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.
Blue Dogs Bark: They Want Spending Caps
Attempting to place a leash on federal spending, members of the Blue Dog Coalition are introducing legislation this week to reinstate discretionary...
House Spenders Question Administration Troika on Deficits, Fiscal Commission, and Job Growth
In today’s hearing before the full House Appropriations Committee, the troika (OMB Director Peter Orszag, Treasury Secretary Geithner, and Dr...
Americans Believe Deficit is Largest Looming Problem
For the first time since Gallup has started asking the question, the federal deficit tops the list of problems Americans say the nation will face 25...
Health Bill Increases Discretionary Spending by At Least $65-$75 billion
When we have discussed health care reform, in the past, we have charted and graphed the effects of the bills on direct spending (general mandatory...
Ferguson Warns About U.S. 'Fiscal' Overstretch
In the March/April edition of Foreign Affairs, Niall Ferguson offers an interesting piece on the fall of empires – arguing that most collapses of...
Revisiting Revenue in Ryan's Roadmap
There has been a lot of talk about revenue levels under Paul Ryan's "Roadmap for America's Future" recently. Not only from us ( here, here, and here)...
‘Line’ Items: Health Care Moves, Budget Doesn’t
Health Care Reform Moves Toward Showdown – The House Budget Committee today voted to push health care legislation forward. It now moves to the House...
Moody's Emphasizes the Importance of Debt Affordability and Debt Reversibility
On Monday, Moody’s Investor Service released i ts quarterly report (courtesy of Zero Hedge) on government debt held by large countries with the...
Four More FDIC Bank Closings
On Friday evening, the FDIC reported that it has taken over an additional four banks ( Statewide Bank, Old Southern Bank, The Park Avenue Bank...
Republicans Named to Deficit Commission
Congressional GOP leaders have just named three Senators and three Congressman to sit on the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform...
CBO/JCT Reports Roundup
A number of very interesting and relevant government reports came out this week. Check them out: JCT: Technical Explanation Of The Revenue Provisions...
Balanced Budget Amendment Caucus Launches
Today a new bipartisan caucus was announced to support passage of H.J. Res.1, a balanced budget constitutional amendment. The co-chairs are...