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☆ U.S. House Republican hardliners unveil spending demands for raising debt ceiling
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) - The hardline U.S. House Freedom Caucus responded to President Joe Biden's $6.8 trillion budget proposal on Friday, with a list of demands including a near freeze on discretionary spending and an end to multiple programs, in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry said the plan would mean a $131 billion spending cut for fiscal 2024, which begins on Oct. 1, and save $3 trillion over a decade. "America will not default on our debts unless President Biden chooses to do so," Perry told reporters at a news conference. "To ensure America does not default on our debts, the House Freedom Caucus is offering a responsible solution." "To president Biden: your budget is dead on arrival," said Representative Byron Donalds, a House Freedom Caucus member.

☆ House Republicans to highlight US debt ahead of Biden budget proposal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans plan to focus on the federal government's $31.4 trillion debt in a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, the day before President Joe Biden unveils a 2024 spending plan the White House says will help limit the debt's growth. The emergence of the two budgets are seen as the starting gun for negotiations between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden over spending for fiscal 2024, which begins Sept. 1. The stakes of those talks are elevated this year as the federal government is expected to hit the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling by summer. McCarthy wants Biden to agree to spending cuts before his narrow Republican House majority would agree to raise the debt ceiling. Biden insists that Republicans must agree to a "clean" debt ceiling increase without a preliminary deal on spending.

☆ House Democrats push back against GOP bill to abolish IRS, impose national sales tax
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON — Three Democrats in the U.S. House introduced a measure to push back against a controversial Republican tax proposal that would abolish the IRS, eliminate income taxes and impose a national sales tax. House Republicans introduced the Fair Tax Act in January shortly after Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, was voted in as speaker. The three Democrats introduced a House resolution opposing a national sales tax on working families and, instead, supporting a tax cut to benefit middle-class families. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., who introduced the Fair Tax Act, said it would simplify the tax code. Pettersen said the sales tax would hurt the most those who are unable to save, such as seniors and low-income families.

☆ The US could be 4 months away from a potentially disastrous debt-ceiling breach, but nobody's negotiating over how to fix it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

GOP lawmakers have refused a clean increase, but have yet to produce details on what they want in a deal. The US could breach the debt ceiling as soon as July, the CBO estimated. That's because no one seems to be ready or willing to negotiate over how to raise the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling dictates how much money the government can borrow to pay off the expenses it's already approved. For now, Biden's administration has maintained that raising the debt ceiling should be done in a bipartisan way, and without negotiations.

With the way cable news talking heads describe debt ceiling negotiations, one might think America is headed for an extinction-level event. Left-wing pundits argue that anything but a "clean raise" in the debt ceiling – extending America's credit card limit with no conditions – will bring about an economic apocalypse. As the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee with jurisdiction over the debt ceiling, Social Security, and Medicare, no debt ceiling legislation that passes through my committee will include cuts to these vital programs. Debt ceiling negotiations are something Democrats – and even then-Senator Biden – have agreed to multiple times in our nation's history. For Washington Democrats to engage in politics as usual is manifesting the very crisis they claim they want to avoid.

☆ Default on U.S. Debt Is Impossible
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( David B. Rivkin Jr. | Lee A. Casey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Headlines last week claimed that the Congressional Budget Office had warned the U.S. “could default on its debt” as early as July if Congress didn’t raise the statutory debt limit. What the CBO director actually said was that “the government would have to delay making payments for some activities, default on its debt obligations, or both.” In reality, the U.S. can’t default on its debt. Section 4 of the 14th Amendment is unequivocal on that point: “The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, . . . shall not be questioned.” This provision was adopted to ensure that the federal debts incurred to fight the Civil War couldn’t be dishonored by a Congress that included members from the former Confederate states.

☆ Premarket stocks: SpinCos are the new SPACs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The parent company may distribute the new company’s stock to its shareholders, allowing them to own shares in both. These smaller, newly formed companies are still in the process of establishing themselves in the market and often have lower profit margins than their parent company. It costs a lot to borrow these days and investors are looking for high profits and value stocks, writes Goldman. The Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes have added significantly to the cost of government debt. “As we add trillion after trillion to our debt, the problem only gets worse and compounds.

☆ CBO Director Phillip Swagel: There's broad consensus in Congress to tackle budget concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCBO Director Phillip Swagel: There's broad consensus in Congress to tackle budget concernsPhill Swagel, the director of The Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the Congressional Budget Office's debt warning, the potential for the U.S. to default on its debt, and rising interest payments challenging the U.S. budget window.

☆ Biden’s Federal Budget Blowout
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

White House spinners are boasting that Joe Biden’s Presidency has been historic, and in one sense they’re right. In a mere two years he has midwifed the biggest expansion of government since the 1960s. That’s the real news in Wednesday’s annual budget and economic forecast from the Congressional Budget Office, and the bill for this blowout has only begun to come due. It’s also far enough past the pandemic that it offers a guide to how all of the new spending and tax increases will affect the federal fisc for a decade. You don’t have to be an alarmist to see that the trend is setting the U.S. up, sooner or later, for a fateful reckoning.

☆ Congressional budget forecast to provide insight on U.S. debt ceiling deadline
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Wednesday will provide some clarity on when the United States may default on its payment obligations if lawmakers fail to raise the federal borrowing limit amid a tense partisan spending stand-off. A second CBO report will describe the "current debt situation and CBO's expectation about when the Treasury will no longer be able to pay its obligations fully if the debt limit is not raised." "There has been a Republican drumbeat to cut Social Security and Medicare," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, reminded reporters on Tuesday. There is no agenda on the part of Senate Republicans to revisit Medicare or Social Security. Reporting by David Lawder; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The US could run out of money to pay its bills as soon as July if the debt ceiling isn't raised by then, the CBO projects
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The CBO projected the US could default on its debt as soon as July if the debt ceiling isn't raised by then. The GOP is in the process of negotiating spending cuts to raise the debt ceiling. Currently, Republicans are in the process of negotiating a deal to raise the debt ceiling. "I will not negotiate whether or not we pay our debt," Biden said. Janet Yellen said on Tuesday that "the solution is simple: Congress must vote to raise or suspend the debt limit.

☆ CBO says federal deficit will average $2T over next decade, U.S. will hit debt limit between July and September
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCBO says federal deficit will average $2T over next decade, U.S. will hit debt limit between July and SeptemberCNBC's Kayla Tausche joins 'Power Lunch' to report on the latest projection from the Congressional Budget Office on the Federal deficit and more and when the U.S. is likely to hit the debt ceiling.

"If the debt limit is not raised or suspended before the extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government would be unable to pay its obligations fully," the CBO report said. "As a result, the government would have to delay making payments for some activities, default on its debt obligations, or both." CBO Director Phillip Swagel attributed the rise to higher interest rates that particularly are hitting the housing industry, coupled with slowing business investment. REUTERS/Elizabeth FrantzRepublicans, who control the House of Representatives, want to withhold a debt limit increase until Democrats agree to deep spending cuts. Democrats in turn say the debt limit should not be "held hostage" to Republican tactics over federal spending.

☆ A GOP lawmaker wrote a one-sentence bill to abolish the Department of Education. His reasoning doesn't address student loans, grants, or any of the major things the department does.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The CBO previously said that getting rid of an agency would only cut spending if its programs were eliminated, as well. Last week, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie introduced a bill to abolish the Education Department, and it's a short, one-sentence read: "The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2022." Congress recently approved a $1.7 trillion budget for the government, including $79.6 billion for the Education Department. Former President Donald Trump also said in 2015 that he'd consider getting rid of the department, saying it could be cut "way, way, way down." Reagan's efforts were clearly unsuccessful, given both of those agencies are operating at full capacity today, and millions of Americans are now relying on the Education Department's Federal Student Aid Office to facilitate the disbursement of federal student loans and grants.

☆ U.S. will default this summer unless Congress raises debt limit, CBO warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Christina Wilkie | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — The United States Treasury will exhaust its emergency measures to prevent a debt default sometime between July and September unless Congress raises the $31.4 trillion debt limit, the Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday. The latest projection notes that the final date will be determined by tax revenues the IRS receives in April. Should those measures be exhausted before President Joe Biden can sign off on a new debt limit passed by Congress, "the government would have to delay making payments for some activities, default on its debt obligations, or both," said Swagel. A large bloc of Republicans in the House have demanded Congress pass drastic cuts to federal spending before they will agree to vote to raise the debt limit, effectively using their leverage within the GOP to force their priorities to the front of the line. Republicans argue that the debt limit and annual federal spending are inextricably linked, the same way household debt is a product of household spending.

☆ Biden Tells a Deficit Fairy Tale
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

President Biden boasted during his State of the Union address about cutting the deficit by a record $1.7 trillion. His putative conversion into a born-again deficit cutter is belied by this week’s Congressional Budget Office federal budget report for January, which shows the deficit has doubled in the first four months of this fiscal year. CBO reports that the budget deficit from October through January swelled to $522 billion from $259 billion in the same period last year after adjusting for a timing shift in payments. Receipts are tracking $43 billion lower than last year, mostly owing to reduced individual income taxes, while spending is running $220 billion higher.

That is a shift from previous budget negotiations, when Republicans suggested raising the retirement age and partially privatizing Medicare. Social Security accounted for 17% of federal spending in the 2021 fiscal year, while Medicare accounted for 13%, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That would leave another 11% of the federal budget off limits. That would force budget cuts if federal borrowing exceeded a set share of the economy, but he has not said what that limit should be. NO DEBT CEILING INCREASE AT ALLSome hardliners, such as Tim Burchett and Andy Biggs, have said they will vote against raising the debt ceiling, no matter what provisions are attached.

