Facing the Future: Recent Episodes
The Concord Coalition
How the nation’s fiscal and economic challenges, and possible solutions, impact current and future generations.
This week on Facing the Future, Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics, examines the state of the economy, the effect of artificial intelligence and what a debt-induced crisis might look like.
This week on Facing the Future, we get a status check on the federal deficit and debt from Gordon Gray, Vice President of Budget Analysis at the Peter G Peterson Foundation. Spoiler alert: The debt may hit $40 trillion sooner than anticipated.
This week on Facing the Future we considered how both political parties have deserted the working class, the young and the American Dream. That's the conclusion of our guest Eugene Steuerle in his book Abandoned. Steuerle is an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute and one of Washington’s most respected experts on the federal budget, tax policy and Social Security.
This week on Facing the Future, Veronique de Rugy and Jason Fichtner explain why Social Security reform is not only a retirement policy imperative but also a fiscal and market-stability imperative. They are the co-authors of a George Mason University Mercatus Center paper titled, "Social Security's Fiscal Gap and the Risk of Bond Market Strain."
This week on Facing the Future, Joshua Gordon, a Vice President of Health Care at Arnold Ventures, explains why growing health care costs are a challenge for family, business and government budgets. He also suggests some bipartisan cost control ideas.
This week on Facing the Future, Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress explains why the national debt matters more than it used to and why artificial intelligence is not likely to fix the problem.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear why the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) is warning the President and Congress that urgent and sustained action is needed to improve the nation's fiscal outlook. Jeff Arkin, Director of Strategic Issues at GAO, is our guest.
This week on Facing the Future, Mark Warshawsky of the American Enterprise Institute explains why the projected finances of both Social Security and Medicare were substantially worse in the 2026 trustees report than they were last year and why early action is the best way to prevent sudden cuts.
This week on Facing the Future, G. William Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center, lays out the case for public engagement on major budget decisions, gives an update on the federal budget and reacts to the new Social Security and Medicare Trustees Reports.
This week on Facing the Future, host Bob Bixby joins Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Jonathan Silver of Affinity Solutions and Andrew Lewis of the University of Cincinnati's Portman Center in a panel discussion on strategies for getting the public to put deficit reduction on the political agenda.
This week on Facing the Future, Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute lays out the pros and cons of the president's request for a 50 percent increase in the defense budget.
This week on Facing the Future, former U.S. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) explains why he supports a new fiscal commission as a way of finding solutions to the nation's growing debt and how reinstating the "Conrad rule" in the Senate would help.
This week on Facing the Future, Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution explains why the budget resolution recently passed by Congress is highly unusual and a year behind schedule.
This week on Facing the Future, students from the University of Iowa and their faculty adviser Dr. Alexandra Nica, describe how they reduced the debt-to-GDP ratio over the next 30 years and what they learned in winning this year's nationwide Fiscal Challenge competition.
This week on Facing the Future, Ben Ritz, Vice President of Policy Development at the Progressive Policy Institute, discusses why new tax cut proposals have him wondering whether Democrats learned the wrong lesson from 2024.
This week on Facing the Future, Jessica Riedl of the Brookings Institution evaluates President Trump's new budget and describes her findings on the Biden fiscal legacy.
The week on Facing the Future, former Senator Rob Portman and Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux lay out the opportunities for impactful legislation to bring the debt under control. Alex Brill, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, moderates the discussion.
This week on Facing the Future, Alex Brill of the American Enterprise Institute will discuss tax policy and the budget. Then, Jon McHenry of North Star Opinion Research will explain the latest findings of the Peterson Foundation's Fiscal Confidence Index.
This week on Facing the Future, former Obama and Clinton economic advisor Jason Furman talks about the economic fallout from the war in Iran and the importance of putting the debt on a sustainable path.
This week on Facing the Future, Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office discusses the economy, potential war costs and how the rapid growth of U.S. debt is already having a negative effect on the economy and living standards.
This week on Facing the Future, Marc Goldwein, Senior Vice President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, outlines a "break glass in case of emergency" plan for the next economic shock.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll look at the potential cost of U.S. military operations in Iran, the President's State of the Union Address and our upcoming road trip to New Hampshire and Maine.
This week on Facing the Future we discussed the latest budget and economic projections from the Congressional Budget Office with the agency's director Dr. Phillip Swagel. He describes why the national debt is headed for record territory and the fiscal fallout from the Supreme Court's decision to invalidate some of the President's tariffs.
This week on Facing the Future Wendell Primus, Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former Senior Policy Advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, described his plan to keep the Social Security trust fund from becoming insolvent as soon as 2032. Some political pain will be required.
This week on Facing the Future, former Comptroller General of the United States and CEO of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) David Walker discussed his efforts to sound the alarm on the dangers of rising debt and unsustainable government commitments.
This week on Facing the Future, Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, explained the economic dangers of ignoring the nation's spiraling debt and suggested some Social Security and Medicare reforms that would help.
This week on Facing the Future, former Ambassador to Denmark Richard Swett discusses a way forward on U.S. interests in Greenland and Alex Durante, senior economist at the Tax Foundation, evaluates the impact of President Trump's tariff agenda.
This week on Facing the Future we examined developments on the national security front with Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow and director of research in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution and author of a timely new book called “To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution”
This week on Facing the Future, former Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) discussed the growing U.S. debt burden, the case for a fiscal commission, and why it's bad policy to attack the Fed's independence.
This week on Facing the Future, we discussed Social Security reform with Jason Fichtner, executive director of the LIMRA Retirement Income Institute and former chief economist at the Social Security Administration. With the program's main trust fund projected to be depleted by 2032, prompt action must be taken to avoid sudden benefit cuts.
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition executive director Carolyn Bourdeaux and other top members of Concord's staff look back on key fiscal developments of 2025 and the deepening debt challenges of 2026. Join us for Facing the Future's holiday 'Friends and Family' episode.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll look at Medicare, one of the biggest drivers of America’s long-term fiscal outlook. Amy Bassano, a former deputy director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and now Managing Director of Medicare services at Health Management Associates, discusses cost trends and reform options.
This week on Facing the Future, Leon Panetta, one of Washington's most experienced budget experts and a top national security official, gives us his view on what it will take to restore fiscal discipline and why achieving that goal is crucial.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll check in on the economy and the bond market with Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. She recently wrote a paper for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation titled, “Welcome to the New Era of U.S. Debt Where the Bond Market is King.”
This week on Facing the Future, we look at the daunting agenda facing Congress after passing a budget deal to temporarily reopen the government. Our guest is Ben Ritz, Vice President of Policy Development at the Progressive Policy Institute.
This week on Facing the Future, Peter Fisher, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy, describes the potential consequences of America's “untethered fiscal policy” and the risks of hyperinflation or default on the debt.
This week on Facing the Future, we looked at the major impact of health care spending on the federal budget with Anna Bonelli, Director of Health Policy at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The discussion included expiring enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicare insolvency and Medicare Advantage overpayments.
This week on Facing the Future, we focused on tax policy with Howard Gleckman, non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He explained his recent column, "What The Ugly History of Tax Policy Over The Past Four Decades Means For The Future."
This week on Facing the Future we talked with Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA) and Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) about two bills they have co-sponsored. One would create a bipartisan fiscal commission and the other would dock the pay of members of Congress for not doing their budget and appropriations bills on time.
This week on Facing the Future, former CBO director Doug Elmendorf of Harvard's Kennedy School discussed the state of the economy, the government shutdown and why policymakers should not rely on economic growth alone to rein in the unsustainable growth of debt.
This week on Facing the Future we looked at the federal government shutdown from political and economic perspectives. Our guests were David Lerman, Editor of CQ Budget, who covers Capitol Hill, and Gordon Gray, Vice President for Budget Analysis at the Peter G Peterson Foundation, who tracks the economy.
This week on Facing the Future, we discussed expiring premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans with Matt McGough of KFF and a new fee proposed by President Trump for high-skilled worker visas (H-1B) with Theresa Cardinal Brown of the Bipartisan Policy Center.
This week on Facing the Future, former U. S. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) discussed why the nation's debt is on an unsustainable path and what needs to be done about it.
This week on Facing the Future, Dr. Kent Smetters, Faculty Director of the Penn-Wharton Budget Model discussed a new report on the potential economic and budgetary impact of generative AI. He also described an illustrative package of tax and spending reforms to reduce future budget deficits and grow the economy.
This week on Facing the Future, Rachel Snyderman and Caleb Quakenbush of the Bipartisan Policy Center discuss the prospect of a government shutdown, the growth in tariff revenue and the president's "pocket rescission."
This week on Facing the Future, Kurt Couchman, senior fellow in fiscal policy at Americans for Prosperity, explained why he thinks a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution is needed, why past efforts failed and how a new effort could succeed.
This week on Facing the Future, tax expert Bill Gale of the Brookings Institution discussed the effects of higher tariffs and a new commentary he co-authored on the idea of using earmarked revenues as a deficit reduction strategy. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we talked with Dennis Lockhart, former President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He gave us his take on the state of the economy and what might happen in a debt-induced fiscal crisis. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future, former Social Security Public Trustee Charles Blahous discussed the program's deepening financing challenges on its 90th anniversary and explained why postponing action just makes things worse.
This week on Facing the Future, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, explained why he believes the U. S. economy is edging closer to a recession, led by the negative impacts of higher tariffs and restrictive immigration policies. He also weighed-in on the dangers of runaway debt.
This week on Facing the Future, we looked at the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare with Jessica Riedl of the Manhattan Institute. She explained why these programs add to budget deficits despite the misperception that they are self-financing.
This week on Facing the Future, Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution talks about the possibility of a government shutdown in the fall and whether the spending power is shifting away from Congress toward the executive branch.
This week on Facing the Future, former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joined us to discuss the need to develop contingency plans for a fiscal crisis in the U.S. that he sees as increasingly probable.
This week on Facing the Future, Jim Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute digs into the 2025 Medicare Trustees Report. Then he explains why the federal budget rules are deepening societal differences.
This week on Facing the Future, we heard from two tax experts with different ideological perspectives who have been following the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). David S. Mitchell is a senior fellow for tax and regulatory policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and Kyle Pomerleau is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
This week on Facing the Future, tax expert Andrew Lautz, Associate Director for Economic Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, discusses tensions between House and Senate Republicans as they rush to pass a major deficit-financed tax cut bill before July 4th.
This week on Facing the Future, Prof. Philip Joyce of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, explains the high stakes in Washington's battle over the power of the purse and why protecting the Congressional Budget Office matters.
This week on Facing the Future we talked with Bill Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center, about the growing debt fears that cloud the prospects of Republicans' budget bill in the Senate.
This week on Facing the Future, we talked with Richard Swett, former U.S. Congressman from New Hampshire and Ambassador to Denmark. He discussed President Trump's desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark and why it's vital to restore trust in government.
This week on Facing the Future we focused on the One Big Beautiful Bill that has now passed the House and is headed to the Senate. Our guest was Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum and former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). We also discussed interest rates, tariffs and budget scoring.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll discuss developments on Capitol Hill as Republicans try to pass what is now officially called, the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Our guest is Ben Ritz, Vice President of Policy Development at the Progressive Policy Institute and Director of PPI’s Center for Funding America’s Future. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joins the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future, Marc Goldwein, Senior Vice President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, guides us through the tax cut bill rolled out by House Ways and Means Committee Republicans. We'll discuss how big it is, whether it's good tax policy and will it be paid for?
This week on Facing the Future, we'll talk with students who participated in the annual collegiate fiscal challenge, a competition that seeks to stabilize the debt and economy. Then, Carolyn Bourdeaux and I assess President Trump's "skinny budget" and check in on reconciliation in Congress.
This week on Facing the Future we'll assess the risks and costs of rising federal debt with Ben Harris, vice president and director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. We’ll also get his take on congressional negotiations over a major spending and tax bill and whether the economy is headed for a recession.
