Budget Battles
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How Congress Cheats with Our Money — and How We Can Stop It
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April Is Financial Literacy Month. Someone Tell Congress.
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When the Budget Won’t Balance, Just Get Rid of the Budget Committee?
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With Recent Laws, Congress Has Added $540 Billion to the 2019 Deficit
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Why Trillion-Dollar Deficits Matter
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Paul Ryan's Fiscal Legacy: Lots of Red Ink
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Why Almost No One Is Happy About This Week's Balanced Budget Amendment Vote
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How Congress Cheats with Our Money — and How We Can Stop It
By Marc Goldwein and Zach MollerThe U.S. is on course to top its record debt levels set after World War II, and permanent trillion-dollar deficits — meaning, forever — are likely to return within two years . And unlike after World...
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Will Work for Food? Republicans Push Stricter Rules for SNAP
By Michael RaineyFunding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps, is provided in the farm bill, a massive spending and regulatory package Congress passes every...
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April Is Financial Literacy Month. Someone Tell Congress.
By Joseph J. Minarik and Caroline L. FergusonFebruary is Black History Month, March is National Women’s Month, and April? Well, it’s Financial Literacy Month, of course! The U.S. government gave financial literacy its own month in 2003. April...
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Why All the Warnings About Unsustainable National Debt Could Be Wrong
By Michael RaineyInternational economists are warning about rising global debt levels and deficit hawks in Washington are increasingly worried about what they see as unsustainable debt levels in the U.S., but a new...
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The US Has an Exceptional Debt Outlook – and Not in a Good Way
By Michael RaineyThe International Money Fund’s latest global fiscal survey warns that in five years, the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio will be higher than Italy’s, a nation not generally known for its exemplary fiscal...
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Why More School Districts Are Holding Class Just Four Days a Week
By Sophie Quinton, StatelineThe public school in Campo, Colorado, hasn’t required all its students to come to class on Fridays for nearly two decades. The 44-student district dropped a weekday to boost attendance and better...
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When the Budget Won’t Balance, Just Get Rid of the Budget Committee?
By Michael RaineyIt may sound like a joke — Erik Sherman of Forbes said it seemed like something “from The Onion or Andy Borowitz at the New Yorker, only with less humor and pith” — but Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), chair...
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With Recent Laws, Congress Has Added $540 Billion to the 2019 Deficit
Spending hikes and tax cuts passed since 2015 under the Trump and Obama administrations account for $540 billion of next year’s projected $981 billion budget deficit, or 55 percent, according to...
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F-35 Deliveries Halted Over Repair Bill
By Michael RaineyThe F-35 Lightning II has yet to fire a shot in anger but the Pentagon is already arguing with manufacturer Lockheed Martin over a big repair bill. The Defense Department has stopped accepting most...
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This State's a Big Winner When It Comes to Defense Spending
By Michael RaineySpending on huge weapons programs like the F-35, which has an estimated lifetime cost of more than $1 trillion, is carefully spread around the country to maximize its economic impact – and to make it...
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Why Almost No One Is Happy About This Week's Balanced Budget Amendment Vote
The House is set to consider a Balanced Budget Amendment on Thursday, but the vote looks like an empty messaging exercise at best — The Washington Post’s Tory Newmyer called it a pantomime of fiscal...
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Yellen, Democratic Economists Say Fixing Debt Crisis Isn’t All About Entitlements
Late last month, a quintet of big-name Hoover Institution economists warned in a Washington Post op-ed that a coming “string of perpetually rising trillion-dollar-plus deficits” could soon lead to a...
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The Era of Permanent $1 Trillion Deficits Will Start in 2020, CBO Says
The Republican tax plan and increased government spending will provide a temporary boost to the economy but sharply increase the federal deficit, sending it above $1 trillion a year in 2020, two...
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Congress Was Hoping to Ride the Tax Cuts to the Election, but Trump May Have Other Plans
Now that Congress’ spring break is over, Republican lawmakers back in Washington are facing pressure from the White House to tackle some big items on President Trump’s agenda, even as many of them...
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Trump Discussed Rolling Back Part of $1.3 Trillion Spending Deal
By YLAN Q. MUI, CNBCPresident Donald Trump spoke with Republican leadership this week about the possibility of rolling back part of the $1.3 trillion government spending bill that he signed into law less than two weeks...