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Debt Ceiling Deal Squeezes Non-Defense Appropriations, Even With Agreed-Upon Adjustments
Understanding the House and Senate funding bills relative to the agreement will be important in the months ahead.
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Policy Basics
The budget process includes the President's budget proposal, Congress’s “budget resolution,” the “reconciliation” process to change tax or entitlement laws, and deficit-control measures such as spending caps, pay-as-you-go requirements, and sequestration.
We monitor the budget process and work to prevent harmful changes to it, such as requirements to balance the budget every year or arbitrary limits on total or low-income spending.
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Interstate Compact Would Change U.S. Constitution for the Worse
Michigan lawmakers are considering signing on to an interstate compact that would write a series of imprudent provisions into the U.S. Constitution related to the national debt, spending, and...
Federal Debt Limit’s Harmful, Report Shows
With the federal government on course to hit the legal debt limit this year, a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) study shows that the limit is harmful. That’s consistent with our view,...
House Bill Would Circumvent Budget Cap for Defense
As the House considers the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act this week, it’s taking the next step to circumvent the 2011 Budget Control Act’s (BCA) cap on defense appropriations, while...
House and Senate Budget Plans Share 10 Flaws
As members of the House and Senate tasked with resolving differences between the Senate and House budget plans prepare to meet today, they'll discuss plans that are largely aligned -- and similarly...
Don’t Be Fooled by Small “Reconciliation” Savings Targets in House Budget Committee Plan
The House Budget Committee-approved budget plan instructs various committees to prepare bills that would cut programs by specified amounts; Congress would then consider these bills under a fast-track...
The Risks of Dynamic Scoring
In a guest TaxVox blog post for the Tax Policy Center’s series on “dynamic scoring,” I discuss some of the risks of a new House rule requiring dynamic scoring for official cost...
“Generational Accounting” Is Misleading and Uninformative
The topic of “generational accounting” will likely surface when economist Lawrence Kotlikoff, who helped develop the approach over 20 years ago, testifies at tomorrow’s Senate Budget Committee...