Papers
View our recurring reports, which summarize and analyze the most important regular federal budget releases and reports.
Government Shutdowns Q&A: Everything You Should Know
This paper has been updated here. The new fiscal year (FY) begins on October 1, 2023, and Congress has so far enacted none of the 12 appropriations...
Chartbook: Fiscal Challenges Facing the Next Administration
On August 23, Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, gave a presentation...
Principles for a Fiscally Responsible Campaign
US Budget Watch 2024 is a project of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget designed to educate the public on the fiscal impact of...
Chartbook: The Fiscal Cost of Income-Driven Repayment (IDR)
The Biden Administration recently finalized a rule to significantly expand student loan Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plan. Although the Supreme Court...
Chartbook: The Fiscal Outlook After the Debt Limit Deal
The recently-enacted Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) is the largest deficit reduction package in nearly a dozen years and an important step forward...
Analysis of CBO's June 2023 Long-Term Budget Outlook
Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its June 2023 Long-Term Budget Outlook, projecting that the national debt is on an unsustainable...
Time to Fix Medicaid Financing Schemes
This paper is part of a series on Medicaid financing. Other papers in the series discuss provider taxes and supplemental payments . Medicaid is...
Major Challenges Await the Next Administration
US Budget Watch 2024 is a project of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget designed to educate the public on the fiscal impact of...
Appropriations 101
This paper has been updated here. What are appropriations? How does Congress determine the total level of appropriations? How does Congress allocate...
Q&A: Everything You Should Know About the Debt Ceiling
The federal debt ceiling was raised in December of 2021 by $2.5 trillion to $31.381 trillion, which lasted until January 19, 2023, according to a...
6 Ways to Reduce Health Care Costs
By JOSH GORDON AND DARBIN WOFFORD This journal article originally appeared in the Milken Institute Review . Here’s some old news that, depressingly...
Analysis of the 2023 Medicare Trustees' Report
The Trustees for the Social Security and Medicare programs have released their annual reports for 2023, updating the financial state of the programs’...