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April 12th, 2011
05:00 PM ET
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2011 budget cuts revealed

Charles Riley
CNNMoney.com Staff Reporter

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - Lawmakers lifted the curtain Tuesday on a 2011 spending plan that will slash nearly $40 billion - cutting back on a wide range of programs and services including high-speed rail, emergency first responders and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The measure represents the single biggest cut ever made to the federal budget in one year.

It also offered the first look at the $28 billion in spending cuts lawmakers and President Obama agreed to on Friday to avoid a government shutdown.

Congress had already used a series of stopgap spending bills to target $12 billion in reductions for fiscal year 2011, which started in October and is already halfway over.

Overall, the measure cuts across a wide swath of government agencies and programs, including some favored by the president.

Especially hard hit are the Departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Justice, Labor and Health and Human Services. They all lose billions of dollars in funding.

Full story on CNNMoney.com
Filed under: 360° Radar • 360º Follow • Charles Riley
April 7th, 2011
05:55 PM ET
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Shutdown: 800,000 federal workers in the dark

Charles Riley
CNNMoney.com Staff Reporter

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - There are two kinds of federal workers right now: the essential and the non-essential. Most don't know which group they're in.

And none of them will be getting a paycheck if the government goes dark.

The budget stalemate between Congress and President Obama has raised the specter of a shutdown at the end of Friday.

If they don't reach a deal, the government will shift to performing only "essential operations."

It's likely that more than 1 million essential employees will be asked to come to work - and not be paid.

But workers deemed non-essential won't be allowed to come to work or work from home. They won't even be allowed to turn on their BlackBerries. The official estimate from the White House is that 800,000 workers would be asked to stay home.

Full story on CNNMoney.com
Filed under: 360° Radar • 360º Follow • Charles Riley
January 7th, 2011
11:34 AM ET
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Health care repeal's cost: $230 billion to deficit

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/01/07/t1larg.capitol.dome.jpg caption="It's one of the promises on which House Republicans campaigned: If elected, we will repeal health care reform." width=300 height=169]

Charles Riley
CNNMoney Staff Reporter

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - It's one of the promises on which House Republicans campaigned: If elected, we will repeal health care reform.

One problem: Rolling back the law would probably increase federal budget deficits by a total of about $230 billion by 2021, according to a preliminary estimate released Thursday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The long-run outlook isn't any better. The CBO warns that long-term projections are highly uncertain, but said a repeal would increase federal deficits in the decade after 2019 by around 0.5% of GDP.

And that's a major problem for Republicans - who also say they want to reduce the deficit and roll back federal spending to 2008 levels.

However, it's not a complete shock that the CBO's estimate predicts a debt increase if Republicans succeed in repealing the law. After all, the original legislation was predicted to lower the deficit, a key selling point for Democrats.

Full story on CNNMoney.com
Filed under: 360° Radar • Charles Riley • Health Care • Raw Politics

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