-
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In light of the news that a group of ten senators has called for the creation of a bipartisan commission on the budget to create a long-term plan to reduce budget deficits, Isabel V. Sawhill cautions that failing to institute such a plan could lead to slower growth or an economic crisis, along with reduced flexibility to get the economy moving again or handle a new international threat.
-
Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Americans have always believed that their country is unique in providing the opportunity to get ahead. Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill deconstruct five myths about economic mobility in the United States, saying that we need better policies to help create a true opportunity society.
-
Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:24:00 GMT
Despite its status as one of the world’s leading economies, the United States is faced with high poverty rates and less economic opportunity than many other affluent countries. Senior Fellows Isabel Sawhill and Ron Haskins, argue that it will take a combination of personal responsibility along with smarter and better-targeted government policies to make the American Dream a reality for children and families now stuck at the bottom.
-
Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
On Wednesday, October 14, Sawhill, a Brookings expert and co-author of the recent book Creating an Opportunity Society, answered your questions during a live web chat about what Americans can do to get ahead in today’s turbulent economy. Fred Barbash, senior editor at Politico, moderated the discussion.
-
Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Although health care reform is intended to bend the curve of spending and reduce the deficit, it alone will not be enough, say Henry Aaron and Isabel Sawhill. They propose that Congress enact a value-added tax, the equivalent of a broad-based sales tax on all goods and services. The revenue from the new tax, and other sources, should be linked directly to public health care spending through a newly created trust fund which would pay for all federal health care spending.
-
Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Isabel Sawhill examines the effect of the proposed health care reform legislation on the middle class. She concludes that the reform will be a false victory if all it does is expand coverage and increase choice, without substantially affecting what our health care dollars buy.
-
Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Isabel Sawhill explains why addressing rising health care costs has to be the first step in solving the nation’s long term fiscal problems.
-
Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Isabel Sawhill examines the latest poverty statistics, concluding that with the policy community so heavily focused on health care reform, the plight of the least advantaged in our society is getting too little attention.
-
Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Emily Monea and Isabel Sawhill argue that in light of the projected increases in U.S. poverty levels, more attention should be paid to the adequacy of the safety net plus health care, education, job training and other means of insuring that more Americans are able to benefit from the opportunities that a growing economy will eventually provide.
-
Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT
While the government has been busy with bailouts, who is going to bail out the U.S. government when our creditors tire of lending to us? And now, thanks to the stimulus, virtually all those over age of 65 are receiving $250 checks, regardless of whether or not they need it. Isabel Sawhill says it’s time for Congress and the administration to get serious about getting our fiscal house in order.
-
Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT
The United States faces a looming fiscal imbalance brought on by an aging population and rising health care costs. Yet, the current political environment discourages our leadership from making the tough choices required to fix our fiscal house. In this paper, a diverse group of budget experts reviews some of the recent history of appointed commissions, and discusses their potential role in long-term federal budgeting policy.
-
Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
In order to overcome trillion-dollar deficits, the president must get spending under control – and muster a lot of political will says Isabel Sawhill: First, by getting Health Care spending under control; second, by putting Social Security on a sound financial basis; and finally by raising revenues.
-
Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
A bipartisan group of budget experts from 7 different organizations view President Obama’s Fiscal Responsibility summit as a good first step to addressing the enormous long-term fiscal problem facing the United States, but urge him to lead a major public engagement effort – beyond a one-day summit – to inform Americans of the scale and nature of the long-term fiscal crisis, explain the consequences of inaction and discuss the options for solving the problem. The effort should include the creation of an independent and truly bipartisan commission or other mechanism capable of bringing about decisive action that has broad public support.
-
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:22:55 GMT
In these tough times, the economy needs a stimulus, regardless of the impact on the deficit, says Isabel Sawhill. But prudent action needs to be taken to address runaway entitlement spending and that agenda should reconsider our intergenerational spending priorities.
-
Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT
Just before the House approved its version of the stimulus bill, it was stripped of a controversial provision that would have given states the option to expand a Medicaid-funded program subsidizing family planning services for low-income women. Adam Thomas and Isabel Sawhill agree that the family planning provision was rightly stripped from the package, but argue that it is an important program that has the potential to limit the number of unplanned pregnancies, reduce the incidence of abortion, improve child well-being and actually save money in the long-run.
-
Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:55:46 GMT
As President Obama’s economic stimulus bill works its way through Congress, sagging GDP numbers show that this is not a typical recession says Isabel Sawhill.
