#National Debt

In the weeks ahead, climate change and energy issues are likely to be in the news again. Recently there has been much discussion on Capitol Hill about a potential bipartisan climate change proposal in the Senate. Energy issues were also…

The Senate Budget Committee has approved a budget resolution that calls for deficits to be reduced $671 billion below the levels in the President’s budget over five years. The resolution envisions that deficits will be reduced to 3% of GDP…

Q: Why are different numbers sometimes used to describe the federal debt?A: The figure that appears most often in the news is the government's total debt (or gross debt), which is nearly $12.8 trillion. But this figure has two components:…

Perhaps the most difficult policy question Concord has been discussing with the public, the media, and members of Congress, is what to do about current large budget deficits given the lingering effect of a deep recession and projections for future…

It’s a little amusing to see how badly the idea of a bipartisan fiscal commission has frightened some partisans at both ends of the political spectrum. That alone indicates the idea may have merit. (more…)

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress got a lot of good advice recently when representatives of The Concord Coalition’s fiscal advisory councils visited Capitol Hill to present their recommendations. The basic message: Elected officials must make…

I spent much of the last week in San Francisco assisting our Northern California Fiscal Advisory Council in their discussions of the possible solutions to the country's fiscal challenges. (more…)

The first definition of “plausible” on dictionary.com is:plausible[plaw-zuh-buhl]having an appearance of truth or reason; seemingly worthy of approval or acceptance; credible; believable: a plausible excuse; a plausible plot. (more…)