Big Government

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney took to the airwaves over the weekend to pour oil on the troubled congressional budget deal waters.

It looks like the federal government has avoided another shutdown, owing to an agreement that hikes spending over the next two years by roughly $300 billion. 

In these posts, we sometimes use the term "political class" to describe the men and women who are elected to, or are otherwise a permanent part of, our government. Some choose to use the term "ruling class," which is a phrase that conjures images of an elite that rules by right.

Remember the doomsday message that was mistakenly sent ot Hawaii residents in mid-January? We wrote that there needed to be accountability for what happened -- as in someone losing their job.

Official Washington is (slightly) abuzz about a leaked draft of the President's infrastructure plan.  Recall that the President promised a massive infrastructure program that would repair roads, bridges, ports, airports, and much more. What does the current draft say?

The recently passed tax reform law has been touted as putting billions of dollars back into the pockets of individual taxpayers, in addition to giving corporations tax relief that will help them create more economic growth.

The least consequential government shutdown we can recall may be near a resolution. All of the tiresome partisan fingerpointing and blame shifting aside, there are a few items to recall about shutdowns, none of them good:

The false alarm about an incoming ballistic missile that sent Hawaii residents scrambling for cover over the weekend still has state officials grasping for answers as to how things went so terribly wrong.

Congress loves to play Santa Claus. Dispensing gifts, in the form of legislation, is a time-honored custom of the nation's political class. That was especially so with earmarks, the pet projects congressmen would get funded, often in exchange for their votes on other legislation.