-
Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT
A diverse group of experts urged President Obama, in his first budget submission, to strike a judicious balance between America’s short-term and long-term economic needs. While the need to boost spending to stimulate the economy is important, they say these short-term steps must not make it harder to achieve our long-term goals. They note that fundamental reforms of major entitlement programs and the tax system are needed to bring spending and revenues into better balance over the longer-term.
-
Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT
As Congress and the new Administration consider spending billions of dollars to stimulate the economy in these tough economic times, Isabel Sawhill warns them not to forget the nonprofit organizations that help those in need. Sawhill says 10 percent of any stimulus should be invested in "human infrastructure."
-
Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT
“Washington may bail out Wall Street. But who will bail out Washington?” The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour group, Robert Bixby, Stuart Butler and Isabel Sawhill, discusses the importance of fundamentally recasting Medicare versus solely focusing on immediate health care reform.
-
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT
The past few decades have led to more inequality in both income and wealth than we have seen since the late 1920s. Despite this, Americans seem to care more about equality of opportunity than about equality of outcomes. Julia Isaacs and Isabel Sawhill describe ways to ensure greater equality of opportunity and economic mobility.
-
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Isabel Sawhill discusses the big three of entitlement programs - Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid and how they will wreak havoc on the country's finances (and yours) unless we scale them back.
-
Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Advocates for children are hoping that with a new administration and a new Congress in 2009, investments in children will get enhanced priority. Isabel Sawhill argues that we need a new intergenerational contract that invests more in people when they are young, but then expects them to assume somewhat greater responsibility for their own support during their retirement years.
-
Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Isabel Sawhill presents leading presidential candidates' positions on issues of fiscal responsibility, including: taxes, government programs and budgetary process issues . This chart is part of a series of issue indices to be published during the 2008 presidential election cycle.
-
Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Isabel Sawhill and Emily Monea argue that it's time to tear up the intergenerational contract as we know it and construct public policy around the one group of people for whom social investments really pay off: kids.
-
Mon, 26 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT
With Congress poised to approve a budget blueprint that offers no relief for long-term deficit woes, Isabel Sawhill says that it’s time for presidential candidates to discuss ways to reshape the nation’s fiscal priorities and return to a more responsible path. Right now, she writes, little is being done to prevent a disaster.
-
Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT
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.
-
Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Is America still the land of opportunity and mobility? How much opportunity to get ahead actually exists in America? Brookings scholars Julia Isaacs, Isabel Sawhill and Ron Haskins provide new evidence and summarize research on both the extent of intergenerational mobility in the United States and the factors that influence it.
-
Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:44:37 GMT
Economic inequality across American households has been growing for a number of years. Isabel Sawhill, co-director of the Center on Children and Families and co-author of Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America examines how upwardly mobile we really are.
-
Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT
Isabel Sawhill argues that the fiscal stimulus package is a good idea, but is merely a stopgap that will do little to change the fundamental problems. She says that Congress should not lose sight of how the economy got to where it is and what is needed to prevent such vulnerabilities in the future.
-
Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT
A sharp rise in income inequality in the United States has created large gaps between the haves and the have-nots. Based on new Brookings research, most of today’s adults are better off than their own parents were when they were growing up. The converse: one third remains worse off. Many middle-class families are only one earner away from poverty. Isabel Sawhill and Julia Isaacs argue that America could and should do better, through better access to education, including early childhood education.
-
Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT
In the first annual Kristin Anderson Moore lecture for Child Trends, Isabel Sawhill discusses how future generations will have to deal with the challenges of globalization and low savings rates, and emphasizes the need for higher education and fiscal responsibility.
-
Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT
This semiannual journal provides research and analysis to promote effective policies and programs for children. This issue focuses on antipoverty policies.
-
Fri, 08 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel V. Sawhill (06/08/07)
-
Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT
For more than two centuries, economic opportunity and the prospect of upward mobility have formed the bedrock upon which the American story has been anchored — inspiring people in distant lands to seek our shores and sustaining the unwavering optimism of Americans at home.
-
Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Article by Ron Haskins and Isabel V. Sawhill (May 2007)
-
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Testimony by Isabel V. Sawhill (April 26, 2007)
-
Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Although the nation's poverty rate is higher now than it was in the 1970s, no President since Lyndon Johnson has made fighting poverty a major plank of his campaign or goal of his administration. With large and growing gaps between the rich and the poor, it is now time for presidential campaigns and the next President to focus on poverty and inequality in America.