This week on Facing the Future the guest is Alex Durante, senior economist at the Tax Foundation. We'll discuss the economic effects of President Trump's tariffs and whether Republicans in Congress can find a way to extend about $4 trillion worth of expiring tax cuts without adding it all to the debt.
This week on Facing the Future, Jessica Riedl, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, joined me to discuss her list of the top 10 federal budget gimmicks and the potential for tariffs to raise revenues, harm the economy or both.
As we went through Riedl’s list of budget gimmicks, it was clear that many of them are in play this year. She mentioned, for example, “fake expiration dates” and using a “current policy” baseline. A key feature of the recently passed congressional budget resolution is the use of a current policy baseline to assume that extending the expiration date of the 2017 tax cuts will have no budgetary effect.
This week on Facing the Future our guest was Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and chairman of the bicameral Joint Economic Committee. He gave us his perspective on what it will take to get the U.S. fiscal house in order, why the budget and the economy are intricately intertwined, and why it is so important to act before a crisis hits.
We also got his candid take on this year's Congressional budget process, which he said "shows the level of perversity there is on telling the truth about the math.” Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future, we are joined early in the week by David Schweikert, United States Representative from AZ-01. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeax joins the show to discuss the latest on the budget, deficit, and more with Representative Schweikert.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll talk with Phillip Swagel, Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget office (CBO). He'll discuss the CBO's 2025 Long-Term Budget Outlook, which makes 30-year projections under current law. There is a lot of debt involved.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll talk with James Capretta, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and author of a recent paper called “Budgeting for Fiscal Sanity.” We’ll ask him how Congress should do that and we’ll also discuss some of the controversies over the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
This week on Facing the Future, we'll talk with Ernie Tedeschi, Director of Economics at the Budget Lab at Yale. He is the author of a new study showing the inflationary risk of rising federal budget deficits and debt.
This week on Facing the Future, former CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf of Harvard's Kennedy School discusses the need for making hard choices on the budget and a big gimmick Congress is considering to avoid doing that.
This week on Facing the Future we talked with former Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux who has been named the new Executive Director of The Concord Coalition. In addition, Bourdeaux will head up Concord Action, a new advocacy organization created to marshal grassroots support for fiscal responsibility.
We began by discussing President Trump’s speech on Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress. Bourdeaux commented that Trump “did make a nice hat tip to a balanced budget, which I appreciated. He said he would balance the budget and he would address the debt. However, the revenues and expenditures that he talked about just don't add up.”
This week on Facing the Future, we'll discuss President Trump's executive order laying the groundwork for a U.S. sovereign wealth fund. How would it be funded and what would it invest in? Our guest is Mark Warshawsky, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson will explain why the House and Senate budget committee resolutions might not result in their promised deficit reduction numbers. We'll also look at claims of massive Social Security fraud. Then, National Field Director Phil Smith gets some insights from volunteer leaders.
This week on Facing the Future, we talked about the nation’s budget challenges with Barry Anderson, former Deputy Director for Budget Review at the White House Office of Management and Budget. He also served as Deputy Director and then Acting Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Beyond his work on the U.S. budget, Anderson headed the Budgeting and Public Expenditures Division in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Anderson sees some similarities between the early days of the Clinton Administration in the 1990’s and the current situation.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll look at the debate in Washington over who has the Constitutional "power of the purse." We'll talk with Rachel Snyderman, Managing Director of Economic Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center and co-author of a new Q&A called "Budget Impoundment 101."
This week on Facing the Future, the guest is Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute. She recently testified before the House Budget Committee about the daunting long-term U.S. budget outlook. We'll discuss that testimony and what she thinks is necessary to rein-in the growing debt.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll look at the new 10-year budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office and why some of President Trump's early executive orders might portend litigation over the Constitutional power of the purse.
This week on Facing the Future, we heard from Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute on why Zombies are in control of the federal budget and what must be done to break their grip on the future. Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined the conversation.
In a new book, “Beyond Zombie Rule: Reclaiming Fiscal Sanity In A Broken Congress,” Steuerle updates an earlier book with a similarly chilling title, Dead Men Ruling. The main theme of both books is that too much of the federal budget has been predetermined by spending and tax decisions made long ago, leaving today’s policymakers and future generations with limited flexibility to make their own decisions.
This week on Facing the Future, we discuss the budgetary priorities and procedural hurdles facing the new Republican majority in Congress as they try to quickly enact an ambitious agenda. Our guest is Rohit Kumar, Co-Leader of the National Tax Office at PricewaterhouseCoopers and a former senior advisor to Senate Republican leaders.
This week on Facing the Future, we looked back at the fiscal developments of 2024 and looked ahead to 2025. Joining me for the discussion were Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson, National Field Director Phil Smith and Digital Media Intern Kyle Duffy. Our special guest star was Chase Hagaman, the original host of Facing the Future who now serves as Economic Development Director at the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs.
This week on Facing the Future, the Concord Coalition staff looks back on fiscal year 2024 and what to expect in 2025. Our special guest is Chase Hagaman, director of economic development at the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs (BEA) and the original host of Facing the Future.
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson explains why the "Social Security Fairness Act" would result in an unearned windfall for a small number of workers. We'll also discuss a new debt limit warning by the Government Accountability Office.
This week on Facing the Future we began by discussing an Illustrative package of 13 federal tax and spending reform options prepared by the Penn-Wharton Budget Model (PWBM). Our guest for this segment was Dr. Kent Smetters, faculty director of the PWBM. Then, Molly Reynolds, senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, walked us through some big decisions on the budget that the new administration and new Congress will need to make after they take office in January. Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we'll talk with Christopher Pope, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute about his ideas for slowing the growth of Medicare and Medicaid, which account for about 22 percent of the Federal budget.
This week on Facing the Future we looked at how the new Republican majorities in the House and Senate are expected to handle major issues such as tax cuts, tariffs, government waste, and the debt limit. Our guests were Brian Riedl of the Manhattan Institute and Ben Ritz of the Progressive Policy Institute.
There has been a lot of discussion in Washington about the major fiscal cliff coming up at the end of 2025 when a portion of the 2017 Trump tax cuts expire. Before the elections, most of the talk had been about the trade-offs that might be needed to get an agreement between the parties.
But now, with the Republicans taking control of the House, Senate, and White House, it’s possible that Republicans can get what they want without compromising with Democrats by passing a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions, which is a budget process maneuver that would allow them to overcome a filibuster by Democrats in the Senate.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ll talk about the fiscal and economic implications of the election results and how receptive Congress will be to President-elect Trump's agenda. Our guests are Bill Hoagland senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center and Tom Kahn professor of budget policy at American University.
This week on Facing the Future, Rachel Snyderman, Managing Director of Economic Policy at the Bipartisan Policy discusses why the growing debt poses risks in areas such as housing, healthcare and the workforce. Also, Erica Patella, Program Coordinator for the Fiscal Challenge joins us to discuss this year’s competition.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll get a briefing from Marc Goldwein, Senior Vice President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, on the potential fiscal impact of the Harris and Trump campaign proposals. Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joins the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we discussed the interaction of fiscal and monetary policy with Dr. Thomas Hoenig, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a member of the Federal Reserve System’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) from 1991 to 2011. We got his take on the Fed’s efforts to engineer a soft landing and the implications of high debt for the nation’s long-term budget and economic outlook. Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we begin with Social Security’s annual cost of living increase, announced by the Social Security Administration (SSA) on October 10. Then we looked at seven key findings from the 1994 bipartisan Kerrey-Danforth commission that are sadly still valid and still in need of solutions. Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson, a former senior advisor at the SSA, joined me for the discussion.
This week on Facing the Future former U.S Representative Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-GA) discussed key differences between state and federal budgeting and whether there are lessons for federal policymakers. We also got some timely insights from University of Maryland professor of public policy Phil Joyce on whether the 50-year old federal budget process is up to dealing with the nation’s fiscal challenges. Later in the show, Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined me to assess the Fiscal Year 2024 year-end numbers as reported by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and a new CBO report on trends in the distribution of family wealth.
This week on Facing the Future Rachel Snyderman of the Bipartisan Policy Center and Concord Coalition National Field Director Phil Smith describe the unprecedented size of our projected deficits and debt which add to the challenges that await the new president and Congress in 2025.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll focus on the Federal Reserve Board’s decision to lower interest rates for the first time since March 2020. To discuss the implications, we'll talk with Robert Carroll, Co-leader of the EY’s Quantitative Economics and Statistics (QUEST) group.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll talk with Ben Ritz, Vice President of Policy Development at the Progressive Policy Institute, about a comprehensive plan his organization released in July to greatly improve the nation's fiscal outlook by cutting costs, raising revenues and growing the economy.
This week on Facing the Future we focused on the economy and previewed the 2025 tax debate when key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. We also discussed some new tax proposals that have been floated on the campaign trail.
Our guest was Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum and former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future, Dr. Kent Smetters of the Penn Wharton Budget Model at the University of Pennsylvania will give us his nonpartisan analysis of the budgetary, economic and distributional effects of the Harris and Trump campaign policy proposals. Also, Steve Robinson discusses new long-term projections for Social Security.
This week on Facing the Future, Josh Gordon, Director of Health Policy at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), joined the show to discuss healthcare spending, prescription drug prices, and more. At CRFB, Gordon heads the Health Savers Initiative.Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined the healthcare conversation, and later discussed his new issue brief entitled Means Testing Federal Benefits and Tax Expenditures.
This week on Facing the Future, Bob is joined by Bill Gale, Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution. A well respected expert in the subject of debt and taxes, Gale recently wrote a piece for Brookings called Back to the Future: Can the Government Reduce Its Debt Again?which discussed the future of federal debt management in the United States. Later in the show, David Lerman, writer of CQ Rollcall’s budget newsletter previewed the important appropriations and spending decisions that await Congress when it returns from summer recess in September. Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined both conversations.
This week on Facing the Future we celebrated Social Security’s birthday. Wednesday, August 14th marked 89 years since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. Bob and Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson assessed Social Security’s accomplishments, future challenges, and some myths about reform. Later in the show, former U.S. Senator from Indiana Dan Coats shared his experience with the debt and deficit through the lens of a long and distinguished career of public service in the federal government.
This week on Facing the Future, Bob Bixby switched from the host chair to the guest seat to talk about his 25-year career as Executive Director of The Concord Coalition. National Field Director Phil Smith asked Bob questions about the importance of the federal budget, the fiscal outlook, and The Concord Coalition over the years. Later in the show, Phil interviewed two of our Fiscal Lookout volunteers, Kevin Wiley of Indiana and Erik Carter of New York, about the work of political depolarization and engaging their communities in fiscal issues.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll talk with Jeff Holland of the Peterson Foundation about a series of papers released last week called Solutions Initiative 2024. It features seven plans from prominent think tanks, including one from our second guest, Andrew Lautz of the Bipartisan Policy Center.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll take a preliminary look at the tax policy proposals of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. In addition, we'll consider the tax policy implications of a case recently decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Our guest is Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
This week on Facing the Future we'll look at whether the Fed has seen enough progress on inflation to begin cutting interest rates? Our guest is Gordon Gray, executive director of the Pinpoint Policy Institute. Then, we'll say farewell to frequent co-host Tori Gorman as she takes up a new job with the Congressional Research Service.
This week on Facing the Future we'll get perspectives from high school students who negotiated their own budget plans at a recent New Hampshire Boys State conference. Then we'll review what Presidents Biden and Trump said about the debt and Social Security at the debate.
