Budget Matters Blog

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and President Obama/ White House photo by Chuck Kennedy

A better-than-expected cash flow at the U.S. Treasury has turned May 18 into just any old day.

That was supposed to be the deadline for lawmakers to come to an agreement on raising the debt ceiling, which is the limit Congress places on its own borrowing. But the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to send tens of billions of dollars in profits to the Treasury over the coming months, while government spending has gone down due to the cuts of sequestration. That ...

The White House/ flickr

In the first State of the Union address of his second term, President Obama laid out a grand social vision for the next four years, while largely avoiding the critical budget challenges currently facing the nation.

He failed to mention the federal government is operating on a temporary budget or that the debt ceiling was merely suspended until May. He briefly mentioned across-the-board budget cuts – known as sequestration – that are scheduled for March 1, acknowledging that the effect of such cuts would be devastating. Nearly every federal program would be hit by sequestration, including Head Start ...

Actually, the fiscal cliff never left. If you thought we solved the fiscal cliff with the deal back in January (or even the more recent debt ceiling deal), you’re mistaken. Washington left a bunch of issues unresolved, and actually made a couple of them worse. And it’s up to Congress to find some answers.

Sequestration

A major unresolved issue is sequestration – the automatic across-the-board spending cuts that were set to take effect on Jan. 2 – which the fiscal cliff deal simply delayed until March 1. And it looks increasingly like Congress will let sequestration go into effect, despite ...

U.S. Government photo

The State of the Union is usually a speech about a vision – not only for the twelve months ahead, but for years to come.

This year is different.

Congress hasn't passed a budget for the current year, sequestration is scheduled to indiscriminately reduce funding for critical initiatives like education and food safety, and the government will shut down in May and default on its loans unless Congress deals with the debt ceiling. These looming crises will have to figure into President Obama's address next week. Instead of laying out a roadmap for how to ...

Speaker John Boehner/ photograph under Creative Commons

Good news came at the end of last week, and it's something that will affect you and your neighborhood. Speaker of the House John Boehner said the House would vote on a three-month increase to the debt ceiling in order to give lawmakers time to pass a more comprehensive budget deal. A vote could come as early as today.

What is the Debt Ceiling (Debt Limit)?

The debt ceiling is the legal limit Congress places on its own borrowing. If the federal debt reaches the debt ceiling, the government is unable to ...

Kiki McClean, No Labels co-founder/ Photo by No Labels

This country is desperately in need of facts. That was the overwhelming message I took away from two exciting things that happened last week. First, there was a national conference for No Labels, an organization committed to getting beyond political party affiliation in order to support real problem solving in Washington. The second event was at the New York Public Library, Mid-Manhattan branch, where I spoke about A People's Guide to the Federal Budget.

"Congress is a fact-free zone," said Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), one of a dozen members of ...

On Jan. 23 the Housed passed legislation to deal with the debt ceiling – the legal limit Congress places on its own borrowing. If the federal debt reaches the debt ceiling, the government is unable to borrow additional funds to support continued operations, triggering a government shutdown and default on existing loans. Raising the debt ceiling doesn't grant the government permission to spend money on new things – instead, it lets the government borrow additional funds to support spending that's already been authorized. Congress has the authority to raise the debt ceiling as needed.The legislation – known officially as the ...

Speaker Boehner's photostream/ flickr

There have been few outward signs of progress in recent days as Congress and the White House negotiate over the so-called fiscal cliff. (We prefer to call it a fiscal obstacle course.) Naturally that's led to speculation that lawmakers won't be able to strike a deal to avoid the looming spending cuts and tax increases.

But if history is any guide, we shouldn't expect a deal in the weeks leading up to Christmas. On the contrary. We should look for a deal around the evening of Dec. 31, or even – perhaps – a ...

Recently the notion of the "debt ceiling" has been appearing in the news. It's making a comeback after spending months in the spotlight last summer, when the federal government nearly shut down as federal debt reached the legal limit. (Lawmakers ultimately raised the limit in the eleventh hour.) Currently, it is projected that the federal debt will hit the new debt ceiling sometime before the end of 2012. To once again avoid a government shutdown, lawmakers will again have to raise the debt ceiling, which is now set at $16.4 trillion.

Sound a little complicated? It just so ...

Followers of "Ask Kyle" may be surprised to see this, as our good friend and colleague Kyle Andrejczyk posted his last post on September 12. But so many people found Kyle's work to be so helpful in explaining the craziness that went on this summer in Washington around the federal budget that we at NPP are reluctant to let Kyle go. And with a complicated road still to be driven by Congress between now and the end of the year on the federal deficit and the national debt, we need Kyle more than ever.So Kyle is staying, at ...