Blogs

As the Treasury resorts to “extraordinary measures” to avoid defaulting on some financial obligations, Congress has continued to struggle with the necessary but embarrassing task of raising the federal debt limit.Today the House finally took action, narrowly passing a year-long…

The economic recovery has produced larger-than-expected surpluses for many states, and their elected officials are considering what to do with the windfalls.Unfortunately, many state lawmakers have put forward plans that address short-term issues while ignoring more important long-term fiscal concerns…

The Senate is moving forward on a troubling bill that would add roughly $6.8 billion to the deficit over the next decade by repealing a modest reform in cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for working-age military retirees.The legislation, which passed a procedural…

State lawmakers across the country are debating how to spend large surpluses after the economic recovery helped produce higher-than-expected tax collections for the second year in a row. (more…)

“Like Frankenstein’s monster, the statutory debt limit will soon come back to life,” says Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert L. Bixby. But while swift congressional action to raise the limit is necessary, he writes in a recent blog post, it…

The Congressional Budget Office released a new report Tuesday that includes some good short-term news on federal deficits but warns that they could add $7.9 trillion to the debt over the next decade.The CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook is “an…

Like Frankenstein’s monster, the statutory debt limit will soon come back to life. It has been in a state of suspended animation since the October 2013 budget deal that ended the government shutdown. The terms of that deal allowed the…

For those interested in a vision of fiscal sustainability, the State of the Union Address was a major disappointment. (more…)