Budget

Trump Signs Executive Order Aimed at Curbing New Agency Spending

By Yuval Rosenberg

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at cutting spending at federal agencies by requiring them to offset any increased outlays on mandatory programs with other cuts. The “...
Trump Suffers Two Legal Defeats on Immigration and Border Policies

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Trump administration suffered a pair of legal defeats on major immigration policies Friday, as a federal judge in Texas ruled that the president acted unlawfully in declaring a national emergency...
House Appropriations Chair Nita Lowey Won’t Seek Reelection in 2020

By Yuval Rosenberg

Rep. Nita Lowey, the New York Democrat who chairs the influential House Appropriations Committee, announced Thursday that she will not seek reelection next year. The 82-year-old Lowey has served in...
The Budget Outlook Isn’t Good — but It Has ‘Improved Substantially Since 2010’: Report

By Yuval Rosenberg

The national debt is now approaching $23 trillion, up nearly $9 trillion from the end of 2010, and the debt held by the public now stands at nearly $17 trillion, up about $7.5 trillion from since the...
Trump Wants States to Experiment With Medicaid — Up to a Point

By Michael Ollove, Stateline

After a series of zigzags, Utah is about to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. At least 10 red states have done the same, but Utah’s experience may be a bellwether showing how far the...

The Navy’s $7 Billion Destroyer Is Now 6 Years Overdue

By Michael Rainey

The U.S. Navy’s Zumwalt-class destroyer program has experienced one problem after another, from a failure to maintain power while at sea to a gun that requires munitions so expensive that the Navy...
Why Huge Deficits Could Be Here to Stay

By Michael Rainey

Even as annual deficits climb back toward the $1 trillion mark, “the deficit fear-factor” continues to recede in Washington, says Bloomberg’s Steve Matthews, reporting on a debate organized this week...
States Get a Third of Their Revenue from Uncle Sam

By Michael Rainey

The federal government provided 32.4% of all state revenues in the 2017 fiscal year, according to a new analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts. That’s roughly in line with the year before, when...
2019 Deficit Was Just Under $1 Trillion, Highest in 7 Years: CBO

By Yuval Rosenberg

The federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2019 grew to $984 billion, or 4.7% of GDP, the highest since 2012, the Congressional Budget Office estimated on Monday. The total for 2019 is 26% higher...
How Much Would Trump’s Snake-and-Alligator-Filled Border Moat Cost?

By Michael Rainey

President Trump has asked his staff to investigate some pretty extreme options related to border security, according to a forthcoming book by Michael D. Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis of The New...

Bernie Sanders Unveils His Own $16.3 Trillion Green New Deal

By Yuval Rosenberg

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday released his own version of the Green New Deal, calling for $16.3 trillion in spending — more than any of the plans released by other Democratic presidential...
The American Public Has a Plan to Cut the Deficit: Higher Taxes

By Yuval Rosenberg

As evidenced by the CBO numbers above, lawmakers may be placing little importance on the rising deficit, but the American public apparently takes a different view. Writing at The Washington Post’s...
Deficit Will Grow by $800 Billion More Than Previously Expected Over Next Decade: CBO

By Yuval Rosenberg

U.S. budget deficits are projected to grow by $809 billion more than previously expected over the next 10 years, primarily as a result of the two-year budget deal passed by Congress last month, the...
We May Need ‘Helicopter Money’ to Fight the Next Downturn: Report

By Michael Rainey

The next recession will call for unprecedented coordination of fiscal and monetary policy in the U.S. and other advanced economies, according to a new report from the BlackRock Investment Institute...
A Discount Moonshot?

By Michael Rainey

NASA is working on a plan to return to the moon by 2024 at a cost that’s expected to exceed $50 billion. But according to Politico’s Bryan Bender, former House Speaker and noted lunar enthusiast Newt...