Dominik Lett
@LettDominik
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Deficit Hawk | Kansan | Budget Policy Analyst @CatoInstitute
Washington, DC
Joined October 2022
🚨New Paper🚨 Congress has spent a whopping $15 trillion through the use of emergency designations since '91. That's comparable to the entire amount spent on Medicaid and veterans combined over the same period. It's also close to half the size of the national debt @CatoInstitute
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CBO revised tariff revenue projections down from last month. The estimated 11-year deficit reduction from tariffs (this assumes current rates stay in place) dropped from $4 trillion to $3 trillion. Note that CBO's estimates do not incorporate economic effects.
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A core pillar of modern American leftism is the belief that people have zero agency.
Telling people to "eat better and exercise" is cruel when industry engineers junk food to be addictive & we live in a fast food-ridden, un-walkable hellscape. Open free public diners / gyms in every zip code, then we can talk about personal responsibility https://t.co/WV9SHXUP2O
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JUST IN: A wild and extraordinary dissent from Judge Jerry Smith dissenting from the order that invalidated Texas’ map yesterday. Not sure I’ve ever seen one like it. https://t.co/tlAk83Be8h
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The review council still has time to include substantive reforms in its report that can improve the disaster process and return responsibility to the states. Don't hold your breath though... Read more in my article here: https://t.co/PJf1co6TnA
cato.org
Five reforms that strengthen the disaster process and save taxpayer dollars.
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Real reform looks like this (see pics). We need to get the government out of the way and rethink the disaster aid process from the bottom up. To their credit, the review council seems to be considering at least two of the policy reforms I highlight below.
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Trump has repeatedly said FEMA should be downsized, yet his own advisory council's tentative slate of reforms seems to be a direct rebuke of Trump's original vision. Renaming FEMA is PR BS and is NOT substantive reform. Excellent reporting from @maxinejoselow and @ssdance.
SCOOP: A council created by Trump has recommended that FEMA should not be eliminated. Earlier this year, Trump said the agency should "go away." w/ @ssdance
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Sadly the anti-market sophistry is accelerating in America Yes, his dad is worse off because of the cheaper alternative tree trimmer from Haiti. That's a negative for the dad. But that's not the entire accounting, is it... While James' dad is worse off, at least three other
My dad lost his business of 20 years to “legal” migrant labor from Haiti. He was a tree trimmer. Haitian migrants can’t exactly become SAT tutors, so they come and replace tree trimmers. American workers—like my dad—pay the price when cheap foreign labor floods our country.
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Leftists are often downwardly mobile children of successful parents, who use leftism to try to force their way into the elite they believe to be their birthright.
There's a lot of truth to this. Wherever we have data, we see this repeated: Communists tend to be downwardly mobile. They are, always and everywhere, disproportionately likely to be their generation's losers. Consider this Finnish data on the Red and White Guards:
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"This shutdown was as predictable as it was pointless," says Cato Institute’s @RominaBoccia. “If there's a silver lining to this government shutdown, it crystallizes that commercial functions like air traffic control and airport security screenings should be privatized.”
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Can confirm, the system basically works now. Randy Clarke is one of maybe five very competent public-sector leaders in the country.
Shorter waits, faster rides. In just three years, we’ve gone from 5% to 70% of Metrorail customers waiting less than six minutes for their train. 👍
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The proposed deal to end the shutdown and reopen the government is short-sighted because it does not rein in spending. It boosts spending and wipes out PAYGO rules designed to enforce fiscal discipline. Ending the shutdown will ease the pain for millions affected by Washington's
cato.org
Ending the shutdown is good for America. Ending the spend-now, reckon-later habit will be a much more difficult task, but a more essential one.
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Ending the shutdown is good for America. Ending the spend-now, reckon-later habit will be a much more difficult task, but a more essential one. Read my full @CatoInstitute blog post below: https://t.co/Vp4vjZ8i6G
cato.org
Ending the shutdown is good for America. Ending the spend-now, reckon-later habit will be a much more difficult task, but a more essential one.
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By waiving PAYGO, Congress has officially blessed the massive $3.4 trillion deficit impact of the OBBBA. https://t.co/Gcn82rb75h
🚨“Clean CR” Would Forgive $3.4 Trillion in Debt Congress is voting this week on a CR-Minibus appropriations bill. The package would extend temporary funding for nine appropriations bills and certain expiring programs until the end of January while providing full-year
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Congress also pulled its usual shenanigans, wiping clean the PAYGO scorecard—a statutory requirement to offset new borrowing from direct spending and revenues. https://t.co/RTP4pMadfF
Tonight the process of opening the govt begins, less chaos is a good thing but hidden deep in the swamp speak of the Republican bill will be a waiver of PAYGO the long-standing law requiring new spending to be offset with cuts. And so it goes, a trillion here a trillion there.
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Meanwhile, if the three full-year appropriations bills included in the deal are any indication, expect little in the way of real spending restraint come January. By and large, this deal maintains current spending habits or increases them.
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Should moderate Republicans end up caving to Democrats' demands to make the boosted Obamacare subsidies permanent, they'd be blowing a half-trillion-dollar hole in the budget. https://t.co/ohuhum9q5j
Six Reasons to Not Extend the Enhanced Obamacare Subsidies 🔴Costs almost half a trillion dollars 🔴Welfare for the well-off 🔴Subsidizes insurance companies, not patients 🔴Rampant enrollment fraud 🔴High cost for little patient value 🔴Temporary policy should stay temporary
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For those negatively impacted by Washington’s shutdown theatrics—from air travelers to SNAP beneficiaries—the deal is welcome relief from government-induced pain. However, the deal largely papers over the most difficult questions: full-year appropriations and Obamacare.
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In exchange, Dems have been promised a vote on expiring pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies. Dems also secured language reversing executive branch reductions-in-force (RIFs) that took place over the shutdown.
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Eight Senate Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with Senate Republicans to reopen the government. Ag, Veterans Affairs, military construction, and the legislative branch will receive full-year funding. Any remaining unfunded agencies will be temporarily funded through Jan 30.
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