Event Summary
Unsustainable deficits in the federal budget threaten the health and vigor of the American economy. When the next president and Congress take office in January 2009, they will face one crucial question that has been almost absent from the current election campaign: how to close the enormous gap between projected federal spending and revenues.
Event Information
When
Monday, March 31, 2008
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Where
First Amendment Lounge
The National Press Club
529 14th Street NW
Washington, DC
Map
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At this public event, some of the nation’s top economists and budget policy experts presented a new paper arguing that the first step toward establishing budget responsibility is to reform the budget decision process so that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—the major drivers of escalating deficits—are no longer on auto-pilot. Organized by the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation, the diverse group included experts affiliated with many different organizations who have found solid common ground. Authors of the paper include Joseph Antos, Robert Bixby, Stuart Butler, Paul Cullinan, Alison Fraser, William Galston, Ron Haskins, Julia Isaacs, Maya MacGuineas, Will Marshall, Pietro Nivola, Rudolph Penner, Robert Reischauer, Alice Rivlin, Isabel Sawhill, and Eugene Steuerle.
Following a summary of the paper by three former Congressional Budget Office directors, the panel took questions from the audience.
Transcript
ALICE RIVLIN: As a nation, for worthy and understandable reasons, we have made more promises under three major entitlement programs than we can afford to keep: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. If current policies are not changed, we simply can’t afford to keep these promises. Moreover, the Congress doesn’t even have a decision process that will force them to consider this problem and what to do about it.
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Participants
Introduction
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
Stuart Butler
Vice President, Domestic and Economic Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation
Additional Comments
Rudolph Penner
Senior Fellow, The Urban Institute
Robert Reischauer
President, The Urban Institute