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.
Ways and Means Continues Increasing Deficit With Tax Cuts
The Ways and Means Committee is continuing to work through the set of over 50 tax breaks that expired at the end of 2013, choosing certain provisions...
President Obama Announces Path of Troop Drawdown in Afghanistan
President Obama announced yesterday the number of troops that would be remaining in Afghanistan beyond the end of the year. While these levels are not...
The Budgetary Effect of Credit Programs
Credit programs involving loans and loan guarantees are accounted for differently than most other programs in the federal budget. Whereas other...
Senate Appropriations Committee Approves FY2015 Spending Levels
Today the Senate Appropriations Committee approved 302(b) spending allocations for FY2015 appropriations at the beginning of a markup for the Military...
Maya MacGuineas: What’s Missing in the Earmark Debate
Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, wrote a commentary that appeared in the Wall Street Journal Washington...
Mulvaney Amendment Would Limit OCO Gimmick
Strict limits on discretionary spending have made it difficult for policymakers to fund everything they want. Yet instead of making hard choices and...
House Defense Bill Draws Potential Veto
The White House issued a statement Monday saying that the President's senior advisers would recommend vetoing H.R. 4435, the annual defense...
Alan Simpson: Forget Bipartisanship – We Need Generationship
Alan Simpson, one of the chairs of the Simpson-Bowles Fiscal Commission and a member of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, co-wrote an op...
The Federal Financial Statement Transparency Act of 2014
Congressman Jim Renacci (R-OH) introduced the The Federal Financial Statement Transparency Act of 2014 today. This legislation would make major...
Want to Understand The Appropriations Process? This 101 Will Tell You Everything You Need to Know
Appropriations season is in full swing. The House has already passed the Legislative Branch and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bills, while...
Appropriators Must Stay Within Spending Caps Without Gimmicks
As the Senate Appropriations Committee makes its 302(b) allocations, divvying up funding among the 12 appropriations bills, it will have to deal with...
Options for Reforming the Mortgage Interest Deduction
The mortgage interest deduction has long been targeted as a tax expenditure by advocates of tax reform. In a new paper, the Tax Policy Center's Amanda...