US loans from China at issue in debt-ceiling fight
Despite what you may have heard, China isn't the country's biggest creditor. America is. The bulk of the national debt — soon to exceed a staggering ...
Simpson and Bowles offer modified budget plan
The chairmen of President Barack Obama's 2010 fiscal commission are wading back into Washington's budget wars with a revised, somewhat milder plan to ...
Bowles and Simpson offer a modified budget plan
The chairmen of President Barack Obama's 2010 fiscal commission are wading back into Washington's budget wars with a revised, somewhat milder plan to ...
Bowles sees 'seeds of hope' in Obama budget
Deficit hawk Erskine Bowles, who chaired President Barack Obama's deficit commission three years ago, said Monday that Obama's recent budget plan ...

Party intransigence dims hopes for 'grand bargain'
The bipartisan cease-fire that kept the government running this spring gave birth to hopeful talk — among pundits and some senators, at least — of a ...
Top Senate Democrat proposes Social Security panel
The Senate's No. 2 Democrat said Wednesday that he's preparing a plan to create a commission to study Social Security's fiscal problems and send a ...

Gov't finances are improving over the short term
The annual federal budget deficit is sinking out of $1 trillion-plus nosebleed territory where it has hovered for the past four years.

Not much urgency to avoid automatic spending cuts
Ten days before a new deadline for broad, automatic government spending cuts, the sense of urgency that surrounded other recent fiscal crises is ...

Obama presses GOP to halt automatic spending cuts
Staking out his ground ahead of a fiscal deadline, President Barack Obama lashed out against Republicans, saying they are unwilling to raise taxes to ...
Bowles: 'No easy way' to get books back in order
The co-chairman of the U.S. deficit commission calls failure to agree on a plan to reduce the national debt "the most disappointing thing in my life.

Cliff averted, it's on to the next fiscal crisis
Onward to the next fiscal crisis. Actually, several of them, potentially. The New Year's Day deal averting the "fiscal cliff" lays the groundwork for ...

Congress OKs cliff deal, signaling future fights
Congress' excruciating, extraordinary New Year's Day approval of a compromise averting a prolonged tumble off the fiscal cliff hands President Barack ...