“Deficit” on The Daily Caller

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican senator whom Barack Obama once tried to make his secretary of commerce will be among the members of Congress to serve on the president’s deficit commission. (more)

[T]here’s one big group that’s singularly unimpressed by the size of the deficit: the world financial markets. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit likely widened slightly in January reflecting a higher foreign oil bill and a drop in aircraft exports. (more)

The Treasury Department released its monthly budget statement this afternoon and the results aren’t pretty. The federal government ran up its largest-ever monthly deficit in February at $220.9 billion, a 14 percent increase from a year ago. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government ran up the largest monthly deficit in history in February, keeping the flood of red ink on track to top last year’s record for the full year. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Economists believe that the federal budget deficit through the first five months of the budget year is running at a record-breaking pace, with the February imbalance likely to climb to the highest level this fiscal year. (more)

No easy solution is available in the state budget office’s toolbox to prevent legislators from having to make some difficult and unpopular decisions this year. Across the country, state legislators blame decreased tax revenues as the cause of their budget woes, but in fact the recession has illuminated the underlying problem of state spending increases funded by debt and accounting gimmicks rather than real revenue. (more)

A small but growing number of school districts across the country are moving to a four-day week, in a shift they hope will help close gaping budget holes and stave off teacher layoffs, but that critics fear could hurt students’ education. (more)

The federal deficit would hit $1.5 trillion in 2010 under President Barack Obama’s proposals, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected Friday. (more)

March 4 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Postal Service, facing a $238 billion budget deficit by 2020, should consider cutting delivery to as few as three days a week as the agency attempts to pare costs, a consulting firm said. (more)

A crisis is quickly approaching that will undermine the strength of our country and rob our children of their future prosperity. When it comes to getting our nation’s fiscal house in order we are running out of options and the time to act is now. (more)

Author’s Note:  My column uses rpd | ANALYTICS’ Visual Budget^TM program to illustrate its points.  I encourage anyone interested in understanding the federal budget to use it. (more)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said she was heartbroken by the state of U.S. finances and laid the blame in part on “outrageous” advice from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. (more)

So, President Obama wants a presidential commission on the budget deficit. Isn’t that a little bit like W.C. Fields asking for a commission on sobriety? (more)

He sounds like a national candidate, maybe even for president. (more)

Britain gave another glimpse of the extent of its deteriorating public finances Thursday, when a shortfall in tax receipts led to the country’s first budget deficit in January in at least 17 years. (more)

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said on Wednesday his debt-stricken country was not seeking European taxpayers’ money but needed a breathing space to cut its budget deficit and borrow “on normal conditions”. (more)

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Efforts by Democrats to point the finger back at Republican opponents for the explosion of the national debt and deficit in recent years ignores their own dismal track record during the last two years of the Bush administration. (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal deficit through the first four months of the budget year is running at a record-breaking pace even though the deficit in January was slightly smaller than expected. (more)