#Federal Budget

WASHINGTON – The Concord Coalition said today that the deficit reduction framework released by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, bipartisan co-chairs of the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, is a very promising start to the difficult decision-making…

Last week the Department of the Treasury released final budget numbers for Fiscal Year 2010, showing that it ended with a deficit of $1.3 trillion. This is $122 billion less than the preceding year, but still one of the highest…

Prominent on the long list of unfinished business in Congress was confirmation of the President's nomination of Jack Lew to head the Office of Management and Budget. Two Senate committees with jurisdiction over the nomination held public hearings and promptly…

Fiscal Year 2010 ended last Thursday but no one was popping champagne corks. Little wonder. For the second year in a row, the federal government ran a budget deficit well in excess of one trillion dollars. (more…)

State and local governments face severe financial challenges that include slower economic growth, lagging tax revenues and rising health care costs and retirement benefits. But relying on more assistance from the federal government is not a viable option, according to…

Last week, House Republicans offered a “Pledge To America” outlining their fiscal priorities and reform ideas. As with most such campaign manifestos, it is long on base-pleasing rhetoric and short on troublesome details. (more…)

The media is buzzing about how House Minority Leader John Boehner and President Obama might be ready to "compromise" on what to do about the Bush tax cuts. From a story by Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery in Monday's Washington…

With the federal deficit and related fiscal problems on center stage in this year’s congressional campaigns, the latest update on the Budget and Economic Outlook from the Congressional Budget Office deserves particular scrutiny. That report has thrown sand into the…