This week on Facing the Future, Bob was joined by Concord Coalition Co-Chairs and former U.S. Senators Bob Kerrey (D-NE) and Jack Danforth (R-MO). Thirty years ago they co-chaired a bipartisan commission on entitlement and tax reform that warned of unsustainable budget trends. Reflecting back upon the past three decades, the bright spots are overshadowed by the same looming problems the Kerrey-Danforth Commission warned of in 1994. The Co-Chairs outlined where we stand and where we go from here. Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future, Bob Bixby was joined by Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman and Chief Economist Steve Robinson to discuss the latest 10-year Budget and Economic Outlook from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The CBO report projects that the federal budget deficit will grow from $2 trillion this year to $2.8 trillion by 2034 (adjusted to exclude timing shifts that occur when the first day of the fiscal year falls on a weekend). Bob, Tori, and Steve broke down the key projections from the report and what each could mean for interest rates, jobs, and economic growth going forward.
This week on Facing the Future, Bob Bixby was joined on the show by Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He also served as one of thirteen COVID-19 advisors on President-elect Biden’s pandemic advisory board in 2020. Osterholm provided insights into where we currently stand with COVID-19 and what lessons we can learn to better prepare for the next pandemic. Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson and National Field Director Phil Smith joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll examine developments on the national security front with Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution. Topics include the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza as well as competition with China.
This week on Facing the Future Bob was joined by George Mason University Professor Sita Slavov to discuss her recent essay Making Tough Fiscal Choices to Protect Future Generations and the relevance of long term sustainability to younger generations. Slavov has previously worked with the White House Council of Economic Advisors and was a member of the 2019 Social Security Technical Panel on Assumptions and Methods. Concord Coalition National Field Director Phil Smith joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we'll talk with Jason Furman, a former top economic advisor to Presidents Clinton and Obama. He now teaches economics at Harvard University. We discussed the prospects of a "soft landing" for the economy and the crucial role of interest rates in projecting future debt.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll hear first from two UNH professors, Dr Carolyn Arcand and NH State Senator Dan Innis, about the relevance of fiscal policy to their students' future.
Then we'll take another look at GAO's new estimate of government-wide fraud with Rebecca Shea, co-author of the report.
This week on Facing the Future we took a close look at Social Security and Medicare, the two largest programs in the federal budget. Between them they cost nearly $2.2 trillion dollars in 2023, roughly 36 percent of total federal spending. They also affect the retirement income and healthcare of millions of Americans.
On Monday, May 6, the Social Security and Medicare trustees issued their 2024 report, which again indicated that both programs have serious challenges ahead, and those challenges are not too far off.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll look at the future of Social Security with former U.S. Representative Reid Ribble (R-WI), who served in Congress from 2011-2017.
In 2016, Ribble released the Save Our Social Security Act (S.O.S.) with a bipartisan group of co-sponsors. We discussed that plan with him and why he thinks Social Security reform is essential.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll discuss a new report on fraud by the Government Accountability Office, along with a review of the foreign aid spending bill and the latest news on the economy.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll get some policy ideas from three college students who recently took part in an annual Fiscal Challenge competition where teams from around the country devise and defend their own plans for putting the federal budget on a sustainable path. Dr. Mike Aguilar, founder and president of the Fiscal Challenge also joined the discussion.
This week on Facing the Future, we'll look at what happens at the end of 2025 when many of the tax cuts enacted in 2017 are scheduled to expire. What should Congress be doing to prepare for this fiscal cliff? How much would it cost to extend the tax cuts? Are there viable options to offset the revenue loss? We’ll get some perspectives on all these questions from Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson discusses his new issue brief, "The Rhetoric and Reality of Taxing the Rich." Then we'll talk with Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute about his new column explaining that "Major Budget Reform Must Accommodate Legislators' Need to Give Money Away."
This week on Facing the Future, we'll look at the economics of immigration reform with Teresa Cardinal Brown, Senior Advisor for Immigration and Border Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
With the U.S on track to have more deaths than births by 2040, immigration is an increasingly necessary component for a growing economy. Is there a way forward on bipartisan reform?
This week on Facing the Future we hear from Zach Moller, director of the economic program at Third Way, a center-left think tank. He'll discuss his recent report called, "A Democratic Case for Fiscal Responsibility." We'll also look at the latest numbers on jobs and inflation.
This week on Facing the Future, we look at President Biden's new budget. It has a plausible deficit reduction path but are the policies used to get there plausible as well?
Our guests are Josh Gordon of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Brian Riedl of the Manhattan Institute.
This week on Facing the Future our in-house panel of experts, policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson, will preview the president’s State of the Union Address, scheduled for Thursday, March 7, and the president’s budget submission, scheduled for Monday, March 11.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll talk about the long drawn-out Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations process in Washington, which may be finally wrapping up in the next two weeks — or maybe not. With a partial shutdown looming on March 1st, we'll talk to Bill Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center and former Republican staff director of the Senate Budget Committee.
This week on Facing the Future we'll examine how policies of the Federal Reserve Board affect the economy and the budget. Did the Fed's "quantitative easing" go too far and last too long?
Our guest is Thomas Hoenig, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) from 1991 to 2011.
This week on Facing the Future, our guest was Dr. Phillip Swagel, Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The CBO just released its Budget and Economic Outlook for 2024-2034. Spoiler alert: It's not great news.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ll look at the latest economic numbers with a focus on jobs, wages and interest rates. The January jobs report showed a very robust, and surprising, gain of 353,000 jobs, up from 333,000 in December.
Gordon Gray, Vice President for Economic Policy at the American Action Forum will give us his take on what it means.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ll take a close look at President Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on households with annual income below $400,000.
Our guest is Ben Ritz, Director of the Center for Funding America’s Future at the Progressive Policy Institute. Ritz explains why that pledge is difficult to implement and how it undermines policymaking.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ll look at the congressional tax agenda, both in the next few weeks and into 2025 when a number of provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) are set to expire at the end of the year.
Our guide through the congressional tax thicket is Rohit Kumar, Co-Leader of Washington National Tax Services at PricewaterhouseCoopers and a former Deputy Chief of Staff to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
This week on Facing the Future, our guest is Rachel Snyderman, Director of Economic Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. We’ll ask her about the fiscal challenges awaiting the winner of the 2024 presidential election and the more immediate challenge of finally passing the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills – something that is now four months overdue.
This week on Facing the Future, we talked with Molly Reynolds, Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, about the breakdown of the congressional budget process.
With another partial shutdown looming on January 19, we discussed why Congress never passes its annual appropriations bills on time, the problems this creates and whether there are any remedies.
This week on Facing the Future, we looked back on budget and economic policy in 2023, which was mostly about avoiding crises, and where things stand heading into 2024.
Our discussion featured a panel of Concord Coalition experts, including policy director Tori Gorman, chief economist Steve Robinson, national field director Phil Smith, deputy director Chris Colligan, and media and policy intern Kyle Duffy.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ll focus on the latest economic projections from the Federal Reserve Board. Their last meeting, which concluded on December 13, certainly made some news with the projection that the Fed might actually begin to reduce interest rates in 2024. To guide us through the economic news, our guest this week is Robert Carroll, Co-leader of the EY’s Quantitative Economics and Statistics (QUEST) group. Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson join the conversation.
This week, on Facing the Future, we began with a review of the oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Moore vs. United States, a case that could have a big effect on federal government revenues. Our guest was Steven Rosenthal, Senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
Then, Tori Goman, Steve Robinson and I looked at some new numbers on U.S. life expectancy and whether there may be a glimmer of hope that a government shutdown can be avoided in January.
This week on Facing the Future we got an update on the latest inflation and economic growth numbers from Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum and former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Despite some encouraging short-term numbers, Holtz-Eakin sees a few warning signs for 2024.
We also discussed his new issue brief on employment-based immigration.
This week on Facing the Future our guests were former U.S. Senators, Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Rob Portman (R-OH). They have been lending their voices to the push for a new bipartisan fiscal commission that would propose solutions to our nation’s unsustainable budget outlook.
Conrad chaired the Senate Budget Committee from 2001 to 2003, and again from 2007 to 2013. Portman served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President George W. Bush.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ll do a round-up of topics including new Census Bureau population projections, the road ahead for FY 2024 appropriations following passage of a new CR (continuing resolution) and a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court, Moore v. United States, that could have a big effect on federal government revenues. Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson join the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we heard from three members of Congress who took part in a virtual discussion on November 13 titled, “Working Toward a Sustainable Fiscal Future in a Divided Congress.” The three congressmen, Don Bacon (R-NE), Jared Golden (D-ME), and Scott Peters (D-CA) were recipients of The Concord Coalition’s 2023 Economic Patriot Award, which is given for efforts to bring about a more fiscally sustainable path for future generations.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ll get an update on COVID-19 as we enter another holiday travel season. Our guest is Dr. Jodie Guest, an epidemiologist and professor at Emory University in Atlanta who also serves as an advisor to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Then, we’ll switch gears to discuss the latest developments on the economic front, such as the Fed’s decision to hold rates steady for now and the “Goldilocks” October jobs report.
This week on Facing the Future, we begin with a status check on the stalled appropriations process on Capitol Hill now that a new Speaker of the House has been selected by the Republican caucus. Our guest for that segment is Tom Kahn who served as Democratic House Budget Committee staff director from 1997 to 2016. He now teaches budget policy at American University in Washington. Then we’ll talk with Richard Coffin, Chief of Research and Advocacy at USA Facts, a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic initiative that makes government data easy for all Americans to access and understand. That’s certainly a useful mission for anyone interested in things like the nation’s fiscal challenges.
This week on Facing the Future, we looked at the final federal budget numbers for Fiscal Year 2023 and why the deficit shot up. Then we discussed President Biden’s $106 billion supplemental spending request for Ukraine, Israel and other international priorities. And finally, we heard from Brian Riedl of the Manhattan Institute and Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget on the threat of rising interest rates and the prospects for a new fiscal commission.
This week on Facing the Future, we talk with former Congressman and Ambassador Richard Swett about the work he’s been doing with a Princeton University initiative on restoring the Constitutional powers of Congress.
Swett serves on a subcommittee dealing with the power of the purse, something of great interest to The Concord Coalition. Then, we’ll get Swett’s perspectives on how security challenges in Israel and Ukraine might play out.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll look at how Congress avoided a government shutdown on September 30 and whether they’ll be able to do it again by November 17 when the short-term deal they reached comes to an end.
Then we'll look at the latest economic numbers and consider what they mean for the federal budget. Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson join me for the discussion.
This week on Facing the Future, we look at the “day of reckoning” that our guest Eugene Steurele of the Urban Institute, says is coming for U.S. fiscal policy. And we’ll also get Steuerle's take on why the budget is, and has been, transferring resources from America’s youth to richer, older generations. Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson join the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we talk with Rich Thau, President of Engagious, a leading firm in scientifically testing and refining the effectiveness of business and issue-advocacy content. The firm has been conducting a series of focus groups across the country with people who voted for Trump in 2016 and for Biden in 2020. What these key voters have to say will help determine who wins the 2024 presidential race. Then, we'll get the latest from Capitol Hill on whether Congress can avoid a shutdown on October 1st.
This week on Facing the Future, we examine the possibility of a government shutdown. If Congress fails to agree on funding levels for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1st, many government offices will need to close their doors. With less than two weeks to go, negotiators seem far apart and it's not just Democrats vs Republicans. Division among House Republicans has also been a problem. We discuss the state of play with Jon Lieber, managing director of the Eurasia Group and a former senior advisor to Senator Mitch McConnell.
This week on Facing the Future, we look at some key questions about the federal budget that voters should ask candidates in the 2024 election cycle. With The federal budget deficit rising again and our national debt already on an unsustainable long-term trajectory, voters should expect candidates to explain how they intend to deal with the huge challenges that lie ahead. Spoiler alert: It goes beyond cutting mere "waste, fraud, and abuse."
This week on Facing the Future, we talk to Romina Boccia, Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy for the CATO Institute. Boccia argues in a recent piece that it is time for a new bipartisan commission to take a broad look at the serious fiscal challenges the federal government faces and propose some solutions that would become law directly unless Congress opts out of any of the proposals. This would include everything from how to reduce massive government healthcare spending to raising new revenue and reforming Social Security and Medicare. This idea of a commission has been tried in the past, but often Congress fails to implement any of the reasonable and well thought out reforms. Could this time perhaps be different?
