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.
CBO Releases its Preliminary Analysis of the President's Budget
This afternoon CBO released its preliminary analysis of the President’s Budget, projecting a significantly worse fiscal situation than the...
No Gimmicks? Really?
In a blog yesterday and op-ed today, OMB Director Peter Orszag defended the President's health care plan as reducing "deficits by roughly $100 billion...
Monthly Budget Review Reports $655 billion deficit in FY 2010 Thus Far
The Congressional Budget Office issued its Monthly Budget Review yesterday. It estimates that the federal government incurred a deficit of $655...
Health Reform by Reconciliation: Maligned, Misunderstood, but Misused Is Up for Debate
Unable to pass health care reform using “regular order,” Congressional Democrats now are turning to much-misunderstood process known as “budget...
Senate Falls One Vote Shy of Considering Sessions-McCaskill Spending Caps Amendment
The Senate has just voted to not waive a Budget Act point of order raised against the Sessions-McCaskill amendment (#3337) to the Senate jobs bill...
Don't Circumvent PAYGO on Jobs Bill
The CBO released an updated cost estimate* of the Senate jobs bill yesterday. This larger bill calls for further increased funding for unemployment...
Constitutional Route Becoming Popular
Given the present economic and political climate, many are eying Constitutional changes to help improve the budget situation. In yesterday’s Wall...
Health Care Cost Growth Will Hurt State Budgets Too
Yesterday GAO released its annual report on the fiscal outlook for state and local governments and the news is not good. GAO found that that the short...
Fed Purchases of Fannie/Freddie Assets Pass $1 Trillion Mark
For the first time since it began purchasing mortgage-backed securities, the Fed's holdings of federal agency MBS's passed the $1 trillion mark last...
What About Education Cuts?
Deficit Challenge suggestions continue to pour in. Recently, one commenter suggested we cancel all new Education programs proposed or started under...
Financial Report of U.S. Government
The Treasury Department recently released its annual Financial Report of the U.S. Government, reporting on the budget deficit, net operating costs...
‘Line’ Items: A Lonely Road, Paying for Jobs
Highway to Nowhere – Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) has blocked a vote on temporarily extending unemployment and COBRA benefits, the Medicare “doc fix” as...