US Treasury’s Scott Bessent ‘will lose’ battle with bond markets, former mentor warns

Trump ally should cut budget deficit rather than try to suppress bond yields, says billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller…

 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/aug/25/us-treasury-scott-bessent-bond-buying-donald-trump-stanley-druckenmiller

 

Donald Trump said ending fraud could balance the federal budget. But the math doesn’t add up - PolitiFact

• The highest nationwide estimate puts U.S. fraud losses at $521 billion.

• Even if all of that could be recouped, it would amount to less than a third of the 2025 deficit of $1.775 trillion...

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2026/jan/13/donald-trump/fraud-budget-deficit-detroit-minnesota/

 

BREAKING: Marjorie Taylor Greene Introduces Amendment To Slash Defense Funding for Israel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKsOlS74F_A

 

Trump bill to cause most harm to America’s poorest

With their eagerness to cut the social safety net, Republicans seem to be treating millions of Americans who earn less than $50,000 as undeserving takers. "People earning under $50,000 are major targets of the Republican agenda. Their health coverage is targeted. Their food security is targeted," said Marr. "They are left out of key provisions expanding tax cuts, like the child tax credit. They are most at risk from the Republican tariffs. They'll be hurt across the board." 

Marr said the budget bill treats "these people very harshly". 

 "It's the harshest bill we've ever seen since budget deficits became an issue 40 years ago," he said. "This is the first bill that simultaneously targets programs for poor people and working-class people to pay for it, and then takes that money to pay for tax cuts for very wealthy people. It makes poor and working-class people worse off. That's not been done before."…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/03/trump-budget-bill

 

On tax breaks, Republicans confront a price tag they didn’t want to see

"Adding $4.6 trillion to the deficit isn't just reckless — it's a direct attack on the hardworking families Republicans claim to represent. ... The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Republicans lecture us about fiscal responsibility when it comes to helping working families, but they have no problem blowing up the deficit to reward the wealthy and well-connected."

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/tax-breaks-republicans-confront-price-tag-didnt-want-see-rcna183040

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GOP plan to fund Israel by cutting IRS would increase debt, tax chief says - The Washington Post

Although it specifies that taxpayer services would be spared from cuts, the House GOP bill does not identify precisely how it would cut $14 billion from that $80 billion expansion that has improved a broad range of agency functions. The legislation would also prohibit the CBO from estimating the bill's effect on the federal deficit. 

 "This type of the cut, over the cost of the Inflation Reduction Act, would actually cost taxpayers $90 billion — that's with a 'B,'" Werfel told The Washington Post… 

 "All of those funds go to increased scrutiny on tax evasion going on at the highest wealth, and that is millionaires and billionaires and large corporations and large complex corporations," Werfel said. "When you reduce those audits, you reduce the amount of money that we can collect and return to the Treasury for other priorities."…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/01/israel-aid-irs-gop/

Opinion | Republicans Can’t Agree on a Path Out of Their Own Debt Crisis - The New York Times

The ceiling is a useless legislative construct that lets lawmakers refuse to borrow money to pay for the deficit spending they already approved. If Congress doesn't raise it, the government goes into default and can't make payments on its obligations, including interest on Treasury bonds, Social Security paymentsand other essential spending, which would quickly crash the U.S. economy. It generally comes up as an issue only when Republicans control at least one house of Congress while a Democrat is in the White House; Republicans are not known to express concern about deficits caused when a president of their own party cuts taxes for the rich...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/03/opinion/editorials/debt-ceiling-mccarthy-2023.html

7 key takeaways from President Biden’s $6.9 trillion new budget plan - The Washington Post

With Republicans controlling the House, the 2024 budget released by the White House on Thursday has little chance of being approved by Congress. But the 182-page document still consists of hundreds of policy proposals, numbers, charts and other data points that provide insight into the priorities of the president and his team. The spending blueprint also serves as the initial offer in negotiations between Democrats and Republicans over the federal budget — talks likely to prove a major flash point in Congress throughout the year, which faces a tense standoff over the national debt ceiling and a potentially catastrophic default...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2023/03/09/biden-budget-taxes-deficit/

Biden's Budget is the Most Ambitious Tax Plan We've Seen from a President in Decades | Common Dreams

"President Biden's proposed budget is the most ambitious tax plan we've seen from a President in decades - and a clear emphasis of the values that he and the Democrats stand for: investing in our country, fighting off corporate profiteering, protecting the social safety net, and doing so all while reducing our nation's budget deficit. It can do all this simply by raising taxes on corporations and millionaires…"

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/biden-s-budget-is-the-most-ambitious-tax-plan-we-ve-seen-from-a-president-in-decades

FACT SHEET: The President’s Budget: Extending Medicare Solvency by 25 Years or More, Strengthening Medicare, and Lowering Health Care Costs | The White House

The President's FY 2024 Budget will lay out President Biden's plan to invest in America, lower costs for families, protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, and reduce the deficit. 

