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.
Appropriations Watch: FY 2026
Updated 1/26/26: On January 23, President Trump signed into law legislation that provides full-year Commerce, Justice, and Science, Energy and Water...
Bill Frist and G. William Hoagland: Reforming the reconciliation process
G. William Hoagland is Senior Vice President at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. He...
New Data Suggests MA Overpayments of $1.2 Trillion Over the Next Decade
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) estimated that the Medicare Advantage (MA) program will be overpaid by roughly $76 billion in 2026...
CRFB Releases Updated Debt Fixer
We recently updated our interactive Debt Fixer tool, where users can choose between several options to make changes to the federal budget and...
Supporting Price Transparency to Reduce Health Care Costs
In their newly proposed Great Healthcare Plan, the Trump Administration calls for “maximizing price transparency.” This builds on recent efforts from...
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...
ACA Subsidy Extension Tracker
With the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced subsidies set to expire soon, several policymakers have proposed plans to extend the enhancements. You can...
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...