The Fiscal Times |

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Senate Approves Spending Bill, Reducing Chances of a Shutdown

In a 93-7 vote, the Senate on Tuesday passed a package of spending bills that would boost fiscal 2019 funding for the Defense Department and provide full-year funding for the departments of Education...
Are States Ready for the Next Downturn?

The Great Recession hit state budgets hard, but nearly half are now prepared to weather the next modest downturn. Moody’s Analytics says that 23 states have enough reserves to meet budget shortfalls...

Are Deficit Hawks Dead or Just Playing Possum?

“The deficits hawks are dead,” declared Paul Kane, The Washington Post’s senior congressional correspondent and columnist, in a piece over the weekend. It’s easy to see why Kane says that, and there’...
Why Trillions in Offshore Profits May Stay Offshore

The tax law that went into effect this year imposed a one-time, reduced tax on profits held overseas by U.S. companies. The tax holiday was designed to encourage corporations to bring money home, to...
Chart of the Day: Evolving Price of the F-35

The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act signed in August included 77 F-35 Lightning II jets for the Defense Department, but Congress decided to bump up that number in the defense spending bill...
Tax Cuts Put the Brakes on Bracket Creep

Receipts from individual income taxes tend to rise every year due to what economists call “bracket creep” – the movement of more taxpayers into higher tax brackets over time, even as tax rates stay...
Social Security Pulled 27 Million People Out of Poverty in 2017

Since 2011, the U.S. Census Bureau has produced a more sophisticated measure of poverty that, among other things, includes the income effects of government assistance programs such as Social Security...