Venango County Tea Party Patriots

A non-partisan, non-profit, non-member, association dedicated to educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free market economics, and all other lawful activities.

budget

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Budget Deal Not So Sweet

Many had high hopes that the first budget conference in four years would make a substantial down payment [1] toward fixing the U.S. spending and debt crisis. The new “Bipartisan Budget Act [2]” thoroughly disappoints. While we dig through the details for a more complete assessment, here are three key facts on the sour deal:

1. It busts through supposed spending “caps.”

2. It taxes and spends.

3. It spends now and delays savings till later.

The budget conferees failed to make substantive reforms to the real drivers of spending and debt: the entitlement programs. Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) forged a deal that would increase spending immediately, while delaying deficit reduction till later and trading spending cuts for more revenue. Far from simply being another missed opportunity, this deal keeps the nation on its fiscal collision course.

Read more.

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Governor Corbett’s Budget

Governor Corbett’s fiscal year 2013-14 budget proposal includes a tax reform package aimed at “improving Pennsylvania’s tax climate by reducing tax burdens that inhibit job creation and economic growth.”

The centerpiece of this proposal is a long-term reduction in the corporate income tax rate, reducing the rate from 9.99% to 6.99% between 2015 and 2025.  This tax reform package also includes a number of minor, short-term tax policy revenue changes.

This policy brief utilizes PA-STAMP to estimate the impact of Gov. Corbett’s proposed tax reform package.  Accordingly, by 2017-18, these reforms (compared with current policy) would result in — read more.

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Budget Chair Ryan: “I Think the Sequester is Going to Happen”

Under recently passed legislation, Congress has until March 1 to agree on deficit reduction, and if it doesn’t, the Defense Department will be forced to cut $55 billion every year through 2021, and the same amount ($55 billion) automatically would be cut in non-defense spending.

“Don’t forget one other thing,” Ryan said. “We passed legislation — I wrote it and passed it in the House twice to replace those sequesters with cuts in other areas of government. So we’ve shown precisely how we should protect defense spending by cutting spending in other areas. And, by the way, in our budget last year, we did take money out of Defense, just not nearly as much as the president seems to want to.

“We think these sequesters will happen because the Democrats have opposed our efforts to replace those with others, and they’ve offered no alternatives.”

Democrats and President Obama insist that any deficit reduction must include higher taxes.

Read more.