Blog
Welcome to our blog – The Bottom Line, where you’ll find up-to-date commentary and analysis on the most important news in the fiscal world. Below is a list of our blog posts.
CRFB Releases Updated Debt Fixer
We recently updated our interactive Debt Fixer tool, where users can choose between several options to make changes to the federal budget and...
Appropriations Watch: FY 2026
Updated 1/20/26: On January 20, leaders released the final bipartisan funding package that would provide full-year Defense, Homeland Security, Labor...
Supporting Price Transparency to Reduce Health Care Costs
In their newly proposed Great Healthcare Plan, the Trump Administration calls for “maximizing price transparency.” This builds on recent efforts from...
Assessing FY 2026 Appropriations
Without further appropriations, the federal government faces a partial government shutdown on January 30 as the continuing resolution (CR) funding...
White House Releases "Great Healthcare Plan"
Today, the Trump Administration released the Great Healthcare Plan, a legislative framework designed to lower health care costs and address the...
ACA Subsidy Extension Tracker
With the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced subsidies set to expire soon, several policymakers have proposed plans to extend the enhancements. You can...
Washington Post Highlights 3% of GDP Deficit Resolution
The Washington Post’s Editorial Board recently published a piece applauding the introduction of a new resolution calling for a 3% of Gross Domestic...
Lawmakers Call for a Bipartisan Fiscal Commission
The Problem Solvers Caucus (PSC) announced its Fiscal Stability Framework last week, which sounds the alarm about the national debt, endorses two...
Lawmakers Introduce a Bipartisan Resolution in Support of a 3% Deficit-to-GDP Target
Representatives Bill Huizenga (R-MI) and Scott Peters (D-CA), co-chairs of the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum, joined by Representatives Lloyd Smucker (R-PA)...
WSJ: The Next Class of Senators Won't Be Able to Dodge the Social Security Crunch
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Richard Rubin highlighted an important fact: the Social Security retirement trust fund is projected to become...
12-Month Rolling Deficit is $1.7 Trillion in Calendar Year 2025
The federal budget deficit totaled $1.7 trillion in Calendar Year (CY) 2025, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The...
$1.5 Trillion Military Budget Would Add $5.8 Trillion to Debt Over Decade
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump called for increasing the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 defense budget to $1.5 trillion, rather than $1 trillion he...