ScottBittle's blog

The Wall Street bailout is giving a lot of people a dose of cold fiscal reality – but you wouldn't know it to listen to Barack Obama and John McCain. And a great way to see this refusal to face fiscal facts in action is to watch Public Agenda's comments on the Blogging the Debates project.

A new study shows that the public is capable of facing facts about the nation's fiscal problems – which is a good thing, because they're probably going to have to take a big bite of a reality sandwich in the coming week.

The latest projections show the federal government will have a more than $400 billion deficit this year. And next year. And the year after that.

The federal government's decision to seize control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this weekend may stabilize the troubled housing markets, but it'll also add billions to the federal deficit.

Can a movie get people fired up about the national debt?

As far as the fiscal issues go, I think the media's been tougher on the presidential candidates this year than in the past, and this Bloomberg News story is the latest example. So far, it isn't clear that it's having much impact.

You may not have noticed this – and maybe you're not supposed to – but tucked away in the housing bailout bill is a provision to raise the national debt ceiling, the total am

Entitlements are the topic this week over at NewTalk.org, an innovative discussion site. I'm moderating the session, and the participants include some of the most thoughtful people around on this issue.

If you've been wondering about the presidential candidates and how well they're connected to fiscal reality, there are two stories worth reading today.

Most people will never read the Tax Policy Center's new analysis of the presidential candidates' tax plans. For policy wonks, of course, it's a gold mine. For most non-wonky voters, however, the real jarring statement is this paragraph: