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.
Interest Costs Will Leapfrog Medicare and Defense This Year
Interest on the debt is the fastest growing part of the budget. Net interest payments will exceed both defense and Medicare spending this year, in...
The Deficit Was $1.8 Trillion Over the Past Year
The federal budget deficit totaled $1.8 trillion over the past 12 months, up $70 billion from Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, or 4.2 percent. The 12-month...
CBO Releases February 2024 Budget and Economic Outlook
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released its February 2024 Budget and Economic Outlook, its first full ten-year baseline and economic...
Senate Set to Consider $118 Billion National Security & Border Package
The Senate is set this week to consider the National Security and Supplemental Appropriations Act that combines aid to Ukraine and Israel with border...
Maya MacGuineas: Social Security is in trouble. Most candidates won’t admit it.
Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and head of the Campaign to Fix the Debt. She recently wrote an opinion...
Employee Retention Credit Faces 7X Cost Overrun
The pandemic-era Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERC) was designed to help businesses retain workers during the pandemic. But after low initial uptake...
Is Life Expectancy Really Falling?
During the fifth GOP presidential primary debate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis argued against raising the Social Security retirement age because...
Introducing the 2024 Debt Thermometer
We are releasing the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s new 2024 Debt Thermometer, along with the Debt Thermometers from 2017 through 2022...
Where Do the Candidates Stand on Social Security?
In less than ten years, Social Security’s retirement trust fund will be insolvent. Under the law, this will trigger an immediate 23 percent cut in...
How Much Would the Wyden-Smith Tax Deal Cost?
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) recently put forward a bipartisan plan...
Update: Talking Debt and Deficits in the GOP Debates
In the first five Presidential GOP primary debates, the current active GOP candidates have mentioned the deficit or debt a combined 31 times, with...
The Deficit Hit $1.8 Trillion in Calendar Year 2023
The federal budget deficit totaled $1.8 trillion in calendar year (CY) 2023, up 5 percent from the fiscal year deficit of $1.7 trillion and 20 percent...