Blogs

The Congressional Budget Office says federal revenues were lower than expected in the last few months of Fiscal 2013, resulting in a deficit that was $38 billion higher than CBO had projected in May.The Treasury Department’s final number for the…

Twitter’s IPO last week focused some bipartisan attention on provisions in the tax code that are unfair, costly to the federal Treasury and ripe for reform.Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman and ranking member of…

As lawmakers continue their work this week on a new five-year farm bill, they should be cutting unnecessary agricultural subsidies -- especially those going to extremely wealthy Americans.Savings on agricultural subsidies could be put to good use in a broader…

While Social Security benefits are going up automatically, the government’s nutritional assistance benefits are going down – and have been targeted for even further reductions.Last Friday a recession-related increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was allowed to expire.…

With the budget conference committee facing a mid-December deadline to reach a bipartisan deal, the work has shifted to private discussions among various groups of lawmakers.Expectations for the committee, which held its opening session Wednesday, have been low. But if…

Although the federal deficit fell sharply over the last year as the economic recovery continued, this good news should not be used as an excuse to ignore the serious fiscal challenges that Washington still needs to confront.The deficit for Fiscal…

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now estimates that gradually increasing the eligibility age for Medicare to 67 would reduce deficits by $19 billion through 2023, significantly less than the $113 billion CBO estimated in January 2012.The new estimate is based…

Although the latest manufactured fiscal crisis is over for now, brinkmanship over funding the government and the debt ceiling has caused substantial harm to the economy.According to a new report by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), the government…