The Bottom Line Takes a Look Back at 2011

What a year it's been! 2011 certainly had plenty of budget and fiscal policy developments that kept all of us at CRFB pretty busy. We wish that meant we could say that this was the year of a fiscal plan. Funny enough, we said the exact same thing last year, when we took a look back at 2010 and hoped for a fiscal plan in 2011. But now we really mean it this time when we say we're confident that 2012 will be the year of the fiscal plan!

Another tradition we continued from last year is creating a Wordle word cloud to show what we talked about the most on The Bottom Line in 2011. Not surprisingly, the words we mentioned the most are budget, debt, deficit, fiscal, spending, tax, plan, etc.

Although we haven't enacted a fiscal plan yet, the march toward fiscal responsibility has been progressing. We've seen 150 lawmakers from both the House and Senate and from both sides of the aisle join together to call for a big package of reforms to control rising debt, unprecedented support from experts and business groups, the enactment of discretionary caps to help control one portion of the budget, and a $1.2 trillion sequester set to go off in 2013 to help bring lawmakers back to the negotiating table. It's clear that there has been much progress, and momentum continues to build.

CRFB wishes all of our readers a very safe and happy holiday season! It is concerned citizens, lawmakers, experts, and leaders like you who are contibuting to this critical national debate on our fiscal challenges, and we really enjoy being part of the conversation. CRFB will return to blogging in the new year, and we look forward to a very exciting 2012.

Happy Holidays!