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.
Top 14 Charts About the Budget in 2014
This year was an eventful one for the federal budget. To explain the year's events, CRFB wrote 427 blogs, 17 papers, and created more than a hundred...
Senators Chambliss and Coburn Bid Farewell, Talk Fiscal Issues
The end of the 113th Congress saw the retirement of two Senators who actively fought for controlling and limiting the U.S. federal debt. Senators...
CBO Shows Social Security is in Financial Trouble
It is clear that Social Security faces financial challenges. This year, its own Trustees estimated the combined trust funds would run out of reserves...
Senator Cardin Proposes Reform With a Consumption Tax
Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) introduced the Progressive Consumption Tax Act last week that would reform the tax code and change the way that tax revenue...
CRS Talks About Need for Fiscal Sustainability and Plans to Achieve It
The Congressional Research Service's Jane Gravelle recently put out a paper on plans to address long-term deficits and debt. The piece both goes...
Maya MacGuineas: How Much the Growing Debt Costs U.S. Households
Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, wrote a commentary that appeared in the Wall Street Journal Washington...
Discussing the Uncertainty of Long-Term Budget Projections
An old saying goes, "Nothing is certain but death and taxes." But in budget projections, neither of those things -- mortality rates nor revenue levels...
Sen. Coburn Introduces Bill to Reform SSDI
In his final week on Capitol Hill, retiring Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) introduced a bill with a wide-ranging set of measures to, in his words, protect...
Delaney Combines Tax Reform and Infrastructure...With a Twist
Tax reform has been an increasingly common way to pay for infrastructure spending in recent years. Both President Obama and outgoing House Ways and...
Event Recap: A Discussion on Dynamic Scoring
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget hosted a policy discussion this past Tuesday on dynamic scoring. CRFB President Maya MacGuineas opened...
Slipping Permanent Tax Breaks into the Lame Duck
Lawmakers have tried several times to revive tax provisions that expired last year and extend them permanently, at a substantial cost to the national...
Maya MacGuineas: How to Improve the Tax Extenders Bill? Start by Paying for It.
Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, wrote a commentary that appeared in the Wall Street Journal Washington...