President Obama's summit on fiscal responsibility is an attempt to focus the nation on the need to rein in spending, tackle our growing deficits, and plan a sound financial future for the nation. A group of budget experts from Brookings, the Heritage Foundation and other public policy think tanks gathered February 10 to discuss options for fiscal responsibility, while acknowledging the need to provide short-term stimulus to a faltering economy.

The experts, who have been conducting a three-year "Fiscal Wake Up Tour" in cities around the nation, called for bipartisan solutions that actively engage the support of the American public and make clear the scope of the problem and the need for long-term solutions. The participants included:

Joseph Antos, Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy, American Enterprise Institute
Robert Bixby, Executive Director, Concord Coalition 
Stuart Butler, Vice President, Domestic and Economic Policy Studies, The Heritage Foundation
William Galston, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Maya MacGuineas, President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
Will Marshall, President and Founder, Progressive Policy Institute
Pietro Nivola, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Rudolph Penner, Fellow, Urban Institute, Arjay and Frances Miller Chair in Public Policy
Robert Reischauer, President, The Urban Institute
Alice Rivlin, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Isabel V. Sawhill, Senior Fellow and Director of the Budgeting for National Priorities Project, The Brookings Institution