The Debt

Trump Is Hitting Economy’s Accelerator and Brakes at the Same Time: Analyst

By Yuval Rosenberg

Stocks have experienced some dramatic swings in recent days as investors try to digest and make sense of corporate earnings; rising interest rates and conflicting monetary and fiscal policy;...
Republicans Ignore the Obvious Effect of Their Tax Cuts

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump, top administration officials and Republican congressional leaders claim that the rising deficit, which grew 17 percent to $779 billion in fiscal 2018, is not the result of their tax...
Mitch McConnell on Rising Deficit: ‘It’s Not a Republican Problem'

By Yuval Rosenberg

The quotes: “It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem. It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the...
Federal Deficit Jumps 17 Percent to $779 Billion

By Yuval Rosenberg

Despite a strong economy and robust job market, the federal budget deficit swelled to $779 billion in fiscal 2018, up $113 billion from 2017, according to final numbers released Monday by the...
Mnuchin Spins a False Claim About Tax Cuts and the Deficit

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Congressional Budget Office projected last week that the federal government’s fiscal 2018 deficit would total $782 billion. The final numbers will be released by the Treasury Department, but...

A Fiscal Hawk’s New Plan to ‘Avert a Debt Crisis’

By Yuval Rosenberg

The national debt rose by more than $1 trillion in fiscal 2018, and yet lawmakers have evinced little concern about it ahead of this year’s elections, instead pushing tax cuts and spending increases...
How GOP Rhetoric on Entitlements Has Changed

By The Fiscal Times Staff

The Washington Post’s David Weigel describes how Republicans have changed their tune on Medicare and, for this year at least, largely abandoned the idea of entitlement reform: “[O]ver eight years,...
The Post-Election Outlook: ‘Debt, Debt and More Debt’

By Yuval Rosenberg

The 2018 elections are looking like a lose-lose proposition for the U.S. bond market, according to Bloomberg’s Liz McCormick and Alex Harris : “If Democrats take the House, it raises the odds that...
Deficit Jumped to $782 Billion in 2018 – and It’s Only Going to Get Bigger

By Michael Rainey

You might have missed this with everything else going on in the world, but the Congressional Budget Office said Friday that the deficit for fiscal year 2018 rose to $782 billion, a big jump from the...
Why Rising Interest Rates Really Matter

By Michael Rainey

The job market is “sizzling,” says Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, thanks in part to the deficit-financed tax cuts and government spending increases that went into effect this year. The...

Tax Cuts 2.0: What’s in the GOP Plan and Why It Matters

By Yuval Rosenberg

With an eye toward November’s midterm elections, House Republicans on Monday unveiled legislation to make permanent the individual tax cuts and pass-through business deductions that were set to...
Trump Wanted Higher Taxes on the Rich – and to Print Lots of Money: Woodward

By Michael Rainey

Bob Woodward’s book on the Trump administration, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” hits bookstores Tuesday but has been making headlines for about a week as details leak out. According to a review of...
Obama: 'Suddenly Deficits Do Not Matter'

By Yuval Rosenberg

Former President Barack Obama stepped back into the political fray on Friday, delivering a blistering rebuke of President Trump and the Republican Party while signaling how he plans to campaign on...
What It Would Take to Dig Out from the Mountain of Federal Debt

By Yuval Rosenberg

You might know the numbers: The national debt now stands at $21.4 trillion , and debt held by the public — that is, debt owed to those outside the federal government — totals $15.7 trillion. As a...
Business Economists Diss Trump’s Policies

By Yuval Rosenberg

Business economists are less than bullish on the effects of President Trump’s economic policies. A semiannual survey by the National Association for Business Economics found that: Tariffs are hurting...