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Americans have had plenty of warnings about the need to deal with the nation’s fiscal challenges. And judging from how ordinary people respond to The Concord Coalition’s deficit-reduction exercises around the country, they expect more from Washington than unrealistic budget…

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned lawmakers that the government could hit its debt ceiling in mid-October, earlier than many analysts had predicted.Congress has no choice but to eventually raise the debt limit so the government can pay its bills…

Fiscal Year 2013 is drawing to a close with a projected federal deficit of a little over $640 billion, marking the end of a four-year string of trillion-dollar-plus deficits.While that change is good news, our fiscal worries aren’t over. Although…

This year will mark the end of a four-year string of trillion-dollar-plus federal deficits that have troubled the American public and caused turmoil on Capitol Hill. (more…)

Last week Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel released a four-month Pentagon review that said the budget sequester cuts would jeopardize some areas of military strategy. Under sequester-level spending reductions, he said, “our military options and flexibility will be severely constrained.”The Strategic…

Congress has begun a recess that runs through early September despite completing no appropriations bills and making no progress towards a budget resolution conference.Lawmakers have failed to reconcile the overall spending levels set by the Democratic-controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House.…

Developments on the budget front last week demonstrated both the difficulty of achieving a grand bargain and why it may not be totally out of reach. First, the difficulty. (more…)

A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report makes clear that the failure of elected officials to agree on a responsible alternative to sequestration’s indiscriminate spending cuts will cause immediate damage to the economy. The report also shows, however, that ending sequestration…