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.
US Budget Watch Releases Paper Comparing Health Care Reform Plans
Today, US Budget Watch released a new paper, Comparing Health Care Plans: A Guide to Health Care Reform Proposals, highlighting the ten-year costs and...
Moody's Still Cautionary on U.S. Debt
Fears over any near-term U.S. inflationary pressures may have eased for the moment. Moody’s recently reassured investors that it didn’t see any...
One More FDIC Bank Closing
On Friday evening, the FDIC reported that it has taken over an additional bank ( Georgian Bank) for a cost to the FDIC of around $892 million. This...
Finance Committee to Continue Work on Health Bill Next Week
This has been a big week in the Senate Finance Committee regarding work on the health care reform bill. The Committee endued many all-day sessions...
People Pay Taxes
The simple truism that tax professors try to teach, and politicians try to ignore, is that people pay taxes. All taxes are passed onto people in one...
More Pandering to Seniors
Yesterday, the House voted 406-18 to prevent an 8 percent increase in Medicare premiums for 11 millions seniors, many of whom are well-off. At a time...
Elmendorf Explains Dismal Fiscal Picture to Economists
UPDATE: Read Elmendorf's take on his talk . Today, several of us at the CRFB staff attended a National Economists Club lunch with Congressional Budget...
GAO Report Says AIG Bailout Repayment Remains Unclear
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently issued a report (congrats to Andrew Samwick for pointing this out) on the status of government...
The G-20 Summit and Beyond
As the G-20 Summit gets underway in Pittsburgh, what should we hope to hear from the G-20 leaders? That they are prepared to continue supporting...
Fed's Monetary Policy Committee Sees Improvement; Policies Stay Unchanged
Following its two day meeting yesterday and today, the Fed’s monetary policy setting body (the Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC) released its...
Chairman's Mark of Finance Committee Bill, and Proposed Amendments
Today, the Senate Finance Committee is continuing to mark-up the Committee’s health care reform bill. In total, the Committee is considering 564...
Fiscal Roadmap: "Deficit Reduction: Lessons From Around the World"
The U.S. economy appears to be gradually recovering, and positive growth is expected now and for the rest of the year. Looking ahead, however, U.S...