deficit

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Dems: Use TARP Funds to Aid Jobless, Homeowners

White House wants to use balance to cut deficit

(Newser) - Democrats in Congress want to direct some of the remaining billions in the Wall Street bailout funds to struggling workers and homeowners—a plan that puts them at odds with the White House, which aims to put the TARP balance toward deficit reduction. The change in Congress comes as unemployment...

White House Eyes TARP Cash to Slash Deficit

Administration debating options for leftover $200B

(Newser) - The White House is debating using some of what remains in the $700 billion bailout fund to help cut the nation's deficit. Around $210 billion remains unspent and financial institutions are expected to repay another $50 billion over the next 18 months. The administration wants to keep some of that...

Hey Blue Dogs, We Need a Second Stimulus
Hey Blue Dogs, We Need a Second Stimulus
ROBERT REICH

Hey Blue Dogs, We Need a Second Stimulus

Rising unemployment makes it essential

(Newser) - The ever-worsening employment situation demands a second stimulus, writes former Labor Secretary Robert Reich . Yes, the first stimulus is only half-spent, but the remaining programs won’t affect mounting job losses. Blue Dog Democrats, worried about the deficit and 2010 elections, will be hard-pressed to support a second round, but...

China's Rise Threatens to Turn US Into Britain

America will end up as an also-ran if it can't reinvigorate its economy

(Newser) - America used its financial clout to knock the British Empire into second place last century and it's in danger of receiving the same treatment from China in the not-too-distant future, writes Zachary Karabell. China is the American government's biggest creditor, much as the US was to Britain in 1946, Karabell...

Social Security Faces Grim Forecast for 2010, 2011

Payouts will exceed tax receipts for first time since 1980s

(Newser) - Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next 2 years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s. The deficits—$10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in...

Don't Fear Debt &mdash;Failed Reform Is Scarier
Don't Fear Debt —Failed Reform Is Scarier
OPINION

Don't Fear Debt —Failed Reform Is Scarier

Krugman: We need deficits in a recession; they 'saved the world'

(Newser) - Paul Krugman isn't surprised that the projected $9 trillion deficit over the next decade is being greeted as a sign of economic apocalypse—and that commentators think it proves health care reform should be scuppered. In fact, he writes in the New York Times, it's good to run a deficit...

US Deficit Soaring to $1.6T This Year

(Newser) - Here's the latest eye-popping number produced by the recession: $1.6 trillion. The White House and CBO today projected that figure as this year's deficit, reports the New York Times. While it would be the biggest since World War II, the figure is actually about $260  billion better than anticipated...

Buffett: Cut Our 'Greenback Emissions'

With recovery in sight, Congress should curb deficit spending

(Newser) - Just as carbon emissions could have a dire effect on the environment, Warren Buffett thinks “greenback emissions” could wreak havoc on the economy, he writes in the New York Times. The government has spent staggering sums to avoid economic disaster, and that was wise. Now, the economy is “...

Awash-in-Red USPS 'High-Risk': Fed Watchdog

(Newser) - The Government Accountability Office has put the struggling US Postal Service on its list of “high-risk” federal programs, the Hill reports. The federal watchdog says the USPS will lose $7 billion this year, and that even the end of the recession will not return business that has migrated to...

Inaction Costlier Than Health Reform
  Inaction Costlier 
 Than Health Reform 


OPINION

Inaction Costlier Than Health Reform

(Newser) - If you want to see a health care plan that will hike your taxes, increase your medical expenses, and swell the deficit, Steven Pearlstein can name one: "Doing nothing as we continue to search in vain for the perfect plan." For the Washington Post columnist, a somewhat...

Why GOP Sees Hope for 2010
 Why GOP Sees Hope for 2010 
ANALYSIS

Why GOP Sees Hope for 2010

GOP could mount a comeback, if it plays smart

(Newser) - They got an electoral thumping in 2006 and did no better in 2008, but Republicans may be getting their groove back. The GOP is still polling at record lows, and the Ensign scandal won’t help the party buck its reputation for moral hypocrisy. Yet, Politico reports, the opposition is...

