Topic - Douglas Holtz-Eakin

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  Unemployment falls to 8.1 percent in April, but Dow drops

  The nation's unemployment rate continued its rapid decline last month, falling to 8.1 percent as another 115,000 jobs were added throughout the economy, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

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  Obama to unveil budget with higher taxes, more deficits

  President Obama's budget request to Congress on Monday will forecast a deficit of $1.33 trillion in the current fiscal year and calls for $1.5 trillion in tax increases over the next decade, senior administration officials said Friday night.

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  LAMBRO: Bent out of shape over Bush tax cuts

  Ten years after President George W. Bush cut income-tax rates, his decision remains at the epicenter of debate about future economic policy. President Obama, who came charging into office vowing to repeal the Bush tax cuts, has been blocked at every turn by Republicans but also by some members of own party who thought it was insane to raise taxes in the midst of a recession when businesses were struggling and so many Americans were out of work.

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  Money slated for health law gets detoured

  In cash-strapped Washington, President Obama's $1 trillion health care law is presenting a tempting target for lawmakers seeking funds for other projects, as Congress last week raided the health care piggy bank for the third time in less than a year.

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  Debt panel facing CBO heat

  The bipartisan supercommittee's proposal for addressing the nation's debt woes is due two weeks from Wednesday, but the panel already has hit a deadline that Congress' official scorekeeper says should be met to ensure the numbers add up.

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  GOP candidates' budgets not realistic, some analysts say

  Republican presidential candidates are pledging to slice a quarter or more out of the federal budget — proposals that would take spending back to levels unseen in decades, and would require the equivalent of axing a major program such as Medicare or cutting the entire defense budget.

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  Jobs plan paid for as Obama says, but with tax hikes in future

  At its root, President Obama's jobs stimulus plan pays for spending and tax cuts now by promising tax increases that wouldn't kick in until 2013 — after next year's elections — and would last through the rest of the decade.

• Prescription drugs debate continues on Capitol Hill

  The battle over reducing Medicare's cost for prescription drugs flared up on Capitol Hill on Thursday as lawmakers continued to debate deficit-reduction plans that could curb the program's growth.

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  HOWARD: How to wreck a prescription-drug program

  Democrats seem obsessed with finding new and inventive ways of robbing Peter to pay Paul. President Obama and congressional Democrats want to extend large rebates now required on drugs sold through the Medicaid program to prescription drugs used by "dual eligibles" - that is, seniors who qualify for Medicare and Medicaid - as well as seniors who are eligible for low-income subsidies under Medicare's Part D prescription drug program.

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  Social Security reform looms with or without Obama

  Despite President Obama's promises to lower the deficit and rein in spending, there was a conspicuous omission from his 2012 budget blueprint that many say would go a long way toward easing the nation's financial woes: Social Security reform.

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  Despite promise to fix hole in budget, Obama fails to address huge deficits

  A year ago, President Obama left a gaping hole in his budget, but promised that his deficit commission would fix it. On Monday, he released his new budget and the hole remains, though this time he dropped the semblance of a fix and instead accepted that his budget shows deficits for the foreseeable future.

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  Deficit diggers now vow to fill hole

  While Democrats and Republicans say they are ready to begin filling in the nation's deep borrowing hole, budget hawks remain skeptical of lawmakers' ability to fulfill their vow, given that many of them did the digging in the first place.

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  Rich got richer, paid more taxes under Bush

  The rich did indeed get richer under President George W. Bush, but they also paid an ever-larger share of the federal tax burden, according to new numbers from Congress' chief scorekeeper.

• Stroking the tax-cut edge

  Rudolph Giuliani scored a coup last week when Martin Anderson, President Reagan's influential domestic policy chief, joined the former New York mayor's campaign team of economic advisers.

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  GOP hopefuls load economic teams

  THE WASHINGTON TIMES

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