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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USA Today on TRICARE
Today's edition of USA Today features an editorial advocating increasing premiums for military retirees enrolled in TRICARE. The editorial correctly...
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Boehner and 150 Economists Make Statements Against Clean Debt Ceiling Increase
This morning, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) released a statement signed by more than 150 economists furthering the call for spending cuts...
Between the ‘Line’s: Feeling the Heat, Coming Clean, and Disaster Dilemma
Feeling the Heat – As most of us return to work this week nursing sunburns and swapping stories of grilling glory, the heat is on in Washington, at...
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Ending Tax Breaks Will, In Fact, Help the Budget
The Washington Post has a story today saying that ending retirement savings tax expenditures would save little money. The argument is a familiar one...
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Taking a Closer Look at the Charitable Deduction
Though recent discussion about "spending in the tax code" has brought fresh attention to tax expenditures, much of the discussion has been about how...
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Trading of Credit Default Swaps on U.S. Debt Doubles
Trading of credit default swaps (CDS) insuring U.S. treasuries has doubled in the last year in response to fears over our inability to deal with our...
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WaPo Endorses Chained CPI, Cites Moment of Truth Project Paper
Today's editorial in the Washington Post, "The Chained CPI, an easy way to save money," endorses switching to the chained CPI for indexation of all...
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Senate Rejects Four Budgets
Yesterday, the Senate voted on four budget resolutions ( Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) , Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)/ House Passed Budget...
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Comparing Six Fiscal Plans
Yesterday at the Peterson Foundation's 2011 Fiscal Summit, six think tanks --Heritage, AEI, EPI, Center for American Progress, Bipartisan Policy...
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It Depends on What You Mean by 'Almost as Large'
It seems like we are having Social Security deja vu. Just a couple weeks ago, we basically repeated our response from last September to those who...
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Biden Group Talks Update: Searching for More Cuts and Talking Triggers
The Biden group of debt negotiations resumed on Tuesday with the fourth meeting of the bipartisan group of lawmakers chaired by Vice President Biden...
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Fiscal Summit Today
Fiscal policy experts and policymakers gather today for the second annual Fiscal Summit in Washington, DC, convened by the Peter G. Peterson...