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.
Spotlight on the States: Florida
This week, our Spotlight on the States series heads down south to beautiful and sunny Florida, a state that has faced its share of budget woes. The...
‘Line’ Items: Of Brinkmanship and Statesmanship Edition
Shutting Down Versus Sitting Down – Congress returns to Washington this week after lawmakers spent last week back home. Just before leaving town the...
Short-Term CR Looking More Likely
UPDATE 3/1: House passes two-week CR by vote of 335-91. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says that the bill will be taken up in the Senate and...
CNN MONEY EXCLUSIVE: Spending Cuts Aren't Enough. It's Time to Fix the Budget.
In her latest commentary for CNN Money, CRFB president Maya MacGuineas talks about the House Republicans' latest spending proposals, how they could...
Panel Discusses Prospects of Government Shutdown
On Friday, a panel discussion between Democratic and Republican staff directors of the House Budget Committee and CRFB president Maya MacGuineas...
The 2011 Funding Level Debate Continues
Update: CBO released an estimate of H.R. 1 on Friday, Feb 25, puting total base discretionary budget authority at $1,026 billion. The table below has...
MY VIEW: Barry Anderson
As the impacts of the economic recession continue to fade, serious debate on the direction of fiscal policy is finally beginning with very different...
Clever Accounting in the 2012 Budget
So you (and we) don’t have to, Jason likes to spend his time looking into arcane federal education budget issues. In this case he’s writing about a...
The President's Budget's Terminations, Reductions, and Savings
Every year, the President’s budget proposal includes a list of potential discretionary program cuts. These programs are those identified by the...
Spending May Diminish, but Time Definitely Is Shrinking
After four marathon sessions and hundreds of amendments the House of Representatives approved of legislation, H.R. 1, which will cut spending in the...
What Will the Budget Look like in 2021?
In our continued analysis of the President’s budget, we now move to a detailed examination of what the budget, if enacted entirely and without future...
Debt Hits Post-WWII Levels
In a recent article, the Washington Post reported that federal, local, and state debt levels -- including the intergovernmental debt the government...