Papers
View our recurring reports, which summarize and analyze the most important regular federal budget releases and reports.
Government Shutdowns Q&A: Everything You Should Know
Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 began with the longest government shutdown in modern history, lasting from October 1, 2025 through November 12, 2025. On...
Statement for the Record on Reverse the Curse: Skyrocketing Health Care Costs and America’s Fiscal Future
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget submitted a statement for the record pertaining to the House Budget Committee hearing on "Reverse the...
It’s (Still) Time for a Bipartisan Fiscal Commission
The U.S. fiscal outlook is currently unsustainable. A new fiscal commission can help policymakers work on a bipartisan basis to identify the necessary...
What Would a Fiscal Crisis Look Like?
The U.S. national debt is approaching record levels as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and currently stands at 100% of GDP, while interest...
Reference Pricing for the FEHB
Health care spending represents about 18% of the nation’s economy and the largest area of federal spending. High and rising health care costs are...
Fixing Medicare Physician Payments
Medicare pays physicians in traditional fee-for-service through the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), which sets specific payment amounts for more than 10...
A Social Security COLA Cap
Social Security is rapidly approaching insolvency. The retirement trust fund is seven years from exhaustion, and the theoretically combined trust...
An Employer Compensation Tax for Social Security and Medicare
The Social Security retirement and Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust funds are approaching insolvency, with both trust funds expected to be...
It's Time for Trust Fund Solutions
Some of the nation’s largest and most important programs are financed through government trust funds that collect dedicated revenues and then...
Appropriations 101
What are appropriations? How does Congress determine the total level of appropriations? How does Congress allocate appropriations? How are...
Government Shutdowns Q&A: Everything You Should Know
Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 will end on September 30, and Congress has so far enacted zero of the 12 full-year appropriations bills to fund the government...
SDPs Run Amuck - The Case of Medical Debt Forgiveness as a Pretext for High Payments
Medicaid provides health insurance to nearly 71 million people, and will cost the federal government over $650 billion this year – nearly double what...