In an effort to create more jobs and improve transportation, the Obama administration announced a new "Use It or Lose It" program Friday, making nearly $500 million in unspent earmarks available for states to use on so-called "shovel ready" infrastructure projects.
When Paul Ryan struggled to explain a budget-balancing timeline under Mitt Romney, he highlighted the difficulty of trying to run a substantive campaign without being too specific.
Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan gives his first one-on-one interview since becoming the nominee.
It had all the appearances of a serious-minded debate: Republicans insisted the Senate spend all day Wednesday arguing which party had better budget proposals to fix the economy.
If you have lived a happy, normal, American life, you have probably never heard of something so tedious and alien as a Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. I envy you. But strange as it sounds, the obscure MTB is at the heart of a very small -- but very significant -- fight for American freedom.
Well over a year after Congress voluntarily imposed a ban on pork barrel spending, the number and cost of earmarks have dropped dramatically, a report said Tuesday -- but the snouts are not out of the trough altogether.
The House of Representatives passes the GOP leadership's 2013 budget plan 228-191.
The House has passed the Republican budget plan submitted by Rep. Paul Ryan, but some budget experts believe that he federal government is so far in the red that it may not balance the budget again in our lifetime.
CNN's Erin Burnett talks to Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan about the 2013 House GOP budget plan.
Rick Santorum found that his position at the top of polls made him the biggest target in Wednesday's CNN Republican presidential debate, possibly the last of the GOP primary and caucus campaign.
Rick Santorum leads polls as GOP candidates take to the stage in the CNN debate in Arizona.
Independent deficit hawks -- as opposed to the political ones seeking votes -- gave mixed reviews to President Obama's 2013 budget proposal.
Senate Republicans hold a briefing and denounce the president's $3.8 trillion budget.
A piece of advice: If you're worried about President Barack Obama's budget, find something else to fret over. The president's blueprint has about as much chance of becoming law as yours. It's all about election year 2012, not fiscal year 2013.
President Obama unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget request Monday that hikes taxes on the rich, spends new money on infrastructure and education, but does little to reform the entitlement programs that pose the biggest long-term threat to the federal budget.
President Barack Obama's new chief of staff on Sunday stopped short of predicting Congress would agree to extend the payroll tax cut for the rest of 2012.
Tom Foreman explores whether President Obama kept his 2011 promise to change the way Washington does business.
With budget chief Jack Lew stepping up to be President Obama's new chief of staff, Washington is abuzz over who -- if anyone -- will be tapped as the president's new budget director.
GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney's campaign stepped up its criticism of conservative challenger Rick Santorum on Friday, continuing to hit the former Pennsylvania senator on his spending record while in Congress.
Sen. John McCain mistakenly mentions Romney's name when he meant to say "Gingrich" at a rally in South Carolina.
For all their differences, the 2012 Republican contenders have at least one thing in common: They all want to cut spending.
From Mitt Romney's apparent growing confidence to Newt Gingrich's fading expectations, to Rick Santorum's coming under increased scrutiny, there's a new political reality in the Hawkeye State with just four days to go until the Iowa caucuses.
A year after Congress voluntarily agreed to give up earmarks -- pork barrel spending projects critics say cost too much and may have an outsized influence on some lawmakers -- the special-interest provisions have crept slowly back into legislation, two senators warned on Wednesday.
There is a war going on in Washington, and the politicians waging it can't even agree on what kind it is.
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham says President Obama's plan for a new tax rate for millionaires amounts to "class warfare."
A special congressional committee charged with forging a deficit reduction deal by Thanksgiving has to make final decisions weeks earlier in order to have time to analyze the plan's cost and draft it into legislation, the head of the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.
Differing partisan perspectives were on display Thursday as a special congressional committee set up under last month's debt-ceiling agreement held its first meeting to begin forging a long-term deficit reduction plan.
Last week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, attempted the impossible. It launched an unmanned aircraft from a rocket at 20 times the speed of sound with the goal of controlling its flight through the atmosphere for about 20 minutes -- long enough to glide from the California coast to the Kwajalein atoll in the Pacific.
President Barack Obama expressed confidence Wednesday that America will ultimately overcome its current economic woes but once again blamed a dysfunctional, excessively partisan political system for hampering recovery efforts.
The military research wing that last week launched a hypersonic aircraft test is being investigated after questions were raised about potential conflicts of interest in awarding lucrative contracts.
