FISCAL BLOG

According to the official poverty measure of the U.S. Census Bureau, 37.9 million people lived in poverty in 2021.

The words debt and deficit come up frequently in debates about the policy decisions that lawmakers face. The two concepts are similar, but are often confused.

Healthcare spending is a critically important part of the American economy and the federal budget.

Borrowing costs have increased rapidly over the past year and will grow through the next decade.

CUTGO is short for “cut-as-you-go,” and it is an internal rule used by the House of Representatives, meaning that it does not apply to consideration of legislation in the Senate.

Interest costs on the national debt are expected to rapidly outstrip spending on children in coming years.

There have been a number of proposals to increase, eliminate, or otherwise adjust the payroll tax cap as a way to shore up Social Security’s finances.

Cracking down on the tax gap would not only introduce more fairness into the system, but it could be a big help for our nation’s fiscal imbalance — to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars every year.

There’s no doubt America’s fiscal problems are serious and significant, but CBO’s assortment of options offers lawmakers a deep playbook of spending and revenue changes that would put us on a better path.