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.
How Much Did President Biden Add to the Debt?
Over the four years of President Biden’s term – from January 2021 through January 2025 – we estimate that he approved $4.7 trillion in new ten-year...
What’s in the Senate’s Concurrent FY 2025 Budget?
Update (4/11/2025): The Senate adopted the budget described below on April 5, 2025, and the House adopted the budget on April 10, 2025, making this...
Rumored Senate Reconciliation Instructions Would Double Debt Growth
Press reports indicate that Senate leadership may release a proposed concurrent budget resolution for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 as early as today with...
Fiscal Goals Become Very Difficult with Reconciliation Plans
It would take more than $7 trillion of ten-year savings to stabilize debt at the size of the economy by Fiscal Year (FY) 2034. But rather than making...
Experts Push Back on Current Policy Switch
As Congress continues to discuss a compromise budget resolution between the House and Senate, setting the stage for reconciliation, the choice of...
Debt Ceiling Needs to be Raised in Advance of X Date
Recent reports from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Bipartisan Policy Center estimate that the debt ceiling, which was reinstated on...
The House’s $2 Trillion in Spending Cuts Should Be an Absolute Minimum
The reconciliation instructions in the House’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget resolution – which allow up to $2.8 trillion of net borrowing through 2034...
Upcoming Congressional Fiscal Policy Deadlines
Updated 3/28/2025: The President signed a continuing resolution (H.R. 1968) on March 15, 2025, that runs through September 30, 2025. Our analysis of...
CBO Releases March 2025 Long-Term Budget and Economic Outlook
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released its March 2025 Long-Term Budget and Economic Outlook, its first full thirty-year baseline and...
Medicare Advantage Will Be Overpaid by $1.2 Trillion
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released their latest status report on the Medicare Advantage (MA) program last week. Based on this...
CBO's Options to Improve Social Security Solvency
Social Security is the largest federal government program and provides income to nearly 70 million retirees, dependents, survivors, and disabled...
Tax Cut Extensions Would Add $37 Trillion to Debt by 2054
In a recent letter, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that extending and reviving various provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act...