Moody's Investors Service explained Monday why it was sticking with its triple-A bond rating and negative outlook for the United States, setting itself apart from Standard & Poor's, which downgraded the U.S. last week.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says that President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are still talking.
After expectations were raised of a possible deal earlier Sunday, weekend talks to resolve the nation's debt-ceiling crisis appeared to reach a new stalemate, as the sides pursued separate plans.
It sounds so ... sensible. Force Congress to cut spending, cap it going forward, and balance the damn budget. Seriously, in an age of fiscal crazy, what's not to love?
White House Budget Director Jacob Lew says it's progress that both sides agree that the debt ceiling must be raised.
After a fifth meeting in five days failed Thursday to achieve a deficit reduction deal, President Barack Obama told top congressional leaders to reach an agreement on the path forward by early Saturday, officials said.
White House Spokesman Jay Carney says a deal will be reached and the president is adamant the US will not default on debt obligations.
President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met over the weekend as part of ongoing negotiations on an agreement to reduce the country's deficit, a Republican official told CNN late Tuesday.
President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he invited Democratic and Republican leaders from both chambers of Congress to the White House for a meeting Thursday to discuss deficit reduction and the need to raise the federal debt ceiling.
The defense bill that just passed the House of Representatives includes a back-door fund that lets individual members of Congress funnel millions of dollars into projects of their choosing.
Has Congress found a way to get around their self-imposed ban on earmarks? CNN's Dana Bash reports.
A bipartisan group of negotiators is "making progress" toward finding a way to both raise the debt ceiling and whittle down budget deficits, President Obama's top budget chief said Monday.
The United States has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
A leading Senate conservative said Sunday he can accept tax reform that increases overall tax revenue as part of a comprehensive deficit reduction plan.
He may have taken his time to join the brewing debate about how to reduce long-term U.S. debt. But President Obama got some kudos from deficit hawks for the broad debt reduction framework he laid out on Wednesday.
President Obama unveiled a plan Wednesday to cut Medicare and Medicaid costs, but without slashing benefits for seniors and the needy.
Steve Ellis is Vice President at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan budget watchdog.
Cut spending by $6 trillion over the next decade. Lower the highest tax rate to 25%. Radically overhaul Medicare and Medicaid.
This week may -- just may -- mark the end of the often crazed debate about how much spending should be cut from the federal budget over the next six months.
House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan said Sunday he will unveil a Republican budget for 2012 this week that proposes dramatic changes to Medicare, Medicaid and other political lightning rods.
House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, will unveil a highly anticipated 2012 Republican budget next week that proposes dramatic changes to political lightning rods: entitlements.
In a time of record debt, it sure sounds prudent: Amend the U.S. Constitution to force Congress to balance the budget every year. In reality, it may be anything but.
President Obama takes a lot of heat from Republicans for supposedly being a big spender. But when it comes to future deficits, the president's problem isn't spending. It's the tax cuts.
Government deficits are the biggest long-term worry of top U.S. economists, according to a survey released Monday.
Jessica Yellin asks Sen. Rob Portman about the Republican pledge to slash $61 billion dollars from the 2011 budget plan.
President Obama's 2012 proposed budget is out, and the verdicts are coming fast and furious.
The top budget chiefs from both political parties criticized President Obama's 2012 budget Monday.
President Obama on Monday unveiled a $3.7 trillion budget request for 2012 that proposes painful cuts in many government programs but fails to address the largest drivers of the country's long-term debt: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
President Obama on Monday will propose a 2012 federal budget that the White House says will cut deficits by $1.1 trillion over 10 years.
Here's fodder for a new drinking game: Between now and Sept. 30, lift a glass every time you hear President Obama, members of Congress or TV pundits say "federal budget."
President Obama's upcoming budget will propose cuts to "scores" of federal spending programs, according to the administration's budget chief.
CNNMoney: The war over spendingupdated: Sun Jan 02 2011 12:34:00
Stock up on lint rollers, because the fiscal fur is going to fly when the 112th Congress gets under way Wednesday.
How important is the federal deficit?
Critics are blasting a new omnibus bill that contains billions in earmarks. CNN's Anderson Cooper reports.
Two prominent Republicans vowed Wednesday to vote against the $1.1 trillion spending bill, citing concerns over pork-laden pet projects, although millions of dollars of earmarks in the bill were requested by the two senators.
