Facing the Future

This week on Facing the Future we discussed the interaction of fiscal and monetary policy with Dr. Thomas Hoenig, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a member of the Federal Reserve System’s Open Market Committee (FOMC) from 1991 to 2011. We got his take on the Fed’s efforts to engineer a soft landing and the implications of high debt for the nation’s long-term budget and economic outlook. Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson joined the conversation.

This week on Facing the Future we begin with Social Security’s annual cost of living increase, announced by the Social Security Administration (SSA) on October 10. Then we looked at seven key findings from the 1994 bipartisan Kerrey-Danforth commission that are sadly still valid and still in need of solutions. Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson, a former senior advisor at the SSA, joined me for the discussion.

This week on Facing the Future former U.S Representative Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-GA) discussed key differences between state and federal budgeting and whether there are lessons for federal policymakers. We also got some timely insights from University of Maryland professor of public policy Phil Joyce on whether the 50-year old federal budget process is up to dealing with the nation’s fiscal challenges. Later in the show, Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined me to assess the Fiscal Year 2024 year-end numbers as reported by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and a new CBO report on trends in the distribution of family wealth.

This week on Facing the Future Rachel Snyderman of the Bipartisan Policy Center and Concord Coalition National Field Director Phil Smith describe the unprecedented size of our projected deficits and debt which add to the challenges that await the new president and Congress in 2025.

This week on Facing the Future, we'll talk with Ben Ritz, Vice President of Policy Development at the Progressive Policy Institute, about a comprehensive plan his organization released in July to greatly improve the nation's fiscal outlook by cutting costs, raising revenues and growing the economy.

This week on Facing the Future we focused on the economy and previewed the 2025 tax debate when key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) are scheduled to expire at the end of the year. We also discussed some new tax proposals that have been floated on the campaign trail. 

Our guest was Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum and former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson joined the conversation.

This week on Facing the Future, Dr. Kent Smetters of the Penn Wharton Budget Model at the University of Pennsylvania will give us his nonpartisan analysis of the budgetary, economic and distributional effects of the Harris and Trump campaign policy proposals. Also, Steve Robinson discusses new long-term projections for Social Security.

This week on Facing the Future, Josh Gordon, Director of Health Policy at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), joined the show to discuss healthcare spending, prescription drug prices, and more. At CRFB, Gordon heads the Health Savers Initiative.Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined the healthcare conversation, and later discussed his new issue brief entitled Means Testing Federal Benefits and Tax Expenditures.

This week on Facing the Future, Bob is joined by Bill Gale, Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution. A well respected expert in the subject of debt and taxes, Gale recently wrote a piece for Brookings called Back to the Future: Can the Government Reduce Its Debt Again? which discussed the future of federal debt management in the United States. Later in the show, David Lerman, writer of CQ Rollcall’s budget newsletter previewed the important appropriations and spending decisions that await Congress when it returns from summer recess in September. Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson joined both conversations.