This week on Facing the Future, we catch up with Phill Sletten, research director of the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, a Concord based nonpartisan state budget think tank. Phil walks us through the current state budget snapshot and talks about some of the short and long-term economic challenges facing the Granite State. Though a smaller scale, many of New Hampshire's budgetary problems mirror our national fiscal challenges at the federal level. Plus, we hear from Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson who has just completed a three-part issue brief series looking at the history and future of the Social Security Trust Fund.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Ben Ritz, Director of the Center for Growing America's Future at the Progressive Policy Institute, and one of our more frequent show contributors. Ben has written several interesting pieces including one where he asserts that the Fitch rating agency's recent downgrade of the federal government's credit rating should be a wakeup call for all those concerned about the budget and our national debt - even if the downgrade itself was not warranted. So we talk to Ben about that and also, how is the federal government doing about investing in scientific and technological research and innovation a year after Congress passed the Chips and Science Act.
This week on Facing the Future, we mark the 88th birthday of Social Security, the benefit program that is a real lifeline for seniors and the disabled. Social Security is now in serious fiscal trouble and its Trust Funds may become insolvent just within the next few years. So we looked back at the history of the program as well as into the future at possible solutions to save Social Security with two experts: Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson, and Dr. Charles Blahous, senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.
This week on Facing the Future, we revisit a conversation from earlier this year with Alex Pollock and Howard Adler, authors of a new book entitled "Surprised Again: The COVID Crisis and the New Market Bubble." The book examines the recent economic crises, including the COVID related economic shutdown and the Great Recession of 2008-10, and asks why these types of events always seem to take us by surprise. Though inflation has come down somewhat from its peak in the last year, it is still a problem for our economy, brought about in large part by the federal government's responses to the two most recent economic crises. Not to mention the trillions of dollars these crisis responses added to our national debt.
This week on Facing the Future, we turn once again to the expertise of David Lerman, editor of CQ Budget Tracker, for a breakdown on the current breakdown in Congress when it comes to passing bills to fund the government. The clock is ticking towards the end of the current fiscal year on September 30th and if nothing is passed, the federal government would go into a partial shutdown. The Senate has passed all 12 appropriations bills out of committee with a strong bipartisan vote (for the first time in a dozen years), but the House is not able to come to consensus. Hard right members are seeking deeper spending cuts than the caps set in the bipartisan debt limit deal between Speaker McCarthy and President Biden.
This week on Facing the Future, we speak with Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution for an assessment of US national security strategy from Ukraine to China, the Arctic, and everything in between. And, what this means for future US defense spending, which is a significant part of the federal budget. O'Hanlon has served as an advisor to both the Defense Department and the CIA, and gives us a preview of his new paper assessing the Pentagon's budget needs relative to the global threats and challenges we face. Also we'll take a look at how a few small changes to economic assumptions make major changes in long-term projections for the federal budget and our national debt.
This week on Facing the Future, we get an update from Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson on the latest economic news plus the looming Congressional battle over appropriations bills for the next fiscal year. No agreement by the end of the current fiscal year on September 30th could force a partial government shutdown. Plus, we visit New Hampshire Boys State where a group of high school students were engaged in serious policy debates over how to reduce the federal deficit over the next 10 years as they took on the Principles and Priorities budget exercise.
This week on Facing the Future, we talk to Richard Jackson, President of the Global Aging Institute about the combined effects of declining fertility rates, longer life expectancy and the baby boomers entering retirement en masse on our federal budget and our economy. It means more spending on Medicare and Social Security, with a smaller working age population to pay into these safety net programs and sustain them. We will also catch up with Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson on the latest economic news.
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman joins us to analyze the long-term budget outlook recently released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It projects, among other things, a fast growing elderly population combined with declining birth rates and higher health care costs. All this leading to our national debt nearly doubling as a share of our economy over the next 30 years. Plus, we'll revisit our recent conversation about border climate adjustments designed to cut global greenhouse gas emissions and give American manufacturers some competitive advantage.
This week on Facing the Future, we are joined by the newest member of The Concord Coalition's Board of Directors, Dr. Carolyn Bourdeaux. Dr. Bourdeaux has extensive experience in public sector budgeting. During the Great Recession, she was director of the Georgia Senate Budget and Evaluation Office, where she worked with both parties to balance Georgia’s budget and get the state economy back on track. She brought this valuable budget and fiscal knowledge to Congress when she served as a member representing Georgia's 7th district. Bourdeaux earned a reputation as a serious legislator who worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find solutions to some of our complicated problems, and shares with us the many lessons she's learned along the way.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from two veterans of many Congressional budget battles, Democrat Tom Kahn, who teaches budget policy at American University, and Republican Bill Hoagland, the Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center. They recently penned a joint op-ed in which they urge Americans to put pressure on their elected officials to make difficult compromises to address our long-term national debt, because neither party can do it alone.
This week on Facing the Future, we try to examine the mixed signals on the economic trends with a strong jobs report and inflation easing somewhat but key consumer price indicators still too high. For that, we turn to economist Robert Carroll with Ernst and Young, and then we get further analysis on that plus data from the Congressional Budget Office showing the federal budget deficit on the rise again after coming down the last couple of years from Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Diane Lim - the "Economist Mom" - who gives us some very interesting highlights from a recent Congressional Report she helped put together looking at how the federal government can invest in robust economic growth over the next decade or so. The bottom line: the government should invest more in young people and children to get more economically productive adults. Plus we examine the final score issued by the Congressional Budget Office for the bipartisan debt limit and spending reduction deal enacted by Congress late last week.
This week on Facing the Future, we get expert analysis from the Concord Coalition's policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson on the debt limit deal struck between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avert a federal default. We also hear excerpts from a very interesting forum held last week with Harvard economist Jason Furman and Rohit Kumar of PricewaterhouseCoopers who both question the efficacy of even having a debt limit at all. Furman and Kumar were involved in negotiations between President Obama and Republicans in Congress during the last debt limit crisis in 2011.
This week on Facing the Future, we talk with Greg Bertelsen, CEO of the bipartisan Climate Leadership Council about so-called 'border carbon adjustments.' The concept is getting substantial interest in Congress from both Republicans and Democrats and would impose fees on imported goods whose production pumps a high amount of carbon smog into the atmosphere. It's meant to raise revenue, reduce carbon emissions, and improve the competitive standing of American manufacturers who run much cleaner operations than rivals in China or India. Plus, we'll get an update from Texas on what's happening at the US-Mexico border from immigration lawyer and former US Ambassador to Belize George Bruno.
This week on Facing the Future, we turn to the Concord Coalition's veterans of Congress - policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson - for up to the minute analysis on negotiations between President Biden and Congressional leaders over extending or suspending the nation's debt limit. The federal government may have only a few days or the next week to be able to pay all of its bills in full and on time before a default occurs if a deal cannot be reached. If no deal is reached, the consequences on our economy could be serious and far reaching.
This week on Facing the Future, we talk to Rachel Snyderman of the Bipartisan Policy Center about a brand new report containing an estimate for the 'X-Date' when the federal government will run out of borrowing authority to meet all of its obligations in full and on time. The BPC estimates that date will land sometime between early June and late August, if Congressional leaders and President Biden cannot agree on an extension or suspension of the federal debt limit. This could have a serious and lasting economic impact for all of us.
This week on Facing the Future, we take a deep dive into the federal budget for the Department of Defense and all the country's intelligence and national security needs. It's a big number and constantly growing. President Biden has proposed spending $842 billion on defense in his proposed budget, which does not include likely additional funds that may be needed for the Ukrainian effort to fight off the Russian invasion. So, where does all that money go? For answers to that question and many others, we got expert analysis from Dr. Gordon Adams, former Associate Director for National Security at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson - both veterans of Capitol Hill - dissect the particulars of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's proposal to raise the debt limit in exchange for about $4.5 Trillion in deficit reduction. A laudable goal, but should it be the start of a budget negotiation rather than a set of conditions for raising the debt limit to avoid a government default this summer? We also speak to Professor Mike Aguilar of the University of North Carolina about the collegiate Fiscal Challenge competition, which he founded and runs.
Facing the Future was in Washington DC this week for the national finals of the annual "Fiscal Challenge" competition among college students all over the country. The students put forward some thorough and well-researched plans to reduce the national debt as a share of the American economy over the next 30 years. Concord Coalition Communications Director Av Harris spoke in detail with the college teams about their proposals to raise revenue, reduce federal spending, and grow the economy. He also spoke with professor Sita Slavov of George Mason University's Schar School of Public Policy, who evaluated and scored these plans as one of the fiscal challenge judges.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from two experts on the federal budget process and the search for more revenue which mamy fiscal policy experts believe we are going to need - along with spending cuts - if we expect to truly address the historic imbalance between what the government spends and what it takes in. Our guests are Howard Gleckman of the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center, and Tom Kahn, Faculty Fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University who for 20 years was staff director for Democrats on the House Budget Committee
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from labor economist Betsy Stevenson, who is a professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and served on the Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama. In a recent piece for the Peter G. Peterson foundation, Stevenson looks at some social science research showing that we are in an unusual time when public trust in government is at some of the lowest levels ever recorded. Stevenson recommends several steps Congress could take to stabilize our economy, end the dangerous game of chicken with the federal debt limit holding our financial system hostage, and enact some meaningful tax reforms to allow us to more fully fund Social Security and Medicare.
This week on Facing the Future, we travel to Iowa to get some perspectives on the long-term fiscal and economic challenges facing the United States. We are joined by a panel of experts from the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business to look at short and long-term economic trends and how to bring down the cost of healthcare. They were joined by Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson who takes a look at the current debt limit fight in Congress, and what is at stake for our economy. Plus, how can we avoid the Social Security Trust Fund going insolvent which could mean major benefit cuts for seniors.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear excerpts from a recent panel discussion focusing on the economic and federal budget impact of climate change. The White House estimates that environmental damage may cost taxpayers up to $130 billion every year, and may cut our economic output by as much as 10% by the end of the century. The panel discussion was sponsored by the Concord Coalition, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership, and Public Service at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law.
This week on Facing the Future, we have an in-house panel of Concord Coalition experts - policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson - evaluate the validity and credibility of President Biden's recently released Fiscal Year 2024 federal budget plan. The President did propose some changes to Medicare and a significant amount of new revenue, but his plan comes up short in other areas. We take a look at the budget through a set of criteria we developed and assign some color codes - green, yellow and red - to tell us whether the President's budget meets the mark.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Andrew Biggs, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In a recent Op-Ed for the Washington Post entitled "Biden Once Cut Social Security. Now, He Can Save It" Biggs argues that both Republicans and Democrats need to stop making empty promises not to touch Social Security retiree benefits if they're unwilling to pay higher payroll taxes to fund them. And we also hear from Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson on how the federal government might still be able to cut Social Security checks even when it hits the debt limit and can't borrow any more money.
This week on Facing the Future, we get further analysis of the latest 10-year budget and economic outlook recently released by the Congressional Budget Office from Jeff Holland of the Peterson Foundation, who used to run the CBO projection unit. Plus, we hear from Josh Gordon of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget for a closer look at how the runaway train that is healthcare costs is having a major impact on the federal budget over the next 10 years. Gordon also describes some big problems with the popular Medicare Advantage program.
