On September 11, 2024, the House Budget Committee convened a hearing at which Phillip L. Swagel, the Congressional Budget Office’s Director, testified about how CBO supports the Congress.1 After the hearing, Chairman Arrington and Congressmen Bergman, Burgess, and Espaillat submitted questions for the record.| Congressional Budget Office
High interest rates on U.S. Treasury securities increase the federal government’s borrowing costs.| Peterson Foundation
Both parties—and the voters—are to blame for the national debt fiasco.| Reason.com
This issue brief will examine different approaches to means-testing, estimate their budgetary effects, and consider their public policy implications. It concludes that limiting federal benefits would achieve only modest savings, unless the limits were extended to the middle-class. Limiting tax expenditures would achieve substantial deficit reduction, but less than current estimates suggest due to offsetting changes in individual behavior, the federal budget, and the overall economy.| The Concord Coalition