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...

Why the Markets Aren’t Freaking Out About Soaring US Debt

By Yuval Rosenberg

Does the high and rising level of U.S. public debt matter? If so, how concerned should we be? Goldman Sachs asks those questions in a new research piece, noting that the “fiscal outlook for both...
Is Joe Scarborough Right About the GOP and the National Debt?

By The Fiscal Times Staff

Former GOP congressman and current Trump antagonist Joe Scarborough laid into the president and his party this week, finding fault with, among other things, their track record on deficit spending. "...
‘Things Are So Much Worse’ – but Does Anyone Care About the Deficit?

By Yuval Rosenberg

As we told you yesterday , the Congressional Budget Office estimated this week that the deficit for the first 11 months of fiscal 2018 totaled $895 billion, or $222 billion more than it was over the...
Deficit Soaring in 2018

By The Fiscal Times Staff

The federal deficit was 32 percent larger in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2018 than it was during the same time period in 2017, the Congressional Budget Office announced Monday. The deficit...
The Cost of War Since 9/11

By Michael Rainey

The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost the U.S. more than $1.5 trillion, according to Department of Defense data reported by CNCB Monday. The Pentagon report covers war-related operational...