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.
Can the Budget Realistically Be Balanced Without Touching Social Security or Medicare?
During this election cycle, candidates may try to claim that it’s possible to bring the federal budget to balance without touching Medicare or Social...
Does John Kasich Have a Plan to Balance the Budget in Ten Years?
During the November 10 Republican debate, Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) touted his plan which he said would balance the budget by the end of his second term...
New Reconciliation Estimate Still Points to Long-Term Trouble
In light of recent developments, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has updated its estimate of the health care reconciliation bill (previously...
Infographic Comparing Candidates' Tax Plans
Fiscal FactCheck released an infographic comparing the costs of several GOP presidential candidates’ tax plans. So far, the Tax Foundation has scored...
Five Gimmicks Only Budget Wonks Get
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, signed into law earlier this week, is fully offset over the next ten years, according to the scoring conventions of...
Budget Deal Takes 20 Years to Offset Its Cost
The recently-enacted budget deal does not offset its ten-year cost like advocates have claimed, but what about the longer-term impact? The deal...
A New War Spending Gimmick In The Budget Deal
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 is now the law of the land. While the law does not necessarily prevent a government shutdown, it does raise the...
Does Rubio's Tax Plan Both Help the Poor the Most and Help the Rich More Than the Middle Class?
In the third Republican debate, moderator John Harwood and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) had a small squabble about the distributional impact of the tax...
Does the 2015 Budget Act Spend Now and Save Later?
Governor John Kasich claimed in the October 28 Republican Debate that the budget deal, formally known as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, is “the...
Sen. Lankford's SSDI Amendment Continues Progress on Improving the Program
During last week's debate on the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) offered up an amendment making many further changes to the...
Lawmakers Promise to Repeal Crop Insurance Reforms
The budget deal recently signed into law relied heavily on one-time savings and gimmicks to offset the costs of the package, with less than half of...
The Tricks and Treats in the Budget Deal
With the Senate passing the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 in the wee hours of the morning the bill now heads to the President's desk for signature...