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.
Want to See a Budget Gimmick in Action?
UPDATE: The Senate has passed a bill to extend jobless benefits, a bill which also includes the extension in the homebuyer tax credit and carry-back...
Health Bills Don't Go Far Enough to Cut Costs
In today's Washington Post, Ceci Connelly has an article titled, "Health Bills are too Timid on Cutting Costs, Experts Say." In it she discusses how...
Understanding Federal Commitments to Housing and Health Care
Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office put out An Overview of Federal Support for Housing. In the report, CBO outlined the nearly $300 billion in...
Orszag Promises Deficit Reduction Next Year
In a speech given today at New York University, OMB Director Peter Orszag said the Administration intends to cut the deficit in half by the end of...
Event: Will Health Care Reform Heal the Federal Budget?
This Friday, November 6th U.S. Budget Watch will be hosting an event, "Will Health Care Reform Heal the Federal Budget?" This event aims to explore...
Large Share of U.S. Debt Will Have to Be Refinanced
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), roughly $5.1 trillion in publicly traded U.S. Treasury bonds – or around 78 percent of our...
Nine More FDIC Bank Closings
On Friday evening, the FDIC reported that it has taken over an additional nine banks ( FDIC Closes Nine Banks) for a cost to the FDIC of around $2.5...
Weekend Editorial Roundup
Here are the highlights from this weekend’s editorials on fiscal and budget policy: The New York Times criticized the House Financial Services...
A Scary Thought
The federal debt held by the public, today, is almost $7.5 trillion dollars. That is around 53 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) -- higher than...
CBO Report Roundup
A number of very interesting and relevant reports have come out of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) the...
Comparison: Cost of the House Health Care Bill
Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi intoduced the latest House health care reform bill, fresh with estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and...
Homebuyers Credit Will Likely be Extended
The Senate has reached a consensus on the issue of extending the homebuyer’s tax credit, first implemented in the stimulus bill. The tax credit was...