Budget Battles
-
Shocking Health Care Statistic of the Day
-
Ready to Rumble: How Pelosi’s Drug Bill Sets Up Dems for 2020
-
Increasing Number of Americans Delay Medical Care Due to Cost: Gallup
-
Congress Really Wants to Get Something Done on Drug Prices. It May Fail Anyway
-
Surprise Deal to Protect Patients From Surprise Medical Bills
-
Obamacare Back at the Supreme Court — With Billions for Insurers on the Line
-
The Rising Tide of Health Care Costs
-
Chart of the Day: Record Low Poverty Rate
By Michael RaineyThe extensive array of government assistance programs — including Social Security, unemployment insurance, veterans’ benefits, nutritional aid, rental assistance and the Earned Income Tax Credit —...
-
Democrat's New Taxes Wouldn't Hit Just Billionaires
By Michael RaineySome Democratic tax proposals are focused on making millionaires and billionaires pay more, but other households would be affected as well. Neil Irwin of The New York Times points out Tuesday that...
-
How Mitt Romney Wants to Save Social Security and Other Trust Funds
By Michael RaineyA bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney introduced legislation Tuesday that would create new congressional committees focused on the fiscal health of federal trust...
-
Number of the Day: $23 a Month
By Michael RaineyThe Social Security Administration on Thursday said the cost-of-living adjustment for 2020 would be 1.6%. That translates to a bump of about $23 on the average monthly benefit of $1,460. The 2020...
-
The Case for Giving Social Security to Children
By Michael RaineyUS social welfare programs reduced poverty by about two-thirds overall in 2018, according to an analysis of Census data by Matt Bruenig of the left-leaning People’s Policy Project. Bruenig offers a...
-
Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan to Expand Social Security
By Michael Rainey and Yuval RosenbergElizabeth Warren released a plan Thursday to expand Social Security and raise benefit payments. Warren’s plan would: Immediately increase benefit payments by $200 a month. If enacted, Warren’s plan...
-
More Progress in Tackling Poverty, but Meager Gains for the Middle Class
The poverty rate fell for the fourth straight year in 2018, dropping to 11.8%, the lowest level since 2001, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. In all, some 38 million people were living in poverty...
-
Op-Ed of the Day: Fighting the Next Recession Now
By The Fiscal Times StaffJason Furman, the former chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama, has some advice for Congress: Start preparing for the next recession now. In a Wall Street...
-
Americans Are Missing Out on Trillions in Social Security
By The Fiscal Times StaffAmericans will lose out on $3.4 trillion in benefits by claiming Social Security too early, according to a new report from United Income, an investment management and financial planning company...
-
Growth of US Debt Slows, but Record Levels Still Ahead
By Michael RaineyThe national debt will reach “unprecedented levels” over the next 30 years, according to the new long-term budget outlook released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget Office. Federal outlays will...
-
7 Ways to Fix America’s Fiscal Mess
Tackling the $22 trillion national debt can be done in very different ways. Underscoring that point, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan organization focused on increasing...
-
Social Security Error Jeopardizes Medicare Coverage For 250,000 Seniors
By Susan Jaffe, Kaiser Health NewsAt least a quarter of a million Medicare beneficiaries may receive bills for as many as five months of premiums they thought they already paid. But they shouldn’t toss the letter in the garbage. It’s...
-
What Do Maine and Florida Have in Common? Lots of Social Security Recipients
By Michael RaineyMore than 17% of Maine residents received Social Security retiree benefits in 2018, Bloomberg’s Marie Patino reports , the highest proportion in the country. Other states with a high percentage of...
-
Dem Economists Push Back Against Debt Worries
By Michael RaineyJust how worried should we be about the rapidly rising national debt? Last week we told you about a budget watchdog group’s effort to raise the alarm over “debt denialism” that has taken hold in some...
-
3 New Plans to Fix Social Security
By Michael RaineyAccording to the annual trustees’ report released Monday , the combined trust funds for Social Security, currently valued at $2.9 trillion, will be exhausted by 2035 (see the chart from CQ Roll Call...