Posts by Robert

Lawmakers are now focusing on extending a series of tax provisions mainly benefiting businesses for one year after a much larger deal that would have added hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit collapsed last week. (more…)

An interesting poll this month in the Des Moines Register shows that Democrats and Republicans have very different opinions on the relative importance of the federal deficit versus unemployment and jobs as campaign issues. It might be, however, that the two…

Following last year’s bipartisan budget agreement, this was supposed to be the year of a harmless fiscal ceasefire on Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, the ceasefire is becoming a retreat for fiscal responsibility. (more…)

A book titled “Dead Men Ruling” is not the place you would expect to find an optimistic message about our nation’s future. That is the case, however, with a new book from budget expert Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute.…

Like Frankenstein’s monster, the statutory debt limit will soon come back to life. It has been in a state of suspended animation since the October 2013 budget deal that ended the government shutdown. The terms of that deal allowed the…

For those interested in a vision of fiscal sustainability, the State of the Union Address was a major disappointment. (more…)

Who says that Democrats and Republicans can't reach a grand bargain? Harry Reid and Paul Ryan seem to have it figured out. If Democrats and Republicans don’t demand compromises from each other, everyone can get along. It’s the perfect political grand…

We will soon see whether there is any remaining capacity in the U.S. political system to reach compromise across partisan lines for the common good. Republican congressional leaders say that if President Obama wants the government to reopen and the…