While the federal government remains shuttered over Republican demands to defund the Affordable Care Act, the United States faces the growing prospect of its first-ever default. If Congress does not increase Uncle Sam's borrowing authority of $16.7 trillion by October 17, experts like former Bush Treasury official Tim Bitsberger warn, the resulting global economic cataclysm […]

It is a tragic state of affairs when the antidote to the Party of Lincoln is Abraham Lincoln himself. But with House Speaker John Boehner and his band of "terrorists" and "hostage-takers" and "kamikazes" (as described by his fellow Republicans) prepared to trigger what Boehner himself warned "would be a financial disaster, not only for […]

With House Republicans once again threatening to take the unprecedented step of blocking a debt ceiling increase and thereby triggering a U.S. default Speaker John Boehner admitted "would be a financial disaster, not only for our country but for the worldwide economy," frustrated Democrats are ramping up their own rhetoric. While former Vice President Al […]

Unless Congress raises the debt ceiling by October 17, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned this week, the federal government will be unable to pay its bills. But while some Republicans like Rep. John Fleming (R-FL) responded, "I don't think we should run government based on economists' predictions," House Speaker John Boehner knows all too well […]

So it's come down to this. Once again kowtowing to the most extreme members of his Republican Party, House Speaker John Boehner is willing to shut down the federal government and trigger a global economic meltdown, all in the GOP's quixotic quest to defund, delay or otherwise damage Obamacare. With his gambit to defund the […]

In its latest forecast, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) once again confirmed that the United States does not face a near-term debt problem. Over the next few years, annual budget deficits will continue to fall in both dollar terms and as a percentage of the U.S. economy. Over the next decade, the debt will remain […]

In a rare moment of agreement with President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner in March admitted that "we have no immediate debt crisis." But despite Tuesday's analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) showing that the near and mid-term U.S. debt picture has improved over the last six months, Speaker Boehner has apparently changed his […]

This week, House Speaker John Boehner turned to a new sleight of hand trick in his latest effort to extract draconian spending cuts as the Republicans' price for raising the U.S. debt ceiling. Citing five examples from the past, the Speaker's "Fact Sheet" claimed that "Coupling efforts to reduce America's debt and deficit with increases […]

With the federal government set to hit the limit of its borrowing authority as early as mid-October, Republicans are once again threatening to hold the debt ceiling hostage. As the National Review described the latest ransom demand from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, "To increase the debt ceiling, Cantor said, Republicans will demand a one-year […]

For months, Republicans have been waging a new war on the IRS. Echoing their successful gutting of the Internal Revenue Service back in the 1990's, GOP leaders have been calling the agency "the new Gestapo" and demanding its budget be slashed by a quarter. But with a "tax gap" already nearing $500 billion a year […]