This week on Facing the Future, we are joined one more time by Dr. Philip Swagel, an economist who is Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO has just released its newest 10 year federal budget and economic outlook. The picture it paints is quite concerning. Deficits are expected to climb to an average of more than $2 trillion per year, and for the first time ever the Social Security trust fund is predicted to go insolvent within that 10-year window. If Congress does not act to shore up the program, beneficiaries could be facing cuts of more than 20%
This week on Facing the Future, we check in with Ben Ritz - director of the Center for Funding America's Future with the Progressive Policy Institute. Ben has written a number of recent works including one exploring what President Biden's call in the State of the Union Address to 'stand up for seniors' means for Social Security and Medicare when their trust funds are on track to run out of money in the next few years. And, how to move forward meaningful, bipartisan fiscal policy in a divided Congress.
This week on Facing the Future, we check back in with International Security and Russian/Eurasian affairs professor Adam Stulberg of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech University on the one year anniversary of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine. Stulberg says the war has brought many surprises and poses some complicated questions we need to think about going forward. We'll also get some instant analysis of President Biden's State of the Union Address, specifically what was said (and not said) about major forces impacting the federal budget.
This week on Facing the Future, we talk to Theresa Cardinal Brown, managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center about whether the humanitarian and security crisis along the US-Mexican border will be enough to enact some fixes to our broken immigration system. Even with Republicans now controlling the House in a divided Congress, bipartisan talks are underway. Plus, we'll get analysis on the Biden administration's latest move on student loans, which may turn the federal program into grants for college.
This week on Facing the Future, we get the long term perspective on the federal budget and our national debt from Kent Smetters, faculty director of the well-respected Penn Wharton Budget Model. The Budget Model looks at long term trends impacting the federal budget such as projected revenues and expenditures, plus demographics that are already starting to have an enormous impact as the Baby Boomers retire. Dr. Smetters sees our national debt growing higher and faster than ever, and a less productive economy in the future.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from two authors - Howard Adler and Alex Pollock - who have written a new book called 'Surprised Again: The COVID Crisis and the New Market Bubble'. The book explores how for the 2nd time in our young century, the federal government's response to an economic crisis had some unintended consequences that we are all paying for. This time, it was the multi-trillion dollar COVID relief packages in two administrations that have significantly contributed to the higher inflation we are all feeling.
This week on Facing the Future, we get the seasoned perspective of Rohit Kumar to give us some insight on what direction the new Republican majority in the House might pursue when it comes to important fiscal policy choices in the next few months. Kumar is a tax policy expert with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, but also served as a top policy advisor to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. He was around the last time we had a Republican House, and a Democratic Senate and President, and Congress had to act on raising the debt ceiling which is crucial to the economy and budget operations. It wasn't pretty.
This week on Facing the Future, we speak with University of New Hampshire Political Science Professor Dante Scala about changes the national Democratic party wants to make to its Presidential Primary calendar for 2024 that would have the Granite State lose its first-in-the-nation status. Plus we check in with Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson about the $1.7 Trillion Omnibus spending package enacted just before Christmas by Congress and President Biden.
This week on Facing the Future, we listen to the best of our program for 2022. This is a year that saw our national debt top $30 Trillion, surging inflation like we haven't seen since the early 1980s, and the largest ground war in Europe since WWII. And all of this with an economy still recovering from the disruptions of the worst pandemic in 100 years. We'll hear from all sorts of economists and federal policy experts who appeared on Facing the Future this past year - including an advisor to four US Presidents!
This week on Facing the Future, we get the entire Concord Coalition staff on the program to take stock of everything that happened in 2022 that impacted the federal budget and the economy. It was a doozy of a year, with lingering pandemic related supply chain disruptions and a ground war in Europe pushing inflation up to levels we haven't seen in 40 years. The Fed's moves to raise interest rates are making the national debt much more expensive for Congress to carry. We'll review it all plus examine the Santa Claus theory of Congressional budgeting.
This week on Facing the Future, as the clock ticks down the final days of 2022 and Democratic control of the House, several important tax cuts and credits are set to expire. So can lawmakers strike a deal before the Speaker's gavel is passed to Republicans? We'll hear from tax policy expert George Callas, who was at the center of the action when Congress passed the Trump tax cuts. The individual portion of those cuts is also set to expire in a few years, and we'll get George's take on long-term federal tax policy as well. Because like it or not, we're going to need more revenue to put the federal budget on a more sustainable path.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Molly Reynolds who specializes in researching Congress. She says the failure of Congress to do the most basic things like pass an annual budget due to partisan polarization and dysfunction weakens the institution and dilutes its constitutionally protected role of appropriating government funds. At the same time, this emboldens Presidents to take unilateral executive actions such as forgiving student loans that cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
This week on Facing the Future, excerpts from a special event at the National Press Club in Washington DC celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Concord Coalition's founding. An all-star panel of Concord Coalition alumni featuring Ben Ritz of the Progressive Policy Institute, Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Congressional Economist 'Mom' Diane Lim, and Brian Keane of Smart Power look at the biggest challenges to face the US economy and federal budget such as: how to generate more revenue, saving Social Security and Medicare, climate change, immigration reform, and more.
This week on Facing the Future, a special Thanksgiving edition of the program taken from a recent all-star Concord Coalition panel discussion at Fresno State University in California focusing on some of the biggest upcoming challenges facing our economy and federal budget. Reforming Social Security, reducing health care costs, raising revenue and increasing immigration were among the options on the menu that could all help slow the growth of our national debt and increase economic output over the next 30 years.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear once again from internationally recognized expert on infectious disease and epidemiology Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota. Osterholm and his colleagues who advised the Biden Administration on the COVID-19 pandemic recently wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times. They make the case that we must learn from our experience and we have so much work to do to invest in our health care and disease surveillance infrastructure. If we don't, we will be woefully under-prepared for the next pandemic and related economic crisis. Plus, we take a look at the latest inflation numbers.
This week on Facing the Future, we try to read the tea leaves from an extraordinarily close midterm election result in 2022. It could have a profound impact on what Congress decides to do about funding the government and raising the debt ceiling, two crucial priorities that lawmakers were putting off until after Election Day. We are joined by American University Professor and former Democratic House Budget Committee staff director Tom Kahn, and financial investment advisor Pete Davis who used to staff the Senate Republican Budget Committee.
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman fills in as host and speaks with economist Claudia Sahm who has worked at both the Federal Reserve and the White House. Sahm questions whether the Fed is taking the right approach to fighting inflation by raising interest rates so rapidly. The originator of the 'Sahm rule' in economic forecasting says there's a risk Fed's actions might needlessly cause a global recession and put millions of people out of work in the US and abroad.
This week on Facing the Future, we're on the road in Austin Texas for a panel discussion on America's long-term economic outlook. We hear from University of Texas economist and public policy professor James K. Galbraith, who says we need to get used to America not dominating global economic and military matters, and Will Marshall, founder and president of the Progressive Policy Institute, who says big tech are the innovators of our time and we need to focus more investment on non-college education and training for the jobs of the future.
This week on Facing the Future, we're on the road in Austin Texas for a panel discussion on America's long-term economic outlook. We hear from University of Texas economist and public policy professor James K. Galbraith, who says we need to get used to America not dominating global economic and military matters, and Will Marshall, founder and president of the Progressive Policy Institute, who says big tech are the innovators of our time and we need to focus more investment on non-college education and training for the jobs of the future.
This week on Facing the Future, we speak to Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson about the prospects for an economic recession in 2023 as the Fed raises interest rates to bring down inflation. Prices remain stubbornly high. We also hear from Nick Troiano, executive director of Unite America, about that organization's state-by-state effort to open up party primaries to all eligible voters in the hopes that it will get us a less ideologically polarized Congress.
This Week on Facing the Future, we check in with Bill Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Washington DC based Bipartisan Policy Center for a situational awareness update on the growing national debt. It just passed the $31 Trillion mark and with interest rates going up to combat inflation, that debt has become much more expensive to carry. Plus, we'll look at a complicated Social Security Proposal that's somewhat popular but a bad idea.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Gordon Gray, Director of Fiscal Policy at the American Action Forum. He has written a new paper with a proposal that could add another 900,000 new Americans to the labor force of this country and reduce the major backlog of legal immigration by making a modest investment in the federal agency charged with processing skilled work visa applications. Gray estimates it could add more than $100 billion in economic output every year.
This Week on Facing the Future, we ask the Concord Coalition's chief economist Steve Robinson whether President Biden's executive action forgiving up to $20,000 in college loan debt for some students exceeds Presidential authority. The Constitution gives Congress sole authority to appropriate federal funds. Some estimate the student debt forgiveness will cost taxpayers at least $500 billion, which would be the largest federal expenditure without Congressional approval in American history. Plus we get updates on Congressional budget action and how the economy is reacting to the Fed's efforts to fight inflation.
This week on Facing the Future, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Concord Coalition by hearing from both national co-chairs of the organization, Democrat and former Nebraska Senator and Governor Bob Kerrey and Republican former Missouri Senator Jack Danforth, about current and future fiscal challenges facing the United States. We are also joined by Rich Ashooh, the coalition's very first New Hampshire state director, who later served as Assistant US Secretary of Commerce.
This week on Facing the Future, we talk to University of New Hampshire demographer Ken Johnson about the historically low growth in US population, thanks to a 14-year trend of declining fertility rates. It has major implications for future economic growth and the federal budget. Plus, we'll look at the latest inflation numbers, which went slightly higher in August after a decline the previous month.
This week on Facing the Future, we closely examine the health care provisions contained in the recently passed "Inflation Reduction Act" with Josh Gordon, Director of Health Policy for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Gordon walks us through the provisions meant to cut prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients and evaluates if these measures and others will reduce overall federal spending on health care. Plus, he has a few reform ideas of his own.
This week on Facing the Future, we will look at the fiscal and policy impact of President Biden's controversial decision to forgive up to $20,000 in debt for many Americans who owe money on loans to pay for college. It could cost taxpayers another half a trillion dollars. And we'll also take a look at what might be holding Congress up as they face a deadline of exactly one month to pass a stop-gap budget measure to keep the government funded and avoid another costly federal shutdown.
This week on Facing the Future, we take a deep dive into how state budgets are put together, where they get their revenue, and where the money goes. Turns out, states have some of the same long-term debt problems the federal government does. Then we hear from Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson on his new issue brief looking at whether the level of working income Social Security replaces for older Americans needs reform.
This week on Facing the Future, we have an in-house panel discussion with congressional and economic experts from the Concord Coalition including policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson to discuss the Senate passage of the budget reconciliation bill including many of President Biden's domestic agenda priorities on health care and measures to address climate change, plus take a look at fresh new economic data that shows inflation may be starting to ebb while the job market remains strong.
This week on Facing the Future, we have the privilege of hearing from Dr. Phillip Swagel, Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO just released its annual long-term budget outlook which shows that after a brief couple of years of shrinking budget deficits, over the long-term the national debt will almost double, leading to restrained economic growth. Concord's chief economist Steve Robinson and policy director Tori Gorman also join the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future, we revisit the war in Ukraine - literally. We get an on-the-ground account from the front lines of Russia's deadly invasion of Ukraine and its devastating human impact from reporter Jason Beaubien, who has been covering the war for NPR. Later on in the program, a big picture strategic assessment of the choices and higher costs facing the US as the war grinds on from national security and foreign policy expert Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Hawaii Democratic Congressman Ed Case about the sometimes lonely struggle in Congress to convince his colleagues to pay for the programs they support, and find ways to address the long-term national debt and solvency of Medicare and Social Security. We also get analysis of a new report that shows how Congress routinely gives the Defense Department billions of your money more than the Pentagon asks for.
This week on Facing the Future, we take a look at legislation that seems to be making its way through Congress that may just salvage a bit of President Biden's domestic agenda. It even includes some deficit reduction elements, new taxes, and prescription drug price reductions for Medicare. Concord Coalition's policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson join the conversation, as we also look at the latest economic data and a new issue paper on how the national debt burdens future generations.
