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.
90% of Spending Growth Will Come From Health, Retirement, Veterans, & Interest
Over the coming decade, the vast majority of growth in federal government spending will come from just four parts of the federal budget: Social...
CBO Releases February 2026 Budget and Economic Outlook
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released its February 2026 Budget and Economic Outlook, its first full ten-year baseline and economic...
CMS Final Rule Closes Medicaid Loophole
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a Medicaid rule, last week, which closes an especially egregious loophole that allowed...
JCT Projects Tax Expenditures Will Be $2.3T in 2026
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) recently published their latest estimates of individual and corporate tax expenditures. In total, JCT projects...
Student Loan Costs Drop to Near Record Lows After Reconciliation Reforms
Note: This analysis has been updated from the original version to better reflect the effect that the Biden SAVE plan had on subsidy rates over time...
Maya MacGuineas: The Time to Start Voting About Social Security is Now
Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She recently wrote an opinion piece for the Dallas Morning News, an...
12-Month Rolling Deficit is $1.6 Trillion in January 2026
The federal government has borrowed $1.6 trillion over the past 12 months based on the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)...
Blue Dogs Endorse 3% Resolution
On February 5, the Blue Dog Coalition endorsed a recently introduced resolution that supports a 3% deficit-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target. The...
Appropriations Watch: FY 2026
Updated 2/4/26: On February 3, the President signed into law a bill to end the partial government shutdown that began on January 31. The bill provides...
George Will Highlights Potential Dangerous Path Ahead
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, columnist George Will writes about the six paths to a fiscal disaster outlined in our recent paper, “...
Upcoming Congressional Fiscal Policy Deadlines
Updated 2/4/26: On February 3, the President signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act to reopen agencies that saw a funding lapse on...
Marc Goldwein Discusses Potential Fiscal Crises on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal"
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's Senior Vice President & Senior Policy Director, Marc Goldwein, joined C-SPAN's "Washington Journal"...