Geithner to China: Your Assets Are Safe

Treasury secretary seeks to reassure China about growing US deficit

(Newser) - Tim Geithner began his trip to China with a speech at Peking University, where the Treasury secretary said that once the current recession and financial crisis are over, the administration will bring down soaring fiscal deficits. But students at the college where Geithner himself once studied peppered him with tough...

US Deficit to Quadruple to $1.8T, Top 2008 Record

pls. try to get into head/deck that this figure is 4x the record, set in 2008

(Newser) - With the economy performing worse than hoped, revised White House figures point to deepening budget deficits, with the government borrowing almost 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year. The deficit for the current budget year will rise by $89 billion to above $1.8 trillion—about four times...

Obama to Cabinet: Cut $100M From Budgets

Move comes amid pressure to slice deficit

(Newser) - Facing pressure over spending, President Obama will unite his Cabinet today for the first time and ask members to find $100 million worth of potential budget cuts over the next 90 days, the Washington Post reports. Though it’s a tiny sum compared to a $3.5 trillion budget outline,...

Moderate Dems Balk Over Obama Deficit
Moderate Dems
Balk Over
Obama Deficit

Moderate Dems Balk Over Obama Deficit

Right wing of the president's party will fight to shave budget

(Newser) - Barack Obama may be president, but it’s Congress that passes the budget, and moderate Democrats are the ones holding the keys to the federal treasury, reports Time. Obama’s 2010 budget calls for $3.6 trillion in federal spending. And though deficit-hawks appreciate the president’s honest numbers (in...

Calm Down, Government Debt Won't Kill Us
Calm Down, Government Debt Won't Kill Us
OPINION

Calm Down, Government Debt Won't Kill Us

(Newser) - Republicans have become born-again deficit hawks, decrying the debt President Obama is handing America’s grandkids. “What’s missing,” writes Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post, “is any sense of perspective.” The added $2 trillion pales before the $66 trillion spent annually on Social Security and...

Obama's 'All-In' Budget Presents Huge Risks
Obama's 'All-In' Budget Presents Huge Risks
ANALYSIS

Obama's 'All-In' Budget Presents Huge Risks

President banks his future on an ambitious economic reinvention

(Newser) - With his first budget, Barack Obama has presented a program of stunning cost and complexity that underlines his ambition to transform the United States, writes Dan Balz in the Washington Post. Its $600-billion-plus health package, taxes on the wealthy that exceed campaign rhetoric, and shocking $1.75 trillion deficit show...

Obama Budget Relies on Rosy Growth Estimates

(Newser) - President Obama is more optimistic about the nation's economic prospects than most economists, Bloomberg reports. His budget plan forecasts a GDP contraction of 1.2% this year, followed by a 3.2% expansion in 2010. The median forecast of economists calls for a contraction of 2% this year and growth...

Calm Down! 7 Reasons to Be Skeptical

 Calm Down! 
 7 Reasons to 
 Be Skeptical 
OPINION

Calm Down! 7 Reasons to Be Skeptical

Yep; here are some reasons for concern and skepticism about Obama

(Newser) - Yesterday’s inauguration was such a feel-good fest, and our problems are so dire, that everybody is on board with President Obama. Leave it to Politico’s Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris, then, to give us some reasons for skepticism:
  • The genius fallacy: The best and brightest screw up,
...

Obama Targets Social Security, Medicare

Faced with trillion-dollar deficit, president-elect vows reform, trims

(Newser) - In his first foray into the hazardous terrain of entitlement programs, Barack Obama said yesterday that his administration would overhaul Social Security and Medicare to clamp down on government spending. At a news conference and in a subsequent interview with the New York Times, the president-elect said, "If we...

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