President Barack Obama's budget would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade, more than four times the deficits of Republican George W. Bush's presidency, congressional auditors said Friday. ...more

March 20, 2009

In his March 13 letter, Peter Stathis accuses me of saying deficit spending is bad when Republicans do it, but OK when President Barack Obama does it. Not true. ...more

March 15, 2009

This past Wednesday I read with interest the letter from Dallas Dunlap, and halfway through it I was struck by something he said: "Complaints about pork and rising deficits miss the point. To the economy, it doesn't much matter how the money is spent." ...more

March 13, 2009

Where's The Outrage? I am amazed and appalled by the degree of passive public acceptance that has greeted the so-called stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed this week. ...more

February 21, 2009

The stimulus package is a terrible piece of necessary legislation. Its flaws are gaudily obvious. The bill was written in monopartisan secrecy, weighed down by irrelevant spending, considered in a rushed, uninformed debate and passed on a party-line vote. The law contains provisions that seem to weaken welfare reform and invite trade disputes. ...more

February 19, 2009

By any normal political standards, last week's congressional agreement on an economic stimulus package was a great victory for President Barack Obama. He got more or less what he asked for: almost $800 billion to rescue the economy, with most of the money allocated to spending rather than tax cuts. Break out the champagne! ...more

February 15, 2009

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed an economic stimulus bill that would cost the American taxpayer $819 billion - enough to give every man, woman, and child almost $2,700. This would be the most expensive spending bill in history, costing more than the equivalent cost of the New Deal, the Marshall Plan and the Louisiana Purchase combined. ...more

February 11, 2009

An $838 billion economic stimulus bill backed by the White House survived a key test vote in the Senate Monday despite strong Republican opposition, and Democratic leaders vowed to deliver legislation for President Barack Obama's signature within a few days. ...more

February 9, 2009

A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old cliches about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts. ...more

February 7, 2009

Does Washington really need to do this? Many economists from across the ideological spectrum say yes, although an increasingly vocal group of free-market thinkers says no. ...more

February 2, 2009