The U.S. Senate on Friday was set to start a marathon session aimed at eventually handing Republican President Donald Trump sweeping legislation to extend tax cuts and achieve budget reductions in the face of staunch Democratic opposition.

Late on Thursday, the Senate narrowly voted to open debate on a budget blueprint for the fiscal year beginning on October 1. The 52-48 vote was needed to unlock a fast-track procedure for pole-vaulting the costly tax cuts over blockades that Democrats normally could erect in opposition to the legislation...

Germany’s Bundestag is set to vote on a major fiscal package later on Tuesday, which includes changes to long-standing debt policies to enable higher defense spend and a 500 billion euro ($548 billion) infrastructure and climate fund.

More than two thirds of parliament need to support the package in order for it to pass and become enshrined in Germany’s constitution. The law then also needs to be passed by the Bundesrat, a body representing the country’s states, on Friday.

When President Joe Biden delivered his 2023 State of the Union address, Washington was drowning in a sea of red ink. The annual budget deficit was in the process of doubling from $1 trillion to $2 trillion in a single year due to some student-debt cancellation shenanigans. That year's budget deficit would become the largest share of gross domestic product (GDP) in American history outside of wars and recessions.

Former President Trump ran up the national debt by about twice as much as President Biden, according to a new analysis of their fiscal track records.

Why it matters: The winner of November's election faces a gloomy fiscal outlook, with rapidly rising debt levels at a time when interest rates are already high and demographic pressure on retirement programs is rising.

Both candidates bear a share of the responsibility, as each added trillions to that tally while in office.

The fiscal policies of the Trump administration added twice the amount to the national deficit as have President Biden’s, a new analysis has found.

Trump’s administration borrowed $8.4 trillion during the former president’s time in office, while Biden has borrowed $4.3 trillion, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a Washington think tank.

President Trump and President Biden added a combined $12.7 trillion to the national debt between January 2017 and June 2024, a new report has found. While some of that spending was driven by Covid pandemic emergency spending, the majority was added due to increased spending and reduced tax revenues. 

Interest payments on the federal debt will be $870 billion in 2024, exceeding $822 billion spent on defense, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected in February 2024. AllSides highlights content from Gigafact, a network of newsrooms that respond to online claims. View the full fact brief on Wisconsin Watch.

During his 2024 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden referred frequently to his "predecessor," who happens to be the expected Republican nominee trying to deny him reelection this year.

Without using Donald Trump’s name, Biden focused part of his March 7 speech on his many contrasts with his presidential predecessor, which Biden said extended to management of the nation’s finances.

Trump’s administration "added more to the national debt than any presidential term in American history," Biden said. "Check the numbers, folks."

We did.

President Biden unveiled his election-year budget pitch Monday, calling for $5.5 trillion in tax increases by raising rates on the wealthy and corporations — while spending $7.3 trillion on defense, federal benefit programs, affordable housing and student debt cancellation, among other proposals.