The Senate voted Tuesday against taking up a measure that would have imposed a two-year ban on legislative earmarks, a practice that critics have called an example of wasteful spending.
President Obama has got a new budget director, four months after he asked for one.
A flying car and a device to help paraplegics walk are named among 2010's top inventions. CNN's Josh Levs reports.
Along with the jetpack, the flying car tops the list of classic science-fiction imaginings that lead legions of fans to ask -- why don't we have this yet?
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.
More than 50 members of Congress sent a letter Wednesday to the president's commission on deficit reduction, urging cuts to the nation's defense budget to help narrow the budget imbalance.
The Obama administration will appeal a federal judge's decision to temporarily block federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller confirmed Tuesday.
A U.S. district judge granted a preliminary injunction Monday to stop federal funding of embryonic stem cell research that he said destroys embryos, ruling it went against the will of Congress.
During a speech at an event called "Freedom Fest," former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin warned Tea Party activists that while government spending was a bad thing, conservatives should not go too far and start calling for reductions in the military budget.
The House narrowly passed a spending bill late Thursday that includes $37 billion to fund the war in Afghanistan.
Peter Orszag has told President Barack Obama that he plans to leave his position as White House budget director in July, an Obama administration official told CNN Monday evening.
Peter Orszag has told President Obama that he plans to leave his position as White House budget director in July, an Obama administration official said Monday evening.
The "Pig Book," an annual report detailing the excesses of pork spending, has served up its usual heavy-duty mockery of congressional excesses. But this year the meat spit is smaller.
President Obama's proposed budget cuts NASA's plan to return man to the moon. CNN's Josh Levs reports.
American astronauts will not return to the moon as planned if Congress passes President Obama's proposed budget.
House Republicans agreed Thursday to adopt a ban on congressional earmarks in spending bills for next year, upping the ante with Democrats in the political battle over fiscal responsibility and pork barrel spending.
House Democrats impose a one-year ban on some earmarks. CNN's Brianna Keilar reports.
House Democrats said Wednesday that they will ban earmarks directed to for-profit companies.
President Obama's budget plan released Monday lays out legislative priorities destined to become political battles as he navigates his second year in office.
President Obama revealed a $3.8 trillion budget for 2011 on Monday that tries to balance two competing goals: continued government spending to boost the fragile economic recovery and controlling the nation's deficit.
President Obama's State of the Union address will raise the curtain on how he plans to tackle the unsustainable growth in U.S. debt over the next decade.
The health care reform bill approved by the Senate on Thursday would do more than any proposal yet to reduce the deficit over time - by an estimated $132 billion over 10 years and by substantially more thereafter.
The Democratic health care proposal being debated in the Senate not only contains large new taxes, enormous government expansion and huge spending, but I'm convinced it also seeks to allow federal funding for abortion -- something 61 percent of Americans do not support, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey.
In just over a month, the federal government's fiscal year will draw to a close, leaving in its wake one of the biggest annual deficits in U.S. history -- and a forecast of more record debt to come.
13 human embryonic stem cell lines are approved for federally funded research.
The government promised $27.5 billion in stimulus funds to help fix the nation's crumbling roads and bridges as part of a broader effort to save jobs. The effort is working...sort of.
New estimates of the federal deficit leave many questions unanswered but underscore one cold fact of life in Washington right now: Boosting the economy without making an already bad deficit worse is really hard to do.
The nation's economy is starting to rebound, but the Obama administration's massive stimulus package had little to do with it.
Fiscally-stressed states are using their stimulus dollars to satisfy immediate needs rather than undertake longer-term reforms, according to a government report released Wednesday.
Pay as you go?
updated: Thu Jun 11 2009 11:12:00
In the face of mounting deficitis, President Obama wants to restore fiscal discipline. CNN's Jim Acosta reports.
President Obama urged Congress to adopt a "pay-as-you-go" approach to federal spending in order to restore fiscal discipline, but critics say the president's call lacks credibility.
The federal budget deficit surged in May, bringing the total shortfall for this fiscal year to nearly $1 trillion, government figures showed Wednesday.
The economy will start growing in the second half of 2009, but it will be several years before the positive effects of a turnaround will be felt, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.
In the context of a $3.5 trillion budget, a $1 million proposed cut might not seem like much. But for one small foundation, the impact could be shattering.
President Obama on Thursday offered a more detailed look at his 2010 budget proposal, which includes recommendations to cut funding for 121 federal programs and save $17 billion in 2010.
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