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.
Temporary Effects Driving Some of Medicare's Slow Growth in 2014
Medicare spending has grown remarkably slowly so far this year, according to the often-overlooked Monthly Budget Reviews from the Congressional Budget...
The $4.2 Trillion Drop in Revenue Projections
As we explained last week, health care spending is growing more slowly, which is great news for the federal budget. Spending has been revised downward...
Senate Finance Committee Hearing on Transportation Funding
The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing May 6th titled, “ New Routes for Funding and Financing Highways and Transit.” During the hearing Senators...
Maya MacGuineas: Will Congress Listen to the Military on Pay?
Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, wrote a commentary that appeared in the Wall Street Journal Washington...
GAO's Long-Term Federal Budget Outlook Shows Grave Picture
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released the spring update to its long-term federal budget simulation series. In their report, GAO...
How Much Difference Does Health Care Cost Growth Make to the Budget?
The recent slowdown in federal health care spending has certainly been good news for the budget, knocking hundreds of billions of dollars off...
President's Advisors Recommend Veto of Unoffset Tax Bill
The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) yesterday in opposition to the extension and expansion of the Research &...
Actually, CBPP Says Don't Tune Out the Debt ... And They Are Right
Today, Wonkblog published a “ Know More” feature arguing that “You Should Tune Out Politicians Who Are Still Talking about Government Debt.” As...
House Defense Budget Rejects Pentagon Suggestions
The Pentagon's budget faces serious constraints this year as a result of budget caps agreed to last year and rising personnel, healthcare, and...
The $900 Billion Slowdown in Federal Health Care Spending
With April's updated projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), spending on major federal health care programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and...
Want to Understand the Tax Extenders? Here's a Few Charts.
Congress is continuing to discuss this week the tax extenders, a set of tax breaks that expired at the end of last year which could have major fiscal...
CBPP: Long-Term Budget Outlook Remains a Challenge
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released a new set of long-term debt projections today. They find that while the debt will remain...