Economic Policy News

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…