Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
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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.

‘Line’ Items: Washington Activities Affecting the Bottom Line

No Limit to Ploys in House Rules – The House raised the debt limit to $14.3 trillion on Thursday using a procedure that allowed members to...
Feb 6, 2010 | Economics

Economists Explain the Announcement Effect

In a recent economic study, André Meier, Giancarlo Corsetti, and Gernot Müller found that announcing significant fiscal retrenchment (ie deficit...
Feb 5, 2010

Throwing Stones

A number of years ago, two of our Board Members, former Congressmen Charlie Stenholm (D-TX) and Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), developed a Social Security reform...

Can Anyone Clip Byrd Scholarships' Wings?

Once again, a president is trying to get rid of a “small” scholarship program tucked away in the Department of Education. And once again...
Feb 5, 2010 | Budgets & Projections

Monthly Budget Review Reports $434 billion deficit in FY 2010 Thus Far

The Congressional Budget Office came out with their Monthly Budget Review yesterday. It states that the federal government incurred a deficit of $434...
Feb 4, 2010

Expired Fed Lending Facilities

Earlier this week, four Fed lending facilities came to a close (see Fed release here), as previously announced, in light of improved conditions in...
Feb 4, 2010 | Economics

Tim Geithner Joins the 'Announcement Effect Club'!

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geither has just joined CRFB's 'Announcement Effect Club', a group of prominent economists and leaders who have called for...

Still Budgeting Through Footnotes in FY 2011

A few months ago, we pointed out that the Administration was cheating in its Mid-Session Review budget baseline. Essentially it was taking policies...

House Rules Stack the Deck for Debt Ceiling Increase

The stakes are high and the House is raising the limit and calling the shots. No, we’re not talking Vegas – the casinos wish they were...

Freeze Leaves Some Cold, Some Toasty

Today, CRFB released our Analysis of the President's FY 2011 Budget. We will be following-up here at The Bottom Line with shorter analyses discussing...

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