As a result of our nation’s demographics, Social Security is on an unsustainable path under current policy and needs to undergo reform. Fortunately, there are many bipartisan options available to consider, as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently reminded lawmakers.

Did you know that three-quarters of all spending goes toward Social Security, health programs, defense, and interest payments? How about the fact that the government spends more on interest than transportation, education, and justice programs combined?

In 2016, nearly half of all tax dollars collected went toward Social Security and health programs like Medicare and Medicaid. For every $100 in taxes paid, more than $6 goes toward interest payments on the debt – more than spending on education, transportation, and natural resource protection combined. Functions like foreign aid and transportation comprise a relatively small share of the federal budget. Because the government spends more than it receives in revenue, taxpayers would need to pay an additional $14 for every $100 they already pay to finance the deficit and cover all federal spending.

With the decline of party politics in Egypt, social activism is becoming increasingly relevant in the fight against the government’s new authoritarian policies and tactics. While Egypt’s ruling generals have developed a tight grip on power in virtually every sector of society, various activist groups have had at least some success in holding the government accountable for human rights abuses. It will take many more victories to counteract the entrenched repression, but these groups offer the best hope for changing Egypt’s current reality.

When you hear the words Russia and internet, you probably think of Kremlin-backed hacking. But the internet is also a powerful tool for Putin’s opposition. Last month, the internet helped spark Russia’s largest anti-government protests in five years. Russia responded by blocking access to webpages that promoted demonstrations. 

Yesterday, House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee Ranking Member John Larson (D-CT) introduced a Social Security reform bill. About four months ago, a different Social Security plan was introduced from the subcommittee's chairman. This article analyzes the two plans.

Regional and world leaders are quick to react to the news after US fires missiles at Syria airbase.

The conflict in Syria is often referred to as a civil war, meaning a conflict between citizens of the same country. Though it started as an uprising of Syrian citizens taking to the streets in 2011 to demand democracy and an end to corruption, what is happening today in Syria is far more complex. Some of most powerful countries in the world are involved, as are an alphabet soup of armed opposition groups, the Kurds, and of course the so-called Islamic State.

On March 16, 2017, the debt limit was reinstated from its current suspension, and the Treasury Department will be forced to implement its so-called “extraordinary measures” to continue meeting all of the federal government’s financial obligations. 

A bipartisan proposal aimed at putting the postal service on better financial ground has been gaining traction in recent weeks. The United States Postal Service (USPS) has faced net losses for the past ten consecutive years, and it recently posted a loss of $5.6 billion for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016. Because of these losses and other structural factors, the postal service currently faces over $120 billion in unfunded liabilities.

With the new administration in Washington, school choice is in the news. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is a long-time school choice proponent, and the administration has signaled it is likely to pursue some big-ticket school choice reforms. Whereas most of the energy in the school choice debates has focused on vouchers and charter schools, relatively little attention has been paid to another important choice model that serves as many students as charters and has been in existence for longer—magnet schools.

Attention is turning towards raising the federal debt ceiling, which will be reinstated on March 16, 2017 as the debt approaches $20 trillion. At that time, the Treasury Department will begin using accounting tools at their disposal, called “extraordinary measures,” to avoid defaulting on the government’s obligations. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that these measures will be exhausted by this fall, and the debt ceiling will need to be raised. If not, Treasury will be unable to continue paying the nation’s bills.

We have previously discussed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the House Republican health care bill, and its overall effects on deficits and insurance coverage. Despite the fact that the AHCA would reduce deficits, it would prove fiscally harmful in one area: Medicare solvency. Based on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections, we estimate that the legislation would accelerate the insolvency date of Medicare Part A's Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund from 2025 to 2023 and increase primary deficits in the trust fund by $150 billion through 2026.

The number of people affected is staggering. In South Sudan, 100,000 people are on the verge of starvation with another 5 million at risk. That number of at-risk people totals 6.2 million in Somalia—half of its population—and 4.4 million in Nigeria.

Over the next decade, interest payments on the debt are projected to be the fastest growing part of the federal budget.Last year, the federal government spent $241 billion – roughly 1.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – on interest payments. That’s among the lowest at any point since the 1970s, driven by historically low interest rates.

The last thing that the Chinese economy now needs is a tightening in the U.S. credit cycle and a rising U.S. dollar. Such a combination is bound to complicate Beijing’s efforts to deal with its capital outflow problem, to prevent an undue depreciation of the Chinese currency and to successfully deflate China’s outsized domestic credit bubble.

The Trump Administration released its "skinny budget," which details its plans for defense and non-defense discretionary spending for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 while proposing some adjustments for the current fiscal year. However, unlike prior skinny budgets from first-year presidents, President Trump’s budget does not include any proposed changes to mandatory spending or revenue, nor proposals and cost estimates in the years beyond 2018. By focusing only on discretionary spending, this budget effectively ignores 70 percent of spending and 90 percent of its growth over the next decade.

Today, President Donald Trump released the first piece of his first budget proposal to Congress. Here are four important things to know about it:

President Donald Trump signed three executive orders on immigration during his first week in office. The orders focused on border security, interior enforcement, and “extreme vetting” and temporary entry bans for refugees and nationals from certain Muslim-majority countries. How do these policies compare to the priorities under the Obama Administration?

The Trump administration should be careful about what it is asking for from the International Monetary Fund, if the IMF were to carry out its exchange rate policy surveillance function properly, it might very well single out the United States as a major obstacle to reducing today’s global trade imbalances.