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.
Rising Interest Rates are Exploding the Debt
The 30-year Treasury note just reached its highest yield in almost 19 years, 5.2%, and other interest rates are approaching similar highs. This week...
Bill Would Raise Revenue by Improving Tax Compliance
Senator Angus King (I-ME), joined by many of his colleagues, introduced the Stop CHEATERS Act (S. 4298) last month. The bill would provide $84 billion...
Federal Improper Payments Total $186 Billion in FY 2025
The federal government made at least $186 billion of improper payments in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, according to new Government Accountability Office...
Maya MacGuineas and Adam A. Millsap: What the federal budget says about America
Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Adam A. Millsap, Ph.D., is a senior economist and program officer at...
Proposed EV Fee Could Raise $30 Billion
A new bipartisan highway reauthorization bill proposes, among many other changes, new annual registration fees on electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in...
Rising Interest Rates Could Push Debt Higher
The 10-year Treasury yield is currently 4.5% – the highest rate in over a year – while 30-year Treasuries now carry a 5.0% interest rate. In fact...
Mitch Daniels: Debt disaster denialists think America has a new magic bullet
Mitch Daniels is a former Governor of Indiana and former President of Purdue University. He is also a Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the...
Ways & Means Zeroes in on Hospital Costs
Last week, the Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing on the high cost of hospital care with leaders of various health systems. Over the course of...
12-Month Rolling Deficit is $1.7 Trillion in April 2026
The federal government borrowed $1.7 trillion over the past year – May 2025 to April 2026 – based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office...
Maya MacGuineas: Social Security is Broken. Benefits Cuts for the Rich Are the Fix.
Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She recently wrote an opinion piece for Barron's, an excerpt of which...
Maya MacGuineas and Rob Portman: It's time for urgency and hard choices as US debt soars
Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Rob Portman is a former Senator from Ohio. They recently wrote an...
CBO Scores FY 2026 Reconciliation at $72 Billion
The Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) Committees released draft reconciliation legislation for Fiscal Year (FY)...