Facing the Future

Facing the Future was in Washington DC this week for the national finals of the annual "Fiscal Challenge" competition among college students all over the country. The students put forward some thorough and well-researched plans to reduce the national debt as a share of the American economy over the next 30 years. Concord Coalition Communications Director Av Harris spoke in detail with the college teams about their proposals to raise revenue, reduce federal spending, and grow the economy. He also spoke with professor Sita Slavov of George Mason University's Schar School of Public Policy, who evaluated and scored these plans as one of the fiscal challenge judges.

This week on Facing the Future, we hear from two experts on the federal budget process and the search for more revenue which mamy fiscal policy experts believe we are going to need - along with spending cuts - if we expect to truly address the historic imbalance between what the  government spends and what it takes in. Our guests are Howard Gleckman of the Urban Brookings Tax Policy Center, and Tom Kahn, Faculty Fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University who for 20 years was staff director for Democrats on the House Budget Committee

This week on Facing the Future, we hear from labor economist Betsy Stevenson, who is a professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and served on the Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama. In a recent piece for the Peter G. Peterson foundation, Stevenson looks at some social science research showing that we are in an unusual time when public trust in government is at some of the lowest levels ever recorded. Stevenson recommends several steps Congress could take to stabilize our economy, end the dangerous game of chicken with the federal debt limit holding our financial system hostage, and enact some meaningful tax reforms to allow us to more fully  fund Social Security and Medicare. 

This week on Facing the Future, we travel to Iowa to get some perspectives on the long-term fiscal and economic challenges facing the United States. We are joined by a panel of experts from the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business to look at short and long-term economic trends and how to bring down the cost of healthcare. They were joined by Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson who takes a look at the current debt limit fight in Congress, and what is at stake for our economy. Plus, how can we avoid the Social Security Trust Fund going insolvent which could mean major benefit cuts for seniors. 

This week on Facing the Future, we hear excerpts from a recent panel discussion focusing on the economic and federal budget impact of climate change. The White House estimates that environmental damage may cost taxpayers up to $130 billion every year, and may cut our economic output by as much as 10% by the end of the century. The panel discussion was sponsored by the Concord Coalition, the League of Conservation Voters, and the Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership, and Public Service at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law.

This week on Facing the Future, we have an in-house panel of Concord Coalition experts - policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson - evaluate the validity and credibility of President Biden's recently released Fiscal Year 2024 federal budget plan. The President did propose some changes to Medicare and a significant amount of new revenue, but his plan comes up short in other areas. We take a look at the budget through a set of criteria we developed and assign some color codes - green, yellow and red - to tell us whether the President's budget meets the mark.

This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Andrew Biggs, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In a recent Op-Ed for the Washington Post entitled "Biden Once Cut Social Security. Now, He Can Save It" Biggs argues that both Republicans and Democrats need to stop making empty promises not to touch Social Security retiree benefits if they're unwilling to pay higher payroll taxes to fund them. And we also hear from Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson on how the federal government might still be able to cut Social Security checks even when it hits the debt limit and can't borrow any more money. 

This week on Facing the Future, we get further analysis of the latest 10-year budget and economic outlook recently released by the Congressional Budget Office from Jeff Holland of the Peterson Foundation, who used to run the CBO projection unit. Plus, we hear from Josh Gordon of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget for a closer look at how the runaway train that is healthcare costs is having a major impact on the federal budget over the next 10 years. Gordon also describes some big problems with the popular Medicare Advantage program.

This week on Facing the Future, we are joined one more time by Dr. Philip Swagel, an economist who is Director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO has just released its newest 10 year federal budget and economic outlook. The picture it paints is quite concerning. Deficits are expected to climb to an average of more than $2 trillion per year, and for the first time ever the Social Security trust fund is predicted to go insolvent within that 10-year window. If Congress does not act to shore up the program, beneficiaries could be facing cuts of more than 20%

This week on Facing the Future, we check in with Ben Ritz - director of the Center for Funding America's Future with the Progressive Policy Institute. Ben has written a number of recent works including one exploring what President Biden's call in the State of the Union Address to 'stand up for seniors' means for Social Security and Medicare when their trust funds are on track to run out of money in the next few years. And, how to move forward meaningful, bipartisan fiscal policy in a divided Congress.