This week on Facing the Future, we are joined once again by Marc Goldwein, Senior Vice President and Senior Policy Director with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, as we look at various options to fix Social Security. A recent report from the trustees of the Social Security trust fund estimates that the trust fund will be insolvent by 2035 if Congress doesn't take major action. Insolvency could lead to major benefit cuts for retirees and the disabled. Concord's policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson also join the discussion.
This week on Facing the Future, it looks like the economic party is really over. After nearly 15 years of extremely low interest rates leading to economic stimulus, tax cuts, and spending and borrowing sprees, we now have the highest inflation in 40 years. But as the federal reserve tries to lower inflation by hiking interest rates, many economists and DC politicians are now openly acknowledging that we may be headed for a recession. So what can Congress and the Biden administration do? Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson join me.
This week on Facing the Future, we once again return to an all-star panel of Concord Coalition experts to examine the latest reports from the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. Those reports show that without major action by Congress, the Medicare Trust Fund will be out of money by 2028, and the Social Security Trust Fund will be depleted by 2035. Concord Communications Director Av Harris sits in as guest host.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Harvard Kennedy School of Government professor of public service David Gergen, who served as a White House Advisor to four US presidents (Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton). Gergen has written a new book called "Hearts Touched with Fire: How Great Leaders are made." His main conclusion: It's time for the Baby Boomer generation to exit stage left and pass the baton of leadership onto Generation X, Millenials, and Gen-Z.
This Week on Facing the Future, we take a deep dive into the latest 10-year federal budget and economic outlook newly released by the Congressional Budget Office. Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby, chief economist Steve Robinson, policy director Tori Gorman and national field director Phil Smith all team up to crunch the numbers and translate what they mean for your future, in a program hosted by Concord's communications director Av Harris.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll get an update on COVID-19 as cases and hospitalizations are rising again. We’ll discuss the outlook with Dr. Jodie Guest, an epidemiologist and professor at Emory University. She also serves as an advisor to the Centers for Disease Control. As we face a third summer with COVID, what lessons have we learned and what needs to be done.? Plus, we'll find out whether Monkeypox is a new threat.
This week on Facing the Future, we look at the war in Ukraine with Dr. Adam Stulberg, Sam Nunn Professor and Chair in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech University. Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and national field director Phil Smith join the conversation. We'll get Dr Stulberg's perspectives on why Americans should care about this conflict; whether sanctions are an effective tool against Russian aggression; what constitutes "victory," and what long-term consequences may come from the war.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ll look at the busy congressional agenda. between now and the end of the campaign-shortened legislative session. Among the agenda items we'll discuss are: Emergency supplemental aid for Ukraine, additional COVID funding, student loan cancellation, inflation concerns and immigration reform. Plus, we'll ask whether there will ever be a Gen X president. Our guest is Jon Lieber, a former top congressional strategist and now managing director of Eurasia Group's United States Practice. Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman joins the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll look at the state of the economy, including the first quarter GDP report, inflation expectations, the prospects for a "soft landing" as the Fed begins to tighten monetary policy, and whether there are any glimmers of hope for immigration reform. Our guest is Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office. Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future, we hear the voices of college students from all over the country who recently competed in the finals of the national fiscal challenge in Washington DC. We also speak with one of the judges for the competition, Diane Lim, the Democratic policy director for the Congressional Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth.
This week on Facing the Future we look at the potential budgetary and economic effects of climate change. Hint: They aren't good. Our guest is Brian Keane, President of SmartPower, a nonprofit organization focused on renewable energy. Then we discuss whether the Fed can slow inflation without throwing the economy into recession. Tori Gorman and Steve Robinson weigh in.
This week on Facing the Future we look at the latest inflation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that prices are still growing at the fastest pace since the early 80s. Then we'll hear from a group of college students who recently took part in a nationwide Fiscal Challenge competition where they had to devise and defend their own plans for putting (or keeping) the U.S. on a sustainable fiscal path.
This week on Facing the Future, with millions of new refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine, we revisit immigration - vital to sustained American economic growth over the next 50 years. Our guests are Ali Noorani, President and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, and George Bruno, an immigration lawyer and former US Ambassador to Belize
This week on Facing the Future we take a close look at President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget. Concord's Policy Director Tori Gorman and Chief Economist Steve Robinson join me to assess how the budget measures up against a set of criteria we put out in advance of the budget's release. There's some good news and some bad news.
This week, Facing the Future goes "On the Road" to Ball State University in Indiana to hear from students and community members on how they might propose to put the federal budget on a more sustainable path. We also hear from two national experts: Ben Ritz of the Progressive Policy Institute and Josh Gordon of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
This week on Facing the Future, excerpts from a recent panel discussion focusing on the national debt outlook and changing views on the role of government two years into the pandemic. Panelists are Brian Reidl of the Manhattan Institute and Wendy Edelberg of the Brookings Institution, moderated by award winning journalist and author Laura Knoy.
This week on Facing the Future we look at the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its implications for the U.S. and world economies. Our guest is former Congressman Richard Swett (D-NH), who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark (a NATO member) from 1998 to 2001. Then we turn our attention back to Washington where Congress is still trying to wrap-up a funding deal for this year, including additional COVID relief and aid for Ukraine.
This week on Facing the Future we'll talk with Richard Jackson, president of the Global Aging Institute, about his new paper, Three Myths about Health Care Reform. The paper explains why cost control of federal health benefit programs is critical to the nation's fiscal future. Then we'll look at the effect of rising inflation on the federal budget.
This week on Facing the Future we talk about political leadership in a time of crisis with David Gergen, adviser to four presidents and professor of public service Harvard’s Kennedy School. With the COVID pandemic lingering, inflation becoming a problem for the first time in decades and a Cold War style crisis in Europe, Gergen has some advice on crisis management for the current president. He also explains why he is hopeful that a new crop of young leaders will rise to the many challenges we face, including slow-moving crises such as climate change and unsustainable debt.
This week on Facing the Future as Congress deals with yet another shutdown threat, we’ll talk about the broken federal budget process with David Lerman, Editor of CQ Budget, Then, I'll look back on Paul Tsongas' victory in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary with Brian Keane, President of SmartPower, who was a key staffer on the Tsongas campaign and later became The Concord Coalition's field director.
This week on Facing the Future we talk with Rep. Jim Cooper a Democrat from Tennessee and founding member of the House Blue Dog Coalition. After 32 years in Congress and a long record of pushing for fiscal responsibility, Cooper has decided not to run for re-election this year. We discuss this difficult decision and get his take on the challenges ahead. Also, Tori Gorman and Steve Robinson join me to discuss the new jobs numbers and the prospects for a government shutdown.
This week on Facing the Future we get an update on the economic outlook from Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. Last year saw strong GDP growth but an unexpected surge of inflation. We'll look at what comes next.
This week on Facing the Future, we talk to one of the leading international experts on infectious disease, Dr. Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He was one of six Biden transition team COVID-19 advisors who recently urged the President to seek a new strategy on the pandemic and accept the new normal: the virus will be with us for a long time.
This week on Facing the Future, we discuss the outlook for inflation with Jason Furman, who chaired President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors and is now a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Jason's op-ed, "Four Reasons to Keep Worrying About Inflation" was published last week in the Wall Street Journal
This week on Facing the Future we look at the December jobs report and what it means for the economic outlook and the congressional agenda. Our guest is Gordon Gray, director of fiscal policy at the American Action Forum. Later in the show, Tori Gorman and Steve Robinson join me to discuss Gordon's findings and whether Congress will pass another COVID relief bill.
This week on Facing the Future, we kick-off The Concord Coalition’s 30th anniversary year by talking with political strategist Kitty Kurth, who worked on the 1992 presidential campaign of socially liberal, fiscally conservative former U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas. Later that year she became the first employee of the Concord Coalition, when it was co-founded by Tsongas and former U.S. Senator Warren B Rudman. Kurth and I discuss how several of the themes of that campaign became the genesis of The Concord Coalition.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ll have an all-star panel from the Concord Coalition join us to look back on the budget and economic developments of 2021 and what they all mean for the policy debates of 2022. We'll discuss the biggest surprises, what gives us the most concern for the new year and what gives us some hope.
This week on Facing the Future, we talk with Richard Jackson, president of the Global Aging Institute, about his new paper, “The Vital Role of Immigration in an Aging America.” The paper explains that even as immigration to the United States has been declining, its importance to the nation’s demographic and economic growth has been increasing. Then we have a follow-up conversation with two immigration activists who come at it from different perspectives.
This week on Facing the Future, we discuss congressional dysfunction; whether it has grown in recent years and why it matters. Our guests are former Congressman, Paul Hodes, Democrat of New Hampshire and political analyst Matt Robison who co-host WKXL's "Beyond Politics" Then, Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman and Chief Economist Steve Robsinson join me for a roundup of recent developments on the Build Back Better Act, the debt limit, and inflation.
This week on Facing the Future, we discuss the outlook for the COVID-19 pandemic with Dr. Jodie Guest, an epidemiologist and professor at the Rollins School of Public Health and School of Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta Georgia. Then, we turn our attention to another problem we can’t seem to get rid of - the statutory debt limit. Our guest for this segment is Rachel Snyderman, an associate director with the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Economic Policy Project.
This week on Facing the Future, we turn our attention to the health care provisions in the House-passed version of the Build Back Better Act. Those include expanded premium subsidies for health insurance plans purchased under the Affordable Care Act, a new Medicare hearing benefit and price negotiation for Medicare pharmaceuticals. Will they get through the Senate? We discuss this with Josh Gordon, Director of Health Policy for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman and Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined me for a look at the challenges ahead for the Build Back Better Act, which has now passed the House and moved on to the Senate. Then, Concord’s Communications Director Av Harris joined me and Steve for a discussion of Steve’s latest issue brief, “Will President Biden Raise Your Taxes and How Will You Know?”
This week on Facing the Future, we looked at some of the hurdles for the Build Back Better Act as it moves to the Senate. Democrats still have some internal disagreements on substance while the administration looks for the right messaging strategy. We also took a virtual trip to West Virginia for a conversation with Professor Karen Kunz and two of her graduate students in public administration at West Virginia University.
This week on Facing the Future, we explore the potential economic effects of the Build Back Better Act and the cost of making its temporary provisions permanent. A vote on the House version of the bill is expected next week. Then we’ll consider the economic feedback of federal spending on infrastructure, a subject that is front and center with final passage last week of the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Helping us sort through these issues is Kent Smetters, Faculty Director of The Penn Wharton Budget Model.
Democrats in Congress are pushing to finalize a broad social spending and climate change plan that would cost about $1.8 trillion over 10 years and be paid for with a number of new tax provisions targeted at large corporations and households earning more than $400,000 a years. This week on Facing the Future, we discuss the economic strengths and weaknesses of this plan (i.e., the Build Back Better Act). Our guest is Bill Gale a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman joins the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future, we look at various proposals on paying for the roughly $2 trillion social spending bill that Democrats hope to pass soon. These include familiar ideas like raising rates on corporations and upper-income households, to new ideas like implementing some form of a "wealth tax." We'll also look at the potential for raising revenue through better enforcement of existing laws and the amount we lose through ill-targeted "tax expenditures." Tax policy expert, and former top congressional staffer, Pete Davis is our guest.
This week on Facing the Future our guest is Ben Ritz, of the Progressive Policy Center. He is the author of a new paper titled, “Reconciling with Reality: The Top Priorities for Building Back Better.” Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman and I ask Ritz about those priorities and the chances of getting a deal between progressive and moderate factions of the Democratic Party anytime soon. Later, Concord's chief economist, Steve Robinson, will discuss this year's Social Security cost-of-living adjustment -- the largest since 1982.
