#Congress

Wall Street recorded one of the most volatile weeks in its history as investors last week reacted to the struggling American economy, Europe’s debt crisis, the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor’s, and continuing doubts about…

Deficit reduction talks this year have largely taken place behind closed doors, without engaging the public in any meaningful way. But Robert L. Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition, argues that the dozen lawmakers who have been appointed to…

Projections by the Congressional Budget Office make it clear that future choices about tax policy -- and particularly about expiring tax cuts -- will be a critical factor in the country’s fiscal outlook for many years to come.Republicans counted it…

The new debt limit law includes a trigger that would impose severe spending cuts if legislation to reduce the deficit by more than $1.2 trillion has not been enacted by Jan. 15, 2012. It was designed to give an incentive…

Members of the new Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction will have a threshold decision to make: Do they want to take their mandate seriously?If the answer is yes, they will likely have to make decisions in the public interest…

In this debt-limit game of musical chairs, the music has stopped and it’s time to grab a seat. The only one available is the deal worked out by congressional leaders and the Obama administration over the weekend. It is not…

WASHINGTON -- Former members of Congress who serve on The Concord Coalition’s Board of Directors today urged elected officials to raise the debt limit and embrace the broad deficit-reduction plan released this week by the Senate’s bipartisan “Gang of Six.”…

As congressional hearings last week made clear, some lawmakers in both parties continue to chafe at a key cost-control element in last year’s health care legislation: an advisory panel that several years from now could help curb excessive Medicare spending.Critics…