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Last week President Obama called for an additional $50 billion in infrastructure spending, which he argued would create jobs and help the nation to compete in the global economy. It is encouraging that the administration has said that it will…

Updated estimates by a federal agency indicate that spending on health care will rise from 17.3 percent of GDP last year to 19.3 percent in 2019 -- 0.3 percent higher as a result of this year’s health reform legislation and…

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently updated its estimate of National Health Spending. This unusual mid-year update, delivered in an article in Health Affairs, reflects changes due to the passage of the health care reform law in March,…

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Bill Novelli, and Isabel Sawhill Will Join in Tour Visits to Half a Dozen Cities Across the Country This Fall WASHINGTON –The Concord Coalition and The Peter G. Peterson Foundation today launched a national “Fiscal Solutions Tour” to…

The administration, worried about Democratic election prospects, is considering a new set of tax cuts to stimulate the economy. But Diane Lim Rogers, Concord’s chief economist, argues that the administration’s ideas are neither new nor particularly well thought-out. While the…

With the federal deficit and related fiscal problems on center stage in this year’s congressional campaigns, the latest update on the Budget and Economic Outlook from the Congressional Budget Office deserves particular scrutiny. That report has thrown sand into the…

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Bill Novelli, and Isabel Sawhill Will Join in Tour Visits to Half a Dozen Cities Across the Country this Fall (more…)

The federal budget consists of three broad categories: discretionary spending, mandatory spending, and interest payments on the public debt. Congress decides each year how much funding it will provide for discretionary programs. Mandatory spending, on the other hand, is generally…