‘Line’ Items: Back to School Edition

Back to School – For many kids, parents and teachers today is the first day of school. Congress is still out until after Labor Day, but policymakers have plenty of homework.

CBO Report Tops the Reading List – The Congressional Budget Office released its update on the budget and economic outlook last week. The revised figures project debt now reaching just over $16 trillion in 2020, which is $1 trillion above the forecast from earlier this year. See here and here and here for analysis and commentary from CRFB on the report.

Social Security is Popular Subject – News last week that the White House fiscal commission is considering changes to Social Security has generated the kind of buzz usually reserved for when the football team captain and head cheerleader break up. Some are trying to get lawmakers to promise to oppose any changes that include benefit cuts in any form. CRFB sent them to the principal’s office last week in a blog post and recently did a blog series on the subject in the Bottom Line.