Episodes

4 days ago
The Federal Budget Lacks Fiscal Sanity
4 days ago
4 days ago
This week on Facing the Future, we'll talk with James Capretta, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and author of a recent paper called “Budgeting for Fiscal Sanity.” We’ll ask him how Congress should do that and we’ll also discuss some of the controversies over the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Thursday Mar 20, 2025
The Inflationary Risk of Rising Debt
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
This week on Facing the Future, we'll talk with Ernie Tedeschi, Director of Economics at the Budget Lab at Yale. He is the author of a new study showing the inflationary risk of rising federal budget deficits and debt.

Thursday Mar 13, 2025
Deficit Fix Requires Hard Choices Not Gimmicks
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
Thursday Mar 13, 2025
This week on Facing the Future, former CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf of Harvard's Kennedy School discusses the need for making hard choices on the budget and a big gimmick Congress is considering to avoid doing that.

Thursday Mar 06, 2025
Trump’s Balanced Budget Pitch Doesn’t Add Up
Thursday Mar 06, 2025
Thursday Mar 06, 2025
This week on Facing the Future we talked with former Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux who has been named the new Executive Director of The Concord Coalition. In addition, Bourdeaux will head up Concord Action, a new advocacy organization created to marshal grassroots support for fiscal responsibility.
We began by discussing President Trump’s speech on Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress. Bourdeaux commented that Trump “did make a nice hat tip to a balanced budget, which I appreciated. He said he would balance the budget and he would address the debt. However, the revenues and expenditures that he talked about just don't add up.”

Friday Feb 28, 2025
Creating a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund?
Friday Feb 28, 2025
Friday Feb 28, 2025
This week on Facing the Future, we'll discuss President Trump's executive order laying the groundwork for a U.S. sovereign wealth fund. How would it be funded and what would it invest in? Our guest is Mark Warshawsky, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Thursday Feb 20, 2025
Real Budget Savings or Mere Illusions?
Thursday Feb 20, 2025
Thursday Feb 20, 2025
This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson will explain why the House and Senate budget committee resolutions might not result in their promised deficit reduction numbers. We'll also look at claims of massive Social Security fraud. Then, National Field Director Phil Smith gets some insights from volunteer leaders.

Friday Feb 14, 2025
Beware of the Bond Vigilantes
Friday Feb 14, 2025
Friday Feb 14, 2025
This week on Facing the Future, we talked about the nation’s budget challenges with Barry Anderson, former Deputy Director for Budget Review at the White House Office of Management and Budget. He also served as Deputy Director and then Acting Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Beyond his work on the U.S. budget, Anderson headed the Budgeting and Public Expenditures Division in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Anderson sees some similarities between the early days of the Clinton Administration in the 1990’s and the current situation.

Friday Feb 07, 2025
Who Has the Power of the Purse?
Friday Feb 07, 2025
Friday Feb 07, 2025
This week on Facing the Future, we'll look at the debate in Washington over who has the Constitutional "power of the purse." We'll talk with Rachel Snyderman, Managing Director of Economic Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center and co-author of a new Q&A called "Budget Impoundment 101."

Thursday Jan 30, 2025
Budget Disciple Requires Political Will
Thursday Jan 30, 2025
Thursday Jan 30, 2025
This week on Facing the Future, the guest is Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute. She recently testified before the House Budget Committee about the daunting long-term U.S. budget outlook. We'll discuss that testimony and what she thinks is necessary to rein-in the growing debt.

Thursday Jan 23, 2025
Daunting Debt Projections Greet Trump Administration
Thursday Jan 23, 2025
Thursday Jan 23, 2025
This week on Facing the Future, we'll look at the new 10-year budget projections from the Congressional Budget Office and why some of President Trump's early executive orders might portend litigation over the Constitutional power of the purse.