The Budget, the Deficit, the Future

The federal government responded aggressively to the current economic crisis with a series of fiscal, financial and monetary interventions. While boosting the economy has to be the top priority in the short run, it would be dangerous to lose focus on medium- and long-term fiscal issues, which have deteriorated during the current crisis and now represent future threats to the economy and to the solvency of the federal government.

On July 8, the Budgeting for National Priorities Project, the Center on Children and Families, and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center hosted a forum on economic recovery and fiscal sustainability. Brookings Vice President and Director of Economic Studies William Gale showed how fiscal policy can help or hurt economic activity over different time horizons, examined the short-, medium-, and long-term fiscal status of the federal government, and discussed the difficult fiscal and economic balancing act that will need to occur after the economy recovers. Numerous speakers in the field offered responses and participated in a panel discussion.

Speakers and panelists took questions from the audience.