America's Long-Term Debt Crisis Is Now a Short-Term Problem
Even in a healthy economy, rising debt and deficits posed challenges. The current crisis has magnified those problems.
Fiscal policy
Budget Deficit Now Expected To Near $4 Trillion This Year
And more coronavirus stimulus spending could send that number soaring higher.
Tyler Cowen Thinks Coronavirus Could Be This Generation's World War II
The Mercatus economist on why the private sector could provide the best response to the coronavirus, why the government should go big anyway, and how the current crisis could help America reinvent itself.
Mark Sanford Still Cares About Spending
The Republican presidential candidate sells his fiscal conservatism to Trevor Noah.
Mitch McConnell Predicted the GOP Tax Cut Would Raise Revenue and Reduce the Deficit. Nope.
A year after the tax law, growth is up but tax revenue is down.
Donald Trump's Libertarian Christmas?: Podcast
Reason editors' best and worst moments of 2018, including the president's welcome and long-overdue drawdown from Afghanistan
Trump Has Exposed the GOP's Shallowness on Fiscal Restraint and Free Markets
He's made the party's economic agenda an extension of the culture wars.
Trumpism's Enduring Legacy to the GOP will be a Relentless Culture War
The party's commitment to fiscal restraint and limited government have vanished
Did We Get the Tea Party Wrong?: Podcast
An autopsy for the brief limited-government era of conservatism that ended on Friday
Tax Bill Mixes Very Encouraging Developments With Very Disappointing Ones
The GOP would be on higher ground if it stood on principle for a tax code that treats everyone the same.
Trump's Half-Baked Budget
Its projection relies on giddy GDP growth estimates that few credible economists, liberal or conservative, take seriously.
National Endowment for the Arts
We Can't Cut the NEH, New York Times Columnist Says, Because Books Are Important
Nicholas Kristof conflates the fate of federal subsidies with the fate of the humanities.
National Endowment for the Arts
Think of the Children Before Scrapping the NEA, Says Mike Huckabee
The former Arkansas governor argues that federal subsidies for the arts are "essential," because creativity.
Donald Trump's Fantasy World (Reason Podcast)
Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Matt Welch talk deficits, Chuck Berry, Gorsuch, and the Bezos bot.
The NEA Today, Entitlements Tomorrow
Is the OMB's kill list a sign of fiscal seriousness or the opposite?
Gary Johnson Calls "Horseshit" On Reports That He Doubled Debt As N.M. Governor
During PBS debate with Green Party candidate Jill Stein, the Libertarian candidate shows his fangs.
7 Issues That Won't Be Treated Seriously at Tonight's Debate in Gary Johnson's Absence
Remove the Libertarian and there goes fiscal sanity, federalism, and free speech.
A New Look at the Kennedy-Reagan Growth Recipe
JFK and the Reagan Revolution argues that America can return to prosperity by looking to the Kennedy-Reagan model of income tax cuts and a strong, stable dollar.
Another Budget Deal That's Good for Washington and Bad for America
Congress pisses down our backs and tells us it's raining.
State-Based Accounting 101: Ranking Fiscal Condition
States must confront pension costs.
Can They Stop Themselves?
Reason's guide to whether any of the 2016 presidential hopefuls would actually cut government.
To Help People Keep Their Jobs During Recessions, It's the Uncertainty, Stupid
Good government measures can reduce unemployment during a recession.
The Squeal of the War Hogs
Why do Lindsey Graham and John McCain think half a trillion dollars is not enough to defend the country?
Florida, the Freest State in the Country?
California, New York, and New Jersey always rank near the bottom of these lists as intrusive, red tape-bound hellholes.
Whatever Its Faults, the Tea Party Identified the Right Target
A look back on its development over the last five years.
The Kids Aren't All Right
Younger Americans are being suffocated by spending, subsidies, and debt
Obama To Make Statement on Future Fiscal Negotiations
Another budget squabble not far away
Americans Aren't Bound To Pay the Government's Debts
If the "consent of the governed" is a sacred American principle, how does the government borrow money in our names and compel us to repay the debt?
The Federal Government's Budget: Basic Facts You Need To Know
If we're to get even close to balancing the books, "mandatory" spending is in for deep cuts.
S&P Claims Federal Lawsuit Retaliation for Credit Downgrade
Not because of toxic mortgages
America in Denial as Fiscal Tsunami Approaches
It's not just Congress that needs to change its expectations.
Two Cheers for the Coming Collapse of the U.S. Economy!
Jeffrey Rogers Hummel on Ending the Fed, Privatizing Money, and Why the Welfare State Will Fall
Federal Reserve May Trigger New Bubble with Bond Buys
Kansas City Reserve head uncomfortable with current actions
Can Republicans Win a Government Shutdown?
Without a shutdown Republicans have no leverage to obtain anything useful from the White House.
Why Progressives Support Welfare for the Rich
Democrats' counterintuitive resistance to means-testing Medicare and Social Security