RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
April 01, 2008, The Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation
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. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bill Frenzel and Ron Haskins, April 07, 2008, The Washington Times
As the baby boomers begin to retire this year, the burden of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will grow relentlessly. With more people in the programs and more expensive benefits, the nation will quickly encounter a budget disaster. Bill Frenzel and Ron Haskins say that dramatic reforms are needed to avoid budget chaos for future generations. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Bill Frenzel, Charles Stenholm, G. William Hoagland and Isabel V. Sawhill, February 28, 2007, Opportunity 08
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. Read More
BOOK
Alice M. Rivlin and Joseph R. Antos, March 01, 2007
Exceeding $2 trillion annually, health care spending in the United States is growing significantly faster than the national economy. If left unchecked, this health spending crisis will threaten Americans' ability to pay for other essential services. Read More
BOOK
Alice M. Rivlin and Isabel V. Sawhill, May 01, 2005
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 Read More
VIDEO
Alice M. Rivlin, August 27, 2009
President Barack Obama has nominated Ben Bernanke to serve a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. The nomination came on the same day the White House announced a sharp increase in projected deficits. Alice Rivlin says the deficit projections should serve as an impetus for officials to step up efforts to fix the floundering economy. She also gives the Bernanke nomination her nod of approval.
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
William G. Gale and Alan J. Auerbach, July 30, 2009, CNNMoney.com
William Gale and Alan Auerbach discuss the size of the long-term budget deficit and why it must be brought under control. They urge fiscal discipline with delicate timing: imposing spending cuts and tax increases too late risks precipitating a crisis in financial markets; imposing fiscal discipline too soon risks weakening the recovery or worsening the recession, as actually happened in the United States in the 1930s. Getting this mix right will require luck, discipline, imagination and leadership. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
William A. Galston, March 26, 2009, The Brookings Institution
The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of President Obama’s budget proposal projects a deficit of $9.3 trillion over the next decade, thereby forcing congressional leaders to look for changes to reduce it. Although the Senate Budget Committee has not yet finished marking up its version of the fiscal year 2010 budget resolution, Democrats are likely to diverge from the president’s desires. While Congress supports most of the president’s priorities, they are poised to sideline many of the programs President Obama proposed to implement, writes William Galston. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Andrew Reamer, September 05, 2008, National Academy of Sciences
In a recent National Academy of Science workshop, Andrew Reamer reviews the array of mandates that Congress has given the White House Office of Management and Budget to maintain data repositories and publish reports on federal expenditures—including grants and contracts—by geography. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Robert Hahn and Robert E. Litan, June 01, 2007, AEI-Brookings Joint Center Regulatory Analysis 07-02
This paper critically reviews the draft of the Office of Management and Budget's tenth report on the benefits and costs of federal regulations. The draft report is similar to previous reports, and does not break new ground. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Robert Hahn and Robert E. Litan, January 31, 2007, AEI-Brookings Joint Center, Policy Matters 07-06
Robert W. Hahn and Robert E. Litan agree that the president’s executive order on regulation is a step in the right direction, but the order should take a more significant step by subjecting all federal regulatory agencies to the same kind of discipline that the executive order requires of executive agencies. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Robert Hahn and Robert E. Litan, June 15, 2006, AEI-Brookings Joint Center
Robert W. Hahn and Robert E. Litan critically review the draft of the Office of Management and Budget’s ninth report on the benefits and costs of federal regulation. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Robert Hahn and Robert E. Litan, June 15, 2006, AEI-Brookings Joint Center
Robert Hahn and Robert Litan critically review the government's proposed risk assessment guidelines. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Robert Axtell and Gregory J. McRae, March 15, 2006, AEI-Brookings Joint Center
Robert L. Axtell and Gregory J. McRae argue that exponential discounting of many benefit streams—particularly non-pecuniary ones—fails the 'data quality' test and should be abandoned in favor of empirically-observed hyperbolic discounting. Read More
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
Robert Hahn, Robert E. Litan and Rohit Malik, April 15, 2005, AEI-Brookings Joint Center
Robert W. Hahn, Robert E. Litan and Rohit Malik critically review the draft of the Office of Management and Budget's eighth report on the benefits and costs of federal regulation. Read More