“United States public debt” on The Daily Caller

Brand new Congressmen don’t take office until January, but they’re already consumed with worry about the national debt. They’ll face a vote next year to raise the debt ceiling beyond its current $14.3 trillion (about $47,000 apiece for everyone in America). (more)

There was growing concern in Washington Tuesday that President Obama’s tax cut deal would add roughly $900 billion to the federal budget deficit and national debt. (more)

Final reports from government commissions are not generally known to be stirring or often acted upon. Most of the time, that’s OK. Commissions are usually government’s way of pretending to address a problem without really doing so. (more)

An emerging conservative criticism of the debt reduction plan released by President Obama’s commission this week is that it would represent a massive tax hike. (more)

Outgoing Florida Republican Sen. George LeMieux plans to make his Senate colleagues put their money where their mouth is on deficit and debt reduction by forcing them to vote on it before the end of the year. (more)

The first great post-election policy decision facing the lame-duck, Democrat-dominated Congress is whether or not to allow taxes to skyrocket. (more)

A plan to cut the federal deficit and reduce the debt that was released Wednesday by the co-chairs of President Obama’s debt commission was blasted by the left, with labor unions leading the way in decrying its cuts, and received only a noncommittal response from the White House. (more)

A presidential commission’s leaders proposed a $3.8 trillion deficit-cutting plan that would cut Social Security and Medicare, reduce income-tax rates and eliminate tax breaks including the mortgage-interest deduction. (more)

Sen. Tom Coburn said Wednesday that if President Obama fails to cut spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, he may block an increase in the debt limit and risk federal insolvency. (more)

I have four young grandchildren, and lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the country I want them to inherit. Each generation must confront unique challenges, and while we don’t know exactly what the future holds, we do have a choice about what type of problems we leave for future generations. (more)

For the second time since he became chairman in 2006, Ben S. Bernanke is leading the Federal Reserve into uncharted monetary territory. (more)

New numbers posted today on the Treasury Department website show the National Debt has increased by more than $3 trillion since President Obama took office. (more)

Basic government spending rose by 9 percent in fiscal 2010, driving the country to a $1.291 trillion deficit down $125 billion from 2009, but still the second-largest hole on record, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday. (more)

With Congress neglecting to pass a budget this year and instead punting to the president’s so-called National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the national focus has shifted to the deficit. However, with unprecedented government growth over the past few years, it is clear the nation’s problem isn’t its deficit; it’s its spending. (more)

There is really not much difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to economic policies, is there? (more)

In a break with the White House, Peter Orszag, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), recommended Tuesday that Congress extend the expiring Bush tax cuts for two years, then do away with them altogether. (more)

I wonder if President Obama read what so many others did last month in The Washington Post: that Virginia will enjoy a $220 million budget surplus despite the struggling economy.  If not the Post, then surely the President glanced over a recent issue of The Economist in which Governor Chris Christie is congratulated for closing “an unprecedented $11 billion budget gap…without increasing taxes.” (more)

Americans love the short, quick solution. (more)

After a year and half of “stimulus” and bailouts gone bad, what has the shift towards higher government spending and an encroaching nanny state cost you? This year, it has cost you 231 days out of your life, or 63 percent of 2010. (more)

Because the number of Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries is growing much faster than the number of taxpayers, those entitlements are headed toward bankruptcy.  Social Security trustees reported that permanent, escalating Social Security deficits will begin in 2015.  Medicare trustees have said Medicare’s situation is “much more severe.” (more)