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.
The Washington Post on Why We Must Address Long-Term Debt
Yesterday, the Washington Post Editorial Board published an editorial urging lawmakers to use the looming shutdown as an impetus to come up with a...
CBO Still Unsure Whether Recent Health Care Slowdown Means Lower Long-Term Growth
Update: The second graph has been corrected to show the correct year for each line. It is no secret that the growth of federal health care spending is...
Event Recap: CRFB Hosts 'Defining Moments in Debt'
On September 18, CRFB hosted "Defining Moments in Debt," a panel discussion at the Captial Visitor Center about the many impending "fiscal speed bumps...
MY VIEW: David Walker September 23, 2013
It's the first week of fall, and that means the end of the fiscal year is drawing to a close. Unfortunately, we still do not have a bill funding the...
Peters Introduces Constructive Budget Process Reforms
With the debt limit approaching and another showdown looming, the focus of some policymakers may naturally turn to how to avoid a similar potentially...
Understanding the Numbers Surrounding the Continuing Resolution Debate
Last week, we laid out our expectations for the government funding negotiations, outlining grades for lawmakers based on how responsibly they handled...
What Do High Debt Levels Do To Our Economy?
Politicians and economists have long talked about the negative effects of an accumulating national debt, but cannot always quantify their position...
The Tax Break-Down: Accelerated Depreciation
This is the eighth post in our blog series, The Tax Break-Down, which will analyze and review tax breaks under discussion as part of tax reform. Last...
Congressman Ribble Calls for Action on Social Security
Recently, Congressman Reid Ribble (R-WI) sent a letter to his colleagues in Congress calling for them to use the upcoming fiscal discussions to push...
Senator Mike Lee Introduces Tax Reform Plan
On Tuesday, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) presented his Family Fairness and Opportunity Tax Reform Act, which will be introduced in the coming days. Senator...
What Happened to the Alternative Fiscal Scenario?
Update: CBO has now released its official Alternative Fiscal Scenario estimates (tab 6 of the Excel). They find that debt reaches 165 percent of GDP...
The Can Kicks Back: The Younger Generation is Being Swindled
Given the impact of Medicare and Social Security on our fiscal path, seniors are given a lot of attention whenever Congress debates deficit reduction...