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.
Line Items: March to Madness Edition
Mad, Mad World – There’s enough madness in DC to go around. Lawmakers from opposite parties seem perpetually angry at each other, yet they are moving...
CBO and OMB In Tune on President's Budget
Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its analysis of President Obama's FY 2013 budget proposals. In a somewhat surprising analysis...
An Odd Couple: Millionaire Surtax Paired with Balanced Budget Amendment Requirement
In what was surprising news to many when, yesterday, freshman Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) announced that he would introduce legislation that would apply...
Senate Passes Transportation Bill
Yesterday, the Senate passed a two-year $109 billion transportation bill by a 74-22 vote. Since 2009, when the last five-year transportation bill...
New York Times Looks at Tax Expenditures
An interesting article by Eduardo Porter in today’s New York Times, A Nation With Too Many Tax Breaks, takes a look at the role of tax expenditures in...
Health Spending Changes in CBO's March Baseline
In its March baseline, CBO made a number of changes in its projections for health care spending. Given the significance of health spending to the...
CRFB Compares the Major Deficit Reduction Plans
Comparing fiscal plans can often be a difficult task. The plans may use different baselines, use different ten-year windows, have different estimates...
CBO's Got a Brand New Baseline
Although CBO's analysis of the President's budget is the newsmaker in March in the budget world, CBO also updates its current law baseline, which...
Line Items: Spring Forward Edition
Spring in Their Step? – As part of the annual spring ritual, we moved the clocks forward an hour. While time marches on, Washington seems stuck in...
Jumping Through Hoops to Avoid the Sequester
Yesterday, in POLITICO David Rogers had an article about an effort in the House to temporarily delay the sequester scheduled to hit at year's end. As...
Tax Ideas from Citizens for Tax Justice
The Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) just released a new report detailing their own estimates of a number of options for raising revenue through...
David Walker: Presidential Candidates’ Budget Plans Not Feasible
In an op-ed in Roll Call, David Walker lamented the lack of a "feasible" debt plan among the Presidential candidates, including President Obama. While...