News
National Journal | Coburn Unveils $9 Trillion Deficit-Reduction Plan
The plan would cut $1 trillion from defense spending, while $1 trillion in savings would come from ending tax expenditures.
Fox News | US debt still attractive to overseas investors
The rest of the world still trusts Uncle Sam to make good on his word.
Washington Times | House GOP readies plan to ‘cut, cap, balance’
Democrats resist tying debt rise to constitutional amendment.
WSJ | Hope Fades for Much Good to Come From Deficit Fight
Regardless of precisely how the current wrangling over raising the government's debt ceiling is resolved, Washington now appears to be collectively squandering the opportunity to make something positive out of the crisis.
Washington Times | ‘Kicking the can’ threatens credit rating
Kicking the can down the road — a great Washington tradition when the two major political parties reach a budget impasse — is not an option this time if the U.S. is to maintain its privileged financial standing in the world.
WSJ | Debt Deal Search Intensifies
Top White House officials and congressional leaders are racing against the clock to devise a scaled-down deficit-reduction proposal that would get both President Barack Obama's signature and enough Republican votes to pass the House in time to avert a government default.
MarketWatch | Greece aid hopes ease Europe debt anxiety
ECB’s Nowotny hints ‘selective default’ may not be ‘major negative’.
Econ Comments
WSJ | GOP Balancing Act
We certainly support the House GOP's plan today to vote to cut spending by $111 billion in fiscal 2012, and to cap spending in future years at a gradually smaller share of the economy.
Washington Post | Calling Jim DeMint — to warn GOP on debt plan
Jim DeMint can help put some steel in GOP spines — by making clear the consequences of throwing in the towel.
Washington Times | BLANKLEY: No more Washington tricks
It’s time to dump the political nihilists in favor of the budget realists.
RCM | Book Review: America's Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb by Peter Ferrara
As Ferrara correctly sees it, the U.S. doesn't presently suffer a lack of energy or ideas, rather its economic outlook has been weakened through bipartisan policy failure.
Washington Times | MILLER: Obama’s default
‘Cut, Cap and Balance’ puts the burden on Barack.
Fox Business | Ban the Debt Limit
Should there be a debt limit at all? Moody's Investors Service doesn't think so.
WSJ | America's Debt-Ceiling Opportunity
The GOP should demand business-like accounting as a part of a government budget deal.
Blogs
Mercatus Center: Neighborhood Effects | A “Can-kicking” budget deal in Minnesota
Instead of “raising taxes on the rich” (the preferred strategy of the Governor) Republicans prefer deferrals.
EconLog | Budget Arithmetic
I think that Bowles-Simpson is the best that either party can do right now. If one of them runs the table in the 2012 elections, then they can go for smaller or larger government, as the case may be.
Forbes: Politics of Plunder | It’s Time To Kick Farmers Off The Federal Dole
The U.S. government has no money. Uncle Sam is borrowing 40% of this year’s $3.8 trillion in outlays.
Reports
Mercatus Center | The Constitutional Budget Rule
According to Mercatus Center at George Mason University Senior Scholar David Primo (an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester), there are several key principles and goals that should drive legislators’ design of constitutional budget rules.
