federal spending

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Trump Signs Bill to Avoid Shutdown During Election

Federal funding ran out at midnight

(Newser) - Federal funding ran out when the new fiscal year started at midnight, which would normally trigger a shutdown—but agencies waited for President Trump to return from a Minnesota rally and sign a stopgap spending bill. A similar funding lapse happened "with little consequence" for a few hours in...

National Debt Hits Another New Milestone

Public debt now stands at $22T

(Newser) - The national debt has passed a new milestone, topping $22 trillion for the first time. The Treasury Department's daily statement showed Tuesday that total outstanding public debt stands at $22.01 trillion. It stood at $19.95 trillion when President Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017. The debt...

Trump's HHS Head May Have a Private Jet Problem: Politico

Tom Price's 5 recent flights on official business cost an estimated $60K

(Newser) - Between Sept. 13 and Sept. 15, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price took five private jet flights for official business, which cost tens of thousands of dollars more than commercial flights would have—a "sharp departure" from the practices of his predecessors, per Politico , and also an odd...

Trump Budget 'Won't Survive Congress'
Even GOP Lawmakers Say
Trump Budget Has No Chance
THE RUNDOWN
Mar 17, 2017 4:44 AM CDT

Even GOP Lawmakers Say Trump Budget Has No Chance

Cuts labeled 'draconian, careless'

(Newser) - President Trump's first budget proposal appears to have little chance of getting past the people who actually control federal spending. The sweeping spending cutbacks were denounced as extreme Thursday even by Trump's Republican allies in Congress. The cuts to domestic programs are "draconian, careless, and counterproductive,"...

What to Expect in Trump's Speech to Congress
What to Expect in Trump's
Big Speech to Congress
THE RUNDOWN
Feb 28, 2017 6:24 AM CST

What to Expect in Trump's Big Speech to Congress

He wants to solve 'real problems for real people'

(Newser) - President Trump will deliver his first speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night—a traditional address delivered in place of a State of the Union address in a president's first year, though nobody's sure how traditional he plans to keep it. NPR reports that the prime-time...

US Gov Spends $2M, Finds Out Kids Like Food Un-Sneezed On

But was it wasteful spending?

(Newser) - In the past year, the federal government spent $2 million to discover that kids like eating food that hasn't been sneezed on and another $200,000 studying how fish bones influenced social status hundreds of years ago in Tanzania. At least that's how one Republican lawmaker from Oklahoma...

Federal Deficit Has Biggest Drop Since WWII

$680B deficit is lowest since 2008

(Newser) - The federal budget deficit for fiscal 2013 has plunged by more than $400 billion, the biggest drop since the end of World War II, the Treasury Department says. It comes in at $680 billion—not exactly pocket change, but a lot better than the trillion-plus deficits of the last five...

Your Tax Dollars: $79K a Year for Grounded Plane

TV Marti plane for Cuba in sequester 'limbo': Washington Post

(Newser) - The Washington Post today has one of those logic-defying stories about government-spending, this one involving a plane that's not allowed to fly. The government is paying a Georgia contractor $6,600 every month to house the plane, originally intended to fly over Cuba and broadcast anti-Castro programming. The problem...

Don't Fear the Looming Pentagon Cuts

...because it's the domestic cuts that will really hit home

(Newser) - Much ink has been given to the Pentagon cuts set to hit on Jan. 2, thanks to the failure of last year's deficit supercommittee. But with less than five months til D-Day, the AP takes the opportunity to dish out a cheery recommendation: Don't fear those $55 billion...

Obama: Republicans Are the Real Big Spenders

Federal spending is rising at slowest rate since '50s, report finds

(Newser) - Republicans are trying to fool the country into believing that they are the party of fiscal responsibility, President Obama told a fundraiser yesterday. "I’m running to pay down our debt in a way that’s balanced and responsible. After inheriting a $1 trillion deficit, I signed $2 trillion...

House GOP Caves, Backs Payroll Tax

Boehner and Co. say they'll accept tax cut without paying for it elsewhere

(Newser) - House Republican leaders have surprised and angered rank-and-file lawmakers by abruptly backing down from demands that a 10-month extension of the payroll tax cut be paid for with cuts elsewhere. GOP leaders are wary of holding up a tax cut for 160 million Americans in an election year, Politico notes,...

Lawmakers Use Earmarks to Aid Own Properties
Lawmakers Use Earmarks to Aid Own Properties
INVESTIGATION
Feb 7, 2012 5:55 AM CST

Lawmakers Use Earmarks to Aid Own Properties

Just a coincidence that pork benefits own real estate, they say

(Newser) - Members of Congress are not only steering earmarks to their own districts, but also their own backyards, funding projects that boost the value of properties they own, a Washington Post investigation finds. Comparing disclosure forms against public records revealed that over the last few years, some 33 members of Congress...

Deal Averts Government Shutdown

Congress forges $1T spending deal

(Newser) - The spirit of Christmas, or at least the spirit of competence, appears to have reached Capitol Hill. Lawmakers have set aside their differences to forge a $1 trillion spending bill for federal agencies that will avert a government shutdown this weekend, the Washington Post reports. The bill—heralded by a...

Poll: We Hate Congress More Than Ever

Approval dives below 20%

(Newser) - The debt ceiling mess has pushed Congress' already dismal approval ratings into the abyss, according to the latest New York Times / CBS poll. Some 82% of Americans don't approve of the way Congress is doing its job, the lowest rating since the Times started asking the question in...

Secret Service Pays Joe Biden Rent to Use His Cottage
 Secret Service Pays Biden Rent 
Aug 1, 2011 7:31 AM CDT

Secret Service Pays Biden Rent

Total it has forked over since April: $13K

(Newser) - Joe Biden is the vice president ... and due to a strange arrangement with the Secret Service, he's also a federal contractor. The Secret Service pays Biden to stay in a rental cottage adjacent to his Delaware home. Since April, Biden has collected $13,000 in rent, and he could...

Why the GOP Is Winning the Debt Fight: It Has a ('Very Bad') Big Idea
Why the GOP Is Winning:
It Has a ('Very Bad') Big Idea
EUGENE ROBINSON
Jul 29, 2011 8:33 AM CDT

Why the GOP Is Winning: It Has a ('Very Bad') Big Idea

Democrats need a big idea to win the debt fight: Eugene Robinson

(Newser) - The Democrats are getting their butts kicked in the debt debate because conservatives have a big, easily communicated idea and Dems don't, writes Eugene Robinson for the Washington Post . The GOP's idea—which is, in Robinson's opinion, a terrible one—is that "taxes are always too...

FAA Forced Into Partial Shutdown

Airport construction work halted across country

(Newser) - As debt ceiling talks drag on, the Federal Aviation Administration is already feeling the effects of lawmakers' failure to agree. The agency was forced into partial shutdown yesterday after Congress failed to extend its funding, the Los Angeles Times reports. Construction work at airports around the country has ground to...

Dems: We'll Win Debt Fight for the Gipper

Gipper 'wouldn't be welcome in modern GOP'

(Newser) - The Democrats, the party that Ronald Reagan ditched in 1962, says that even the Gipper would be on their side in today's debt ceiling debate. Dems are telling Republicans they should follow Reagan's lead in fiscal responsibility, circulating a 1987 radio address in which Reagan slammed brinksmanship and...

Poll: Public Wants Debt Compromise

GOP losing ground in battle for public opinion

(Newser) - As talks drag on, public opinion is shifting in favor of lifting the debt ceiling and against politicians who refuse to budge, according to two new polls. Some 38% of Americans now favor lifting the debt ceiling, a 10-point jump from a month ago, as opposed to 31% against, according...

Cut, Cap, and Balance Act Passes House
House Passes
Doomed Debt Measure
Jul 19, 2011 9:40 PM CDT

House Passes Doomed Debt Measure

'Cut, cap and trade' plan expected to die in Senate

(Newser) - The House of Representatives passed the Tea Party-backed "cut, cap and balance" plan today, sending the measure to the Senate, where it stands next to no chance of passing. The measure, which requires trillions in spending cuts and a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution in return for raising the...

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