Congressional Budget Office

One of the lasting legacies of the coronavirus pandemic will be staggering deficits in the United States

President Donald Trump rattled off several false claims in his Nov. 12 speech to the Economic Club of New York, in which he contrasted the supposedly “bleak” outlook at the end of his predecessor’s term with an exaggerated portrayal of the economy’s strong performance during his own tenure.

The federal government, which ended the 2019 budget year with its largest deficit in seven years, began the new budget year with a deficit in October that was 33.8% bigger than a year ago as spending hit a record. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the deficit last month totaled $134.5 billion, up from a shortfall in October 2018 of $100.5 billion.

The federal deficit for the 2019 budget year surged to $984.4 billion, its highest point in seven years, and is widely expected to top the $1 trillion mark in coming years. The 26% surge from the 2018 deficit of $779 billion that the government reported Friday reflected such factors as revenue lost from the 2017 Trump tax cut and a...

The federal budget deficit is expected to balloon to more than $1 trillion in the next fiscal year under the first projections taking into account the big budget deal that President Donald Trump and Congress reached this summer, the Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday. The return of $1 trillion annual deficits comes despite Trump’s vow when running for office that...

Federal deficits are expected to swell to higher levels over the next decade than previously expected, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said in a new report Wednesday. The CBO also said that President Donald Trump’s tariffs are projected to shrink gross domestic product by 2020, and warned that further tariff hikes could stifle economic growth. The U.S. budget deficit is...

A prescription drug compromise that would lower costs for Medicare recipients and save billions for Medicare and Medicaid cleared a key hurdle in the Senate on Thursday, but Republican resistance signaled trouble as the legislation faces floor consideration. The Finance Committee voted 19-9 to advance the bill, but it passed because of unanimous support from the panel’s Democratic minority, while...

The Senate voted Tuesday to extend funding for first responders suffering health problems as a result of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order allowing small businesses to buy health insurance plans that may not meet Obamacare standards as a way to push through health care reform with lower-premium plans.

House Democrats approved legislation Thursday to raise the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, to $15 an hour, showcasing the progress and challenge of a signature issue for the party ahead of the 2020 election. The increase, which would boost pay for some 30 million low-wage workers, is intended as one answer to income inequality.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday blocked a bipartisan bill that would ensure a victims’ compensation fund related to the Sept. 11 attacks never runs out of money.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017, seeking to expand insurance coverage across state lines through so-called association health plans. Those health plans will not exclude workers or charge more to those in poorer health, according to the White House.

From bilingual candidates to heated debates on healthcare, here are the key moments from night one of the Democratic debates.

This was no Trump rally. Ten Democrats kicked off the presidential debate season with a sober rendering of policy that featured a smattering of missteps on climate change, the economy and more but no whoppers. The Democrats spoke largely in generalities Wednesday night and when they got into the nuts and bolts, their claims largely checked out. But not always.

Republicans released another revision of their controversial health care bill, keeping Medicaid cuts in place while also allowing cheaper plans.

Democrats shunned a White House veto threat and muscled legislation through the House Tuesday that would bestow a chance for citizenship on an estimated 2 million-plus migrants, a bill that stands virtually no chance of enactment but lets them showcase their efforts on one of their highest-profile priorities. The measure is just one skirmish in Democrats’ multi-front battle against most...

Democrats shunned a White House veto threat and muscled legislation through the House Tuesday that would bestow a chance for citizenship on an estimated 2 million-plus migrants, a bill that stands virtually no chance of enactment but lets them showcase their efforts on one of their highest-profile priorities. The measure is just one skirmish in Democrats’ multi-front battle against most...

On the day the Trump administration released its fiscal 2020 budget, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow misleadingly claimed that “overall revenues are up about 10 percent.” In fact, federal revenues are down since the Republican tax cuts became law.

The federal budget deficit is ballooning on President Donald Trump’s watch and few in Washington seem to care. And even if they did, the political dynamics that enabled bipartisan deficit-cutting deals decades ago has disappeared, replaced by bitter partisanship and chronic dysfunction. That’s the reality that will greet Trump’s latest budget, which will promptly be shelved after landing with a...

A surprisingly strong burst of job growth over the past year has led many economists to wonder: Where are all the workers coming from? As recently as last spring, analysts had worried that hiring would slow as the pool of unemployed shrank. Many employers have complained for years that they could no longer find enough people to fill their open...