entitlements

Paul Ryan unveils the House Republican budget proposal Tuesday, as Illinois Republican primary voters go to the polls. I dare say the Ryan budget will be much the more consequential of the two events, and that victory or defeat in the intellectual and political battle over Paul Ryan’s budget will have more effect on the Republican nominee’s fate in November than the results in Illinois.

Michael Barone: "Obama kicks can down road on Iran, entitlements"

John Podhoretz: "Doubt dogging Romney"

Friday afternoon at the Dublin School in Dublin, New Hampshire, Rick Santorum offered a preview of his own general election argument against President Barack Obama.

Jake Tapper: "Gingrich Tells ABC News: ‘I’m Going to Be The Nominee’"

GOP.com: "One Year Ago, Obama’s Fiscal Commission Finished Their Work And Obama Has Spent The Time Since Pretending It Never Exisited" 

During Tuesday night’s debate, Michele Bachmann twice said that the federal government is spending about “40 percent more” than what it takes in. If only we were in that good of shape.

Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Paul Ryan responded to Standard & Poor’s downgrading of America’s long-term debt by explaining to host Chris Wallace that Republicans in the House “passed a budget, which according to somebody from S&P yesterday, would have prevented this downgrade from happening in the first place.” America’s credit rating was downgraded to AA+ Friday night from AAA, the highest rating given out by the New York-based agency.

In today's Washington Post, Robert Samuelson argues that it was liberal protectors of the entitlements, not the Tea Party, that "won" the most in last week's debt deal. The military, he says, was the real loser:

Max Boot makes the compelling case that "Cutting Defense Spending Could Hasten America’s Decline as a World Power."

The Heritage Foundation has created a useful chart, showing that even if military spending were completely eliminated, the U.S. would still face major financial problems:

Politico: "Biden: Tea partiers like 'terrorists'"

Keith Hennessey: "Quick summary of the Budget Control Act"

Paul Krugman: Suddenly, Default Doesn't Seem So Bad

New Yorker: "Getting Bin Laden"

On Tuesday night, the House of Representatives voted to increase the debt ceiling in exchange for cutting, capping, and balancing the out of control spending that has left us $14.5 trillion in debt.

The problem with socialists, according to Margaret Thatcher, is that “they always run out of other people’s money.” We haven’t hit that point just yet, but we have hit our nation’s legal credit limit of $14.3 trillion. To avoid defaulting on our loans, policymakers must raise that limit.