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's Plan to Repair the Highway Trust Fund
With the deadline for extending the surface transportation authorization just a few weeks away and Highway Trust Fund (HTF) bankruptcy approaching...
164 Ways to Reduce the Deficit
CRFB has released a new compendium of over 150 options to reduce mandatory spending and raise revenue. Despite declining in deficits in recent years...
McCain Publishes "America's Most Wasted"
In an homage to former Senator Tom Coburn's (R-OK) commitment to bringing attention to wasteful programs through his annual Wastebook and similar to...
Budget Process in the FY 2016 Congressional Budget Resolution
During the consideration of the FY 2016 budget, we continually wrote about the budget process provisions in the major budget resolutions as well as...
The Basics of the Budget Conference Agreement
Yesterday, we discussed The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the Budget Conference, where we showed how the budget conference agreement was a mixed bag...
Van Hollen and Mulvaney Stand Up on OCO
One of the most troubling elements of the budget conference agreement was the use of the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account as a slush fund...
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the Budget Conference
With the budget conference complete, it is now up to each chamber of Congress to pass the FY 2016 concurrent budget resolution. We've already written...
Let the Cadillac Tax Drive...Down Deficits and Health Care Spending
A group of House Democrats introduced a bill yesterday to repeal the tax on high-cost health insurance plans, commonly known as the "Cadillac tax,"...
The Post-SGR Budget Outlook
Lawmakers cleared their second Fiscal Speed Bump of the year - the expiration of the one-year "doc fix" - earlier this month, scuttling the Medicare...
$180 Billion Added to the Debt This Congress - How Deep Will Congress Dig?
Our partners at Fix the Debt released a graphic yesterday highlighting the fiscal irresponsibility of the 114th Congress in the few months it has been...
Update: Fiscal Speed Bumps
Congress sped through this year's second and third " Fiscal Speed Bumps" in March, ignoring the return of the statutory debt limit (though the hard...
Appropriators Jump the Gun and Start the FY 2016 Funding Race
The House Appropriations Committee kicked off appropriations season this week by starting to mark up their Fiscal Year 2016 bills at the same time...