-
Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Currently projected deficits are unsustainable and pose serious risks to the economy, make us dangerously dependent on other countries, impose a "debt tax" on every taxpayer, send the bill for current spending to future generations, and weaken the government's ability to invest in the future or respond to emergencies. The next President will have to act to meet the deficit challenge.
-
Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel V. Sawhill and Alice M. Rivlin (02/21/07)
-
Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Bill Frenzel, Charles Stenholm, William Hoagland and Isabel Sawhill (2/12/07)
-
Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT
Success by Ten is a proposed program designed to help every child achieve success in school by age ten. It calls for a major expansion and intensification of Head Start and Early Head Start, so that every disadvantaged child has the opportunity to enroll in a high-quality program of education and care during the first five years of his or her life. Because the benefits of this intensive intervention may be squandered if disadvantaged children go from this program to a low-quality elementary school, the second part of the proposal requires that schools devote their Title I spending to instructional programs that have proven effective in further improving the skills of children, especially their ability to read.
-
Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT
How can we balance the budget in the next five years? In a series of papers on budget choices, Brookings analysts examine options for reducing domestic discretionary spending, pruning the defense budget, raising revenues, and investing additional resources in children. An overall deficit reduction plan uses the ideas developed in this series to balance the budget in the next five years. All five papers in this series, and more information about the Budgeting for National Priorities project, can be found at www.brookings.edu/budget.
-
Sun, 03 Sep 2006 12:00:00 GMT
This semiannual journal provides research and analysis to promote effective policies and programs for children. In this volume, the nation's leading scholars on social mobility focus on the extent to which children’s chances of success depend on the circumstances into which they are born.
-
Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Stagnating incomes for the middle class together with rising income inequality have raised questions about whether the United States remains the land of opportunity celebrated in the nation's history and public philosophy. This brief reviews the evidence on intergenerational mobility and the role of education in enabling less advantaged children to move up the economic ladder.
-
Mon, 15 May 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Speech by Isabel V. Sawhill, National Press Club (5/15/06)
Thank you. I first want to say I agree very much with everything that has been said so far. At Brookings we have produced two books on the fiscal situation facing the country — one in 2004, one in 2005. In both of those books, we laid out solutions that included both spending cuts and revenue increases and we got quite specific about both. There are many ways to bring back some balance between revenues and spending, and the ways we suggested are not the only ways. If elected officials do not like our ways then they should suggest some others. But I want to emphasize everything that has been said up to now about the need to get serious about this.
-
Sun, 30 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel V. Sawhill, The Philadelphia Inquirer (4/30/06)
-
Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Panel discussion at Center for American Progress (April 26, 2006)
MS. ISABEL SAWHILL: Thank you. I also want to thank the Center for the opportunity to be here. This topic is a very long and deep interest of mine. I wrote a book on it in 1998, which got zero attention, which just shows you that journalists have more power than you think because in my view it wasn't until the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post took up this issue that it began to be given the attention to which it deserves.
-
Sun, 23 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel V. Sawhill, Kansas City Star (4/23/06)
-
Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Paper by William T. Dickens, Isabel V. Sawhill and Jeffrey Tebbs (April 2006)
-
Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Brookings Policy Brief #153 by William T. Dickens, Isabel V. Sawhill and Jeffrey Tebbs (April 2006)
-
Wed, 15 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Testimony by Isabel V. Sawhill, House Committee on the Budget (2/15/06)
-
Fri, 27 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel V. Sawhill, Baltimore Sun (1/27/06)
-
Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT
Back in the 1970s and the 1980s, there was a high level of concern about the concentration of social ills in poor neighborhoods. At that time, the devastation wrought by the crack epidemic, the rapid rise in out-of-wedlock childbearing, and the high levels of violent crime in the inner cities led a number of journalists and scholars to talk about the emergence of an "underclass." This term was controversial, and over time has fallen out of favor. Nevertheless, the dangerously self-destructive behaviors that gave rise to the underclass debate, and particularly the geographic concentration of these ills in inner cities, were legitimate topics of public concern and led to a burgeoning of research on this group, including attempts to measure its size, composition, and location.