This week on Facing the Future we took a step back from the day-to-day budget battles in Washington to consider the overall fiscal outlook. Our guest was Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who recently published a comprehensive chart book on federal spending, taxes and deficits. Among the questions we discussed were: What is driving CBO’s projected $112 trillion deficit over 30 years, and why the deficit could top $3 trillion yet again within a decade? Later, Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined me and Gorman for an update on developments in Washington, including the short-term ($480 billion) bipartisan compromise to lift the debt limit.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll sort through the various internal divisions among congressional Democrats as they try to pass both a bipartisan physical infrastructure bill and a much larger human infrastructure bill with no Republican backing. We'll also look at the ongoing standoff over the debt limit, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says could be breached as soon as October 18th. Our guest is Tom Kahn, former Democratic staff director of the House Budget Committee.
This week on Facing the Future, we’ get a bipartisan view of a big week in Washington from two veteran Capitol Hill staffers, Bill Hoagland Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center and Joe Minarik Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Committee for Economic Development. Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman, herself a veteran of many legislative battles, joins the conversation. We' discuss a potential government shutdown, a debt limit stand-off, and a Democratic "reconciliation" bill that would greatly expand social spending and raise taxes to pay for it. This isn’t quite the budgetary Super Bowl, but we’re certainly in the playoffs.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll get a status report on the economy, the long-term fiscal outlook, the debt limit, and the challenges of monetary policy in the post-pandemic environment. Our guest is Peter Fisher, Senior Fellow at the Center for Business, Government & Society at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he also serves as a Clinical Professor. With Congress facing deadlines crucial deadlines and the Federal Reserve pondering policy changes in the face of rising inflation, there is a lot to discuss.
This week on Facing the Future we got a thorough briefing on the latest Social Security and Medicare Trustees’ Report from Dr. Charles Blahous, a former Public Trustee of the two programs and now Senior Research Strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined the conversation.With Congress considering major new spending plans, and trying to figure out how to pay for it all, the annual report of Social Security and Medicare trustees was released on August 31. It was a timely reminder that Congress still hasn't figured out how to pay for some of the big programs we already have.
This week on Facing the Future, we discuss a number of important topics. First, we’ll talk with Representative Carolyn Bordeaux (GA 7th) who helped negotiate an agreement with Speaker Nancy Pelsoi for a firm date (September 27) to vote on the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill. Then we’ll hear from Concord Coalition National Field Director Phil Smith and Colorado Fiscal Lookout Brian Carter about a series of events they conducted in Colorado last week. Finally, we’ll turn back to Washington where the Social Security and Medicare Trustees issued their 2021 report last week. Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman and Chief Economist Steve Robinson join me to assess the report.
This week on Facing the Future we talk with Austin Smythe, a former top congressional staffer and executive branch official, about the potential costs and legislative prospects for a major spending and tax bill this fall implementing President Bidne's agenda. We also consider the process and politics of raising the nation's debt limit. Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman joins the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we compare the problems of the federal budget with the problems of a state budget, specifically New Hampshire’s budget. Points of comparison include, how the budget is put together, what the money is spent on, how the money is raised and whether there are structural issues that affect future policy options? Our guest is Phil Sletten, Senior Policy Analyst at the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, an independent, non-profit policy research organization in Concord NH, where Phil has worked since 2016.
This week on Facing the Future, we turn to health care and the brewing controversy over Aduhelm, a new drug for treating Alzheimer's Disease that was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Is it effective, will it be covered by Medicare and how much will it cost? We’ll ask Josh Gordon, Director of Health Policy at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Then we'll look at where things stand in Washington as the two parties move from a bipartisan infrastructure bill to a one-party budget resolution. Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman and Steve Robinson join the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we talked with Tom Kahn, a veteran Democrat congressional staffer who is concerned that both parties have abandoned fiscal responsibility. Tom gave us his take on the latest budget battles in Washington. Concord’s National Field Director Phil Smith joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we sort through several fast-breaking budget developments in Washington, including the Senate's bipartisan infrastructure plan and the upcoming budget resolution. Capitol Hill veterans Tori Gorman and Steve Robinson help me examine whether the infrastructure bill is paid for and what clues the budget resolution will give us about the even bigger "reconciliation" bill expected this fall.
This week on Facing the Future we talk with Richard Jackson, President and Founder of the Global Aging Institute, and the author of a timely new paper titled, Why the National Debt Still Matters. The paper explains why it is wishful thinking to believe that America can continue to run up the national debt without placing its future at risk and why current budget projections may greatly understate the future debt burden.
This week on Facing the Future we jump into the inflation debate. Are recent price increases something to be concerned about and how does inflation affect the economic outlook? Our guest is Robert Carroll, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis of the US Treasury Department and currently Co-leader of the Ernst & Young Quantitative Economics and Statistics (QUEST) group. Concord Policy Director Tori Gorman joins the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we’ll look at the nation’s statutory debt limit. What is it? Why doesn’t it work to control the growing debt and are there viable alternatives? To get answers and perspectives, we’ll talk to Susan Irving, of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Sue is Senior Advisor to the Comptroller General of the United States and she specializies in federal debt and fiscal issues. Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman joins me for the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future we turn to national security. Our guest is Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, author of the new book Waging War in a Time of Peace. We'll discuss his concept of "resolute restraint" and why the economy, including the level of debt, is a national security issue.
This week on Facing the Future, we set sail on uncharted economic waters with Joe Minarik, Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board. Joe was Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget for all eight years of the Clinton Administration. We discussed the post-pandemic economic recovery and an idea he has for tackling the pandemic debt. Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman joined the conversation.
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition Co-Chairs Bob Kerrey and Jack Danforth discuss their recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, "How Long Can America Keep Borrowing?" They argue that our fiscal challenges are worse than in 1994 when they chaired a bipartisan presidential commission. They also argue that a Senate Centrist Caucus could help forge consensus.
This week on Facing the Future we look at what’s on the minds of swing voters with Rich Thau, President of Engagious, a firm that has been conducting focus groups across the country with people who voted for Trump in 2016 and for Biden in 2020. Then we’ll talk with Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson about his new issue brief on the uncertainties of projecting costs for major new programs and why some of the projections in President Biden’s budget might understate the potential costs.
This week on Facing the Future, we look at why it has become so difficult to shift budgetary priorities and why that is a problem for the future. Our guest is Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute, author of the book Dead Men Ruling. Then, my Concord Coalition colleagues, Tori Gorman and Steve Robinson, join the show to discuss the politics and economics of a big infrastructure spending package.
This week on Facing the Future, we look at the polices, numbers and assumptions in President Biden's first budget, which was unveiled last week. My first guest is Marc Goldwein, Senior Vice President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Then, the Concord Coalition's Chief Economist Steve Robinson weighs-in with his first impressions of the budget.
On this week's Facing the Future, we look at several ideas for raising revenue to pay for infrastructure with tax policy expert Donald Marron of the Urban Institute. Then we get an update on the fight against COVID-19 with Emory University professor and epidemiologist Dr. Jodie Guest.
This week's guest on Facing the Future is U.S. Representative Carolyn Bourdeaux (GA-7th). In addition to serving on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, she Chairs the Blue Dog Coalition's Task Force on Fiscal Responsibility and Government Reform. We discussed her ideas for needed investments, how they might be responsibly financed and her support for the Trust Act, which aims to prevent several key federal trust funds from reaching insolvency within the next 15 years.
This week on Facing the Future, I talked to EcomonistMom.com blogger Diane Lim about the surprisingly weak April jobs report. Then we turned our attention to President Biden's proposals for the "care economy," including their potential to expand the work force and the difficulty of raising revenue to pay for them.
This week on Facing the Future we look at President Biden’s ambitious policy agenda with former Ambassador and New Hampshire Congressman Richard Swett. Then we go to Las Vegas with Concord Coalition Field Director Phil Smith and Jayce Farmer, professor of public policy at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, who uses Concord's Principles and Priorities budget exercise with his mid-career graduate students.
This week on Facing the Future we go to the movies with a panel discussion on the fiscal policy aspects of an award-winning documentary called UnRepresented. The film deals with forces that amplify the voices of special interests above those of the American voter. Our guests include the film’s executive producer Andrew Rodney, Maya MacGuineas, President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and David Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States. We discussed why deficits should matter to the public, whether to “go” big or “go incremental” on deficit reduction measures, and the pros and cons of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
When you're trying to pass legislation in Washington, rules matter. This week on Facing the Future we take a close look at one of the most controversial rules: the Senate filibuster. Our guest is David Schiappa of the Duberstein Group, who spent nearly three decades as a high-ranking Senate staffer providing advice and counsel to Republican leaders. We discuss the background of the filibuster and whether it might be eliminated. Tori Gorman, Concord's policy director leads the conversation. Then, I end the program with a few words about paying the bill for infrastructure.
New presidents often put out a "skinny budget" early in their administration covering just a portion of federal spending. This week on Facing the Future, we look at President Biden's skinny budget with its $1.5 trillion request for fiscal year 2022 appropriations. Then we delve into a full range of economic and other challenges posed by population aging. Our guest is Richard Jackson, president of the Global Aging Institute.
It's infrastructure week! No, really! This week on Facing the Future, we dove into President Biden's ambitious infrastructure plan. Bob was joined by Brian Riedl of the Manhattan Institute and Ben Ritz of the Progressive Policy Institute to help us "bridge" two different perspectives.
On this Facing the Future, Bob was joined by experts from two of Washington's most respected think tanks. Jim Capretta, a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, discussed how the Biden administration may pay for it's agenda. Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and author of several books including the recently published A New Contract with the Middle Class, joined later for a conversation that ranged from family support programs, tax policy, and the minimum wage.
On the latest Facing the Future we were joined by Jon Lieber, a Capitol Hill veteran of many important budget negotiations and the current Managing Director of the Eurasia Group and Tori Gorman, Policy Director of The Concord Coalition. We reviewed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, the politics of immigration, and more.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Robert L. Bixby, Concord’s Policy Director, Tori Gorman, Concord's National Field Director, Phil Smith, and Director of Health Policy for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Josh Gordon. They discuss COVID relief, PAYGO, sequestration, infrastructure investment, CRFB’s Health Savers Initiative, and more.
Chase is joined on the show by former Comptroller General of the United States, David M. Walker, Concord Coalition Executive Director, Robert L. Bixby, and Concord’s Policy Director, Tori Gorman. They discuss the latest COVID relief package, the idea of a Fiscal Sustainability Commission, and highlights from Walker’s latest book, which looks ahead to what America might look like in 2040.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Robert L. Bixby, Concord's Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and Bill Hoagland, a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center. They discuss the ongoing reconciliation process. Also during the program, an interview with Hamilton Project Director and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Wendy Edelberg, on COVID-19 relief proposals, which was recorded as part of a recent webinar.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Robert L. Bixby, Concord's Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and former ambassador and immigration attorney, George Bruno. They discuss immigration reform, the ongoing reconciliation process in Congress, and COVID-19 relief.
Chase is joined on the show by Robin Abbott, CEO of the New Hampshire Society of CPAs, and Matt DiLoreto, vice president of state government affairs for the Healthcare Distribution Alliance. They discuss how the pandemic, recent changes in tax law, and COVID-19 legislation have impacted CPAs and the role of wholesalers in vaccine distribution, including bumps in the road, successes, and improvements.
Chase is joined on the show by Ben Gitis, a senior policy analyst for the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Economic Policy Project, Concord Coalition Executive Director, Robert L. Bixby, and Concord's Policy Director, Tori Gorman. They discuss policies aimed at helping workers and families, as well as the latest on COVID-19 relief legislation and the budget process.
Chase is joined on the show by Richard Jackson, president of the Global Aging Institute, and Concord Coalition Executive Director, Robert L. Bixby. They discuss the fourth issue brief in GAI and Concord's series, "The Shape of Things to Come." The brief is titled “Five Imperatives for an Aging America."
