Tag: Deficit

Gavin Newsom’s California Has a $68 Billion Budget Deficit

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

California’s budget deficit has nearly tripled since last year, culminating in the largest revenue discrepancy the state has ever seen, according to a report from the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).

The state’s budget deficit ballooned to $68 billion this year after recording a deficit of $24 billion last year, owing to an unprecedented tax-revenue shortfall, according to the LAO report. The deficit is the highest in dollar terms that the state has ever seen, but not as a percentage of overall spending, according to Politico.

Read More

Commentary: Oh Great, Another ‘Debt Commission’

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

Recognizing the precarious plight of the nation’s fiscal situation, newly installed House Speaker Mike Johnson has called for a bi-partisan commission to study the nation’s debt. Everyone involved in federal fiscal policy for a length of time surely responded with some variation on, “Good grief, Charlie Brown.” Congress has formed and ignored innumerable such groups over many decades.

Read More

Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson Pushes Shutdown Prevention Bill to End ‘Stupid Exercise’

M.D. Kittle

Another game of shutdown chicken ended last weekend with the status quo and the ousting of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) says its time to end the senseless — and costly — practice of shutdown politics.

Read More

Commentary: House Freedom Caucus Wants To Do Something About Out of Control Spending

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

On Monday, the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) struck a blow in the fight for fiscal displume. In a 431-word statement, the conservative House Republicans put Official Washington on notice that when Congress returned in September and took up the seemingly annual short-term spending bill known as a “Continuing Resolution,” the HFC would not vote to fund business as usual. Instead, HFC members would only support a short-term spending bill to keep the government open if it also included several of their key policy priorities – policy priorities that would represent significant shifts in key areas of government policy.

Read More

Commentary: Any Debt ‘Default’ Will Be Biden’s Choice

Admin

There’s enough revenue to pay interest on the debt even if the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling is reached.

Meaning, if the U.S. defaults on the debt on June 1, it will be because President Joe Biden chose not to make principal and interest payments on U.S. Treasuries out of existing revenue, for which there is more than ample revenues to service and refinance up to the current debt ceiling limit, $31.4 trillion.

Read More

Proposal Uses Pennsylvania Rainy Day Fund To Pay Down Unfunded Pension Liability

Bradley Vasoli

A Pennsylvania lawmaker wants to use the state’s Rainy Day Fund to pay down the state’s unfunded pension liabilities that total more than $60 billion.

State Representative Joe Ciresi (D-Royersford) is asking colleagues to cosponsor a bill to move $670 million from the fund to the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) and $330 million to the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS). A memorandum describing his legislation avers it could save local real-estate taxpayers $2.1 billion over the next 20 years. 

Read More

Commentary: The Interest Alone on the National Debt Will Hit $1 Trillion in 2024 as Reserve Currency Status Is Questioned

Admin

Gross interest owed on the $31.4 trillion national debt — that is, interest owed on both the $24.9 trillion publicly traded debt and the $6.7 trillion debt in the Social Security, Medicare and other trust funds — will reach a gargantuan $1 trillion in 2024 for the first time in American history, according to the latest data gathered by the White House Office of Management and budget.

To put that into perspective, that is more than is spent on national defense related spending, currently $814 billion.

Read More

Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro Would Deplete Rainy Day Fund While State Expert Suggests It Should Be Larger

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania’s official fiscal watchdog this week told state senators that the commonwealth’s Rainy Day Fund contains less money than many experts recommend — and that’s before Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s long-term fiscal plan burns through it. 

The state Treasury currently keeps $5.7 billion in the Rainy Day Fund to help public institutions endure revenue losses resulting from economic downturns. According the the department’s own calculations, current reserves in this account could sustain General Fund expenditures for just under 43 days. 

Read More

House Speaker Fight Foreshadows Larger Debt Ceiling Battle on the Horizon for Republicans

Admin

The gridlock that paralyzed House Republicans over the past week in their quest to elect a new Speaker could be a foretaste of more to come, with party moderates and conservatives set to tangle in the months to come over raising the debt ceiling and reining in reckless government spending.

Although newly elected Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy ultimately prevailed in his bid for the office over a small but determined band of House Freedom Caucus members, his slim GOP majority in the House will be vulnerable if and when conservatives rebel again down the road, as some are predicting, in an effort to reassert debt reduction as a top priority for the party.

Read More

Commentary: Don’t Give an Inch on the Debt Ceiling

Admin

The dust has barely settled from the contentious midterms, and the battle lines are already being drawn for the next legislative fight in Washington: the debt ceiling. With the nation at unprecedented levels of indebtedness, the choice in this fight is a stark one: a path toward stability or fiscal Armageddon.

If that sounds hyperbolic, consider the following facts about America’s finances.

Read More