by jpitney | Oct 21, 2024 | Debt, Economic Policy, Social Security
Michael Strain at The Financial Times: The first step to solve the budget problem is to acknowledge it. But at Harris and Trump’s presidential debate, the word “debt” was not mentioned once. Nor can it be found in the 2024 Republican party platform. Harris makes only...
by jpitney | Jul 30, 2024 | Debt
Alan Rappeport at NYT: America’s gross national debt topped $35 trillion for the first time on Monday, a reminder of the nation’s grim fiscal predicament as legislative fights over taxes and spending initiatives loom in Washington. The Treasury Department noted the...
by jpitney | Jul 20, 2024 | Debt, Economic Policy, Social Security
Brian Riedl nails it at Reason: Paradoxically, the faster government debt escalates toward an inevitable debt crisis, the less politicians and voters seem to care. In the 1980s and 1990s, more modest deficits dominated economic policy debates and prompted six...
by jpitney | Apr 20, 2024 | California Politics, Debt
Don Lee at LAT: California’s massive budget deficit, coupled with the state’s relatively high level of joblessness, has become a major barrier to reducing the billions of dollars of debt it has incurred to pay unemployment benefits. The surge in unemployment brought...
by jpitney | Mar 4, 2024 | Budget, Debt, Economic Policy
Mark J. Warshawsky at AEI: Last week, the Treasury Department released, with no fanfare, the massive Financial Report (FR) of the US Government. Using an accrual accounting basis, rather than a cash basis, the FR shows a much poorer picture of the current finances of...
by jpitney | Feb 13, 2024 | Budget, Debt
CBO, The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2024 to 2034 Debt held by the public rises each year in relation to the size of the economy, reaching 116 percent of GDP in 2034—an amount greater than at any point in the nation’s history. From 2024 to 2034, increases in...
