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Federal Budget and Spending

Our experts provide the latest policy research, analysis, and commentary on the US federal budget and spending, including the impact of US debt and interest rates

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Big Beautiful Bill Impact on Economy and Economic Growth

Will the Big Beautiful Bill Lead to an Economic Boom or Just Modestly Higher Growth?

Lawmakers are right to be concerned about deficits and economic growth. The best path to address those concerns is to ensure OBBB provides permanent full expensing of capital investment, avoids inefficient tax cuts, and offsets remaining revenue losses by closing tax loopholes and reducing spending.

8 min read
Donald Trump tax proposals regarding replacing the income tax with tariffs, exempting taxes on tips, and corporate income tax cut

Five Things To Know About Trump’s Income Tax and Tariff Idea

President Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of entirely replacing the federal income tax with new tariffs. Recently, he has said that when tariff revenues come in, he will use them to replace or substantially cut income taxes for people making under $200,000.

8 min read
Taxing Life Insurance Tax

Taxing Life Insurance

As Congress attempts to prevent the expiration of major Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions, it needs to find ways to pay for them. Ideally, it should use the least economically harmful means possible.

3 min read
2025 Tax Reform TCJA Offsets Budget Offsets

Picking the Right Budgetary Offsets Key to Tax Reform Success

In a perilous economic and fiscal environment, with instability created by Trump’s trade war and publicly held debt on track to surpass the highest levels ever recorded within five years, a lot rides on how Republicans navigate tax and spending reforms in reconciliation.

6 min read
Tax Policy and the US Economy Enhancements to Our Tax Foundation Modeling Framework

Tax Policy and the US Economy: Enhancements to Our Modeling Framework

The Tax Foundation models tax policy using our proprietary Taxes and Growth model, illustrating the economic, revenue, and distributional impacts of different changes to the federal tax code. We’ve recently implemented improvements to the model that have been underway for the past several years, and we will be detailing them further in our forthcoming model methodology update.

4 min read
Child Tax Credit debate Biden Democrats Child tax credit expansion, affect labor supply work requirement and incentive Manchin

Don’t Let the Loophole Lobby Decide the Tax Debate

If Republicans want a successful year for tax reform, they must put aside the extensive demands for niche provisions and, instead, approach this debate with a principles-first mindset.  

Reducing spending in the tax code tax expenditures could help pay or raise trillions for 2025 tax reform

Cleaning Up the Tax Code Could Raise Trillions for Tax Reform

As Republicans look for ways to offset the budgetary cost of extending the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and potentially enacting other tax cuts, the latest estimates indicate several trillion dollars could be raised by reducing tax credits and other preferences in the tax code.

5 min read
Trump no tax on tips proposal

How “No Tax on Tips” Could Backfire

If Republicans want to pursue this policy, they’ll need to answer some questions about what Trump’s promise means. And they’ll need to be careful that the idea doesn’t turn into a budget-buster.

Behind the Numbers: Budget Shenanigans and the National Debt

What happens to your taxes when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expires on January 1, 2026? In this episode, we explore the potential tax hikes facing millions of Americans and the debate over measuring the budgetary impacts of extending tax cuts.

Extending tax cuts budgetary impact 2017 tax law Tax Cuts and Jobs Act policy baseline vs law baseline

All About That Base(line)

If lawmakers are serious about pro-growth policies and fiscal responsibility, they will need to put policies forward that achieve those goals. Simply adjusting the baseline doesn’t reduce actual deficits in the coming years.

7 min read