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and former U.S. Senators Bob Kerrey (D-NE) and Jack Danforth (R-MO). They discuss bipartisanship, leadership, and rebuilding the economy in a fiscally responsible manner after the nation brings the COVID-19 pandemic to an end.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and Gene Dodaro, the Comptroller General of the United States and head of the Government Accountability Office. They discuss the roles of the Comptroller General, the history of the GAO, some of GAO’s reports and tools relative to fiscal policy, as well as the importance of finding common ground in policymaking as the new Congress begins and Biden Administration takes office.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Concord's Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and Director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s Center for Funding America’s Future, Ben Ritz. They discuss how concerned the public and policymakers should be with federal budget deficits, a process known as reconciliation and how Congress might use it in the coming years, as well as PAYGO standards and COVID relief.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and former Congressman from Minnesota, Tim Penny. They discuss challenges facing the incoming Biden administration and the new Congress as we begin 2021, the importance of long-term fiscal responsibility, and U.S. House rules changes that affect PAYGO.
In a show featuring Facing the Future highlights from the latter half of 2020, Chase is joined in the first interview by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Concord's Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and Jon Lieber, managing director at Eurasia Group. They discuss the process and implications of policy making in a divided government, a potential reality for a new Biden administration. In the following interview, Chase is joined by Bob, Republican U.S. Senator from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, and Democratic U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, Maggie Hassan. They discuss the bipartisan proposal on COVID-19 relief the Senators helped negotiate and co-author, which also served as the baseline in negotiations for the relief package that was recently signed into law.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Concord's Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and Richard Jackson, president and founder of the Global Aging Institute. They discuss Jackson's issue brief on whether health spans are keeping up with life spans, his third publication in a series titled "The Shape of Things to Come." They also discuss developments on COVID-19 relief legislation and Fiscal Year 2021 appropriations.
Chase is joined on the show by U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and Concord's Policy Director, Tori Gorman. They discuss the bipartisan COVID-19 relief legislation that Cassidy and Hassan co-sponsored and helped negotiate, including what's in the package, why the relief is important, the progress made by this bipartisan working group, and the future of this legislation.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Concord's Policy Director, Tori Gorman, Concord's National Field Director, Phil Smith, Dr. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, and Kwanza Hall, Congressman for Georgia’s 5th District. They discuss economic trends, fiscal and monetary policy, what should be considered for the next COVID-19 relief package, as well as what it is like to serve in Congress and complete the term of legend and civil rights hero, the late Congressman John Lewis.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s Center for Funding America’s Future, Ben Ritz, and Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. They discuss Ritz’ article in Forbes, titled “How Deficits Could Cripple The Biden Agenda – And How He Can Overcome Them,” and Riedl’s article in the National Review, titled “Spending, Tax, and Deficit Myths Exposed.”
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and Phil Sletten, senior policy analyst at the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. They discuss how the most vulnerable populations in New Hampshire have been impacted by the pandemic, why the first budget of a new presidential administration is important and the latest on the congressional appropriations process, COVID-19 relief and economic data.
On the latest Facing the Future, I was joined by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Policy Director, Tori Gorman, economist Diane Lim and journalist and podcast host Katherine Goldstein. We discussed multiple-job holders in the labor force and their impact on the economy, with a focus on women and mothers in the workforce and how they are being affected by the pandemic.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Policy Director, Tori Gorman, Jon Lieber, managing director at the Eurasia Group, and attorney Brad Cook. They discuss the leadership and legacy of the late U.S. Senator for New Hampshire, Warren B. Rudman, on the fortieth anniversary of his first campaign for the Senate, as well as the process and implications of policymaking in a potentially-divided federal government.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and Policy Director, Tori Gorman. They discuss the fiscal and economic challenges facing the President and Congress over the next four years as well as action-forcing events on fiscal policy.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Urban Institute Fellow, Bob Lerman, and Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. They discuss how workforce investment and training and federal research and development can improve workforce productivity and long-term economic growth.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Concord’s Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and Dr. Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former Congressional Budget Office director. They discuss how legal immigration reform fits into the long-term economic growth conversation, as well as how the pandemic has impacted the economy and the nation's fiscal health.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, Concord’s Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and Sr. Policy Director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Marc Goldwein. They discuss Goldwein’s paper on pro-growth Social Security reform and how it might need to be adapted in the post-COVID era, how presidential candidates are approaching fiscal policy right now and the status of pandemic-relief legislation negotiations.
Chase is joined on the show by Joe Antos, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Josh Gordon, director of Health Policy at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and Bob Bixby, The Concord Coalition’s executive director. They discuss health care policy reform with long-term economic growth and the pandemic in mind.
Chase is joined on the show by former Congressman Charlie Stenholm, Cole Stenholm, Director of Health Care for the Progressive Policy Institute, Arielle Kane, and Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby. They discuss everything from fiscal responsibility to health care reforms and innovations like telehealth.
Chase is joined on the show by President and Founder of the Progressive Policy Institute, Will Marshall, Concord Coalition Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and Concord's Executive Director, Bob Bixby. They discuss PPI's proposal,“Building American Resilience: A Roadmap for Recovery After COVID-19,” and the Congressional Budget Office's latest long-term outlook.
Chase is joined on the show by Jason Fichtner, senior lecturer and an associate director of the Master of International Economics and Finance program at Johns Hopkins University, and Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby. They discuss Social Security, retirement planning, fiscal and economic policy, monetary policy, long-term fiscal responsibility and the Congressional Budget Office's monthly budget review.
Chase is joined on the show by Jon Lieber, managing director at the Eurasia Group, Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and Concord’s Policy Director, Tori Gorman. They discuss the Congressional Budget Office’s recently updated budget baseline, its impact on post-pandemic tax and spending policies, what to expect in the appropriations process as we near the end of the fiscal year, COVID-19 relief legislation and the latest U.S. jobs report.
Chase is joined on the show by former U.S. Representative Lee Hamilton, who served Indiana’s 9th district from 1965 to 1999, Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, National Field Director, Phil Smith, and Indiana-based Fiscal Lookout, Kevin Wiley. They discuss how Congress has changed over the decades, the need for a pragmatic approach to tackle issues of the day, the importance of civics education and engagement, as well as the role of Concord Coalition Fiscal Lookouts and how you could become one.
Chase is joined on the show by Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and Concord's Policy Director, Tori Gorman. They discuss COVID-19 relief legislation, President Trump’s executive actions concerning payroll taxes, their potential implications and Social Security.
Chase is joined on the show by Global Aging Institute President and Founder, Richard Jackson, and Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, for a conversation regarding a joint effort between Concord and GAI on a quarterly issue-brief series called “The Shape of Things to Come," exploring the fiscal, economic, social and geopolitical implications of the aging of America. This week, they discuss the second paper in that series, "The Case for Longer Work Lives."
Chase is joined on the show by Dr. Jodie Guest, a research professor and epidemiologist at Emory University, Concord Coalition National Field Director Phil Smith and Concord’s Executive Director Bob Bixby. They discuss COVID-19 data, trends, testing, vaccines and more, as well as the TRUST Act.
Chase is joined on the show by Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby. They discuss economic and budget developments since COVID-19 -- including what policymakers should be considering in an additional economic relief package -- how the current crisis might impact the long-term budget and economic picture and how national demographic trends are impacting fiscal policy.
Chase is joined on the show by American Enterprise Institute Resident Fellow and Milton Friedman Chair, Jim Capretta, and Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby. They discuss current fiscal and economic policy, entitlement programs, health care and even the federal debt limit.
Chase is joined on the show by Congressional Budget Office Director, Phil Swagel, Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and Policy Director, Tori Gorman. They discuss CBO’s recent update to its 10-year economic outlook and the latest happenings in the Congressional appropriations process.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby and Bob Carroll, co-director of EY's U.S. National Tax Quantitative Economics and Statistics Group (QUEST). They discuss QUEST’s latest economic update and the industry and workforce disruptions brought on by COVID-19.
Chase is joined on the show by former economic adviser to President Obama and Harvard Professor, Jason Furman, as well as Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and Policy Director, Tori Gorman. They discuss where recent COVID-19 relief packages by Congress have focused spending and what Furman and other leading experts believe a successful economic recovery could look like.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Policy Director, Tori Gorman, and President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Maya MacGuineas. They discuss fiscal policy in the era of COVID-19, national-debt related myths, as well as what is happening on The Hill with emergency relief legislation, marquee bills and even unemployment insurance.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby, Dr. Diane Lim, director of outreach and senior advisor for the Penn Wharton Budget Model and Dr. Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former Congressional Budget Office director. They discuss the current state of the economy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the potential shape of a recovery and what post-pandemic tax policy might look like.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition National Field Director Phil Smith and Concord Fiscal Lookouts, Brad Keithley and Bill Greenlaw. They discuss the Fiscal Lookout program, Brad and Bill's grassroots experiences in Alaska and New Jersey and how listeners can make their voices heard and effect change.
Chase is joined on the show by Nicko Gladstone, a research analyst with the Bipartisan Policy Center, Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby and Policy Director Tori Gorman. They discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic could impact the Social Security trust funds and legislative updates from Capitol Hill.
Chase is joined on the show by Global Aging Institute Founder Richard Jackson and Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby for a discussion on a joint effort between Concord and GAI on a quarterly issue-brief series called “The Shape of Things to Come” that will explore the fiscal, economic, social and geopolitical implications of the aging of America. They focus on the first brief, "America's Demographic Future."
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby, Director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s Center for Funding America’s Future, Ben Ritz, and Fiscal Policy Analyst, Brendan McDermott, for a discussion on PPI’s recent publication titled "A Roadmap for Recovery" and deficit figures from the CBO's monthly budget review.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby, Senior Policy Advisor, Josh Gordon, Director of Health Care at the Progressive Policy Institute, Arielle Kane, and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, Brian Riedl, for a discussion on ideas to protect America’s health care system and patients during the COVID19 pandemic, as well as new national debt and federal budget deficit projections and their potential effects.
Chase is joined on the show by Marc Goldwein, Sr. VP and Sr. Policy Director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Phil Sletten, Senior Policy Analyst at the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute and Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby. They discuss how the national debt, federal budget deficits, Social Security and the state of New Hampshire are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chase is joined on the show by Gene Steuerle, a fellow at the Urban Institute, Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby, and Concord’s Policy Director, Tori Gorman. They discuss when pay-fors should be considered for economic-relief packages passed by Congress, when policymakers should address long-term budget deficits and what new aid packages elected leaders are exploring.
Chase is joined on the show by Wilson H. Taylor Resident Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, Joe Antos, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law Professor and Director of Health Law and Policy Programs, Lucy Hodder, and Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby. They discuss the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the nation's health care system, as well as how states are responding to it and using federal relief funds.
Chase is joined on the show by former Congressman and Ambassador Dick Swett, Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby, Policy Director Tori Gorman and Senior Policy Advisor Josh Gordon. They discuss recent Congressional legislation enacted in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, what additional aid is being considered, challenges facing the Congressional Budget Office and health care cost growth trends.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby, Policy Director Tori Gorman, Senior Policy Advisor Josh Gordon and Economist Mom and Director of Outreach & Senior Advisor at the Penn Wharton Budget Model Diane Lim. They discuss recent Congressional relief packages, what additional aid might be coming and the economic impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Chase is joined on the show by Don Marron, institute fellow and director of economic policy initiatives at the Urban Institute and Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby. They discuss the federal government’s response to the Coronavirus, the economic fallout of the pandemic and the relevance of CBO's latest baseline update.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby and Policy Director Tori Gorman. They discuss the federal government’s response to the Coronavirus, including stimulus packages and their potential impact on long-term fiscal policy.
Chase is joined on the show by Loren Adler, the associate director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, Lucy Hodder, law professor and director of health law and policy at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law and Concord Coalition Executive Director, Bob Bixby. They continue the discussion from last week's show on health care, focusing on surprise billing, pharmaceutical costs, state and federal efforts to combat systemic cost growth, as well as the government's response to the Coronavirus.
Chase is joined on the show by Concord Coalition Executive Director Bob Bixby and Senior Policy Advisor Josh Gordon. They discuss health care, from challenges and changes to the ACA to trends driving up federal spending in key programs.