Taxes, Federal Spending | featured news

The amount of federal debt held by the public is projected later this year to surpass 70 percent of the nation's annual economic output, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday in a report that spotlighted the stark choices policymakers face on taxation and government spending.

President Barack Obama is sending Congress a $3.73 trillion spending blueprint that pledges $1.1 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade through spending cuts and tax increases.

There will be no tea-dumping in the Potomac River -- that's illegal -- but organizers of the national tea party tax protests say they plan to dump a million tea bags in Lafayette Square today to demonstrate displeasure at government spending and tax policies.

Protesters plan to place the tea bags on tarps and clean up afterward, an organizer said.

The tea, which will be delivered by truck, has been purchased online by people upset over recent government policy, said John Gauger, a spokesman for the grass-roots conservative group Reagan.org.