Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: Latest Publications

What Obama Needs to Learn from the Failure of Bush's Social Security Plan and Clinton's Healthcare Reform

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:05:00 -0400

Health Reform's Savings Myth

Cecille Isidro — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:53:00 -0400

"Health-care reform is entitlement reform" has become a mantra of the Obama administration. The idea is that Congress can add a massive health-care program this year -- covering the uninsured -- and use the same measures that pay for the health reform to fix the broader budget problems. If that sounds too good to be true, there's a reason.

$4 Trillion in Exaggerated Savings

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 20 May 2009 08:41:00 -0400

On two separate issues -- health-care and the budget -- the president has promised savings of $2 trillion. A total of $4 trillion dollars -- now that's real money. Unfortunately, the claims are completely exaggerated.

Fiscal Disorder

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:08:00 -0400

This past February, four months after the beginning of the fiscal year, Congress passed the last bill needed to fund the government.

But what it finally passed was more than just late -- it was sloppy. Instead of offering separate appropriation bills that could be debated thoughtfully and with undivided attention, Congress lumped them into one, gigantic 225-page “omnibus” bill, and hurriedly passed it on the floor.

More on the President’s FY2010 Budget Blueprint

Fiscal Policy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 09:08:00 -0400

In our previous release (President Obama's FY2010 Budget), we discussed the broad fiscal impact of the FY2010 Budget Blueprint. We commended the President for having a specific fiscal goal, honestly budgeting for expected costs, and for providing offsets for many of the new policies he supports. However, we expressed strong concern that the budget included items in the baseline (such as AMT patches, Medicare patches, and the renewal of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts), as a way to avoid paying for