Trump and Biden Agree: Just Call Debt 'Wealth' Instead!
Both party leaders are selling the idea of a sovereign wealth fund, but it’s more political fantasy than fiscal fix.
Both party leaders are selling the idea of a sovereign wealth fund, but it’s more political fantasy than fiscal fix.
As conservatives push for cuts, lasting reform will require closing accountability gaps and restructuring entitlements.
Vice President Kamala Harris would add about $2 trillion to the deficit.
Both campaigns represent variations on a theme of big, fiscally irresponsible, hyper-interventionist government.
Lawmakers must be willing to reform so-called "mandatory spending," Pence's nonprofit argues in a new document.
The campaign promise from Donald Trump sounds nice, but it would be disastrous when considering the program is already racing toward insolvency.
Facing an economic downturn in the 1990s, Japan racked up debt. America should not repeat that mistake.
Should we blame Biden and the politicians applauding him for their unwillingness to address our looming fiscal disaster?
It's good to hear a candidate actually talk about our spending problem. But his campaign promises would exacerbate it.
The candidate supports gun rights, wants to privatize government programs, and would radically reduce the number of federal employees.
Reason's Emma Camp attended the Republican National Convention to ask attendees if they still believe in the power of free markets.
This week left no doubt that the GOP's current leadership wants the government to do more, spend more, and meddle more.
We asked delegates at the Republican National Convention whether a second Trump term would address America's debt problem.
There seems to be general bipartisan agreement on keeping a majority of the cuts, which are set to expire. They can be financed by cleaning out the tax code of unfair breaks.
Both parties—and the voters—are to blame for the national debt fiasco.
Opening night of the Republican National Convention programmed a central issue with a Trumpian twist: "Make America Wealthy Again."
Both parties—and the voters—are to blame for the national debt fiasco.
The Biden administration's $60 billion expansion of the IRS has netted $1 billion in new revenue so far.
Although former President Donald Trump's deregulatory agenda would make some positive changes, it's simply not enough.
The U.S. has successfully navigated past debt challenges, notably in the 1990s. Policymakers can fix this if they find the will to do so.
Those three presidential candidates are making promises that would have bewildered and horrified the Founding Fathers.
The national debt has become an alarm bell ringing in the distance that people are pretending not to hear, especially in the city that caused the problem.
Biden's incoherence and Trump's comparatively cogent lies demonstrate just how poorly the two-party system serves supporters of small government.
The candidate who grasps the gravity of this situation and proposes concrete steps to address it will demonstrate the leadership our nation now desperately needs. The stakes couldn't be higher.
Plus: A listener asks if there are any libertarian solutions to rising obesity rates.
The Congressional Budget Office reports the 2024 budget deficit will near $2 trillion.
We could grow our way out of our debt burden if politicians would limit spending increases to just below America's average yearly economic growth. But they won't even do that.
The president has tried to shift blame for inflation, interest rate hikes, and an overall decimation of consumers' purchasing power.
Reasonable options include gradually raising the minimum retirement age, adjusting benefits to reflect longer life expectancies, and implementing fair means-testing to ensure benefits flow where they're actually needed.
The average American will lose between $5,000 and $14,000 annually by 2054 due to the burden of the growing national debt.
Why aren't politicians on both sides more worried than they seem to be?
Lawmakers should be freed from "the dead hand of some guy from 1974," says former Congressional Budget Office director.
Will the real president of the United States during the years 2020 through 2022 please stand up?
If businesses don't serve customers well, they go out of business. Government, on the other hand, is a monopoly.
There are many pervasive myths about the U.S. tax code. Here are a few.
Increased spending does not automatically equate to higher quality—something that is often lost in this debate.
The situation is more dire when you consider how much federal spending is financed by debt.
Despite their informal nature, those norms have historically constrained U.S. fiscal policy. But they're eroding.
The new plan is much less ambitious than the president's 2022 blanket forgiveness effort, mostly relying on an expansion of previous smaller-scale debt cancelation schemes.
Governments around the world have been on a borrowing spree, and prosperity has suffered.
Free trade brings us more stuff at lower prices.
The question of how best to measure inflation has no single and straightforward answer, but most people know that the president's economic claims aren't true.
Plus: A listener asks about the absurdity of Social Security entitlements.
An obvious, tepid reform was greeted with shrill partisan screeching.
The growing debt will "slow economic growth, drive up interest payments," and "heighten the risk of a fiscal crisis," the CBO warns.
The president wants to raise the rate from 21 percent to 28 percent, despite it being well-established that this is the most economically-destructive method to raise government funds.
If you can't even get close to balancing the budget when unemployment is low, tax revenues are near record highs, and the economy is booming, when can you do it?