Economy, Federal Debt | featured news

Flush with re-election vigor, President Barack Obama on Friday will provide his first public comments on the upcoming negotiations with Congress on how to deal with pending tax hikes and spending cuts that create the so-called fiscal cliff facing the economy at the end of the year.

Crossroads GPS, the sister organization to the super PAC American Crossroads, is launching a $7 million TV ad Tuesday blasting President Obama over the national debt, and accusing him of "growing our debt faster than our economy.

Projections suggest the debt will continue to grow faster than the economy, which would have to expand by at least 6% a year to keep pace.

The Obama administration won a reprieve this week from some particularly scary economic news that had been projected to occur around around Halloween. The news: The ever-escalating national debt will hit and then surpass the size of the entire U.S. economy -- an ignominious distinction previously achieved by the likes of Japan, Italy and Greece.

Democratic leaders called on Wednesday for new spending and tax cuts to boost the sluggish U.S. economy, setting up a fresh hurdle for bipartisan efforts to head off a government debt default this summer.

China should guard against risks from "excessive" holdings of U.S. assets as Washington could pursue a policy to weaken the dollar, a senior official at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in comments published on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama, two years into a presidency that increased spending to prime a weak economy, is turning his attention to the nation's crushing debt and trying to counter a Republican anti-deficit plan with a framework of his own that tackles politically sensitive health care programs while also increasing taxes....

President Obama will address the economy and the federal debt in his State of the Union speech, which will be his opportunity to showcase his shift to the political center. President Obama plans to use his State of the Union speech Tuesday to articulate a centrist vision that will shape the remaining two years of his term and provide a template for his reelection campaign.

President Barack Obama is getting a bump in his approval ratings from an improving U.S. economy but Americans want him to focus on reducing U.S. debt and spending, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday.