Discretionary Programs News Today

Congress has pproved steady annual funding increases for VA opertions for more than 20 years.

Find out how a government shutdown could impact healthcare and federally funded programs, from Medicare to community health centers. Learn more about the potent

America’s biggest fiscal challenge lies in the unchecked growth of federal health care and old-age entitlement programs.

As another budget confrontation looms in September, some on Capitol Hill are already contending they cannot possibly meet the tight spending limits Congress faces in fiscal year (FY) 2014. Yet they could—if they are willing to seize the moment and eliminate a range of non-defense programs that the government should not be running, that it runs poorly, or that may be harmful to individuals and society. These long-overdue terminations would save $42 billion in the coming fiscal year—more than ...

The Atlantic Older Americans receive generous benefits, but the immigrants who support them receive little from the government. January 24, 2021 Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business Alicia Valeriano, originally from Mexico City, pictured at home in Freehold, New Jersey. Because she doesn’t have a Social Security number, her family did not qualify for aid under the CARES Act, even though she has paid taxes for 18 years.Ed Kashi / VII / Redux Some of the couples eligible for cor...

Bitter for the gop to follow because of sledgehammer approach cutting all discretionary programs including defense. on the eve of its taking effect the president slammed plan his own team had crafted. >> these cuts are not smart, they are not fair, they will hurt our economy. they will add hundreds of thousands of americans to the unemployment rolls. >> reporter: today as we all know sequestration is the law of the land. the only budget-cutting mechanism that managed to block congresss access to...

Exempt? got our attention. gerri willis, anchor of the "the willis report", good morning. >> good morning, bill. bill: is there a little end around here? >> these folks may be cutting off their nose to spite their face, because they will not be exempt, they can get cut, too. thats the way this thing is going to work, its going hit almost every federal program, mandatory programs, discretionary programs. the only programs exempt, social security, some of the programs for the poor, and theres one ...

I want you to take a listen to what senator jeff sessions said on our show yesterday about entitlements and discretionary spending. >> i have to tell you, almost every or dollar of that 1.5 trillion is not coming from entitlement shortfalls, but its coming from discretionary spending. entitlements are only slightly in deficit right now. theyll get worse in the out years. jenna: so we hear sometimes spite elements -- entitlements are the evil enemy, then we hear discretionary spending is the evil...

>> there is paygo. for discretionary programs, there are spending caps. lets look at paygo first. >> i have long been an advocate for paygo. if someone is going to propose a tax cut, they have to pay for it. if someone is going to propose an increase in mandatory spending, they have to find a way to pay for it. >> our fiscal challenge is too great to be solved with any one step alone. last week, i signed into law the pay-go bill. it says that the united states should pay as we go and live within...

So cut spending or raise taxes, both very unpopular choices in washington where there is an election cycle around every corner. the last time we cut the debt was in the 90s under former president clinton. that was the last time we actually had a budget surplus, and some say the economy was going in the right direction to help that along. the reason tough spending rules also require congress to pay for things as they go, also known as paygo. >> there are two different types of categories and budg...