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That spending increase was primarily driven by entitlement programs, the military, and interest payments on the national debt. The CBO notes that Social Security spending increased by 5 percent last year due to "increases in average benefits and in the number of beneficiaries." There was an 8 percent increase in spending on both Medicare and Medicaid, while military spending increased by 5 percent.

Ten-year interest rates have vaulted from around 4.5 percent in July to nearly 5.3 percent this week. That may not seem like a lot, but in the history of the bond market, such a rapid rise in rates is almost without precedent. The last time it happened was in 1994, when the "bond vigilantes" relentlessly sold bonds in response to Hillary Clinton's vision of "managed competition" in healthcare. The person on the street knows much more about the stock market than the government bond market, but it is the bond market that has the ability to impose fiscal discipline on...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has assigned personnel to use "advanced intelligence and cyber capabilities to identify, disrupt, and neutralize foreign interference" in the upcoming elections, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The threat of foreign election interference has been a biennial U.S. concern for the past decade. This effort will use the most advanced artificial intelligence capabilities to date, officials said. Hegseth's order does not direct military personnel to the polls, but President Trump has refused to rule out that possibility, heightening concern from Democrats and administration critics.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump made use of the newly installed White House helipad for the first time on Monday after a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the South Lawn. Construction workers lined the new path from the White House residence to Marine One on the South Lawn as the president cut the ribbon and made his way to the presidential helicopter for the helipad’s inaugural takeoff

... So he flew to Venezuela, one of the few countries where he could enter as an Iranian without advance permission, and embarked on a weeks-long trek northward to the U.S. Near San Diego, he crossed the border illegally and presented himself to ask for asylum on Feb. 2, 2025, he said. Saleh Fard never walked freely again inside the borders of the United States, but its government would soon dictate where in the world he could live. He arrived the same day that the Trump administration signed a deal with Panama to “repatriate foreigners that enter [U.S.] territory without...

Hecklers disrupt Bessent's congressional hearing, call him "war criminal" saying sanctions kill Iranians and Cubans, shouting "HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU!" just like the doom goblin. Bailiffs eject them from chamber. Bessent answers them calmly and with reason that goes right over their shrieky heads.

The order pdf: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2026cv1114-192

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent must be feeling chafed. Last month, amid rapidly rising interest rates on federal debt, he announced that his department would double its typical longer-term bond buybacks, from $2 billion to $4 billion. The idea was that, by boosting demand for Treasuries, yields might come down and the government would be able to borrow additional money at lower cost. And yields did come down a little bit — for about a day. Then they shot right back up to where they began.

Last September 11, every Muslim in Congress and some of their radical allies teamed up on a congressional resolution demanding reparations to Muslims for their suffering after 9/11. House Resolution 741, introduced a week after the anniversary of September 11, claimed that “in the aftermath of September 11, 2001” Muslims “experienced hate and were targeted by the government” and called for “various forms of relief to support those affected.” The money would have potentially gone to Islamic groups listed as terror co-conspirators. While the resolution did not specify which “community-based organizations” that “center the experiences and demands of Arab, Muslim,...

Air traffic controllers in Washington and the pilots of President Trump's helicopter met to discuss communication issues one week before a jet was allowed to take off just as Marine One left the White House, federal investigators said Thursday. Controllers reported not receiving the standard three-minute warning call ahead of Marine One flights and both sides agreed to an alternative in those instances — but that plan to relay the radio call through someone else was also unsuccessful on the day of the Aug. 4 incident near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report shows....

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the Postal Service from inserting itself into the election process while litigation continues. ================================================================ A federal judge Thursday blocked a Postal Service regulation that would exert control over mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections in the latest setback on the issue for President Donald Trump. The recently finalized measure would implement a key provision of Trump’s executive order on mail-in ballots that would add a new level of bureaucracy to the elections process, which is typically administered by states. The executive order directed the U.S. Postal Service to, among...

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” The move comes amid the president’s repeated threats and taunts that he would do so amid his escalating trade war with Canada. “This is official, effective immediately,” Trump said after signing the order in the Oval Office. The president said he’d “filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else” for the name change. “We notified all of the various people that we have to notify. So we’ve done everything that you have to do, and this is official, effective immediately,” he said. The order says...

Three officials within the U.S. Secret Service’s communications office – including the agency’s top spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi – have been removed from their posts and stripped of their security clearances as investigators examine how classified or sensitive information reached the press, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The three were escorted from Secret Service headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Monday and formally designated “do not admit,” meaning they are barred from entering agency facilities, two sources told RealClearPolitics, which first reported on the suspensions. One of those sources said both the FBI and CIA are participating in the...

The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. If it happens, the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history and would likely face legal challenges. Unless challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of so-called B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum, according to State Department documents obtained by The...

The buyback is a supply/​liquidity fix aimed at a problem that isn’t primarily about supply or liquidity. In other words, the Treasury is trying to reduce long-term rates by restricting the supply of those bonds. But their rates have been rising (prices falling) in response to the budget deficit, heavy overall government debt issuance, a rising term premium, and persistently above-target inflation. Moreover, the bond sell-off is global: Long-end yields hit multiyear highs in Germany, France, and Japan. This sell-off suggests that the United States alone cannot fix its rate problem because that problem is not unique to the US.

An arbitrator has ordered the Washington Post to rehire Karen Attiah, the opinion columnist who was fired last September after she blasted Charlie Kirk as “a white man that espoused violence” the day of his brutal assassination. In a written decision Thursday, arbitrator Sarah Miller Espinosa said WaPo “did not have good and sufficient cause” to fire the scribe and “violated” its labor agreement with the controversial columnist. Espinosa ordered the legacy newspaper to compensate Attiah with back pay and lost benefits. “This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion journalist,...

Key Points The Treasury could use its General Account to help fund purchases of government bonds, according to two senior Treasury officials. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has built up the TGA to around $950 billion currently. The Treasury surprised markets last week by doubling the size of bond buybacks, but the impact on yields was short-lived because of skepticism over the firepower available to Bessent. ================================================================= The Treasury could use its near $1 trillion General Account to help fund its recently announced plans to increase purchases of government bonds, according to two senior Treasury officials. Using the TGA would provide...

The deranged woman who disgracefully vandalized the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. has just been set free. Despite the DOJ’s request to keep her held as a flight risk, U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh released 41-year-old Melissa Farris. She is now out of custody, pending her next court hearing on September 3rd. Even more infuriatingly, Melissa Farris was cut loose without having to post bond. The judge did, however, impose certain conditions for her release. .....

A federal judge blocked FBI Director Kash Patel’s attempt to move his bureau’s headquarters down the street to the Ronald Reagan Building, saying he broke laws governing site selection. Judge Theodore Chuang, an Obama appointee, sided with Maryland and Prince George’s County, which had been the leading location for the future HQ site until Mr. Patel decided to keep it inside the District. Judge Chuang said the order restores the plans to build in Greenbelt, just over the Maryland-D.C. line — though he pointed out that Congress has yet to give final approval to that location. He said Congress controls...

WASHINGTON - Authorities have taken into custody the suspect accused of vandalizing the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, where bubbles filled a fountain and "Clean hands dirty $" was written in red paint. In a post on X, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro identified the suspect as Melissa L. Farris. Pirro called the vandalism "a despicable attack on a sacred monument" and said her office is filing two felony charges, Depredation Against Property of the United States and Destruction of Veterans’ Memorials, offenses that carry penalties of up to ten years in prison. She said Farris is now...