Archive for December, 2010
Fiscal Future Daily: Charity, Austerity, and Keeping the Government’s Doors Open
AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site AdministratorDec 20, 2010
Now that the bipartisan compromise on the Bush tax cuts is passed, Congress is faced with the basic task of approving a spending bill to keep the government running. The current plan is for Congress to pass a bill that only keeps the government’s doors open until March, when it’s likely that a combination spending [...]
Five Things You Need to Know About Health Care and the National Debt
AUTHOR: Fiscal Future, Site AdministratorDec 17, 2010
There are lots of angles to health care reform, but one of the biggest is its impact on the federal budget. In fact, fixing health care and fixing our fiscal problems go hand in hand. Here’s five things you need to know about why.
Fiscal Future Daily: One Last Shot at the Estate Tax, and a Vote in the House on the Tax Plan
AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site AdministratorDec 16, 2010
The House gets the final say on the tax compromise today, after the Senate passed it yesterday. A group of House members have introduced an amendment to eliminate the payroll tax holiday, fearing the long-term implications for Social Security, but the core of the fight will be over the estate tax. But generally speaking, the [...]
Fiscal Future Daily: A Couple of Shots Across the Bow, One Last Round of Earmarks, and, Maybe, a Vote
AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site AdministratorDec 15, 2010
The Senate may actually have a final vote on the tax plan today, amid signs that the House Democrats may, very reluctantly, go along. Passing the $858 billion tax plan may help spur the economy, but it won’t help the deficit and rising national debt at all. The Congressional Budget Office reported this morning that [...]
Fiscal Future Daily: The Wheels Grind Slowly, Conservatives Strike Back, and What the Public Thinks
AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site AdministratorDec 14, 2010
One of the things that makes the Washington budget hard to follow is that there are multiple procedural votes, any one of which can hamper a plan, well before anything actually becomes final. The tax cut compromise is like that, getting past a Senate vote yesterday and facing another today. The consensus seems to be [...]
“Do You Want to Tell Them That?” Budget Lessons from the Movie “Dave”
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 13, 2010
The 1993 movie Dave has an old, durable plot, taken straight out of The Prince and the Pauper, or The Prisoner of Zenda, or even Akira Kurasawa’s samurai epic Kagemusha. A lookalike takes the place of the nation’s leader – and is actually better at it than the real leader is. “Dave” isn’t the best [...]
Fiscal Future Daily: Facing the First Vote, What We Get for $858 Billion and Three Points on the Payroll Tax Holiday
AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site AdministratorDec 13, 2010
Sen. Bernie Sanders became social-media sensation with his eight-hour speech against the tax cut deal, but the real action may happen today when the Senate is expected to actually vote on the plan. There’s fierce debate over whether the tax cuts, which will run up the national debt by $858 billion, will actually speed up [...]
Interesting Recommendations on the Debt From Graduate Students
AUTHOR: Steve Redburn, Project Director, Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget ReformDec 09, 2010
Some interesting recommendations on how to reform the U.S. budget process come from a team of graduate students in the public policy and management program at Carnegie-Mellon University in Adelaide, Australia. This work, led by Danura Miriyagalla, was under the supervision of NAPA fellow Steve Redburn, and served as the capstone project of the students’ graduate program. The team has made the paper available to NAPA, the National Academy of Sciences, and others.
Fiscal Future Daily: Getting the Picture on the Tax Deal; House Democrats Insist on Changes
AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site AdministratorDec 09, 2010
The Senate may start debate on the tax compromise plan today, as the White House tries hard to push the plan and the House Democrats say it shouldn’t even be voted on as is. From the public’s perspective, the most useful development may be that lots of news organizations and other groups are updating their [...]
Fiscal Future Daily: The Real Deal? And Figuring Out What it Really Means for the Economy and the Deficit
AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site AdministratorDec 08, 2010
Most of the budget news coverage today is about the bitter divide between President Obama and Congressional Democrats, which is providing plenty of media fodder with rhetoric over “purity” versus “failure to fight.” But we’re also starting to see serious and useful analysis of the deal itself: what it does, and what it won’t do, [...]