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.

Obama Partial Discretionary Spending Freeze : A Small First Step

President Obama will propose freezing "non-security" discretionary spending for the next three years (FY2011-13) when he unveils his new...
Jan 26, 2010 | Budgets & Projections

Budget Commission Falls Short

A proposal to form a bipartisan commission to address the nation’s mounting long-term debt just fell short of the 60 votes needed for approval...

Disgraceful

Senate vote on Baucus amendment (97-0 vote to exempt changes to Social Security from a statutory budget commission from fast-track vote in...

Deficit Falls Slightly, Debt Will Continue to Soar, CBO Warns

 The federal deficit in FY10 is expected to be $1.35 billion--a slight drop from the $1.41 trillion in FY09--but still the second largest in our...
Jan 25, 2010 | Budget Process

Budget Concepts Do Matter

Budgeteers have long argued that baselines matter.  You have to know where you are going before you decide where you should be. We use baselines...

Senate Faces Key Fiscal Votes This Week

The Senate will vote this week on key fiscal measures as it attempts to increase the nation’s debt ceiling. The debt limit is expected to be...
Jan 25, 2010

Five More FDIC Bank Closings

On Friday evening, the FDIC reported that it has taken over an additional five banks (Columbia River Bank, Evergreen Bank, Charter Bank, Bank of...
Jan 23, 2010 | Taxes

TPC Takes the Tax Challenge with Income Tax Rates

We recently invited folks to take the spending challenge and show how they would close the budget gap without raising taxes (or alternatively, take...
Jan 23, 2010 | Budgets & Projections

President Obama Voices Support for Deficit Commission

Here is the statement:The serious fiscal situation that our country faces reflects not only the severe economic downturn we inherited, but also years...
Jan 22, 2010 | Economics

Stiglitz, Stimulus, the Financial Sector and the Genie

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz stopped by New America this week to discuss his new book "Freefall", about our economic and financial crisis...

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