John King, Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Rep. Heath Shuler discuss the super committee's looming deadline.
The congressional debt committee, three weeks from its deadline and reportedly deadlocked, got a polite earful on Tuesday from four of the most passionate proponents of a big, balanced and bipartisan deficit-reduction plan.
When it comes to cutting deficits, don't play small ball.
Since the issue arose in January until now, we take a look back at key moments in the U.S. debt debate.
The mountain roared and gave birth to a mouse. Even after taking the country to the brink of economic disaster, our leaders in Washington still could not forge a broad, bipartisan consensus on a plan to stabilize the debt. As I predicted here last week, Congress found a way to muddle through the current debt limit crisis by promising to deal with the debt later.
Timothy Geithner said Thursday that he plans to stay on as Treasury Secretary for the foreseeable future. But that hasn't stopped speculation about who might take his place later this year.
Two key players in the debate over how to get the nation's fiscal act together have offered their support for President Obama's plan to bring down deficits.
Our nation faces the most predictable economic crisis in its history. Spending is rising rapidly, and revenues are failing to keep pace. As a result, the federal government is forced to borrow huge sums each year to make up the difference. If not addressed, burgeoning deficits will eventually lead to a fiscal crisis, at which point the world's financial markets will force decisions upon us.
As lawmakers and the White House squabbled over the 2011 budget, dozens of prominent economists, former government officials and business leaders pressed them on Thursday to get serious about forging a long-term fix for the country's unsustainable debt.
As lawmakers continued to butt heads over how much spending should be cut over the next seven months, a few senators on Tuesday were trying to keep the focus where they think it belongs -- the next several decades.
Commentary: Maya MacGuineas is the director of the fiscal policy program at the New America Foundation.
Last week was such a happy week for deficit hawks. This week, they're back to beating their heads against the wall.
Commentary: Maya MacGuineas is the director of the fiscal policy program at the New America Foundation.
The deficit reduction plan that President Obama's bipartisan commission will vote on tomorrow is drawing sharp fire from ideological groups on both the left and the right. To bring federal spending in line with revenues, the proposal released by co-chairmen Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles inflames liberals by slashing spending on social programs and conservatives by raising taxes.
Richard Haass, president of Council on Foreign Relations, says debt is the biggest threat to U.S. national security.
As topics go, reducing the national debt, revamping the tax system, and reforming entitlements are awfully dry. So how contentious, emotional and divisive would you expect a national discussion of these items to be?
The leaders of President Obama's debt commission said Tuesday that they would delay a vote on final recommendations until Friday.
Twenty years ago last month, a new breed of Republicans was asserting itself in Congress. President George H.W. Bush thought he had bipartisan support for a budget deal to tackle the deficit through steep spending cuts and some tax increases.
Cut the budget! That was the rallying cry for many candidates of both parties, but if you listened closely, you heard little in the way of specifics.
Commentary: Maya MacGuineas is the director of the fiscal policy program at the New America Foundation.
This week, co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson issued their joint proposal for consideration by the full National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. Their joint proposal represents a commendable, comprehensive, aggressive and good faith effort to address our nation's structural deficit. It recognizes the need for economic recovery now while addressing the structural deficits that represent the real threat to our collective future.
CNN's John King discusses the tough decisions behind cutting the deficit.
So much to love. So much to hate.
The release Wednesday of a draft proposal for reducing the federal deficit made clear how hard it will be to devise a sustainable plan that can win the necessary political support.
In a surprise move Wednesday, the co-chairmen of President Obama's fiscal commission released their preliminary proposals to curb growth in U.S. debt.
Many of the winners in the mid-term elections spent a lot of time pontificating about the perils of the nation's debt.
It's a refrain for those who think the government should do more to help the economy: The recovery is still fragile, so policymakers should wait before reining in U.S. debt.
How to get the federal budget back on the right track? Here are just two ideas from the co-chair of the president's bipartisan debt commission: Rein in tax breaks. Set hard caps on federal revenue and spending.
Just when we are exhausted from hard times, we have to brace ourselves for more of them around the corner.
Congress must craft a credible plan soon to bring spending in line with revenue to close the unsustainable fiscal gap threatening the economy, key policymakers urged Tuesday.
Here's a list of the names and affiliations of the 18 members sitting on President Obama's Bipartisan National Commission of Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
President Obama issued an executive order on Thursday that formally creates a bipartisan fiscal commission, a first step to forcing painful decisions needed to get the U.S. debt load under control.
Former President Bill Clinton will continue his tour of the Maldives and Indonesia in the tsunami-hit regions in Southeast Asia on Sunday.
Former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles conceded defeat to Republican Rep. Richard Burr in the race for John Edwards' North Carolina Senate seat.
There was a time when there was no more colorful character on Wall Street than Theodore "Teddy" Forstmann. It was the 1980s, the era of Big Swinging You-Know-Whats and Masters of the Universe. Alon...
In the Oct. 2 edition of FORTUNE, we goofed. We reversed the birthplaces of J.P. Morgan CEO Sandy Warner and Chase CEO Bill Harrison. Warner isn't from North Carolina, but Harrison is--and as a mat...
To assess whether Bill Clinton has been good or bad for small companies, and what he will do in the future, MONEY convened a blue-ribbon panel composed of Erskine Bowles, the head of the Small Busi...
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