Restoring Fiscal Sanity: How to Balance the Budget

America will face persistent, annual deficits of over half a trillion dollars over the next decade. If current policies continue, these deficits will slow economic growth, reduce household incomes, and impose enormous burdens on the next generation. To address the problem, a team of Brookings experts—several of whom have served as White House Office of Management and Budget directors—has been working on possible solutions.

On January 13, the group will release a new report on why deficits matter and what might be done about them. The report, which is being released three weeks before the president’s budget is due to Congress, provides a clear-eyed assessment of the federal budget outlook for the next ten years and offers three ways to balance the budget.

Along with brief presentations by the Brookings authors, an independent, expert panel will address the budget problem and the report’s proposals.

Introduction:
STROBE TALBOTT
President, The Brookings Institution

Panel 1:

ALICE M. RIVLIN
Senior Fellow and Director
Greater Washington Research Program, Brookings

ISABEL V. SAWHILL
Vice President and Director
Economic Studies Program, Brookings

Panel 2:

DAN L. CRIPPEN
Former Director
Congressional Budget Office

ROBERT E. RUBIN
Director and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Citigroup

JOHN EDWARD PORTER
Partner, Hogan & Hartson, LLP

ROBERT D. REISCHAUER
President, Urban Institute

Panel 3:

Moderator:
HENRY J. AARON
Senior Fellow
Economic Studies, The Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Chair, Brookings

LAEL BRAINARD
Senior Fellow
Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, Brookings

WILLIAM G. GALE
Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Economic Studies
Brookings; Co-Director, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

RON HASKINS
Senior Fellow
Economic Studies, Brookings

PETER R. ORSZAG
Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow
Economic Studies, Brookings

CHARLES L. SCHULTZE
Senior Fellow Emeritus
Economic Studies, Brookings