A roundup of this morning’s must-read budget and economic stories.

We’ve got to give it to them, Congress is getting pretty clever. Unfortunately, they’re tricking us with our own money and ultimately jeopardizing the fiscal health of the country. In our new Halloween-themed budget breakdown, we visualize the budget tricks Congress continues to get away with.

“According to a study by the Brookings institution, Washington D.C. has the highest concentration of smart people in the United States. Lets see; we have a mess in the Gulf, we have a dysfunctional Homeland Security, and we are $13 trillion in debt. Imagine how bad it would be if these people weren’t geniuses.” — Jay Leno

More than two months after Congress’ annual budget was due, House leadership believe they are finally close to producing something they could, at least euphemistically, call a “budget” — but without any of the tough decisions or politically undesirable votes necessary for a real budget resolution.

Today, Vice President Biden and Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag made a joint announcement touting “new initiatives for identifying and eliminating government waste, fraud, and abuse”.   The announcement, following a memorandum issued by the President, focused primarily on establishing a “Do Not Pay List” to cut down on improper payments by the [...]

The Senate will take up H.R. 4213, the tax extenders bill today. The cost of the bill has seesawed as lawmakers feel pressure from increasing deficits. However, that may not be enough – Politico reports this morning that lawmakers are looking to restore spending, including $24 billion in Medicaid funding, cut from the bill by the House.

Back in March, Bankrupting America warned in an opinion-editorial that the Pay-as-you-go (or PAYGO) rules currently in effect in Congress, and frequently referred to as evidence of fiscal discipline, would be broken regularly in the name of “emergency.” Well, it looks as though that prediction is coming true. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal [...]

The Senate has been debating a financial reform bill that is supposed to help prevent another crisis in the financial sector.  The extent to which it will help or hinder financial markets is being debated right now.  The measure includes one new entity, the “Financial Stability Oversight Council,” that is specifically charged with looking out [...]

Unemployment benefits expired this week for an estimated 212,000 unemployed workers.  That’s a small fraction of the 11.4 million currently receiving benefits, but represents significant hardship for those who depend on those checks to stay afloat. Congress is set to discuss extending unemployment benefits again this week when the Senate returns from its recess. Media [...]

The Senate has passed the $17.6 “jobs bill,” clearing the way for it to be signed by the President.  Given that policy attention is devoted almost entirely to health care, this legislation will probably not receive much scrutiny.  This is a shame. This bill will increase the deficit, as it was able to get around [...]