Debt Ceiling

Here’s What Happens If Congress Fails to Raise the Debt Ceiling

By Michael Rainey

What happens if Congress fails to raise the debt limit? A new report from the Bipartisan Policy Center examines that question in detail, and the results aren’t pretty. Here are some highlights — or...
Why Raising the Debt Ceiling Won’t Be a Problem This Year

By Rob Garver

The final wall of resistance to a “clean” increase of the federal debt ceiling, necessary to avoid a potentially catastrophic government default later this year, appears to have fallen, with White...
Top GOP Conservative: We Won’t Play Around With the Debt Ceiling

By Rob Garver

When it comes to the perennial fight to raise the federal debt ceiling, it’s usually best to assume that the struggle to give the Treasury Department clearance to actually pay the debts that the...
Raise the Debt Ceiling Now, or Face Another Post-Summer Crisis: Meadows

By Eric Pianin

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-NC, one of the most influential conservatives in the House, said Monday he favors quick action this summer to raise the debt ceiling, taking a stand on an issue that is...
Here’s a Solution for the Annual Debt Ceiling Crisis: Get Rid of It

By Eric Pianin

With another debt ceiling crisis looming that threatens a first-ever default by the Treasury and another government shutdown, there is a growing school of thought in the Senate that lawmakers should...

The National Debt Is a Bigger Problem Than You Think

By Lawrence Goodman

The U.S. debt situation is worse than commonly realized. Unaddressed, the surge in Treasury borrowing over the last 10 years represents an accident in the offing.
Mulvaney’s Debt Ceiling Ploy Protects Treasurys, Not Social Security Checks

By Rob Garver

The Trump administration appears to be considering a plan to pay some government debts but not others if the debt ceiling isn’t raised on time. It’s a plan economists and financial markets experts...
White House’s Debt Ceiling Battle Could Trigger a Shutdown — and a Recession

By Eric Pianin

At a time when worldwide confidence in the U.S. has already been badly shaken by President Trump’s go-it-alone, “America First” approach to trade, NATO and climate change, a White House riven by...
New Debt Ceiling Deadline Could Ruin Lawmakers' Summer Vacations

By Rob Garver

The federal debt limit, previously thought to be an issue that could be postponed to the fall, may need to be raised prior to the August recess, complicating the lives of top Republicans in Congress.
The Great Risk Shift Is Back

By Mark Thoma

The vote in the House of Representatives to dismantle Obamacare was not the only attempt to undo key legislation from the Obama years that occurred last Thursday.

Who Should Pay for Big Bird and Downton Abbey?

By Liz Peek

Surprise! Federal spending rose 16 percent year-over-year in October, the first month of the new fiscal year. The deficit, now at $120 billion – was 22 percent higher than a year ago. This – in an...
Durbin on ‘Scary’ Need to Slow Medicare Spending

By Josh Boak, The Fiscal Times

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin asked his fellow Democrats to swallow some tough medicine on cuts to Medicare: Even without the fiscal cliff, the health insurance program for seniors needs to trim its...
5 “Don’t Blame Me” Plans on the Fiscal Cliff Table

By Eric Pianin and Josh Boak

The two parties are trying to find a way of avoid falling off a fiscal cliff of nearly $600 billion worth of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that would reduce the deficit but send the...
Warren Buffett Bitch Slaps the Billionaire Boys Club

By Jacqueline Leo

An interesting thing happened on the way to fiscal sanity. Someone actually calculated the difference between Clinton’s 1993 tax increases on the so-called “rich” in today’s dollars. As you recall,...
Fiscal Cliffhanging Causes National Nervous Breakdown

By Josh Boak, The Fiscal Times

Paging Dr. Freud! Economists are increasingly worried about the possible psychological scars caused by the fiscal cliff, not just the cash flow issues that Democrats and Republicans must reconcile...

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