Economic Policy News

The Daily Signal provides economic policy news with reporting, analysis, and commentary on markets, growth, and fiscal responsibility.
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    • Opinion

    Republicans Are Addicted to Increasing Federal Spending

    Three out of every four Americans say Congress should not increase spending. That’s not 73 percent of the Tea Party, or 73 percent of the Republican Party. That’s 73 percent of all Americans who say Congress should not increase federal spending. Republicans seem to have missed that message. Since 2013, the GOP has consistently proposed…
    Tommy Binion
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    • Opinion

    How to Slash Spending Growth Rate From Projected 5% to 2%

    Over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) expects total spending (outlays) to rise by almost 5 percent annually, with spending totaling nearly $51.4 trillion over the entire period. At this rate, spending growth would significantly outpace revenue growth, resulting in more than $9 trillion in cumulative deficits, which would drive debt to devastating…
    Justin Bogie
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    • Opinion

    Self-Sufficiency, Not Government Spending, Should Be the Measure of Antipoverty Progress

    This week President Barack Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services reached the startling conclusion that if massive welfare programs such as food stamps and the refundable earned income credit are counted as income, poverty is reduced. Not even incompetent government bureaucracies can spend a trillion dollars per year and have no effect on living…
    Robert Rector
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    • Opinion

    Venezuelans Fighting for Economic Freedom

    A broad coalition of anti-government parties in Venezuela announced a plan this month to oust President Nicolás Maduro. The plan includes constitutionally legal mechanisms to shorten the president’s term, a recall referendum, and public protests demanding Maduro’s resignation. Hand-picked by Hugo Chávez, Maduro is now the face of executive branch corruption in Venezuela. Now recent…
    Tori K. Smith
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    • Opinion

    Justin Fever Puts Canada’s Economic Freedom at Risk

    Justin Trudeau, Canada’s new prime minister, is currently visiting Washington to deepen ties with President Barack Obama and make headway on an ambitious left-leaning agenda on a wider range of issues. From an economics perspective, the summit is basically like Trudeaunomics-meets-Obamanomics, which can double the risk of undermining Canada’s economic freedom and dynamism. Under the…
    Anthony B. Kim
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    • Opinion

    Kanye West Isn’t the Only One With a Spending Problem

    If Kanye West’s personal finances have you worried, take a closer look at the federal budget. When West announced in February that he was $53 million in personal debt, he took to Twitter to ask for help from his followers, specifically soliciting $1 billion from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Unfortunately, the federal government seems to…
    Mollie McNeill
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    • Opinion

    House Budget Proposal Falls Short on Defense

    House Republicans are trying to develop a budget that both is fiscally responsible and increases defense spending. Unfortunately, the latest proposal underfunds defense and overfunds wasteful domestic programs, and House Republicans are headed for a political buzz saw if they shortchange current military operations to pay for defense increases elsewhere. This gimmick will distract from vital policy…
    Justin Johnson
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    • Opinion

    The Left’s Fuel Economy Regulations Could Cost You $3,800

    As Michigan voters head to the polls on Tuesday, they should ask candidates whether they will leave in place costly regulations that have added thousands to the price of new cars and depressed sales for the state’s iconic industry. Federal regulations that force ever-increasing automobile fuel economy standards cost consumers thousands of dollars more than…
    David Kreutzer
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    • News

    House GOP Leaders Argue Against Scrapping Budget Deal

    For House Republicans, the time for choosing starts Thursday. At a GOP conference meeting, leadership plans to gauge support for adopting a new budget with old spending numbers that conservatives, among others, consider too high. House Budget Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., is set to preview his committee’s budget resolution for Republican lawmakers. How lawmakers receive the…
    Philip Wegmann
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    • Opinion

    Why a Growing Gig Economy Is a Good Thing

    When you buy an antique on eBay or use Lyft for taxi service, you’re a customer in the growing “gig economy.” According to new research from the JPMorgan Chase Institute, about 1 in 100 American adults receives income via one of these new “online earning platforms” each month. That’s not a big share of the…
    Paul Sukkar
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    • Opinion

    The Economic Value of Marriage

    In honor of National Marriage Week, consider this question: Does marriage impact the economic well-being of societies? One of the most important answers to the solution of poverty lies not in government programs, but in the institution of marriage. For the past 50 years, our country has been losing the war against poverty. More than…
    Elisabeth Zenger
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    • News

    Conservatives and Paul Ryan Talk Terms During Ongoing Budget Battle

    There wasn’t any arm-twisting or shouting inside a closed-door Republican huddle on Capitol Hill. Instead, House Speaker Paul Ryan brought charts and graphs to plot how he thinks the GOP can move forward if they stomach a budget that increases government spending. A source inside the room tells The Daily Signal that Ryan laid out…
    Philip Wegmann
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    • Opinion

    Q&A: What You Need to Know About Presidential Budget Process

    President Barack Obama has released his final budget to Congress, shifting the federal budget process into high gear. Budgeting for the nation is a complicated and iterative process. Here is how the president’s budget fits in to that process: Q: Who writes the president’s budget? A: Starting in the spring of the previous year, the…
    Mollie McNeill
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    • Opinion

    January Job Growth Shows New Normal in US Economy

    American employers created 151,000 net jobs in January, reflecting an economy that is growing, but below its previous trends. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported that participation in the labor force was 62.7 percent, higher than the previous months but lower than the January, 2015, level. The best news was that average hourly wages…
    Salim Furth
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    • Opinion

    Don’t Believe the Defense Budget Hype

    Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has given a series of speeches outlining highlights of the 2017 defense budget request. The full budget request won’t be released by the administration until next week, so we don’t have the full picture. But as we see exciting headlines driven by the secretary’s speeches, we should keep a few…
    Justin Johnson
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    • News

    The New Budget Showdown: Conservatives Want to Disavow Boehner Deal

    House Speaker Paul Ryan’s call for unity is facing a familiar challenge that tripped up Republican leaders before him: the budget and spending. In October, in his effort to “clear the barn” for Ryan, then-Speaker John Boehner helped negotiate a two-year budget deal with President Barack Obama and Democrats. It raised the 2017 spending level…
    Josh Siegel
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    • Opinion

    It’s Time Congress Passes a Conservative Budget

    The 2016 budget season kicked off last week with a particularly bleak forecast. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) warned that the deficit in 2016 will be $130 billion higher than projected last August. Over the next nine years, deficits will be $1.5 trillion higher. And by the end of the next ten years, an additional…
    Paul Winfree
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    • Opinion

    US Ties Lowest Economic Freedom Score Ever

    While nations around the world are working hard to enhance economic freedom, America’s score in the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom continues to slip. With economic freedom diminishing in eight of the past nine years, the U.S. tied its worst score ever in 2016 and remains mired in the ranks of the “mostly free.” It…
    Tori K. Smith
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    • News

    America Mired Below Top 10 in Economic Freedom

    America’s economy remains less free than in past years even as the world’s other economies have grown more free overall, according to the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom released Monday by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. came in at No. 11 on the list of 178 nations evaluated, edging up from No. 12 in…
    Kristiana Mork
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    • News

    Another State Looks to Drug-Test Welfare Recipients

    A bill that would require drug tests for welfare recipients is slated to be introduced by two Republican lawmakers in South Dakota. State Rep. Lynne DiSanto, R-Rapid City, and state Sen. Betty Olson, R-Prairie City, are putting together the bill, which they expected to introduce this week. “The taxpayer-supported welfare system provides assistance to those in need….
    Leah Jessen
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