Trump's New Budget Uses More Realistic Assumptions Than His Predecessors' Did
Trump's budget projects 10 straight years of 3 percent growth. If this forecast fails to materialize, it will make the budget deficits worse than projected.
Trump's budget projects 10 straight years of 3 percent growth. If this forecast fails to materialize, it will make the budget deficits worse than projected.
He's a free trader against dumping, a deficit hawk for Medicare expansion, and an anti-drug warrior who wants to imprison pharma execs.
The 2020 presidential candidate ran on spending cuts, troop withdrawls, and means-testing Social Security while primarying an incumbent Democrat 7 years ago.
Once you get past the rosy economic expectations, it's clear that Trump's budget is not a serious effort at fiscal restraint.
And the real outcome is likely to be worse, since the budget relies on overly rosy assumptions about future economic growth.
Beto O'Rourke-who won't call himself a "progressive," let alone a "democratic socialist"-is expected to jump into the presidential race.
A new report predicts Medicare spending will rise faster than private health care spending.
With the federal government $22 trillion in debt, Congress has decided to spend more money.
A new record, but one that won't stand for long.
From OMB head Mick Mulvaney to former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, nobody cares about spending money we don't have on things we don't need. Big mistake.
Or the $22 trillion (and counting) national debt. Or the entitlement programs that will continue adding to them.
Unless we make some big changes, things won't get much better.
How would you like it if nearby strangers could instantly access your credit score on their phones?
A year after the tax law, growth is up but tax revenue is down.
Proponents of jacking top marginal income tax rates such as AOC ignore how hard it is to actually boost revenue over the long haul.
You can't have it both ways.
Growth alone won't get us out of this mess.
The fight over PAYGO is about whether Democrats will pretend to care about the deficit.
Our fiscal problems aren't going away. In fact, they're getting worse.
Departing congressman warns against populism, "cult of personality," "post-truth" politics, and a government spending addiction that threatens to drive the American civilization "extinct."
Get ready for permanent low growth, a stifled entrepreneurial spirit, and high unemployment.
As long as Medicare, Social Security, and the Pentagon can't be touched, it's hard to believe the president has discovered his inner fiscal hawk.
By 2020, interest on the debt will cost more than Medicaid. By 2025, it will cost more than defense spending. And that's just the start.
You have come to the right place for CBO death porn.
At this rate we'll get there before the end of the century.
All we have to show for 9 years of economic expansion is record amounts of debt, and all long-term fiscal problems ignored.
Brian Riedl has a plan to stabilize the national debt at 95 percent of GDP. He says trying it might be political suicide, but the alternative is much worse.
The federal government spent $790 billion more than it taxed during fiscal year 2018. The deficit is about to get worse. Much worse.
"We consistently allow the government to develop…programs like this that sound really great on paper but have no practical benefit," Keith Bradford says.
In the long term, deficit-financed tax cuts would be a drag on the economy.
The passage of tax reform 2.0 blows a huge hole in the budget, and a much-touted opioid bill might just make the crisis worse.
At nearly every opportunity, the GOP has made the nation's fiscal outlook worse.
Reason's editors debate whether a single-source allegation from 35 years ago should be enough to derail a Supreme Court pick.
Trump planned to borrow heavily to fund his still unreleased infrastructure plan, even while the Republicans in Congress were making the deficit worse.
Calls to shrink the size, scope, and spending of government, or even balance its budget, have gone the way of the dodo bird. That's kind of a problem.
Just days after the latest CBO projections showed the deficit getting worse, Congress signs off on another bi-partisan spending increase.
The economy might be humming but when are we going to have to, you know, pay for the party already?
Plan would extend last year's tax cuts past 2025, but spending cuts are still missing.
One of the most lasting consequences of the Trump years will be Republicans' complete abdication of fiscal responsibility.
New CBO analysis shows debt could exceed 200 percent (!!!) of GDP by mid-century without changes.
GOP legislators released their "Tax Reform 2.0" proposal, which aims to make last year's tax cuts permanent, adding trillions to the $21 trillion debt.
The granting or withholding of that approval is a powerful lever over our lives.
The Reason Podcast crew covers deficits, tariffs, Russians, gender, and more.
Trump adviser Larry Kudlow says the tax law will bring the deficit down. An administration report shows that's not right.
Of course, June's deficit represents just a small fraction of our overall national debt.