Budget Options

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.

A Budget Options search allows users to search for options by keyword, savings, major budget category, budget function, topic, and date. The online search is updated to include only the most recent version of budget options from various CBO reports.

  • Blog Post

    CBO’s Director describes the two volumes of budget options that the agency released today. They describe a variety of policies that would reduce federal budget deficits by increasing revenues or decreasing spending over the next 10 years.

  • Report

    CBO issues a volume describing 17 policy options that would each reduce the federal budget deficit by more than $300 billion over the next 10 years or, in the case of Social Security options, have a comparably large effect in later decades.

  • Report

    CBO issues a volume that contains short descriptions of 59 policy options that would each reduce the federal budget deficit by less than $300 billion over the next 10 years.

  • Report

    CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options and their effects on the federal budget. This document provides estimates of the budgetary savings from 83 options that would decrease federal spending or increase federal revenues.

  • Report

    CBO periodically issues a volume of options—this year’s installment presents 121—that would decrease federal spending or increase federal revenues. CBO’s website allows users to filter options by topic, date, and other categories.

  • Report

    CBO analyzes 36 policy options commonly proposed by policymakers and analysts. Most of them would improve Social Security’s long-term finances, but only a few would significantly postpone the combined trust funds’ exhaustion date.

  • Report

    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?