FISCAL BLOG

Setting a higher minimum wage would affect family incomes in a variety of ways, including increasing earnings for most low-wage workers and lifting some families out of poverty.

America’s small businesses have been severely impacted by the economic downturn caused by the pandemic — and lawmakers have focused a significant part of federal relief on helping this critical part of our economy.

The primary deficit focuses on the difference between government revenues and spending, excluding interest payments. Learn more about the U.S. primary deficit.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has been both a public health and an economic crisis. In particular, the closure of many businesses has resulted in an unprecedented surge in unemployment claims in the United States.

After a promising decline in recent years, the number of Americans without health insurance is back on the rise.

The debt growing to double the size of GDP is, in many respects, a symbolic milestone — but it is a clear indicator of the monumentally unsustainable path of our fiscal trajectory.

The CBO released new baseline projections today, which show that the nation will face daunting fiscal challenges over the next decade resulting from the existing structural mismatch between revenues and outlays as well as the enormous amount of borrowing necessary to address the pandemic and its economic effects.

Despite improvements to the labor market since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate remains high, especially for non-white workers. Get the facts here.

The federal government has enacted five pieces of legislation that provide relief to individuals and corporations that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To finance those provisions, the Treasury Department has ramped up its borrowing.

As of January 29, 2021, the Department of the Treasury has disbursed over $34 billion of the total $48 billion allocated to air carriers through the PSP1 and PSP2.