Category Archives: Debt and deficits

Will Arkansans see $430 Social Security cut?

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tax, taxes, debt, deficits, spending, trillion, State of the Union, deficit hawks, balanced budget amendment, Jonathan Bydlak, immigration, $98.8 trillion, $970 billion, Social Security cutIf Congress doesn’t act, the average Arkansas retiree could see a Social Security monthly benefit cut of $430 in 2032, based on findings from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

More than 19% of the state’s population, or 589,427 Arkansans, could be affected, including retirees, survivors and dependents. Arkansas could lose somewhere around $3 billion, which would be 1.6% of its economy. That percentage is the eighth highest among all the states.

All of that’s according to a new interactive tool, “No State Spared,” on the CRFBs website at www.crfb.org/nostatespared.

The reduction would occur because the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is set to become insolvent in the fourth quarter of 2032. 

That’s the funding mechanism that pays Social Security benefits to senior citizens and their survivors. Another Social Security trust fund for disabled Americans is in good shape for at least the next 75 years.

Continue reading →

Jett: Arkansas needs a ‘stress test’

Large banks must perform “stress tests” to ensure they would be OK if the economy took a severe downturn. Should Arkansas’ state government do the same?

Former state Rep. Joe Jett, who chaired the House Revenue and Taxation Committee for eight years until he left the Legislature in 2022, believes it should. He’s particularly concerned about what would happen if the federal government reduced the billions of dollars it sends Arkansas’ way.

The former lawmaker and farmer from Success, Arkansas, now splits his time between working with the Rose Group Advisors business strategies and lobbying firm, crop dusting, and being a relief aerial firefighter fighting wildfires in the West. He’s also a grandfather to four grandsons ages 6-16. His two sons now run the farm where he and his wife still live. 

Jett said state government should perform stress tests like large banks must do under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which was a response to the preceding financial crisis. Some states have already started doing so. Continue reading →

Social Security crisis this year’s election secret

tax, taxes, debt, deficits, spending, trillion, State of the Union, deficit hawks, balanced budget amendment, Jonathan Bydlak, immigration, $98.8 trillion, $970 billion, Social SecurityHere’s an issue not being discussed much in this year’s campaign: The winners of U.S. Senate races across the country likely will face a Social Security crisis near the end of their terms, about the time they would run for re-election.

 In Arkansas, that would be Sen. Tom Cotton or one of the candidates seeking to replace him.

Both the Social Security Administration’s actuaries and the Congressional Budget Office have said that the Old-Age & Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, which pays seniors’ Social Security benefits, will become insolvent by the end of 2032.

That’s less than seven years from now. Continue reading →

Arkansas projects get funded as debt elephant gets ignored

tax, taxes, debt, deficits, spending, trillion, State of the Union, deficit hawks, balanced budget amendment, Jonathan Bydlak, immigration, $98.8 trillion, $970 billion, debt elephantCongress has funded most but not all of the government. Four members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation secured hundreds of millions of dollars for highways and other state projects. Meanwhile, a nonpartisan group is warning of the consequences of ever-increasing government debt.

That paragraph pretty much sums up the federal budget news from the past couple of weeks, with more to come. 

As you may not have noticed, there was another government shutdown last week, though only a partial, brief one. It ended when President Trump on Feb. 3 passed the second of two bills that funded government operations through September – all except for the Department of Homeland Security, which got funding for only two weeks until Feb. 13.

Democrats balked at funding that agency because they want major reforms to its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. As of Sunday evening, the question had not been resolved. 

So we’re in another partial government shutdown. Continue reading →

A $40 trillion debt party?

By Steve Brawner

© 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

The national debt reached a new milestone last month. Did anybody notice? 

Maybe a party would help.

Sam Sicard, president and CEO of First National Bank of Fort Smith, offered that suggestion in a text message Tuesday. 

The day before, the national debt had reached $37 trillion.

Sicard, who has tried to call attention to the issue for years, texted, “Let’s plan a ‘Hit $40 trillion’ party for next year.”

He was being sarcastic about planning a party, but not about the concept. 

“Bottom line is we need to find ways to grab voters’ attention, and parody of the recklessness is another approach,” he wrote. Continue reading →