Papers
View our recurring reports, which summarize and analyze the most important regular federal budget releases and reports.
Letter to Members of Congress on Statutory Budget Deadline
The statutory deadline for a budget is April 15 and no budget is in sight. Instead, members of the House of Representatives are voting on a balanced...
Analysis of CBO’s April 2018 Budget and Economic Outlook
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its ten-year budget and economic outlook today, showing that recent legislation has made an already...
Chartbook: America's Deteriorating Budget Outlook
An updated version of this chartbook is available here Below is a chartbook on America's deteriorating budget outlook.
Pro-Growth Infrastructure Needs Concrete Pay-Fors
Policymakers in Washington have turned their attention to infrastructure, with members of both parties putting forward their own competing proposals...
Maya MacGuineas's Testimony on Tax Extenders
On March 14, 2018, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget president Maya MacGuineas testified before the House Ways and Means Tax Policy...
Maya MacGuineas's Testimony on CBO Oversight: Perspectives from Outside Experts
On March 14, 2018, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget president Maya MacGuineas testified before the House Budget Committee on "CBO Oversight...
Updating the U.S. Budget Outlook
Note (4/30/2018): This paper was published before CBO's April 2018 baseline, which provides official estimates of the fiscal situation. For the...
Playing By the (Budget) Rules: Understanding and Preventing Budget Gimmicks
The breakdown in the federal budget process and erosion of budget discipline have led to the increasingly pervasive reliance on budget gimmicks. While...
Five Ways the Budget Process Has Failed
Today is the deadline for Congressional leaders to announce the Members of Congress serving on the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations...
Analysis of the President's FY 2019 Budget
The Trump Administration released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 budget proposal today. The budget proposes a number of tax and spending changes that it...
What We’d Like to See in President Trump’s FY 2019 Budget
The Trump Administration is slated to release its budget outlining the President’s priorities for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 and the next decade on Monday...
Q&A: Everything You Should Know About Government Shutdowns
This paper has been updated here. As we’ve learned to expect, Congress seems to be waiting until the last minute to address several important fiscal...