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.
Assessing FY 2026 Appropriations
Without further appropriations, the federal government faces a partial government shutdown on January 30 as the continuing resolution (CR) funding...
White House Releases "Great Healthcare Plan"
Today, the Trump Administration released the Great Healthcare Plan, a legislative framework designed to lower health care costs and address the...
Washington Post Highlights 3% of GDP Deficit Resolution
The Washington Post’s Editorial Board recently published a piece applauding the introduction of a new resolution calling for a 3% of Gross Domestic...
Lawmakers Call for a Bipartisan Fiscal Commission
The Problem Solvers Caucus (PSC) announced its Fiscal Stability Framework last week, which sounds the alarm about the national debt, endorses two...
Lawmakers Introduce a Bipartisan Resolution in Support of a 3% Deficit-to-GDP Target
Representatives Bill Huizenga (R-MI) and Scott Peters (D-CA), co-chairs of the Bipartisan Fiscal Forum, joined by Representatives Lloyd Smucker (R-PA)...
WSJ: The Next Class of Senators Won't Be Able to Dodge the Social Security Crunch
In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Richard Rubin highlighted an important fact: the Social Security retirement trust fund is projected to become...
12-Month Rolling Deficit is $1.7 Trillion in Calendar Year 2025
The federal budget deficit totaled $1.7 trillion in Calendar Year (CY) 2025, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The...
$1.5 Trillion Military Budget Would Add $5.8 Trillion to Debt Over Decade
Note: An update to this blog to incorporate an additional year of the budget window as well as higher interest rates can be found here. In a post on...
Top 13 Fiscal Charts of 2025
It was an eventful year for fiscal policy in 2025. With large parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) set to expire, lawmakers used the...
Romney Stresses Need for Entitlement Reform, Revenue Increases in NYT
Former Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), a board member of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, published a guest essay in The New York Times...
New Paper Estimates Upper Limit on Debt
In a new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, economists Vadim Elenev, Tim Landvoigt, and Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh...
Reflections on the 2025 Ed Lorenzen Fiscal Internship
By: Maddie Brown Shirley I am honored by the opportunity to continue Ed Lorenzen's legacy as this year’s Ed Lorenzen intern. Ed was a pillar in the...