Budget Options

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CBO produces many reports that discuss options for changes in spending and taxes. For each Congress, CBO produces a report that brings together a wide range of options for reducing the deficit. The options are derived from many sources and, in keeping with CBO’s mandate to provide objective analysis without making recommendations, each option includes arguments for and against it.

  • Options for Reducing the Deficit: 2015 to 2024
    Report November 20, 2014

    CBO periodically issues a compendium of options—this installment presents 79—to inform lawmakers about the budgetary effects of ways to reduce the deficit. The report has both interactive and printable formats.

  • Choices for Deficit Reduction: An Update
    Report December 20, 2013

    Federal debt is projected to rise significantly over the long term. What policy changes could reduce future deficits and thus lower the trajectory of federal debt? What criteria might be used to evaluate those policy changes?

  • Social Security Policy Options
    Report July 1, 2010

    CBO anticipates that starting in 2016, if current laws remain in place, the program's annual spending will regularly exceed its tax revenues.