Facing the Future

This week on Facing the Future, we hear from two veterans of many Congressional budget battles, Democrat Tom Kahn, who teaches budget policy at American University, and Republican Bill Hoagland, the Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center. They recently penned a joint op-ed in which they urge Americans to put pressure on their elected officials to make difficult compromises to address our long-term national debt, because neither party can do it alone.

This week on Facing the Future, we try to examine the mixed signals on the economic trends with a strong jobs report and inflation easing somewhat but key consumer price indicators still too high. For that, we turn to economist Robert Carroll with Ernst and Young, and then we get further analysis on that plus data from the Congressional Budget Office showing the federal budget deficit on the rise again after coming down the last couple of years from Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson.

This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Diane Lim - the "Economist Mom" - who gives us some very interesting highlights from a recent Congressional Report she helped put together looking at how the federal government can invest in robust economic growth over the next decade or so. The bottom line: the government should invest more in young people and children to get more economically productive adults. Plus we examine the final score issued by the Congressional Budget Office for the bipartisan debt limit and spending reduction deal enacted by Congress late last week.

This week on Facing the Future, we get expert analysis from the Concord Coalition's policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson on the debt limit deal struck between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avert a federal default. We also hear excerpts from a very interesting forum held last week with Harvard economist Jason Furman and Rohit Kumar of PricewaterhouseCoopers who both question the efficacy of even having a debt limit at all. Furman and Kumar were involved in negotiations between President Obama and Republicans in Congress during the last debt limit crisis in 2011.  

This week on Facing the Future, we talk with Greg Bertelsen, CEO of the bipartisan Climate Leadership Council about so-called 'border carbon adjustments.' The concept is getting substantial interest in Congress from both Republicans and Democrats and would impose fees on imported goods whose production pumps a high amount of carbon smog into the atmosphere. It's meant to raise revenue, reduce carbon emissions, and improve the competitive standing of American manufacturers who run much cleaner operations than rivals in China or India. Plus, we'll get an update from Texas on what's happening at the US-Mexico border from immigration lawyer and former US Ambassador to Belize George Bruno.

This week on Facing the Future, we turn to the Concord Coalition's  veterans of Congress - policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson - for up to the minute analysis on negotiations between President Biden and Congressional leaders over extending or suspending the nation's debt limit. The federal government may have only a few days or the next week to be able to pay all of its bills in full and on time before a default occurs if a deal cannot be reached. If no deal is reached, the consequences on our economy could be serious and far reaching.

This week on Facing the Future, we talk to Rachel Snyderman of the Bipartisan Policy Center about a brand new report containing an estimate for the 'X-Date' when the federal government will run out of borrowing authority to meet all of its obligations in full and on time. The BPC estimates that date will land sometime between early June and late August, if Congressional leaders and President Biden cannot agree on an extension or suspension of the federal debt limit. This could have a serious and lasting economic impact for all of us.

This week on Facing the Future, we take a deep dive into the federal budget for the Department of Defense and all the country's intelligence and national security needs. It's a big number and constantly growing. President Biden has proposed spending $842 billion on defense in his proposed budget, which does not include likely additional funds that may be needed for the Ukrainian effort to fight off the Russian invasion. So, where does all that money go? For answers to that question and many others, we got expert analysis from Dr. Gordon Adams, former Associate Director for National Security at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson - both veterans of Capitol Hill - dissect the particulars of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's proposal to raise the debt limit in exchange for about $4.5 Trillion in deficit reduction. A laudable goal, but should it be the start of a budget negotiation rather than a set of conditions for raising the debt limit to avoid a government default this summer? We also speak to Professor Mike Aguilar of the University of North Carolina about the collegiate Fiscal Challenge competition, which he founded and runs. 

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.