Tax Policy Center

Debt Limit

Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Playing Russian Roulette With The Federal Debt

Congress should eliminate the debt ceiling this year. It serves no useful purpose. It doesn’t contribute to fiscal discipline, and breaching it entails large, potentially,...
December 13, 2022Leonard E. BurmanWilliam G. Gale
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

What Will The Mid-Term Election Mean For Tax Policy?

With Democrats retaining narrow control of the Senate and Republicans on the cusp of winning the barest of majorities in the House, it will be...
November 16, 2022Howard Gleckman
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

What Should the President Do When Debt Limit Inaction Forces Him To Violate The Law?

When Congress increases spending and cuts taxes then fails to extend the nation’s debt limit, it effectively orders the president to run deficits while prohibiting...
September 29, 2021C. Eugene Steuerle
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Congress's Fiscal Drama Isn't What It Seems

Welcome to Fall. The season where, predicably, the weather gets cooler, the leaves change color, and Congress puts on its annual fiscal crisis. This year,...
September 24, 2021Howard Gleckman
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Congress’s Debt Limit Problem Is Toddler Fiscal Policy

Partisan congressional squabbling over the nation’s debt limit once again threatens to shut down the federal government and perhaps trigger a worldwide financial crisis. The...
September 22, 2021Leonard E. Burman
: TaxVox

Congress In 2019: What’s Ahead For Fiscal Policy?

The return of divided government and the early stages of the next presidential election create enormous uncertainty about how 2019 will go. As Yogi Berra...
January 4, 2019William G. GaleMark J. Mazur
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Gimmicks Galore Litter the Boehner/Obama Budget Deal

There is a lot less than meets the eye to the budget deal agreed to last night by outgoing House Speaker John Boehner and the White House. The plan’s proposed new spending is real enough, but many of the spending reductions or new revenues in the plan are wishful thinking at best. Overall, the
October 27, 2015Howard Gleckman
: TaxVox

Dreaming Impossible Dreams

The House may have a bipartisan transportation bill. The measure would authorize highway spending for another six years. But while it sets $325 billion in infrastructure spending over six years, it guarantees only the first three years of funding. The last three years? Congress would have to “
October 19, 2015Renu Zaretsky
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

The Debt Limit: Here We Go Again

In less than a month—and in perhaps as little as 18 days-- the federal government will be unable to pay its bills. Realistically, there is only one way to avoid such a fiscal mess: Congress must raise the federal debt limit so Treasury can borrow more money. But how will that happen? On one hand,
October 15, 2015Howard Gleckman
: TaxVox

On Budgeting, Patience, and Rube Goldberg

Out today: A first look at GOP budgets. The US hit its debt limit yesterday (at least technically), and the budget battles have begun. The Senate GOP budget resolution reportedly won’t include detailed plans to overhaul entitlement programs—though the House GOP plan may. The Senate Budget panel
March 17, 2015Renu Zaretsky