Budget Battles
-
Mike Bloomberg's Plan to Boost Social Security
-
Court Strikes Down Trump Admin’s Medicaid Work Rules
-
Pete Buttigieg’s Deficit Talk Scares the Left
-
Deficit Soars 25% Over First Four Months of Fiscal 2020
-
The $844 Billion Mystery in Trump’s Budget
-
Trump’s $4.8 Trillion Fiscal Fantasy
-
Trump’s Company Charged Secret Service Hefty Rates
-
Census Bureau Spending Millions to Reassure Immigrant Communities
By Michael RaineyThe Census Bureau is spending $500 million over the next five months to boost awareness of and encourage participation in the national 2020 headcount. Some of the money is being spent to reassure...
-
Point-Counterpoint: Bernie Sanders’ Big Spending Plans
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the current frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has proposed ambitious plans — most notably, a transition to a Medicare-for-All system — that would...
-
Court Strikes Down Trump Administration’s Medicaid Work Requirements
By Michael RaineyA federal appeals court on Friday struck down the Trump administration’s approval of work requirements in the Arkansas Medicaid program, delivering a serious blow to the effort to impose more...
-
Pentagon to Divert Another $3.8 Billion to Pay for Trump’s Border Wall
By Michael RaineyThe Trump administration plans to use billions of dollars intended to purchase combat equipment – including F-35 stealth jets, transport aircraft and an amphibious assault ship – to fund construction...
-
Which States Rely Most on Federal Money?
By Michael RaineyAbout 23% of total state revenues came from federal grants in the 2017 fiscal year, contributing to programs that touch on a range of issues including health care, education and infrastructure. This...
-
Deficit Soars 25% Over First Four Months of Fiscal 2020
The federal budget deficit over the first four months of fiscal year 2020 totaled $389 billion, up more than 25% from the same period last year, according to data released Wednesday by the Treasury...
-
The $844 Billion Mystery in Trump’s Budget
Unlike in previous years, the White House budget proposal released Monday didn’t include a detailed plan to replace major portions of Obamacare. It did include what Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of the...
-
In Search of the ‘Disappearing Corporate Income Tax’
By Michael RaineyLawmakers clashed on Tuesday over the performance of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in a House Ways and Means Committee hearing titled “The Disappearing Corporate Income Tax,” with Democrats arguing...
-
Trump’s $4.8 Trillion Fiscal Fantasy
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael RaineyThe Trump White House on Monday released a $4.8 trillion budget for 2021 that calls for steep reductions in spending on safety net programs including Medicaid while proposing greater outlays for the...
-
Cut Red Tape to Help Rein in Federal Deficits
By James Broughel and Jack SalmonThe Budget and Economic Outlook report published late last month by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) should set off alarm bells, as it predicts trillion-dollar annual deficits for the...
-
Medicare Could Save Billions on Insulin If It Were Allowed to Negotiate Prices: Report
By Michael RaineyMedicare spent nearly $8 billion on insulin in 2017, but it could have cut that bill by more than half if it had been allowed to negotiate with drugmakers in the same way the U.S. Department of...
-
With Deficits Topping $1 Trillion, Is There Room for More Spending?
By Michael RaineyWith the Congressional Budget Office projecting annual deficits greater than $1 trillion for years to come, many experts are calling for a renewed focus on the country’s fiscal path. But one...
-
Here’s What the Democratic Candidates’ Agendas Will Cost
The Progressive Policy Institute, a centrist Democratic think tank, has released an analysis of the tax and spending proposals of four leading Democratic presidential candidates: former Vice...
-
The F-35 Can’t Shoot Straight: Report
By Michael RaineyThe gun on the most common version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is so inaccurate that its performance was deemed “unacceptable” in recent Pentagon tests, according to a report Thursday from...
-
House Democrats Roll Out 5-Year, $760 Billion Infrastructure Plan
House Democratic leaders on Wednesday unveiled the framework for a $760 billion, five-year package that aims to rebuild U.S. infrastructure and cut carbon pollution but does not yet provide specifics...