Spending Cuts | featured news

The U.S. House of Representatives unexpectedly defeated a bill that would fund the federal government past September 30 on Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with their party to push for deeper spending cuts.

Growth in retail sales stalled in August after a pitched battle over spending in Congress led consumer confidence to crumble, data showed on Wednesday.

The Portuguese government is planning the country's biggest spending cuts in 50 years, a move it described as "unprecedented".

French economic growth ground to a halt in the second quarter, raising pressure on the government to cut spending and abolish tax breaks to convince turbulent financial markets it will deliver on debt reduction targets.

Failure of Republican House leadership to pass a debt-reduction bill gives Democrats the edge, at least for now.

A rising number of Democrats are asking President Obama to take executive action and raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling on his own, but Obama ...

In a televised address to the nation on July 25, 2011, to discuss the pending deadline on the debt ceiling, President Barack Obama made his pitch for a "balanced" approach to reducing the deficit -- one that includes spending cuts as well as revenue increases from tax increases for wealthier Americans. With the debt ceiling issue caught in a political deadlock over how to reduce the deficit, Obama noted that raising the debt ceiling has been a relatively routine exercise for decades. "Understand –- raising the debt ceiling does not allow Congress to spend more money," Obama said.

Standard and Poor's does not think the United States will default on its debt, the rating agency's president Deven Sharma said on Wednesday.

Americans already concerned about their jobs Wednesday begged Washington politicians to stop dithering, cut the budget and resolve a debt crisis they fear could lead to higher interest rates, or worse.

Rival Democratic and Republican plans to raise the government's borrowing ability have thrust Congress into a standoff just one week away from a potentially devastating debt crisis.