Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Facing Our Fiscal Challenges

House Spending-Cap Bills Would Enact Radical Ryan Budget Into Law

"The House may soon consider two bills (H.R. 3576 and H.R. 3580) that would limit federal spending to levels similar to those in the House-passed budget resolution, authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). These bills are part of a package of ten bills that Chairman Ryan and other committee members recently introduced to alter the federal budget process.

"These two bills would require large cuts in federal spending that would likely fall disproportionately on low-income people. They would exacerbate economic downturns by preventing the federal government’s ‘automatic stabilizers’ — programs like unemployment insurance and food stamps — from expanding as they are designed to do to help support a weak economy." Read more

Proposed Budget Process Changes Would Mark Step Backward

Congress is considering this week a series of changes to the congressional budget process that proponents say will promote fiscal responsibility. CBPP has produced analyses of four of the bills that were passed out of committee last week, explaining why they would mark a step backward for the budget process:

More: Federal Budget Analyses

Georgia’s Health Care Failure

Tax Breaks to Expand Health Savings Accounts Did Not Expand Health Coverage

An approach to covering the uninsured that Newt Gingrich’s Center for Health Transformation (CHT) largely designed and heavily promoted to Georgia policymakers — and that Georgia adopted in 2008 — has failed to produce the promised results, new data show.Read more