☆ Biden says the House GOP campaigned on inflation but their bills to weaken or even abolish the IRS wouldn't fix it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Biden called out House Republicans for introducing plans that he said would worsen inflation. One GOP plan to strip funding from the IRS would add $114 billion to the deficit over ten years, the CBO found. "They campaigned on inflation," Biden said. Republicans are targeting income taxes because "that's the only way that millionaires and billionaires have to pay any taxes," Biden said. Upon winning the House majority, GOP lawmakers put forward legislation to rescind $80 billion earmarked for the IRS in an attempt to cut spending.

☆ Congressional Budget Office to issue debt limit, budget forecasts on Feb. 15
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said on Wednesday that it plans to release its 2023 baseline budget and economic forecast on Feb. 15, along with a special report on the federal debt limit situation. The non-partisan CBO said the debt limit report, part of a recurring series during debt limit standoffs in Congress, will describe "the current debt situation and CBO's expectation about when the Treasury will no longer be able to pay its obligations fully if the debt limit is not raised." The agency annually provides the baseline fiscal forecast based on current tax and spending laws and its assessment of current economic conditions to kick off Congress' budgeting and appropriations processes. The U.S. budget deficit for December quadrupled from a year earlier to $85 billion as revenues eased and outlays for debt interest costs, health care and Social Security grew. RReporting by David Lawder; Editing by Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Explainer: Shutdown? Default? Washington's risky new debt ceiling standoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Andy Sullivan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the 2018-2019 shutdown reduced economic activity by about $11 billion while it was underway, but much of that lost growth was recovered when government activity resumed. WHAT IS THE DEBT CEILING? This year could see a repeat of 2011, as Republicans who control the House of Representatives say they will not raise the debt ceiling unless Democratic President Joe Biden agrees to limit spending. WHAT HAPPENS IF THE DEBT CEILING IS NOT RAISED? Sources: Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Government Accountability Office, Congressional Research Service, Office of Management and Budget, Social Security AdministrationReporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair BellOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Analysis: U.S. House Republicans favor message over substance in early legislation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) speaks during a news conference following Senate Republican leadership elections that included the re-election of U.S. The bills are meant to provide a political benefit, as Republicans seek to fulfill 2022 campaign promises and formulate plans to capture the Senate and White House in 2024. "You'll watch it week after week after week." "The real purpose for the House Republican conference is to hold down spending and try to limit the debt," said Republican strategist Charles Black. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise said would target people earning less than $400,000 and break Biden's promise not to raise taxes on that income group.

☆ The first economic plan the new GOP House proposed would raise the deficit by $100 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Their first target: $80 billion in IRS funding from the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act. The IRS funding was meant to relieve an overburdened agency and beef up enforcement on some of the wealthiest Americans. Of the $80 billion, $45.6 billion is directed towards tax enforcement, specifically targeting areas that have been challenging for the IRS, like global high-net-worth filers. The Congressional Budget Office previously found that the enforcement funding would bring in $204 billion over the next 10 years. "With inflation high, interest rates rising, and debt approaching record levels, rescinding IRS enforcement funds would be a big mistake."

☆ Democrats could defuse the GOP's biggest fiscal threat next year by raising the debt ceiling to a ludicrously high number
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Andy Kiersz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US is currently set to hit the federal debt ceiling once again next year. Historically, raising the debt ceiling was a fairly uncontroversial move taken by Congress every couple years as needed. Before the midterms, Republicans were already suggesting that they would use the upcoming debt ceiling fight to push for spending cuts, according to the Washington Post. They could repeal the debt ceiling outright, although that is unlikely given Biden and other prominent Democrats like Sen. Bernie Sanders have ruled that out. If one wanted to be patriotic, the new debt ceiling could be $7.41776, commemorating the date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

☆ YouTube has a new 'rigid' culture as Google ad executives take over
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Tom Dotan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In the last 18 months, at least nine top YouTube executives left and were replaced by longtime Googlers. "It's becoming very operationalized at YouTube," said one former YouTube executive. Google ad executive takeoverYouTube's chief business officer role has marked a significant shift toward the rising influence of Google's sales culture. 2019 is also when Google began keeping a closer reign on YouTube and started to stock it with Google ad executives. The point person for YouTube Originals, Susanne Daniels, who came from MTV, left YouTube in January, shortly before YouTube shut down its entire Originals content group.

☆ The US spent half a trillion dollars last year alone financing its mountain of debt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

By 2025 or 2026, the United States may hit a bleak milestone: Federal interest payments could exceed the country’s entire defense budget, according to Moody’s Analytics. The Fed kept interest rates very low to stimulate growth (and encourage inflation) and investors around the world clamored to buy US debt. But White of Moody’s notes that gross interest payments include interest the government pays to itself and said net interest is the more relevant category to watch here. In a best-case scenario, the United States grows its way out of the debt mess, with the economy expanding more rapidly than interest payments. With interest rates going up, the sovereign bond bubble is unwinding,” Boockvar said.

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