-
Sat, 12 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel V. Sawhill and Andrew L. Yarrow, Los Angeles Times (11/12/05)
-
Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel V. Sawhill, Minneapolis Star-Tribune (10/16/05)
-
Tue, 16 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel V. Sawhill, USA Today (8/16/05)
-
Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Interview with Isabel V. Sawhill, National Public Radio (6/16/05)
-
Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 GMT
In this second volume of Restoring Fiscal Sanity, a group of policy experts focus on how to bring spending and revenues in line over the next decade, and even more important, how to balance them over the longer term. They suggest reforms in th
-
Wed, 13 Apr 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Book edited by Alice M. Rivlin and Isabel V. Sawhill (4/13/05)
-
Mon, 21 Feb 2005 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Michael E. O'Hanlon and Isabel V. Sawhill, The Japan Times Online (2/21/05)
-
Fri, 23 Jul 2004 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel V. Sawhill, Akron Beacon Journal (7/23/04)
-
Fri, 26 Mar 2004 00:00:00 GMT
In Restoring Fiscal Sanity, scholars with high-level government experience provide an overview of the countrys likely medium- and long-term spending needs and the resources available to pay for them. They propose three alternative fiscal path
-
Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 GMT
Brookings Policy Brief #130 by Alice M. Rivlin and Isabel V. Sawhill. (March 2004)
-
Mon, 23 Feb 2004 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Lael Brainard, Michael E. O'Hanlon and Isabel V. Sawhill, The Albany Times-Union (2/23/04)
-
Tue, 13 Jan 2004 00:00:00 GMT
Book edited by Alice M. Rivlin and Isabel V. Sawhill (1/13/03)
-
Tue, 07 Oct 2003 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Greg Duncan and Isabel Sawhill (10/07/03)
-
Mon, 01 Sep 2003 00:00:00 GMT
WR&B Policy Brief by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill (9/2003
-
Mon, 01 Sep 2003 00:00:00 GMT
Article by Isabel V. Sawhill, The Public Interest (Fall 2003)
-
Thu, 24 Apr 2003 00:00:00 GMT
While virtually everyone talks about the importance of investing in the next generation, in the late 1990s federal spending on children represented only 2 percent of the nations gross domestic product. This volume argues forcefully that the life pro
-
Sun, 01 Dec 2002 00:00:00 GMT
Article by Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, Co-Director, Welfare Reform & Beyond, The Brookings Institution, in The Public Interest, Winter 2002
-
Thu, 11 Apr 2002 00:00:00 GMT
Testimony by Isabel V. Sawhill, Senior Fellow, the Brookings Institution, before the Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, April 11, 2002
-
Tue, 01 May 2001 00:00:00 GMT
Paper by Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow, and Adam Thomas, Senior Research Analyst, The Brookings Institution, May 2001
-
Sun, 11 Feb 2001 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow, and Adam Thomas, Senior Research Analyst, The Brookings Institution, in The Houston Chronicle, February 11, 2001
-
Mon, 01 Jan 2001 00:00:00 GMT
In their paper, Isabel Sawhill and Adam Thomas suggest a tax proposal that builds on one of President Bush’s key ideas - an expanded tax credit for families with children - but modifies it in ways that might prove more acceptable to Democrats.
-
Wed, 20 Sep 2000 00:00:00 GMT
Brookings Economic Papers
-
Tue, 05 Sep 2000 00:00:00 GMT
More Teens Just Say, 'No', Opinion in The Washington Post, September 5, 2000, by Tom Kean and Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution
-
Wed, 01 Mar 2000 00:00:00 GMT
Brookings Review article by Isabel V. Sawhill (Spring 2000)
-
Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 GMT
Do children growing up in cities face more challenges than suburban children?
-
Tue, 29 Jun 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Testimony before the Committee on Ways and Means -- June 29, 1999
-
Mon, 05 Apr 1999 00:00:00 GMT
HOW CONGRESS CAN SAVE MARRIAGE:
-
Thu, 01 Apr 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Investing in children can be accomplished by reorienting child-care subsidies and tax credits toward low-income working families and by investing more in high-quality preschool programs for their children. Children's Roundtable Report #1
-
Mon, 01 Mar 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Article by Isabel V. Sawhill, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies
-
Wed, 17 Feb 1999 00:00:00 GMT
Opinion by William Gale
-
Fri, 01 May 1998 00:00:00 GMT
Book by Isabel V. Sawhill and Daniel P. McMurrer, The Urban Institute, 1998