Principles Of Government

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(A) Articles are foundational content and (B) Articles are urgently important but may be replaced as they become dated

(A) Fiscal Policy

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    • Congress Once Constrained Government Debt A

    By John F. Cogan - Jan. 23, 2023 

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    By Judy Shelton – Entitlement programs have accounted for all the growth in federal spending relative to gross domestic product in the past 60 years, causing the persistent budget deficits during that period. Entitlement expenditures are determined differently from so-called discretionary programs. Spending on the latter programs is set by fixed appropriations of money. Entitlement expenditures aren’t fixed in advance but determined by the program’s level of benefits, its eligibility rules and economic factors. Jurisdiction for entitlement legislation is dispersed among more than a dozen committees in each congressional chamber….In this system, no committee is accountable for total spending. Each committee has a reason to expand its programs and resist attempts to restrain them, but none have an incentive to keep overall spending down. It’s analogous to the classic tragedy of the commons. Read More

    Paul Volcker’s Recipe for Prosperity A

    By Judy Shelton - Jan. 31, 2023

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    By Judy Shelton – Going back those 40 some years, we can draw lessons … about how to coordinate monetary and fiscal policy effectively. …The Reagan plan consisted of four parts: “(1) substantial reduction in the growth of federal expenditures, (2) significantly reduced federal tax rates, (3) prudent relief of federal regulatory burdens, and (4) a monetary policy on the part of the independent Federal Reserve System consistent with those policies.”…“The goal of this Administration is to nurture the strength and vitality of the American people by reducing the burdensome, intrusive role of the federal government; by lowering tax rates and cutting spending; and by providing incentives for individuals to work, to save, and to invest. It is our basic belief that only by reducing the growth of government can we increase the growth of the economy.” Read More

    A Plan to Save America’s Finances A

    By Paul Ryan - Nov. 16, 2022

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    By Paul Ryan – U.S. fiscal policy is on a collision course with monetary policy. The economic devastation resulting from a debt and currency crisis could inflict enormous—possibly irreparable—damage. Predicting precisely when a huge debt and high deficits will unleash economic disaster is difficult. The dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency gives the U.S. unique advantages, but no country can defy the laws of economic gravity forever. The U.S. has run up large budget deficits and debts before, but those moments of national emergency, such as world wars or global financial crises, were usually—at least until recently—followed by periods of fiscal repair. Read More

    What the Child Poverty Rate Is Missing AA

    By Phil Gramm and John Early - Sept. 20, 2022

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    By Phil Gramm and John Early – The Census Bureau fails to count two-thirds of all government transfer payments to households in the income numbers it uses to calculate not only poverty levels but also income inequality and income growth. In addition to not counting refundable tax credits, which are paid by checks from the U.S. Treasury, the official Census Bureau measure doesn’t count food stamps, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, rent subsidies, energy subsidies and health-insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. In total, benefits provided in more than 100 other federal, state and local transfer payments aren’t counted by the Census Bureau as income to the recipients. If the Census Bureau had included the missing $1.9 trillion in transfer payments, child poverty would have been only 3.2% in 2017, compared with the official rate of 17.5%. Government transfer payments that were distributed in 2017 had already cut child poverty by 82%. Read More

    Income Equality, Not Inequality, Is the Problem A

    By Phil Gramm and John Early - Aug. 29, 2022

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    By Phil Gramm and John Early – Real government transfer payments to the bottom 20% of household earners surged by 269% between 1967 and 2017, while middle-income households saw their real earnings after taxes rise by only 154% during the same period. That has largely equalized the income of the bottom 60% of Americans. This government-created equality has caused the labor-force participation rate to collapse among working-age people in low-income households and unleashed a populist realignment that is unraveling the coalition that has dominated American politics since the 1930s. Read More