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.
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Pell Grant Program Faces Serious and Immediate Shortfall
The Pell Grant program will end 2026 in the red and faces a cumulative 10-year shortfall exceeding $100 billion, according to the Congressional Budget...
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Debt Could Reach 131% of GDP Under an Alternative Scenario
Under the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) new February 2026 baseline, deficits will total $26 trillion – about 6.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP...
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Maya MacGuineas: Myths and Fearmongering are Driving Social Security to Insolvency
Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She recently wrote an opinion piece for The Dallas Morning News, the...
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What Happens If DHS Shuts Down
Funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will expire at midnight tonight. Absent a last-minute agreement to fund DHS today, it will...
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90% of Spending Growth Will Come From Health, Retirement, Veterans, & Interest
Over the coming decade, the vast majority of growth in federal government spending will come from just four parts of the federal budget: Social...
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CBO Releases February 2026 Budget and Economic Outlook
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released its February 2026 Budget and Economic Outlook, its first full ten-year baseline and economic...
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CMS Final Rule Closes Medicaid Loophole
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a Medicaid rule, last week, which closes an especially egregious loophole that allowed...
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JCT Projects Tax Expenditures Will Be $2.3T in 2026
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) recently published their latest estimates of individual and corporate tax expenditures. In total, JCT projects...
Student Loan Costs Drop to Near Record Lows After Reconciliation Reforms
Note: This analysis has been updated from the original version to better reflect the effect that the Biden SAVE plan had on subsidy rates over time...
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Maya MacGuineas: The Time to Start Voting About Social Security is Now
Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She recently wrote an opinion piece for the Dallas Morning News, the...
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12-Month Rolling Deficit is $1.6 Trillion in January 2026
The federal government has borrowed $1.6 trillion over the past 12 months based on the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)...
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Blue Dogs Endorse 3% Resolution
On February 5, the Blue Dog Coalition endorsed a recently introduced resolution that supports a 3% deficit-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target. The...