Unfunded liabilities such as pensions for public retirees can become a strain on any city or state. In California, we are seeing a situation which should serve as a warning. Taxpayers are on the hook for massive amounts.

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In an interview with Bloomberg News Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader McConnell called the skyrocketing federal deficit “disturbing.”

McConnell went so far as to say, “The single biggest disappointment of my time in Congress has been our failure to address the entitlement issue.”

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On Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul succeeded in blocking a vote on the so-called Budget Deal (which we discussed thusly Wednesday). In so doing, the federal government shut down at 12:01 AM.

An hour and a half later, the Senate invoked cloture, voted on the huge spending deal reached by both parties Wednesday...

Wednesday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Schumer announced the Senate had come to a budget agreement. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the deal “a significant bipartisan step forward.”

The agreement keeps the government open for six weeks and provides two years of massive spending hikes.

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As politics and media have continued to obsess about Ferguson, a very serious thing has occurred.

Our national debt topped $18 trillion dollars. That’s more than our GDP.

John Hinderaker of Powerline reports:

Federal Debt Soars to Over $18 Trillion

A year or so ago, the Democrats started telling us that the national debt was...

Any other “Bs” you can come up with regarding this?

Lawmakers unveil massive $1.1 trillion spending bill in bipartisan compromise:

Congressional negotiators unveiled a $1.1 trillion funding bill late Monday that would ease sharp spending cuts known as the sequester while providing fresh cash for new priorities, including President Obama’s push to expand...

Whether you should like it is a different question, but it will be law soon.

Via USA Today, Senate vote clears budget deal for passage this week:

The Senate on Tuesday cleared a key procedural hurdle for final passage...

I should have been more all over the budget deal reached between Paul Ryan and What’s-Her-Name-From-Way-Over-There.

I’ve been trying to understand both the details and the big picture. One thing I have noticed is that the mainstream media is loving it, REPUBLICAN SCHOOLYARD FIGHT! (Today’s ALL CAPS courtesy of Jim Geraghty.)

From Rick...

I just watched the press statements from Paul Ryan and Patty Murray.

The details are being described all around as “modest” and a time out. The key is that nothing much was accomplished as to the overall budget trajectory. There also was “sequester relief,” meaning that one of the only...

Rahm Emanuel, speaking soon after Obama took office in 2009, famously suggested that the Obama administration would not let a serious crisis — the Fall 2008 credit crisis — go to waste:

Republicans would do well to heed that advice, advice which Obama used to his advantage to push through the failed...

On the very short drive to work this morning, I heard an interview on local AM 870 radio with the Tompkins County town administrator.

The radio host kept trying to scare everyone about the Sequester cuts, repeatedly asking how it would affect people in Tompkins County.  The administrator couldn’t go t...

It is very frustrating to watch John Boehner and House Republicans twist themselves into contortions in a futile attempt to appease Obama.

Plan B failed before it was swallowed because Obama believes that he can shift the blame to Republicans based on the arbitrary deadline for taxes to rise.  There is no...

Locked in trillion dollar tax revenue increase.

Promises, promises on spending cuts.

According to the frequently wrong but always wonkish-proclaiming Ezra Klein, this is where the Boehner-Obama negotiations are heading:

Boehner offered to let tax rates rise for income over $1 million....

I am going to keep repeating The Christmas Strategy until someone in Republican circles listens:

I say call his bluff. If a deal which tackles deficits from both revenue and spending can be reached this month, great.

If not, pass a 90 day extension of current tax rates and whatever else is needed...

From DrewM at Ace of Spades HQ, What Does Let It Burn Mean? (h/t Hot Air), :

As one of the first, if not the first, people to say Let...

Sometimes I think we would be better off leaderless.  Senator: GOP could accept tax hikes on very rich:

There is a growing group of folks looking at this and realizing that we don’t have a lot of cards as it relates to the tax issue before year end,” [Tennessee Senator Bob] Corker...

When I read this line in Kurt Schlichter’s excellent post, A Lawyer’s Tips on Negotiating for Dummies and Congressional Republicans, I had to laugh:

Sound a bit, well, crazy? Unreasonable? Even scary? Good, because a skilled lawyer understands...