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.

Eliminating Defense Spending to Pay for Medicare for All

Oct 18, 2019 | Health Care

Fact Checking Medicare for All Claims from the Fourth Democratic Primary Debate

During the fourth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential election cycle, former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Indiana Mayor...

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Oct 16, 2019 | Other Spending

President Trump Bolsters Administrative PAYGO Through Executive Order

Last week, President Trump signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to identify and propose offsets whenever they propose an action that...

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Oct 8, 2019 | Budget Process

Enzi's Proposals Would Improve the Budget Process

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) has developed a series of draft budget process reforms. As we’ve explained before, the current...

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Oct 4, 2019 | Social Security

2019 Technical Panel Shows Social Security Could Be in Worse Shape Than We Thought

The Social Security Advisory Board's (SSAB) 2019 Technical Panel released its final report last week, projecting that under its suggested changes to...

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Oct 3, 2019 | Budget Process

Representatives Rice, Barr Introduce Fiscal State of the Nation Resolution

Last week, Representatives Kathleen Rice (D-NY) and Andy Barr (R-KY) introduced a bipartisan bill to make it harder for Congress to ignore the...

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Oct 2, 2019 | Social Security

What Would Social Security 2100 Mean for the Debt?

Saving Social Security from its looming trust fund insolvency would significantly improve the overall fiscal picture. Under the Congressional Budget...

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Oct 1, 2019 | Taxes

Kamala Harris's LIFT the Middle Class Act

This is the second policy explainer in our US Budget Watch 2020 series covering the 2020 presidential election. In the coming weeks and months, we...

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Sep 30, 2019 | Budgets & Projections| Other Spending

Will Thanksgiving Appropriations Be Stuffed with Debt?

Having just enacted a continuing resolution last week to extend current government funding through November 21, policymakers must now work toward the...

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Sep 25, 2019 | Budgets & Projections

Eugene Steuerle: Multi-Trillion Dollar Fiscal and Monetary Gambles

Dr. Eugene (Gene) Steuerle is an Institute fellow and the Richard B. Fisher chair at the Urban Institute and a member of the Committee for a...

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Sep 23, 2019 | Budgets & Projections

Marjorie Margolies: When will the 2020 presidential candidates be asked about America’s debt?

Marjorie Margolies is president of Women’s Campaign International and a member of the board of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. ...

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Front page of CRFB Debt Fixer federal budget tool 0919

Sep 18, 2019 | Budgets & Projections

We Updated the Debt Fixer and Released Results Showing Americans Can Fix the Debt

We have updated our popular Debt Fixer interactive budget tool, just as Congress faces another deadline to keep the government funded and avoid a...

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Sep 17, 2019 | Other Spending

Elizabeth Warren's Higher Education Plan

This is the first policy explainer in our US Budget Watch 2020 series covering the 2020 presidential election. In the coming weeks and months,...

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Sep 16, 2019 | Budgets & Projections

Eugene Steuerle: Congress is supposed to decide how the U.S. spends money. Soon, it won’t be able to.

Dr. Eugene (Gene) Steuerle is an Institute fellow and the Richard B. Fisher chair at the Urban Institute and a member of the Committee for a...

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Sep 11, 2019 | Taxes

Is Spending, Not Tax Cuts, Driving the Deficit?

The House Ways and Means Committee minority recently published a blog post claiming that "spending, not tax cuts, [is] driving national deficits." It...

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Sep 11, 2019 | Budgets & Projections

Tim Penny & David Minge: Debating 2020 Democrats should not ignore our exploding debt

Tim Penny is co-chair and David Minge is a board member of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Both are former representatives from the...

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Sep 9, 2019 | Budgets & Projections

Debt Could Reach Record Levels by 2030

The Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) latest budget projections point to high and rising debt under current law, but the situation is far worse if...

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Sep 6, 2019

CRFB Co-Chair Mitch Daniels on Bloomberg TV

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget co-chair Mitch Daniels, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, appeared on Bloomberg TV's...

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Sep 4, 2019 | Budgets & Projections