deficit

Social Security has promises to pay out $41.4 trillion in future benefits, but it has just $34.5 trillion in assets and expected income to cover those promises. You do the math.

President Barack Obama on Monday sent Congress a new budget that seeks to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade while at the same time showering billions of dollars of increased spending on areas aimed at giving the economy a quick boost.

In a last-ditch effort to save itself from bankruptcy, the Postal Service is forging ahead with plans to close half of its 500 mail processing centers and roughly 3,700 of its post offices. The result: Deliveries will take longer.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has announced his latest initiative to save the post office from bankruptcy. (Hint: Improving customer service isn't a part of it.) His master plan: Hike the cost of mailing a letter for real people, and cut prices for junk mail.

Could your bank teller could go postal? Offering basic consumer banking services in the form of prepaid debit cards is just one of many ideas the U.S. Post Office is considering to boost its bottom line. And even with stamp costs going up to 45 cents, the USPS is in dire need of outside-the-box solutions to its budget woes.

President Barack Obama called for $1.5 trillion in new taxes Monday, part of a total 10-year deficit reduction package totaling more than $3 trillion. "We can't just cut our way out of this hole," the president said.

Last week, Warren Buffett wrote an incredible opinion piece in The New York Times asking the government to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, himself included. "My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress," he argued, and he's not alone in that view.

Challenging Republican budget plans, President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed lowering the nation's future deficits by $4 trillion over a dozen years by lowering spending in politically sensitive health care programs while also increasing taxes.

Republicans pushing for spending cuts in the 2011 federal budget may be ready to shut the government down to get their way. But is anyone ready to do what it would take to really make a dent in the federal budget: raise taxes on the rich and close corporate tax loopholes?

Much has been made recently of the huge valuations of Internet players like Facebook, Twitter and Zynga, but while Web 2.0 is doing well, the Silicon Valley region itself is not. A new report shows compensation and unemployment in the region haven't improved since the downturn.