Special Report: Running in the Red
A continuing series examining the origins and consequences of the nation's escalating debt
Medicare’s immediate, inescapable problem
(TOBY MELVILLE / REUTERS)
The problem is a demographic one: the enormous wave of baby boomers who started enrolling this year. That concern suggests different solutions, experts say, from those needed to cope with runaway costs.The politically charged debate over Medicare tends to proceed, however, as though the solution lies entirely in squeezing more savings out of the program.
Lots of drama, little debt reduction
Lawmakers on both sides are frustrated and pessimistic about the prospects of coming to grips with the federal debt.
Majority of tax breaks go to households
Broad tax breaks dwarf the “loopholes” for corporations and “carve-outs” for the well-heeled.
Social Security adds to budget woes
The program went “cash negative” last year and is now sucking tens of billions annually from the Treasury.
Origins of the debt showdown
The frantic showdown that brought the nation to the brink of default was several years in the making.
GOP’s anti-tax orthodoxy runs deep
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Today’s GOP adheres to a “no new taxes” orthodoxy that has proved far more powerful than the desire to balance the budget.
Tax reality check
INTERACTIVE | Lots of numbers are being thrown around in the debate over who pays what in taxes. Here, an examination of what’s behind them.
How the U.S. detoured to massive debt
The nation’s unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis.
How did the debt obsession start?
GRAPHIC NOVEL | The debt-ceiling battle captivated, alarmed and annoyed. But why did it happen?
Videos: Debt, tax policy showdown
Obama urges Congress to work without drama in 2012
Interactive graphic
Votes that pushed us into the red
A new take on the overlapping priorities that led us to record deficits, and who voted for them.
Motion graphic
Why boats get tax breaks
How one tax break, originally designed to encourage home-ownership for middle-class Americans, continues to allow the rich to write off vacation homes and yachts.
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