Free Republic

Any reporter who's written about the federal budget knows that there's a surefire solution to every problem. It's called "fraud, waste and abuse." You want to end budget deficits? Just eliminate all the "fraud, waste and abuse" in the $4 trillion budget. The same is true for cutting taxes or raising spending. Attacking fraud and waste is virtuous and dispenses with the hard political work of making unpopular choices. It's a fantasy... ...it turns out that the estimated savings of $125 billon are spread over five years, from fiscal 2016 to 2020. This changes the numbers dramatically. Instead of annual...

While it is unclear if the recent increase in government spending and the resulting increase in the budget deficit, has been a factor in the recent string of better than expected US economic data, at 2pm on Monday the US Treasury announced that in November, the government's budget deficit rose to $136.7 billion, nearly double the $64.5 bilion deficit reported in the same month of 2015, which however was largely a function of a calendar quirk.Not only was November total more than double the amount reported a year ago, but the $136.7 billion deficit, was also the highest going...

‘Thank goodness for Kevin McCarthy!” isn’t something one says every day, but in the matter of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s backward and destructive plan to resurrect 19th-century tariffs, the gentleman from California is invaluable. Trump wants to impose 35 percent tariffs on . . . somebody. He does not seem quite sure. One of the reasons for that is that Trump has the question of trade deficits mixed up in his head with the question of offshoring and, like most Americans, he does not understand either of them very well. The president-elect, writing on Facebook (because that’s what presidents-elect...

Obama’s “worst legacy, one that remains grotesquely underreported by the ‘watchdog’ mainstream media” is “by far the worst deficit record in U.S. history.” The election of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on November 8 was not only a rejection of Hillary Clinton, based on her trustworthiness and her legal and ethical problems, it was also clearly a repudiation of Democratic policymaking, with Trump promising to eliminate or revise a number of Barack Obama’s signature achievements. But, speaking to the press in his first press conference after the election, President Obama maintained that he is leaving the White House and America...

Have you noticed that for a few months, President Barack Obama has stopped bragging about how the federal budget deficit is shrinking? That's because it's not. For the first time since 2009, the deficit has gone up rather than down. The Congressional Budget Office recently released its budget review for September 2016. It shows that in fiscal 2016, which ended Sept. 30, the deficit grew by $149 billion, from $439 billion to $588 billion. It now stands at 3.2 percent of gross domestic product, up from 2.5 percent last year. It's also the first increase in the deficit as a...

WASHINGTON The government ran a $587 billion budget deficit for the just-completed fiscal year, a 34 percent spike over last year after significant improvement from the record deficits of President Barack Obama's first years in office. Friday's deficit news, while sobering, does not appear bad enough to jolt a gridlocked Washington into action to stem the flow of red ink. It came in an annual report by the Treasury Department and the White House budget office. In the presidential campaign, intractable budget deficits and growing debt have been mostly neglected by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. The latest...

For the first time since the mid 1990s, Norway’s expenditures have exceeded state revenues. Figures released by Statistics Norway (SSB) on Tuesday show that the state’s total revenues in the second quarter of this year totaled 328 billion kroner, which is 2.3 percent less than in the same quarter of last year. […] “Reduced income from petroleum taxes and reduced surplus from the State’s Direct Financial Interest in petroleum activities (SDFI) account largely for the continued decrease in total revenue in Q2 2016,” SSB wrote. …

That's a 35 percent increase, and it brings debt held by the public to the highest share of GDP since 1952 If I told you the deficit was soaring, economic growth was terrible and ObamaCare was collapsing, you’d assume that Obama’s approval ratings would be in the tank and the Democrats would have no hope of electing someone who basically promises to continue his policies. Well, I’m telling you. All this is happening. But these are not the major issues in the presidential campaign because one candidate is hopelessly corrupt and dishonest and the other one just really bothers people...

The federal government has sunk deeper into the red than analysts projected just five months ago, and is now poised to post a $590 billion shortfall this fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday. That’s some $56 billion worse than the CBO had projected in March, and it comes as new spending far outpaces revenues. Both individual and corporate income tax revenue is down so far this year — though the reasons are not fully clear yet, analysts said. What is clear, though, is that government spending continues to rise, and when adjusted for the timing of payments is...

"...Icahn, who Trump had previously suggested could serve as his Treasury secretary, warned that markets will have a "day of reckoning" without fiscal stimulus, and argued that the U.S. government "certainly could do more spending." "The Republican Party that I used to be more sympathetic with — I'm right in the middle now, although as you know I'm for Trump — but what I would say is Congress is in this massive gridlock," he said, explaining that the Republican-controlled body is "obsessed with this deficit to a point that I think it's almost pathological..." "

Truncated title. Full title: Lyin’ Ryan – Four Months After Promising “Regular Order” Speaker Paul Ryan Announces No Prospect for Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Please allow me to be perfectly clear. I hold a ‘traditional conservative’ outlook. Fiscally conservative. I don’t care if what you do in your bedroom, nor does it bother me if you choose to marry a squirrel, wear a snickers bar costume to the grocery store, or make it your life’s mission to spend all day filling canoes with pancakes. So long as your personal life choices in the pursuit of your happiness do not impact,...

President Obama’s first budget as president declared that he was ushering in a “new era of responsibility.” His last budget as president shows that he’s presided over an era of unprecedented fiscal irresponsibility. That at least, is what the Congressional Budget Office’s independent analysis of Obama’s budget makes plain.

... What Trump implicitly promises is a closing of the gap between federal revenue and spending without any pain for ordinary voters. He claims that better management, led by him, is all it will take. It is the worst kind of wishful thinking and deception. On entitlements, Trump is essentially in agreement with most Democrats. He says he won’t make any changes to Social Security or Medicare benefits. In previous years, he also said Medicaid shouldn’t be cut. He says he now favors converting Medicaid into a block grant to the states, although he has not promised that this switch...

The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected in January as a strong dollar and weak global demand helped to push exports to a more than 5-1/2-year low, suggesting trade will continue to weigh on economic growth in the first quarter. The Commerce Department said on Friday the trade gap increased 2.2 percent to $45.7 billion. December's trade deficit was revised up to $44.7 billion from the previously reported $43.4 billion. Exports have declined for four straight months. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade deficit widening to $44.0 billion in January. When adjusted for inflation, the deficit increased...

There is a popular website called Uncrate, which is the 21st-century version of the old Sears, Roebuck catalogue, i.e., consumer-goods porn, a resource for stylish young men with excess liquid assets who require suggestions for ways of being relieved of that burden. On Friday, the featured product was the Vollebak Baker Miller “relaxation hoodie,” a garment in “Baker Miller Pink,” a color believed to have psychoactive qualities that, according to Uncrate, “activate your parasympathetic nervous system and calm you down.” The hoodie also features “a mesh visor, vents that encourage breathing through your nose, and asymmetrical pockets designed like slings...

A couple of years ago, a Bloomberg Politics Poll asked the public a good question about the deficit: “Is it your sense that this year the deficit is getting bigger or getting smaller, or is it staying about the same as last year?” It wasn’t even close – despite the fact that the deficit, in reality, was shrinking quickly, only 6% of the public knew that. A 62% majority said they believed it was getting bigger, which was the opposite of the truth. Two years later, Al Hunt flags the results of the new Bloomberg Politics Poll, which offers some...

The largest financial operation in the known universe is the United States federal government. For fiscal 2009, that operation ran a budget deficit of -$1.412T, the all-time record. That’s more than -$3.868B a day, more than -$161M an hour, some -$2.686M a minute. That’s debt at -$44,774 … a second. Amazing, no? Surely others have also done that math. The only figure I got from the government is the -$1.412T deficit for 2009, which I got from Table 1.1 at the White House website. The other numbers I derived by already possessing knowledge of how many days there were in...

While the rest of the world focused on the New Hampshire primary, the White House dropped a budget bomb. Congress will get a $4.1 trillion spending plan for FY2017 from Barack Obama, complete with a massive $2.8 trillion tax hike and a set of assumptions that boggles the imagination nearly as much as the topline spending number:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO “The budget that we're releasing today reflects my priorities and the priorities that I believe will help advance security and prosperity in America for many years to come,” Obama told reporters at the White House. “It adheres...

In the midst of the election circus and pageantry, it seems once again fiscal policy issues have taken a backseat. This might not matter if the issue were not of dire importance to Americans and their futures. But on the heels of the new Budget and Economic Outlook released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) last week, it has become all too clear that the fiscal issues our country faces are very real and must be dealt with. Every year, this non partisan analysis of our projected debt and deficit published doesn't mince words- the deficit only continues to get...

In early 2015, Switzerland's interest rates turned negative. Not for one year. Not for five years. But all the way out to 10 years, meaning that virtually everyone desiring to park their cash in safe-haven Swiss francs had to pay for the privilege. And Swiss bonds weren't unique. Yields on French and German sovereign debt went negative out to five and seven years, respectively, while the overnight Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor), which had averaged about 2% for the previous couple of years, fell below zero and stayed there. By the end of 2015's first quarter, paper accounting for 31%...