The Debt
  • The Debt

Budget Battles

  • Dome of the U.S. Capitol Building

    Why Big Deficits Are Here to Stay (for Now)

    By Michael Rainey

    From billions in income supplements for households to trillions in guaranteed loans for businesses, fiscal policy has taken a central role in the government’s response to the Covid recession...

  • The American Flag flies at the U.S. Capitol Building, as Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a State of Emergency due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on Capitol Hill in Washington

    Cost of Interest on National Debt Falls Despite Surging Deficit: CBO

    By Michael Rainey

    The federal government estimates that it has paid billions of dollars less in interest on the national debt in the 2020 fiscal year, despite an increase in the size of the national debt on an annual...

  • Deficit Tops $3 Trillion in 2020: CBO

    By Michael Rainey

    The federal budget deficit rose to a record-breaking $3.1 trillion in fiscal year 2020, according to estimates released by the Congressional Budget Office Thursday. Even before the coronavirus crisis...

  • District of Columbia

    Both Trump and Biden Plans Would Push Debt Higher: CRFB

    By The Fiscal Times Staff

    Each set of proposals laid out in the campaigns of President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden would increase the national debt by about $5 trillion over a decade, according to a new analysis...

  • ‘Doomed to Fail’: Why a $4 Trillion Bailout May Not Be Enough

    By Michael Rainey

    The roughly $4 trillion spent in response to the coronavirus pandemic has become the costliest economic rescue effort in U.S. history, surpassing even the staggering cost of 18 years of war in...