The Latest

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) today announced that he will retire from the Senate when his term expires in early 2013. Conrad said one of his top priorities for the remainder of his term would be "to get…

Proposals from President Obama’s fiscal commission and other bipartisan panels that issued reports last year are drawing renewed attention as the new Congress gets to work.Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), for example, has introduced a bill that would cut federal spending…

Although older Americans often talk about wanting a bright future for their children and grandchildren, irresponsible fiscal policies continue to dim that future year after year. High government debt and unsustainable benefit programs threaten to burden tomorrow’s citizens with extremely…

Recent calculations by Gene Steuerle and Stephanie Rennane at the Urban Institute underscore Medicare’s financial challenges and the need to curb its growing costs. The new numbers show the relationships between what people of different ages and incomes pay into…

Last week the House adopted budget enforcement rules that restrict spending but exempt tax cuts. Included are rules that weaken PAYGO by excluding revenues, allow reconciliation to be used for deficit-financed tax cuts, permit the chairman of the Budget Committee…

Urban Institute scholar Gene Steuerle has run the numbers and found that for Medicare, retirees are getting a really good deal.In a fascinating set of calculations, Steuerle and colleague Stephanie Rennane, looked at both Social Security and Medicare and estimated the levels of benefits relative…

A recent Congressional Budget Office report warns that interest payments on the national debt could swell to unprecedented levels unless lawmakers act to curb the growing imbalance between revenues and spending.Although total interest costs will depend on a variety of…

With the ink barely dry on a $858 billion tax cut and spending bill, Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert L. Bixby says, Washington has been hit with an official reminder that steps to rein in the nation’s debt cannot be…