Blogs

Congressional candidates have said little, if anything, about the federal government’s deteriorating finances. When the winners turn their attention to legislating, however, they will find that ignoring the problem did not make it go away. The first budget they are…

Since 2001 the Defense Department has received $2.2 trillion in special funding that has been on top of the basic defense budgets that Congress has approved through regular annual appropriations. That amounts to 20 percent of total defense appropriations over…

How do high and rising federal deficits hurt ordinary Americans? With the Treasury Department’s recent announcement that the deficit had climbed to $779 billion in the fiscal year that just ended -- a 17 percent increase over the previous year…

Social Security benefits for more than 67 million Americans will increase 2.8 percent next year, the federal government announced yesterday. The increase, which is tied to the government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), is the highest in seven years. While older Americans…

With the federal deficit projected to exceed $1 trillion in Fiscal 2020, many economists worry that Washington’s heavy borrowing to cut taxes and increase spending could make it more difficult to counteract the next economic downturn. At an event this…

Today, Oct. 1, marks the beginning of the federal government’s 2019 fiscal year. Fortunately, there will be no government shutdown because Congress has passed and the president has signed five of the 12 annual appropriation bills for Fiscal 2019, along…

Lawmakers made noteworthy progress last week on spending bills for the coming year, at least as far as timeliness is concerned. Congress approved three bills and negotiators announced a bipartisan agreement on a much larger package that could avoid a government…

With congressional elections two months away, voters are hearing a great deal from the candidates about the high priority that Americans place on their children and the nation’s future. The lofty rhetoric on this subject, however, is hard to square…