Blogs

Judging by recent media reports, there is a growing belief in Washington that the best way to deal with the deficit is to “declare victory.” It won’t work. The deficit problem is far from being solved and its lengthy shadow…

The 2013 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report released last Friday highlighted many challenges ahead for the two programs, the most urgent of which is the impending insolvency of the Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund.In the absence of corrective legislation,…

Although the federal deficit is now dropping, members of Congress should heed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s recent warnings about the need to focus more on the country’s long-term fiscal imbalances.“To promote economic growth and stability in the longer term,…

Tax reform gained renewed attention in Washington following a report on tax expenditures from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and a Senate subcommittee hearing that focused on Apple’s extensive use of certain breaks to lower its tax bill.The CBO released…

Any credible health care reform plan that Congress passes must include a meaningful target for restraining long-term cost growth that can be enforced.A number of recent bipartisan health plans, as well as budgets proposed by elected officials in Washington, are…

Last Friday the Congressional Budget Office released its scoring of the President’s budget using CBO’s own baseline and economic projections.The bottom-line results confirm the overall composition of spending and revenues projected by the President’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB)…

For those inclined to look beyond the sharp drop in the deficit this year, as we should, the budget update released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on May 14 has some striking indications of things to come. (more…)

This is post three of a three-part series on the developing consensus for the next steps on health care reform. Part One is here. Part Two is here. (more…)