Facing the Future

This week on Facing the Future, we revisit a conversation from earlier this year with Alex Pollock and Howard Adler, authors of a new book entitled "Surprised Again: The COVID Crisis and the New Market Bubble." The book examines the recent economic crises, including the COVID related economic shutdown and the Great Recession of 2008-10, and asks why these types of events always seem to take us by surprise. Though inflation has come down somewhat from its peak in the last year, it is still a problem for our economy, brought about in large part by the federal government's responses to the two most recent economic crises. Not to mention the trillions of dollars these crisis responses added to our national debt.

This week on Facing the Future, we turn once again to the expertise of David Lerman, editor of CQ Budget Tracker, for a breakdown on the current breakdown in Congress when it comes to passing bills to fund the government. The clock is ticking towards the end of the current fiscal year on September 30th and if nothing is passed, the federal government would go into a partial shutdown. The Senate has passed all 12 appropriations bills out of committee with a strong bipartisan vote (for the first time in a dozen years), but the House is not able to come to consensus. Hard right members are seeking deeper spending cuts than the caps set in the bipartisan debt limit deal between Speaker McCarthy and President Biden. 

This week on Facing the Future, we speak with Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution for an assessment of US national security strategy from Ukraine to China, the Arctic, and everything in between. And, what this means for future US defense spending, which is a significant part of the federal budget. O'Hanlon has served as an advisor to both the Defense Department and the CIA, and gives us a preview of his new paper assessing the Pentagon's budget needs relative to the global threats and challenges we face. Also we'll take a look at how a few small changes to economic assumptions make major changes in long-term projections for the federal budget and our national debt.

This week on Facing the Future, we get an update from Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson on the latest economic news plus the looming Congressional battle over appropriations bills for the next fiscal year. No agreement by the end of the current fiscal year on September 30th could force a partial government shutdown. Plus, we visit New Hampshire Boys State where a group of high school students were engaged in serious policy debates over how to reduce the federal deficit over the next 10 years as they took on the Principles and Priorities budget exercise.

This week on Facing the Future, we talk to Richard Jackson, President of the Global Aging Institute about the combined effects of declining fertility rates, longer life expectancy and the baby boomers entering retirement en masse on our federal budget and our economy. It means more spending on Medicare and Social Security, with a smaller working age population to pay into these safety net programs and sustain them. We will also catch up with Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson on the latest economic news.

This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman joins us to analyze the long-term budget outlook recently released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It projects, among other things, a fast growing elderly population combined with declining birth rates and higher health care costs. All this leading to our national debt nearly doubling as a share of our economy over the next 30 years. Plus, we'll revisit our recent conversation about border climate adjustments designed to cut global greenhouse gas emissions and give American manufacturers some competitive advantage. 

This week on Facing the Future, we are joined by the newest member of The  Concord Coalition's Board of Directors, Dr. Carolyn Bourdeaux. Dr. Bourdeaux has extensive experience in public sector budgeting. During the Great Recession, she was director of the Georgia Senate Budget and Evaluation Office, where she worked with both parties to balance Georgia’s budget and get the state economy back on track. She brought this valuable budget and fiscal knowledge to Congress when she served as a member representing Georgia's 7th district. Bourdeaux earned a reputation as a serious legislator who worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find solutions to some of our complicated problems, and shares with us the many lessons she's learned along the way. 

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.