Budget Battles
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Trouble Ahead for Space Force
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$733 Billion? $700? $750? Trump Sows Confusion on Defense Spending
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Why a Shutdown Really Could Happen Right Before Christmas
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Trump Suddenly Wants Billions More for Defense: Report
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How Much Would a Federal Jobs Guarantee Cost?
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Shutdown Watch: Congress Passes Stopgap Deal, Postponing Wall Fight
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Trump, After Boosting Military Budget, Calls It ‘Crazy!’
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CBO Offers 121 Ways to Shrink the Deficit
By The Fiscal Times StaffThe Congressional Budget Office has released a 326-page guide that describes dozens of ways the federal government could reduce its large and growing budget deficit. The 121 policy options included...
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Moody’s Warns of Declining US Fiscal Strength
By The Fiscal Times StaffTrump’s tax cuts combined with a slowing economy will diminish the United States’ “fiscal strength” over the next 10 years, Moody’s Investor Service said Wednesday. The gradual decline could pressure...
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3 Ideas for Fixing Social Security
Social Security’s trustees reported earlier this year that the program will spend more than it collects in 2018 , requiring it to tap into its $2.9 trillion trust fund to cover benefit payments. It’s...
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Transfer Payments Hit $3 Trillion Annual Pace
By The Fiscal Times StaffTotal government transfers reached $3 trillion on an annualized basis for the first time in September, according to data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Monday. Transfer payments include...
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Democrats Take Aim at Republicans on Entitlement Cuts
By Michael RaineyDemocrats have a new sledgehammer of a study they can use in trying to link Republican tax cuts and proposed cuts to Medicare, Social Security and other social welfare programs. A report released...
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McConnell: Entitlement Cuts Probably Won’t Happen Under Trump
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) unleashed a storm of Democratic criticism earlier this week by telling Bloomberg News that rising deficits and debt are driven by Social Security,...
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Mitch McConnell on Rising Deficit: ‘It’s Not a Republican Problem'
The quotes: “It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem. It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the...
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A Fiscal Hawk’s New Plan to ‘Avert a Debt Crisis’
The national debt rose by more than $1 trillion in fiscal 2018, and yet lawmakers have evinced little concern about it ahead of this year’s elections, instead pushing tax cuts and spending increases...
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How GOP Rhetoric on Entitlements Has Changed
By The Fiscal Times StaffThe Washington Post’s David Weigel describes how Republicans have changed their tune on Medicare and, for this year at least, largely abandoned the idea of entitlement reform: “[O]ver eight years,...
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Kudlow: ‘I Don’t Buy’ That Tax Cuts Boosted Deficit
Larry Kudlow is at it again. Speaking at the Economic Club of New York, the top economic adviser to President Trump said that, while the administration is looking to cut federal spending — including...
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Social Security Pulled 27 Million People Out of Poverty in 2017
By Michael RaineySince 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau has produced a more sophisticated measure of poverty that, among other things, includes the income effects of government assistance programs such as Social Security...
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‘Things Are So Much Worse’ – but Does Anyone Care About the Deficit?
As we told you yesterday , the Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the deficit for the first 11 months of fiscal 2018 totaled $895 billion, or $222 billion more than it was over the...
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Social Security’s Troubling Trend
By The Fiscal Times StaffUnequal gains in life expectancy over the last half-century between Americans with greater earnings and education and those of lower socioeconomic status mean that the benefits of Social Security are...
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Trump Says He Made Social Security, Medicare Stronger. Fact-Checker Says False.
By The Fiscal Times StaffPresident Trump said this week that "Democrats want to destroy Medicare. If you look at what they’re doing, they’re going to destroy Medicare. And we will save it. We will keep it going. We’re making...
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Happy Birthday, Social Security!
By Michael RaineyPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law 83 years ago today, August 14, 1935. Here are some key facts about the program, courtesy of the Center on Budget and Policy...