Category Archives: U.S. Congress

Surprise! Money did not grow on trees

Debt and deficits, Politics, U.S. Congress

tax, taxes, debt, deficits, spending, trillion, State of the Union, deficit hawks, balanced budget amendment, Jonathan Bydlak, immigration, $98.8 trillion, $970 billionBy Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

There’s nothing more annoying than someone saying, “I told you so,” and it gives me no pleasure to do so. Well, maybe a little, but I’d much rather be wrong.

This bittersweet moment is inspired by March’s wholly foreseeable news that the federal government’s February budget deficit was the biggest ever for that month – $234 billion.

For the year, the Trump administration projects the deficit will be $1.09 trillion, a number last seen in 2012. (The Congressional Budget Office earlier projected $897 billion.) One trillion is about $3,300 for each of us, and it all will be added to the $22 trillion national debt. Your share of that amount is a little more than $67,000 – and growing by the minute.

In fact, the Trump administration projects $1 trillion deficits for each of the next four years, but even that may be a rosy scenario. Now that we’ve reached this plateau, there’s no plan to bring us down.

Last year’s deficit was $779 billion, which was bad enough. So how’d we get from there to here? Continue reading Surprise! Money did not grow on trees →

No State of the Union? Who would miss it?

Politics, U.S. Congress

Shutdown, impeach, Ryan, No Labels, SOTUBy Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

It just keeps getting worse and worse. That was my initial reaction after reading in the newspaper that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had blocked President Trump from giving the State of the Union address because of their disagreement over the government shutdown.

Upon further reflection: If it doesn’t happen, will anyone really miss it?

If the SOTU were an annual description of national challenges and solutions, it would be worthwhile. Instead, it is boring and pointless political theater.

Year after year, Americans are subjected to the same show. The president makes his way through the crowded aisles. He offers a laundry list of policy proposals, most of which have no chance of passing and often serve mostly to satisfy his base or some political interest group. His party’s members interrupt constantly with standing ovations while the opposing party’s members sit stone-faced. Then the opposing party gets its own speech.

That’s an hour-and-a-half we never get back, and of course it must be followed by pundits – which I guess I’m one – telling us what it all means.

It doesn’t have to be this way, and it wasn’t for much of the nation’s history. Continue reading No State of the Union? Who would miss it? →

Time for America to fake a punt?

Politics, U.S. Congress

NFLBy Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

The 13-3 New Orleans Saints arguably were the best team in football this season – certainly better than the 9-7 Philadelphia Eagles, but they weren’t better than the Eagles during the first quarter last Sunday.

In their playoff matchup, the Eagles jumped out to a 14-0 lead. New Orleans couldn’t stop them or get anything started. Head Coach Sean Payton had to do something to Make the Saints Great Again.

And so, early in the second quarter, Payton called for a fake punt on fourth-and-1 from the New Orleans 30-yard-line. The Saints picked up four yards and scored a touchdown on that drive. They won, 20-14.

Payton knew he had to do something to shake things up, even though failure would have given the ball back to the Eagles with another score within reach. The momentum was all on the Eagles’ side. It wasn’t a crazy gamble; the backup quarterback who took the snap had the authority to call off the fake punt if he didn’t like the defensive alignment. It was a controlled risk, but a risk nonetheless.

Sports-to-politics analogies are overused by newspaper columnists, but let’s go with this one.  Continue reading Time for America to fake a punt? →

What’s different about this $1 trillion?

Debt and deficits, Politics, U.S. Congress

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Winter has arrived, and squirrels everywhere have enough to eat because they stored up food when it was more available in the warmer months.

We could learn a lot from those little rodent-sized brains. Instead of squirreling away our savings, we pig out on today’s and tomorrow’s resources.

This year, the federal government will run a deficit of about $970 billion, or 4.6 percent of the gross domestic product, despite a warm-weather economy that has been expanding for almost a decade. As a recent headline by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told us, “The deficit has never been this high when the economy was this strong.” Continue reading What’s different about this $1 trillion? →