2012 Elections

Budget Battles

  • Obama’s Bargain: Lower Rates for Higher Spending

    By Eric Pianin

    President Obama intends to make one last pitch for a “grand bargain” of new spending and tax policy on Tuesday that will attempt to marry corporate tax reform with funding for jobs to benefit the...

  • Ominous Signs for the GOP in 2014

    By Bruce Bartlett, The Fiscal Times

    The conventional wisdom is that Republicans are in good shape going into next year’s congressional elections. Gerrymandering and the enormous benefits of incumbency virtually guarantee them continued...

  • Trading Tax Write-Offs for Real Growth

    By Andrew Fieldhouse, The Fiscal Times

    Overhauling the tax code is a wonky fixation of the D.C. policymaking elite, for good reason — it’s an area loaded with policy nuance, lobbying intrigue and major ramifications for long-term fiscal...

  • IRS Scandal: How the Brouhaha Went Bust

    By Peter Weber, TheWeek.com

    Rep. Darrell Issa is still banging the scandal drum. Is anyone listening anymore?

  • Beer, Burgers, and a Two-Man Blitz on Tax Reform

    By Josh Boak, The Fiscal Times

    Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) are keeping hope alive that the tax code can be rewritten. Both peg the odds of successful reform at more than 50 percent, according to a joint lunch...

  • Obama’s Desperate Measure—A Fiscal Cliff ‘Plan B’

    By Josh Boak, The Fiscal Times

    With the nation on the verge of stumbling off the fiscal cliff, President Obama sounded desperate Friday as he reeled off his expectation that lawmakers would at least hold a vote to avert the...

  • Middle Class Gets ‘Cliffed’ by Huge Tax If No Deal

    By Josh Boak, The Fiscal Times

    There’s a common misperception about the fiscal cliff—that the tax increases only apply to 2013. Not true. In a cruel epilogue to 2012, roughly 28 million families would owe the IRS $84 billion more...

  • OMB’s Fiscal Tricks Can Delay a ‘Cliff’ Recession

    By Eric Pianin

    With time running out for a deal to avert the fiscal cliff, federal agencies are bracing for deep automatic spending cuts in defense and domestic programs next month that many experts say could help...

  • Can Budget Crisis Talks Get Back on Track?

    By Richard Cowan and Mark Felsenthal, Reuters

    Efforts to prevent the U.S. economy from going over a "fiscal cliff" stirred back to life Wednesday with less than a week to go before potentially disastrous tax hikes and spending cuts kick in at...

  • Money Moves to Make Before the Year-End Cliff

    By Linda Stern, Reuters

    By now, we thought the path forward would be clear and the usual six-day flurry of tax-focused check writing and income-shifting could commence. But we're still in wait-and-see mode when it comes to...