The Budgeting for National Priorities project promotes greater fiscal responsibility by developing new ideas, educating the public, and finding common ground among experts, influentials, and policymakers.

The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour
Under the auspices of the Concord Coalition and together with The Heritage Foundation and the Government Accountability Office, Brookings is touring the country to educate the public about our fiscal mess. These visits generally comprise a public event at a local university, a private breakfast with business and community leaders, and a meeting with the editorial board of the local newspaper. To date the tour has visited more than 30 cities.

Restoring Fiscal Sanity Book Series
The purpose of this book series is to provide policymakers, advocates, and the general public with an accessible text on the choices required to return to fiscal responsibility. The series commenced in 2004 with the publication of Restoring Fiscal Sanity: How to Balance the Budget and continues with Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2005: Meeting the Long-Run Challenge and Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007: The Health Spending Challenge.

Partnership with Public Agenda
Brookings is partnering with Public Agenda, as well as the Concord Coalition, The Heritage Foundation, and Viewpoint Learning, to hold dialogues in cities visited by the Fiscal Wake-Up Tour. These meetings will allow residents to participate in a structured dialogue that will help them to understand the difficult choices that must be made. Previous in-depth dialogues conducted by Viewpoint Learning have demonstrated that the public is willing to make tough choices if they feel they can trust their elected officials.

Setting the Agenda for 2008
Taming the Deficit, a paper co-authored by former Representatives William Frenzel (R-Minn.) and Charles Stenholm (D-Texas), G. William Hoagland (former Director of Budget and Appropriations for former Senator Bill Frist), and Isabel Sawhill (former Associate Director of OMB in the Clinton administration), provides a concrete, balanced plan to eliminate the deficit five years after the next president takes office in 2009.