be able to wrangle real spending cuts from President Obama.
After more than three years, the Democrat-controlled Senate may bring forth a formal budget under the direction of its newly appointed Budget Committee Chairman, Sen. Patty Murray
House Republicans voiced displeasure with their leaders in a closed-door meeting Wednesday after some conservatives were kicked off plum committees this week in retaliation for bucking party leadership on big votes — and were met with warnings that others still could be punished.
Washington is abuzz over whether House Speaker John A. Boehner is purging conservatives from positions of power within his caucus. In a closed-door meeting Monday, Republican leaders stripped plum committee assignments from four outspoken advocates of limited government.
President Obama signed legislation Tuesday that affords greater protection to federal employees who expose fraud, waste and abuse in government operations.
Federal welfare spending has grown by 32 percent over the past four years, fattened by President Obama's stimulus spending and swelled by a growing number of Americans whose recession-depleted incomes now qualify them for public assistance, according to numbers released Thursday.
A month into his vice presidential candidacy, it's clear Rep. Paul Ryan has had an impact. What is yet to be determined is whether the Wisconsin Republican's impact helps or hurts the Romney ticket on Election Day.
Capping his meteoric rise to the heights of the Republican Party, Paul Ryan accepted the party's vice presidential nomination Wednesday, saying he considered it "a calling" at a time when the country needs to make tough decisions — and pledging that he and Mitt Romney won't shirk from them.
When Mitt Romney taps Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate on Saturday, he is picking someone who has already tangled toe-to-toe with President Obama on several occasions, and is prepared for the bruising battle ahead.
In a time of political and economic uncertainty, Americans are craving stability and solutions. They are certain the fiscal condition of the United States' government is abysmal, and corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars in cash owing to uncertainty about tax and regulatory policies.
The federal government broke its record deficit streak in April, notching its first monthly surplus since the end of the Bush administration, according to preliminary estimates released Monday.
