The Congressional Budget Office’s most recent budget projections show that the United States has made astounding progress toward reducing the federal budget deficit.
Issue Brief
Spending on a raft of key federal programs from airport security to health care research under the “non-defense discretionary” budget banner will dip to all-time lows under the Budget Control Act.
Before Congress sacrifices needed public investments or puts programs that serve middle-class families at risk in the name of deficit reduction, it should ensure that the estate tax is actually paid by the few wealthy estates still subject to it.
Issue Brief
Reducing or reforming certain tax breaks for high-income individuals and corporations could raise $1 trillion in revenue over 10 years.
Facing three potential fiscal crises in the next 10 weeks, House Republicans and the president would do well to look back at the 1995 government shutdown for compromise ideas and lessons learned.
Three-quarters of the $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction already enacted since the start of fiscal year 2011 has been spending cuts.
After a decade of repeated tax cuts, the increase in revenue achieved in the legislation to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff is a step in the right direction, but it won’t be enough.
Congressional Republicans’ unwillingness to let the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire is irresponsible and will prove harmful to our economic future.
House Speaker John Boehner’s plan lacks seriousness and is an attempt to divert attention from an unwillingness to adopt a balanced approach that all serious people recognize as a necessity.
The faithful are standing alongside their fellow citizens to remind our elected officials that society’s most vulnerable—the hungry, the elderly, the poor, the sick, and the needy—should be reflected in and protected by our national policies.
The president is trying to find a middle ground on both revenue and spending cuts, and only the most ideologically blinded lawmakers would reject his latest proposal to resolve the fiscal showdown.
If Congress fails to extend emergency unemployment benefits, the U.S. economy will create 300,000 fewer jobs next year and three in four unemployed Americans will receive no benefits.
What we now call “debt limit legislation” should be called “deadbeat legislation.”
Issue Brief
If carried out correctly, a well-managed defense drawdown can return the Pentagon’s budget to more sustainable levels without harming our national security or our economic recovery.
Issue Brief
Sequestration will inflict massive cuts on programs that protect our public lands and oceans—cuts that will impact all of us in a variety of ways.