Budget

What Will a Divided Congress Do About the Defense Budget?

By Yuval Rosenberg

Bloomberg’s editorial board weighs in on last week’s bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission report warning Congress that America’s military superiority has eroded to such an extent that the...
Medicare Improper Payments Fall to Lowest Since 2010

By The Fiscal Times Staff

Improper payments by Medicare in fiscal 2018 dropped to their lowest rate since 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said Friday in a report flagged by Modern Healthcare . CMS...
Goldman Sachs Sees Sharp Economic Slowdown Ahead

By Michael Rainey

Goldman Sachs is sticking to its forecast of a significant economic slowdown over the next several quarters, driven in part by the waning effects from both the tax cuts and the recent increase in...
The Problem with Our $6 Trillion War Tab

By Yuval Rosenberg

We told you last week that the total long-term cost of post-9/11 wars is approaching $6 trillion , according to a report by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown...
Amazing Facts and Figures from the Pentagon’s Failed Audit

By Michael Rainey

To the surprise of no one, the Department of Defense announced this week that it has failed its first-ever comprehensive audit. Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the outgoing chair of the House Subcommittee...

Congressional Panel Considers Budget Reforms

By Yuval Rosenberg

A bipartisan congressional panel tasked with revamping the federal budgeting process on Thursday marked up its proposed legislation ahead of a November 30 deadline. The panel, created as part of...
Pentagon Fails Its First-Ever Audit

By Yuval Rosenberg

The Defense Department has failed its first-ever comprehensive audit, Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said Thursday, according to multiple reports. “We failed the audit, but we never...
The Economy’s Coming Wile E. Coyote Moment

By Michael Rainey

Most economists think that the “sugar high” in the economy produced by simultaneous tax cuts and federal spending increases this year will fizzle at some in the next few quarters, at which point GDP...
States Spent $2 Trillion in 2018. Here’s Where It Went.

By Yuval Rosenberg

The 50 states spent more than $2 trillion for the first time in fiscal 2018, according to a report released Thursday by the National Association of State Budget Officers. At the same time, as the...
Securing America’s Future Requires Political Courage Now

By Russ Latino

My son is five. He plays with Legos and digs old-school video games. My daughter is three. She likes dolls and is prone to uncontrollable giggling with no apparent provocation. Neither have much...

How GOP Rhetoric on Entitlements Has Changed

By The Fiscal Times Staff

The Washington Post’s David Weigel describes how Republicans have changed their tune on Medicare and, for this year at least, largely abandoned the idea of entitlement reform: “[O]ver eight years,...
How the Army ‘Found’ $25 Billion

By Michael Rainey

The U.S. Army has been combing through its existing programs to identify potential sources of funding that can be applied to its ambitious modernization program, and according to Army Secretary Mark...
529 Plans Are Growing — and So Is Their Cost to the Government

By Yuval Rosenberg

Education savings accounts called 529 plans have grown dramatically since 2010, both in terms of the number of accounts and total assets, according to research by The Pew Charitable Trusts . And they...
The Post-Election Outlook: ‘Debt, Debt and More Debt’

By Yuval Rosenberg

The 2018 elections are looking like a lose-lose proposition for the U.S. bond market, according to Bloomberg’s Liz McCormick and Alex Harris : “If Democrats take the House, it raises the odds that...
The Pentagon’s $71 Billion Fiscal Cliff

By Yuval Rosenberg

Late last month, President Trump signed into law a $670 billion defense spending bill for fiscal 2019. Now, Travis J. Tritten writes in the Washington Examiner , the fight over the next such bill is...