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.
Seven Reasons to Pay for Tax Extenders
By the end of the year, lawmakers will likely to try to revive the “ tax extenders,” a set of more than 50 tax breaks that expired at the end of 2014...
Five-Year Highway Bill Could Be a Costly Mistake
As the House and Senate are conferencing their highway bills, a debate has broken out over how to spend the $78 billion of offsets. Setting aside the...
2016 Presidential Candidates Need To Propose Debt Solutions
The Brookings Institution's Center on Children and Families held an event this week highlighting eight big issues the presidential candidates need to...
Does Significantly Less Than 10 Percent of Defense Spending Go to Fighting International Terrorism?
During the November 14th Democratic debate, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said “We're spending over $600 billion a year on the military and yet...
A Biennial Approach to Better Budgeting
Biennial budgeting was the subject of a recent Senate Budget Committee hearing, the second in a series on budget process. Testifying were Senator...
Senator Rand Paul Releases Flat Tax Plan
This blog is part of a series of " Policy Explainers" for the 2016 presidential election, where we explain some of the candidates' policy proposals...
Is the Real Unemployment Rate 10%?
In the Democratic debate on November 14, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stated that the real unemployment rate was around 10 percent. When Sanders says...
Does the U.S. Spend More Per Person on Health Care Without Better Outcomes?
In the November 14 Democratic debate, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said the United States spends more per person on health care than any other major...
Debate Roundup: Fiscal FactChecking the Fourth GOP Debate
This blog is part of the “ Fiscal FactCheck” series designated to examine the accuracy of budget-related statements made during the 2016 presidential...
The Federal Reserve Budget Gimmick In The House Transportation Bill
The transportation bill that the House passed last week contains a budget gimmick worth almost $60 billion (Wall Street Journal Paywall). The...
Would Cutting Spending by 1% Balance the Budget in Less Than Five Years?
During the November 10 Republican debate, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said when discussing balanced budgets, "I’m also in favor of a plan called the penny...
Has the Government Spent $2 Trillion on the Wars in the Middle East?
During the fourth Republican debate last night, Donald Trump suggested that we have spent $2 trillion on the wars in the Middle East. Between Fiscal...