Papers
View our recurring reports, which summarize and analyze the most important regular federal budget releases and reports.
Q&A: Everything You Should Know About the Debt Ceiling - Mar 2017
Note: We have updated this Q&A. A new version is available here. Attention is turning towards raising the federal debt ceiling, which will be...
The Better Budget Process Initiative: Setting the Benchmark: Reforms to Budget Baseline Rules
Budget baselines are among the most important – but widely misunderstood – elements of budgeting and policymaking. The budgetary impact of a given...
What We’d Like to See in President Trump’s FY 2018 “Skinny Budget”
The Trump Administration is expected to soon release its first budget outlining the President’s priorities for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 and the...
Five Reasons to Pay for Tax Reform
An executive summary of this paper is available here. An updated version of this paper is available at Tax Reform Should Not Add to the Debt – Here's...
President Trump's Historic Debt Dilemma
As President Donald Trump begins his term, he faces perhaps the most daunting fiscal situation of any incoming president. President Trump enters...
Principles for the Fiscal Year 2018 Budget Resolution
The Congressional budget resolution is a guiding document that should establish the nation’s budget priorities, the approach to financing them, and a...
Chartbook: Affordable Care Act "Repeal & Replace" Effects & Implications
Below is a chartbook on the effects and implications of "repeal and replace" of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Below are the charts with links to...
CBO’s January 2017 Budget and Economic Outlook
As President Trump enters his first full week in office, new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections show that he faces an unsustainable fiscal...
Principles for Responsible "Obamacare" Repeal and Replace
Policymakers are expected to soon consider legislation to repeal and possibly replace large parts of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “Obamacare”)...
A Long-Term Budget for Entitlements and Required Revenues
by Stuart Butler and Maya MacGuineas This paper represents a joint project of the Brookings Institution and Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget...
The Cost of Full Repeal of the Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as “Obamacare,” includes a number of provisions to expand health care coverage, as well as several offsets...
The Cost of Rising Interest Rates
This paper has been updated and is avaible here Over the next decade, interest payments on the debt are projected to be the fastest growing part of...