Papers
View our recurring reports, which summarize and analyze the most important regular federal budget releases and reports.
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American Health Care: Health Spending and the Federal Budget
The United States spends more on health care than any other country in the world, and a large share of that spending comes from the federal government...
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Chartbook: Playing By the (Budget) Rules
Below is a Chartbook that corresponds to the paper " Playing By the (Budget) Rules: Understanding and Preventing Budget Gimmicks"
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Chartbook: America's Budget Outlook
Below is a chartbook on America's deteriorating budget outlook. Update (5/15/18): We clarified the footnote on slide 9 to more clearly reference CBO's...
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Letter to Members of Congress on Statutory Budget Deadline
The statutory deadline for a budget is April 15 and no budget is in sight. Instead, members of the House of Representatives are voting on a balanced...
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Analysis of CBO’s April 2018 Budget and Economic Outlook
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its ten-year budget and economic outlook today, showing that recent legislation has made an already...
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Chartbook: America's Deteriorating Budget Outlook
An updated version of this chartbook is available here Below is a chartbook on America's deteriorating budget outlook.
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Pro-Growth Infrastructure Needs Concrete Pay-Fors
Policymakers in Washington have turned their attention to infrastructure, with members of both parties putting forward their own competing proposals...
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Maya MacGuineas's Testimony on Tax Extenders
On March 14, 2018, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget president Maya MacGuineas testified before the House Ways and Means Tax Policy...
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Maya MacGuineas's Testimony on CBO Oversight: Perspectives from Outside Experts
On March 14, 2018, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget president Maya MacGuineas testified before the House Budget Committee on "CBO Oversight...
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Updating the U.S. Budget Outlook
Note (4/30/2018): This paper was published before CBO's April 2018 baseline, which provides official estimates of the fiscal situation. For the...
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Playing By the (Budget) Rules: Understanding and Preventing Budget Gimmicks
The breakdown in the federal budget process and erosion of budget discipline have led to the increasingly pervasive reliance on budget gimmicks. While...
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Five Ways the Budget Process Has Failed
Today is the deadline for Congressional leaders to announce the Members of Congress serving on the Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations...