A Medicare Surprise

Whether looking back to 1965’s predictions or at the past decade, Medicare spending has alwaya had some surprises.

Simply Stating the Debt Ceiling Deal

Stated by Congress in 99 pages of unintelligible sentences, the two halves of the debt ceiling deal can be simply summarized.

Why Federal Spending Cuts Come After Raising the Debt Ceiling

We can look at the federal budget to see why the debt ceiling should be raised before debating federal spending tradeoffs.

Deciding Who Won’t Get a U.S. Check

During two dates in December, we can worry about federal spending and debt and who won’t get a check from the U.S. government.

Six Facts We Need to Know About the Federal Budget

The six facts that we need to know about the federal budget include spending, taxes, borrowing, and where we could wind up.

What We Need To Know About Federal Spending

Talking about foreign aid and the defense budget is like comparing a blueberry to a watermelon. Foreign aid spending is tiny while defense dollars are massive.   With federal spending on foreign aid, defense, Medicare and Medicaid in the headlines, let’s…

The Best and Worst Federal Budget Solutions

Not really surprising, our politicians’ suggestions for cutting the federal deficit are different from a Congressional Budget Office list.

A Speedy Summary of Spending in the US Federal Budget

Right now, the Congress is supposedly debating the 2015 federal budget. Because the new fiscal year begins October 1, their deadline is September 30. But not really. 1996 was the last time the House and Senate punctually approved all necessary…

One Reason That $1.1 Trillion is Not So Much

The Congress just agreed on $1.1 trillion in federal spending. But let’s look a bit more closely… Each year, I give my class a federal budget graph and ask them to identify the relative size of 17 main spending categories.…