Restoring Budget Sanity

If current policies are continued and recent tax cuts are extended, the United States will face annual budget deficits of more than half a trillion dollars over the next decade. The deficits will escalate rapidly after that and could have serious consequences for the economy.

To address the issue, the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation will co-sponsor an event on Capitol Hill featuring a bipartisan group of lawmakers, budget analysts, and congressional budget staffers to examine the deficit, its possible short- and long-term consequences, and policies that Congress could adopt to reduce it.

The first group of panelists will analyze the deficit and its causes and propose solutions to the problem. Speakers on the second panel will present alternative views on the deficit and critique the Brookings and Heritage proposals. Following their remarks, both panels will take questions from the audience.