The Latest

Lawmakers in Washington have enacted four laws in response to the coronavirus pandemic totaling $2.4 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office recently published a summary of those measures, including the estimated effects on discretionary and mandatory spending, revenues, and the deficit.…

Policymakers in Washington have responded to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic with a remarkable display of bipartisanship. All four rescue bills to date have passed with overwhelming support from both parties in the House and Senate. A crucial…

On June 9, the United States quietly reached an inauspicious milestone: our nation’s total federal debt surpassed $26 trillion for the first time. Given the dual crises of coronavirus and civil unrest that dominate national headlines, it’s not surprising this…

On June 4, roughly 25 young professionals gathered together (remotely), stared at computer screens and watched an animated video over Zoom. Since it happened to be a beautiful evening in late spring in New Hampshire, they either really liked cartoons…

It seemed to go without saying, but on Monday June 8th, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) made it official: The U.S. economy entered a recession in February 2020. It marked the end…

The Congressional Budget Office recently revised its forecast of key economic variables that drive the agency’s projections of federal spending and revenues. As the U.S. economy shuddered to a virtual halt in March in response to the global health pandemic,…

Concord Coalition executive director Bob Bixby recently moderated a policy discussion on Covid-19, the economy and the federal budget. The event was sponsored by Center Forward, an organization devoted to bringing together Members of Congress and Washington, DC organizations in…

One silent victim of the coronavirus pandemic is the 2020 congressional legislative agenda. As the virus took hold in the United States, lawmakers in the House and Senate rightly jettisoned their to-do lists to focus exclusively on emergency relief legislation.…