The Post-Partisan Emporium

... And this is NOT ACCEPTABLE . With Plenty Of GOP Help, Senate Shoots Down Rand Paul's Balanced-Budget Resolution Every few years, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul puts forth a quixotic proposal to balance the federal budget.  It's not the financial math that makes it a daunting task, but rather Washington's bipartisan addiction to spending.  It predictably fails each time, but accomplishes two things in the process. First, it puts senators who've espoused fiscal discipline on the record as opposing it when the rubber meets the road. Second,  over time,   Paul's proposals illustrate the insidious effect of kicking the can down the road—as each new proposal requires bigger cuts to push Uncle Sam to breakeven. Paul's first such budget resolution, in 2011, didn't even cut spending. By merely  freezing  it for five years, the budget was projected to reach balance this year.  In 2018, Paul put forth his " Penny Plan ," which would balance the budget in fiv...

After Friday night's 11th-hour vote in the House resulted in the passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill - thanks to 13 uniparty Republicans who joined the Congressional Black Caucus in short-sheeting House Progressives - the Wall Street Journal and Forbes have published refreshers of what what America is supposedly getting out of the largest investment in infrastructure in more than a decade. From 10,000 feet, investments span refurbishing aging roads, bridges and ports, replacing lead pipes, upgrading and hardening the nation's power grid, and of course - a healthy investment in 'infrastructure' to battle the ever-looming man-made climate change disaster that we're told will turn coastal cities into a modern Atlantis. To help pay for the roughly $550 billion in new spending (nearly half is previously approved funding), more than $200 billion in unused coronavirus relief funds will be repurposed, along with $50 billion from a Trump-era rule on Medicare r...