Papers
View our recurring reports, which summarize and analyze the most important regular federal budget releases and reports.
Fixing Medicare Physician Payments
Medicare pays physicians in traditional fee-for-service through the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS), which sets specific payment amounts for more than 10...
A Social Security COLA Cap
Social Security is rapidly approaching insolvency. The retirement trust fund is seven years from exhaustion, and the theoretically combined trust...
An Employer Compensation Tax for Social Security and Medicare
The Social Security retirement and Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) trust funds are approaching insolvency, with both trust funds expected to be...
It's Time for Trust Fund Solutions
Some of the nation’s largest and most important programs are financed through government trust funds that collect dedicated revenues and then...
Appropriations 101
What are appropriations? How does Congress determine the total level of appropriations? How does Congress allocate appropriations? How are...
Government Shutdowns Q&A: Everything You Should Know
Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 will end on September 30, and Congress has so far enacted zero of the 12 full-year appropriations bills to fund the government...
SDPs Run Amuck - The Case of Medical Debt Forgiveness as a Pretext for High Payments
Medicaid provides health insurance to nearly 71 million people, and will cost the federal government over $650 billion this year – nearly double what...
Q&A: Gross Debt Versus Debt Held by the Public
On August 11, 2025 the gross national debt exceeded $37.0 trillion for the first time. This mark serves as an important reminder of the nation's...
Comments on Proposed Rule to Close a Medicaid Financing Loophole
On July 11, 2025 the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's Senior Vice President and Senior Policy Director Marc Goldwein and Director of...
Analysis of the 2025 Social Security Trustees' Report
The Social Security and Medicare Trustees released their annual reports today on the financial status of the programs. The Trustees find that both...
Analysis of the 2025 Medicare Trustees' Report
The Medicare and Social Security Trustees released their annual reports on the financial status of the trust funds. Our report on the Social Security...
Explaining Federal Spending and Revenue
In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, federal outlays totaled $6.8 trillion (23.4 percent of GDP) while federal revenues totaled $4.9 trillion (17.1 percent of...