The Federal Budget Debate
Romney Budget Proposals Would Require Massive Cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Other Programs
"Governor Mitt Romney’s proposals to cap total federal spending, boost defense spending, cut taxes, and balance the budget would require extraordinarily large cuts in other programs, both entitlements and discretionary programs, according to our revised analysis based on new information and updated projections.
"For the most part, Governor Romney has not outlined cuts in specific programs. But if policymakers exempted Social Security from the cuts, as Romney has suggested, and cut Medicare, Medicaid, and all other entitlement and discretionary programs by the same percentage — to meet Romney’s spending cap, defense spending target, and balanced budget requirement — then non-defense programs other than Social Security would have to be cut 29 percent in 2016 and 59 percent in 2022." Read more
Risk of New Debt Ceiling Crisis
Statement: Greenstein on Speaker Boehner’s Recent Debt Limit Remarks
"No one should underestimate the significance of House Speaker John Boehner’s declaration... that he will block an increase in the debt limit next winter unless policymakers match each dollar of debt limit increase with at least a dollar in budget cuts, with no revenue increases. This standard, which key Republican leaders have said they will insist on for all future debt limit increases, would both produce extreme policies and repeat these lawmakers’ hostage-taking strategy of last summer that threatened the economy and full faith and credit of the U.S. government — and raised the risks of a first-ever, potentially catastrophic, default." Read more
Related:
- Off the Charts: The Most Terrifying Result of the Debt Ceiling Crisis
- Statement: Robert Greenstein, President, on New Debt Ceiling Agreement
More: Federal Budget Analyses
States and the Economy
States Continue to Feel Recession’s Impact
Budget estimates for the upcoming fiscal year continue to show that states face a long and uncertain recovery. For fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1, 30 states have addressed or have projected shortfalls totaling $54 billion.
Many of these shortfalls have been closed through spending cuts and other measures scheduled to take effect in the next fiscal year.
The additional cuts mean that state budgets are poised to continue to be a drag on the national economy, threatening hundreds of thousands of private- and public-sector jobs, reducing the job creation that otherwise would be expected to occur. Read more
Related:
- Strengthening State Fiscal Policies for a Stronger Economy
- Policy Basics: The ABCs of State Budgets
- Out of Balance
- More:
- Federal Budget Analyses
New From the Center
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Senate Funding Bill Improves on President's Budget Request for Rental Assistance
May 22, 2012
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Testimony of LaDonna Pavetti, Ph.D. Vice President, Family Income Support Policy, Before the House Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Human Resources, Hearing on "State TANF Spending and its Impact on Work Requirements"
May 17, 2012
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North Dakota's Measure 2: High Risk For Little Reward
May 15, 2012
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Lower-Than-Expected Medicare Drug Costs Mostly Reflect Lower Enrollment and Slowing of Overall Drug Spending, Not Reliance on Private Plans
May 14, 2012
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Are Low-Income Programs Enlarging the Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Problem?
May 10, 2012
- More:
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Center in the News
State budgets spring new, smaller holes
Reuters
May 25, 2012
Congress Should Scrap the Debt Limit
U.S. News and World Report
May 23, 2012
Nancy Pelosi’s risky pander on taxes
Washington Post
May 23, 2012
History Shows U.S. Can Stimulate Now, Cut Later
Bloomberg
May 23, 2012
This Week in Poverty: A Little Help for the Long-term Unemployed?
The Nation
May 21, 2012
Study calls ND property tax abolition 'risky'
Bismarck Tribune
May 16, 2012
Presenting the first-annual Wonky awards
Washington Post's Wonkblog
December 30, 2011
