Assessment of what governments spend, tax and regulate, measured against the objectives stated when each measure was introduced. Sources include budget offices, program evaluations and comparable schemes abroad. For officials, evaluators and analysts who need the counterfactual as well as the reported outcome.
Impoundment is a president's refusal to spend money Congress appropriated — banned in general by a 1974 law whose meaning is back at the center of budget fights.
Valentina Sokolov · January 22, 2026
When a city ordinance collides with state statute, the state wins under the supremacy clause of state constitutions — and legislatures have used that lever aggressively.
Valentina Sokolov · January 17, 2026
Reconciliation lets a simple Senate majority rewrite taxes and entitlement spending with limited debate and no filibuster — through a gate the Byrd rule guards.
Valentina Sokolov · January 13, 2026
The statutory debt limit caps how much the Treasury may borrow to pay bills Congress has already ordered — and every standoff ends the same way, at the X-date or before it.
Henrik Larsen · January 8, 2026
CBO scores legislation for cost, forecasts the economy, and tells Congress things it does not want to hear — by statute, without policy recommendations.
Valentina Sokolov · January 4, 2026