Budget and Deficit

While government shutdowns have never cost the stock market more than a few points (and in most cases the market actually went up), the issue of the federal debt ceiling could have a significantly profound impact on the market. 

Speaker Boehner said he would return to “regular order”: if he had, the government-shutdown battle over ObamaCare would have had a much smaller impact.

It's T minus six and counting to the government shutdown. The Institute for Policy Innovation put together some fun facts about federal government shutdowns.

Government shutdowns over budget battles are not new, and they were often led by Democrats.

States facing Medicaid challenges should integrate mobile phones and other existing technologies to increase access to care, lower costs and improve health care quality for Medicaid beneficiaries, says a new IPI publication, “Reforming Medicaid with Technology.” 

The dreaded and feared sequester has been a success. Policymakers should add blunt tools like the sequester as a backstop into every future fiscal agreement.

After President John F. Kennedy failed to cut income tax rates, President Lyndon Johnson and Virginia Democrat Harry Byrd successfully pushed through the 1964 cuts in personal and corporate income tax rates.

The government has a right and obligation to secure its borders; but will spending billions of dollars more achieve that goal when the government is so bad at achieving most of its goals?

With the number of congressional hearings on tax reform taking place this year, it seems possible that some part of the reform proposals being aired may eventually become law.

The New York Times thinks Social Security doesn’t affect the federal deficit, but it clearly does.