On Economic Issues, the Populist Right and Left Share a Lot of Common Ground
That's bad news for Americans.
That's bad news for Americans.
We're often told European countries are better off thanks to big-government policies. So why is the U.S. beating France in many important ways?
The Copenhagen Consensus has long championed a cost-benefit approach for addressing the world's most critical environmental problems.
This week's debate was the first signal that the party's next presidential nominee might actually understand the entitlement crisis.
In the last 50 years, when the budget process has been in place, Congress has managed only four times to pass a budget on time.
Entitlement reform has long been considered a third rail in American politics, but that perspective might be changing.
Those sounding the loudest alarms about possible shutdowns are largely silent when Congress ignores its own budgetary rules. All that seems to matter is that government is metaphorically funded.
Until Congress is willing to acknowledge that it makes no sense to send monthly checks to wealthy seniors, everything else will be on the chopping block.
It's not the first time that has happened, but there are key differences about what happened this year.
Since Congress won't cut spending, an independent commission may be the only way to rein in the debt.
America’s biggest fiscal challenge lies in the unchecked growth of federal health care and old-age entitlement programs.
The lack of oversight and the general absence of a long-term vision is creating inefficiency, waste, and red ink as far as the eye can see.
Since Congress designed and implemented the last budget process in 1974, only on four occasions have all of the appropriations bills for discretionary spending been passed on time.
Many politicians offer a simplified view of the world—one in which government interventions are all benefits and no costs. That couldn't be further from the truth.
At a minimum, the national debt should be smaller than the size of the economy. A committed president just might be able to deliver.
A new Congressional Budget Office report warns of "significant economic and financial consequences" caused by the federal government's reckless borrowing.
Even taking all the money from every billionaire wouldn't cover our coming bankruptcy.
Sometimes he calls for freedom, and sometimes he preaches something darker.
Why the businessman launched a long shot campaign for the presidency.
The longer we wait to address our debt, the more painful it will be.
Social Security will become insolvent in the early 2030s if Congress does nothing.
We can't grow our way out of its ruinous economic impact. The only way forward is to cut spending.
"If there is freedom, private property, rule of law, then Latin Americans thrive," says the social media star.
In 10 years, the programs' funds will be insolvent. Over the next 30 years, they will run a $116 trillion shortfall.
New data from the program's trustees show that insolvency will hit a year sooner than previously expected, giving policy makers just a decade before automatic benefit cuts occur.
The higher taxes on small businesses and entrepreneurs could slow growth. Less opportunity means more tribalism and division.
Plus: The editors recommend the best books for sparking interest in free market principles.
Handouts for tourist-trap museums will be part of the federal funding battleground in the next two years.
Biden is set to propose a new tax on unrealized investment gains and to quadruple a recently imposed tax on stock buybacks.
But it's exactly what they need to start talking about.
Krugman sees benefit cuts as "a choice" but believes that implementing a massive tax increase on American employers and workers would be "of course" no big deal.
Politicians' go-to fixes like child tax credits and federal paid leave are known for creating disincentives to work without much impact on fertility.
As legislators refuse to act, benefits will be cut without any possibility of sheltering those seniors who are poor.
Plus: Age verification for social media, a bill to ban cannabis "gatherings," and more...
The old-age entitlement is unsustainable, unfair, and unnecessary. Replace it with something that helps the needy of any age.
Plus: a listener question on prohibition and a lightning round on the editors' favorite Super Bowl moments
Legislators will increasingly argue over how to spend a diminishing discretionary budget while overall spending simultaneously explodes.
Plus: The editors consider the ongoing debt ceiling drama and answer a listener question about ending the war on drugs.
In 1950, there were more than 16 workers for every beneficiary. In 2035, that ratio will be only 2.3 workers per retiree.
Social Security benefits will be cut automatically in less than a decade unless Congress shores up the program before it hits insolvency. Ignoring that is not a solution.
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are still the chief drivers of our future debt. But Republicans aren't touching them.
While some Republicans may have had misguided motivations, a few disrupted McCarthy's campaign in order to enact fiscal restraint. Their colleagues were fine with business as usual.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that future deficits will explode. But there's a way out.
Food prices were up 0.5 percent during November, even as energy prices fell by about 1.6 percent.
The biggest beneficiaries of economic growth are poor people. But the deepest case for economic growth is a moral one.
If the midterms favor Republicans, their top priority needs to be the fight against inflation—whether or not they feel like they created the problem.
In a now-deleted tweet, the official White House Twitter account attempted to frame a mandated cost-of-living increase in Social Security checks as the result of President Biden's good "leadership."
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