May 24, 2019 | Other Spending
Lawmakers Should Offset Latest Disaster Relief Package
Yesterday, the Senate voted to appropriate an additional $19 billion in disaster relief to aid the damage caused by wildfires, hurricanes,...
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.
May 23, 2019 | Other Spending
Representative Blumenauer Introduces Bill to Shore Up the Highway Trust Fund
Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) has introduced the Rebuild America Act, which would raise the excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel...
May 20, 2019 | Budgets & Projections
Maya MacGuineas: Federal Disaster Funding Doesn't Have To Be An Emergency
Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and head of the Campaign to Fix the Debt. She recently wrote an...
May 17, 2019 | Budget Process
Hearing Recap: Fixing a Broken Budget and Spending Process – Perspectives of Two Former Chairmen
The Senate Budget Committee began a series of hearings on reforming the budget process on May 15. The first hearing, “Fixing a Broken Budget and...
May 15, 2019 | Other Spending
Gimmick Alert: Congress Considering Increasing Spending Through Harbor Maintenance Maneuver
Having already used the war spending designation and fake mandatory savings to get around discretionary spending caps, lawmakers are turning to...
May 15, 2019 | Other Spending
Options to Offset An Infrastructure Package
A meeting between Democratic Congressional leaders and President Trump a few weeks ago raised the possibility of an infrastructure package. The...
May 13, 2019 | Budget Process
WATCH: Conrad and Gregg Testify Before Senate Budget Committee
Two former Senate Budget chairmen are testifying today before the Senate Budget Committee on the failures of the current budget process and the...
May 13, 2019 | Budgets & Projections
Tim Penny & David Minge: Our Trillion-Dollar Problem Deserves Bipartisan Attention
Tim Penny is co-chair and David Minge is a board member at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Both are former Representatives from the...
May 10, 2019 | Budget Process
Upcoming Congressional Fiscal Policy Deadlines
Updated 5/10/2019: The next two years will include several predictable fiscal policy deadlines that will force congressional action. Many of...
May 10, 2019 | Social Security
Event Recap: Unpacking the 2019 Social Security Trustees' Report
On April 26, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget hosted a lunch and panel discussion on "Unpacking the Social Security Trustees' Report."...
May 10, 2019 | Budgets & Projections
IMF: U.S. Continues to Stand Out with Growing Debt
The United States ranks number one among advanced economies in expected increase of debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic...
May 9, 2019 | Budgets & Projections
CBO Releases Its Own Estimate of the President's FY 2020 Budget
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its estimate of the President's FY 2020 budget. CBO finds that debt in the budget would be on an...
May 8, 2019 | Taxes
Reviving Expired Tax Extenders Could Cost $150 Billion
For years, Washington has resigned itself to a patchwork of tax policy in place for one or two years at a time, allowing niche temporary...
May 8, 2019 | Budgets & Projections
The Republican Study Committee's FY 2020 Budget: Preserving American Freedom
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) has released its own budget proposal for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, calling for $10.7 trillion in deficit reduction...
May 3, 2019 | Budgets & Projections
President's Budget Gets Serious About Cutting Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Update: the tables in this post have been updated with estimates from CBO's analysis of the President's FY 2020 budget. CBO does not provide specific...
May 2, 2019 | Budgets & Projections
CBO's Updated Baseline Shows Grim Outlook
Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its updated budget projections. The projections are relatively similar to January and...
Apr 30, 2019 | Social Security
Social Security Shortfall Could Be Worse Than Reported
The 2019 Social Security Trustees Report estimates the program's trust funds face a 75-year actuarial shortfall of 2.78 percent of taxable payroll....
Watch: Unpacking the Social Security Trustees' Report
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget hosted a lunch and panel discussion today on Unpacking the Social Security Trustees' Report.
You can...
Apr 25, 2019 | Social Security
Social Security Will Start Spending Trust Fund Reserves Next Year
The 2019 Social Security Trustees' report reminded us that Social Security faces large and rising imbalances, projecting that the theoretically...
Apr 25, 2019 | Social Security
The Good News on Social Security: We Have More Time to Improve Disability Insurance
This week's Social Security Trustees' report warned that the program is on a path toward insolvency, with the theoretically combined trust fund set...
