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The federal government recorded a budget surplus in January. But so far for this fiscal year starting Oct. 1, the total deficit is 77 percent higher than it was for the same period a year ago. The Treasury Department said Tuesday the deficit for the first four months of fiscal 2019 totaled $310.3 billion. That's up from $175.7 billion in the same period a year ago -- and that includes the January surplus of $8.7 billion.

Yes, Congress is aware the national debt recently surpassed $22 trillion for the first time in U.S. history. No, members don’t think they’ll do anything to seriously address it anytime soon. “I don’t see anybody prioritizing it, and sadly folks often prioritize things when crisis hits. I don’t want a debt spiral crisis to hit,” said Rep. Rob Woodall, Georgia Republican. “I hear lots of conversations about how to spend a whole lot more.” With the spending process for 2019 now wrapped up, lawmakers are turning their attention to exactly how they plan to avoid $126 billion in cuts set...

The national debt hit $22 trillion this week. You won’t find many in either major party who think this is a healthy development. But isn’t part of the reason people vote Republican because that party presents itself as fiscally responsible compared to Democrats? For as long as the debt has grown, Republicans have been promising to stop it. Yet, in 1981 the national debt topped $1 trillion after former President Ronald Reagan’s first year. When former President George H.W. Bush left office in 1993, it was more than $4 trillion. His son, former President George W. Bush, would push it...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s missed budget in his first month in office by $1.81 billion on a $2.53 billion crash in personal income tax collections. Despite the State of California tax collection in December missing budget by -$4.82 billion, newly inaugurated Gov. Newsom proposed a record $144.2-billion spending plan for  the 2019-2020 Budget on January 9 that included spending another $5.2-billion for "Cradle-to-Career" education, $1-billion for earned income tax credit for the poor, and $100 million for refuge immigrants fleeing Central America violence. California officials at the time, claimed December’s huge revenue miss was due to high-income taxpayers making...

The U.S. trade deficit fell to $49.3 billion in November, the first decline after five straight months of increases. But on a year-over-year basis, the gap rose by 10.4 percent. The U.S trade deficit with its global partners fell in November for the first time after five straight months of increases as the shortfall with China and several other countries declined. Tightening the balance between imports and exports has been a major goal of the Trump administration, which last year started levying tariffs in an effort to close the gap. A release from the government Wednesday showed the gap had...

Several Republican senators introduced legislation Friday to permanently end government shutdowns by creating an automatic continuing resolution for any appropriations bill, allowing the federal government to remain open even when budget agreements break down. Currently, when Congress fails to meet a deadline to pass a government funding bill, the agencies which remain unfunded shut down. Often, Congress chooses to pass what's called a continuing resolution (CR) to delay and extend the deadline to pass funding bills, which keeps funding operations at their current levels. CR funding would be reduced by 1 percent after 120 days, and would be reduced by...

Brown claimed he left only a “baby deficit,” rather than the trillion dollar deficit California currently has, according to Sen. John Moorlach, the Legislature’s only CPA At California Gov. Jerry Brown’s “Exit Interview” Tuesday, the Sacramento Press Club auctioned off autographed souvenirs from his years in the Governor’s office, including cartoons of his budget press conference presentations of charts and graphs, Proposition 30 memorabilia increasing sales and income taxes, and graphs showing state government living within its means. Other charts showed record spending levels. Gov. Jerry Brown is known for his infrequent and rather unscripted press conferences, often making glib...

(Meredith) -- In honor of former President George H.W. Bush's funeral, the U.S. Postal Service says regular mail deliveries will be suspended on Wednesday. The Postal Service will continue some delivery services in preparation for the holiday season. "We will provide limited package delivery service on that day to ensure that our network remains fluid and we do not experience any impacts to our package delivery operations that might negatively affect our customers or business partners during the remainder of our busy holiday season, " the Postal Service said in a statement.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- If a "community grid" is chosen to replace Interstate 81 in downtown Syracuse, what will happen to the land that's now under the aging viaduct's shadow? Whether it will be turned into green space or developed commercially is still an open question, according to city and state officials. A group of local architects is hoping to force the issue. The local chapter of the American Institute of Architects estimated in a recent paper that 18.6 acres of land will be made available if the 1.4-mile elevated highway is taken down. Taking the viaduct down and beefing up...

President Trump indicated Wednesday the U.S. government would start paying down the $21.6 trillion in debt it's accrued over the last 80 years. "We're going to start paying down debt, we have a lot of debt," Trump said during a Wednesday discussion at the White House on the economy. "We're going to start paying down debt." Trump didn't elaborate, but he made the comment in the context of a discussion about how to improve some of the trade and economic agreements the U.S. has reached over the years. Trump said those past agreements have only helped to let U.S. wealth...

The U.S. deficit grew by $222 billion from this time last year — reaching a total of $895 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Why it matters: This increase was due mostly to the new Republican tax law and Congress' routine decision to increase spending, which grew by 7% compared to revenue growth of only 1%. The CBO now says the deficit will approach $1 trillion by the end of this fiscal year, but in April the agency didn’t expect the deficit to reach $1 trillion until 2020.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Trump claimed "federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases." President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he was canceling pay raises for most federal employees that had been set to go into effect in January, citing government budget concerns. In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Trump wrote that he’d decided “across-the-board” pay raises as well as locality pay raises for civilian federal workers in 2019 would be frozen. “I have determined that for 2019, both across‑the‑board pay increases and locality pay increases will be set at zero,” he wrote. “These alternative...

One of President Donald Trump's main goals in his shake-up of US trade policy: Bring down the large US trade deficit. But that deficit appears to be heading in the opposite direction since the trade war kicked off in earnest. The US goods trade deficit increased to $72.2 billion in July, up from $67.9 billion in June, according to advance data from the US Census Bureau. Exports fell by 1.7% from the month before, while imports rose by 0.9%. This was the second straight month the trade deficit has increased. Trump has repeatedly pointed to the large US goods trade...

Just a strange question that's been rumbling around in my mind and I wanted to get some intelligent folks to discuss it, so I came to FreeRepublic, as always. A few weeks ago, President Trump (and no, even as a third party guy, I don't get tired of saying that) enacted tarrifs on China. In an act of sheer desperation, China reportedly devalued their currency by 45%. Currently, we owe China $5.6 trillion. Does this mean that we now owe them $3.36 trillion? Does it mean that we would be able to borrow from the Fed and private sources $3.36...

The U.S. Agriculture Department on Tuesday plans to announce a $12 billion package of emergency aid for farmers caught in the midst of President Trump’s escalating trade war, two people briefed on the plan said, the latest sign that growing tensions between the United States and other countries will not end soon. Trump ordered Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to prepare a range of options several months ago, amid complaints from farmers that their products faced retaliatory tariffs from China and other countries. The new package of government assistance funds will be announced Tuesday and is expected to go into effect...

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) tells @burgessev and me outside GOP lunch that $12 billion in trade assistance to farmers from Trump administration "this is becoming more and more like a Soviet-type of economy here" with "commissars" sprinkling around benefits.

WASHINGTON — The government announced a $12 billion plan Tuesday to assist farmers who have been hurt by President Donald Trump's trade disputes with China and other trading partners. The plan focuses on Midwest soybean producers and others targeted by retaliatory measures. The Agriculture Department said the proposal would include direct assistance for farmers, purchases of excess crops and trade promotion activities aimed at building new export markets. Officials said the plan would not require congressional approval and would come through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a wing of the department that addresses agricultural prices. "This is a short-term solution that...

The federal government collected a record $1,305,490,000,000 in individual income taxes through the first nine months of fiscal 2018 (October 2017 through June 2018), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today. Despite the record individual income tax collections, the federal government still ran a deficit of $607,099,000,000 over those same nine months, according to the Treasury statement. The approximately $1,305,490,000,000 in individual income taxes that the Treasury collected in October through June of this fiscal year was $71,815,310,000 more (in constant June 2018 dollars) than the $1,233,674,690,000 (in constant June 2018 dollars) in individual income taxes that the Treasury...

[BEIJING] A hotel in the Chinese city of Shenzhen plans to charge its US guests an extra 25 per cent amid a trade war between Beijing and Washington, according to the Global Times, a tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily. The Modern Classic Hotel Group had put up a notice at its hotel informing guests of the extra charge on American guests, the paper said in a report dated Thursday. "We put up the notice last Friday. Our boss was really angry about the endless tariffs the US planned to impose on China, so we decided to...

WASHINGTON — The trade war between the United States and China showed no signs of yielding on Thursday, as Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, told lawmakers there was no clear path to resolution and Beijing blasted the administration over its approach. (whaah) Trump is doing great. The first US President, who I dare say that about.