Millions of Americans have been working their whole lives, paying into Medicare with every working day, and want to know that they can count on Medicare to be there for them when they turn 65. The President's Budget extends the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by at least 25 years. It achieves these gains with no benefit cuts—indeed, while lowering costs for Medicare beneficiaries...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/07/fact-sheet-the-presidents-budget-extending-medicare-solvency-by-25-years-or-more-strengthening-medicare-and-lowering-health-care-costs/

Opinion | Let's Be Clear: Social Security Is Not Adding a Penny to US Debt | Common Dreams

Essentially, the Social Security program has not contributed in any markedly way to the totality of deficits and associated debt. Rather, paradoxically, the program has historically loaned the government monies to cover the debt and, thereby, help pay for other federal programs. So, don't blame Social Security for the sum of existing debt today accumulated over the years...

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/social-security-debt-ceiling

Opinion | Wonking Out: Conservatives Face a Rude Fiscal Awokening - The New York Times

Many House Republicans are reportedly listening to Russell Vought, Donald Trump's former budget director, who has a new think tank and has been circulating a budget proposal titled "A Commitment to End Woke and Weaponized Government," which purports to show a way to balance the budget without touching Medicare and Social Security. The document uses the word "woke" 77 times, and — weirdly for a fiscal blueprint — also manages to mention critical race theory 16 times. 

Anyway, the proposal relies in part on magical thinking — the assertion that conservative economic policies will cause a burst of economic growth that in turn increases tax receipts. Such claims have, of course, never — and I mean never — worked in practice. But it's difficult to get politicians to understand something when their careers depend on their not understanding it...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/24/opinion/medicaid-snap-social-security.html

Opinion | Here’s a dirty little secret about Trump’s tax cuts - The Washington Post

The White House, among others, has repeatedly attacked the proposed Trump tax-cut extension. With pretty good reason: At precisely the same time that Republicans are raising a hue-and-cry about federal deficits, they're proposing a measure that would massively worsen our fiscal challenges...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/16/trump-tax-cuts-untouched/

Opinion | Republicans’ FairTax proposal is not fair - The Washington Post

These proposals illustrate the hypocrisy of House Republicans' dangerous debt limit tactics...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/13/republican-deficit-budget-tax-fairness/

Republicans aren’t going to tell Americans the real cause of our $31.4tn debt

… the wealthy used to pay higher taxes to the government. Now the government pays the wealthy interest on their loans to finance a swelling debt that's been caused largely by lower taxes on the wealthy. 

This means that a growing portion of everyone else's taxes are going to wealthy Americans in the form of interest payments, rather than paying for government services that everyone needs. 

So, the real problem isn't America's growing federal budget deficit. It's the decline in tax revenue from America's wealthy combined with growing interest payments to them…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/01/republicans-arent-going-to-tell-americans-the-real-cause-of-our-314tn-debt

Opinion | Does America Have Too Much Debt? - The New York Times

So, did we borrow too much money? Probably not. During those two economic crises of Covid and the Great Recession, adding to the debt was more than justified. I just wish some of the other borrowing had been used for better purposes: ending child poverty rather than giving tax breaks to corporations, rebuilding infrastructure rather than invading Iraq. But while our priorities were sometimes foolish, our borrowing wasn't…

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/24/opinion/us-debt-deficit-economy.html

U.S. Deficit Fell to $1.4 Trillion in 2022 - The New York Times

The deficit was down from $2.6 trillion a year earlier, as pandemic emergency spending slowed, the economy reopened and tax revenue rose. The new figures come as spending fights loom in a divided Congress...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/business/us-deficit-falls-2022.html

House Republican bill defunding 87,000 IRS agents is a farce

Theoretically anybody who likes to complain about the federal deficit — as Republicans do — should be fond of the idea of a highly functional IRS, since it's a rare opportunity to generate more government revenue without additional taxation. But they'd rather exploit milquetoast reform efforts at the IRS for political fear-mongering and shielding the 1 percent. Meanwhile the CBO says that the Republicans' new bill would add $114 billion to the deficit over the next decade...

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/irs-87000-agents-republican-bill-rcna65082

As McConnell tries to hold aid to states and cities hostage, mass layoffs of public employees begin

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is saying he'll block aid to states and cities unless he gets the gift of no liability for companies that endanger their workers and customers, cities and states are laying off workers, potentially by the hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions. https://www.dailykos.com/story/2020/4/29/1941380/-As-McConnell-tries-to-hold-aid-to-states-and-cities-hostage-mass-layoffs-of-public-employees-begin

Mulvaney says US 'desperate' for legal immigrants to boost economy: report | TheHill

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told a private audience Wednesday that the U.S. needs more immigrants to keep the economy growing, according to an audio recording of his remarks obtained by The Washington Post. “We are desperate — desperate — for more people,” Mulvaney said at the gathering in England. “We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we’ve had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants." ....
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/483934-mulvaney-says-us-desperate-for-legal-immigrants-to-boost-economy