As the planet’s economy keeps stumbling, the phrase “worst recession since the Great Depression” has become the new “global war on terror” — a term whose overuse has rendered it both meaningless and acronym-worthy. And just like that previously ubiquitous phrase, references to the WRSTGD are almost always followed by flimsy and contradictory explanations. Republicans [...]

The House voted 233 to 187 to approve the rules, known in congressional shorthand as paygo. The rules were adopted last month by the Senate and now go to President Obama for his signature. The return to paygo comes as record deficits push the government more deeply into debt than at any time since the [...]

Top Republicans on Wednesday were hostile toward President Obama’s plan to create a bipartisan commission on cutting projected deficits, raising doubts about the prospects of a main piece of his budget strategy. [...] Under that plan, Mr. Obama would establish by executive order an 18-member bipartisan panel to propose how to balance future tax revenue [...]

Linder is one of many who would argue that the Bush tax cuts — which added $20 billion per month to federal budget deficits through 2008 — should be made permanent, even though doing so would cost an additional $4.5 trillion. Meanwhile, food stamps — which have greater stimulative effect than anything else we might [...]