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Debt & Deficits blog
The Tea Party Wave of 2010 Explained from Santelli to the StatehousesHow a burst of anger over bailouts and stimulus spending reshaped the Republican Party in under two years, and why its logic still drives intraparty fights.Social Security's repair options laid side by side in one tableEvery Social Security fix is a version of the same few choices. Here is each one, its best argument, its cost and who pays it, in one table.The Reagan Tax Cuts Rate by Rate and the Tax Reform of 1986What the 1981 law cut, the 1982 law took back, and the 1986 reform rewrote, with the arithmetic and an honest look at growth, revenue and the deficits.The 2011 debt-limit fight that produced real spending capsHouse Republicans elected in 2010 demanded cuts for a debt-limit increase and got the Budget Control Act of 2011. Here is the record and a fair verdict.Twelve questions about the national debt, answered straightDeficit versus debt, who owns it, what the limit does and why interest crowds out other spending, answered plainly with no current figures.Article V Explained, and the Amendment That Took More Than 200 YearsAmending the Constitution is hard on purpose. Here are the four routes, the 27 amendments, one that took 202 years, and a balanced budget try that missed.A Balanced Budget Is a Moral Argument Before It Is an Accounting OneBorrowing against people who cannot yet vote is a question of fairness before it is arithmetic, and only some budget rules actually bind.Eisenhower's farewell address gave two warnings and Republicans remember oneEveryone quotes the military-industrial complex line, but the same speech warned about captured science policy and mortgaging the grandchildren with debt.Why Your State Cannot Print Money the Way Washington DoesWashington runs deficit after deficit while nearly every state must balance its operating budget. That is a free civics lesson, with real limits.Silent Cal said little and ran one of the loudest budget records in historyCoolidge made restraint a governing philosophy, from the Boston police strike to the federal ledger. His record deserves praise and an honest critique.