Author Archive

Fiscal Future Daily: The Divide on the Debt Ceiling Between Leaders and the Public

AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site Administrator
May 16, 2011

Surveys show two-thirds of Washington leaders support raising the nation’s debt ceiling, yet about 47 percent of the general public opposes it. The answer for the gap may lie in how experts and the public approach problems — and in the high number of “don’t knows.”

Fiscal Future Daily: To D.C. Insiders, Budget Now on a Par With Economy as Most Important Problem

AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site Administrator
May 12, 2011

Whatever you think about Washington’s budget debate, there’s no question the fiscal focus inside the Beltway has shifted – and this new survey from Public Agenda shows how. Concern about the nation’s finances has more than doubled among “movers and shakers.” In fact with this group it’s on a par with the economy as “the most important problem” facing the country.

Fiscal Future Daily: The Road Behind Us

AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site Administrator
May 03, 2011

How did we get here? A decade ago, the budget agencies were projecting huge surpluses, now we face a national debt that all the experts agree is “unsustainable.” We’re always talking about the choices involved in getting out of our fiscal problems; now the fiscal program at the Pew Charitable Trusts as come up with a chart showing the choices that got us into it in the first place.

Fiscal Future Daily: If S&P is Worried, Should You Be, Too?

AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site Administrator
Apr 19, 2011

The decision by bond rating agency Standard and Poor’s to have a “negative outlook” for Treasury bonds caused a slump in the stock market, but the stock market wasn’t the target: it was Washington. And in Washington, not much immediately seemed to change.

Fiscal Future Daily: The Difference Between Doing Something and Nothing on the Deficit

AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site Administrator
Apr 13, 2011

There’s a surge of articles today arguing that “doing nothing” might do as much to solve our fiscal problems as any of the plans on the table. The problem is that this defines “something” and “nothing” in purely Beltway terms. The public’s going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting either way, and someone’s going to have to persuade them that it’s necessary.

Fiscal Future Daily: Will Obama Endorse Simpson-Bowles Deficit Plan?

AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site Administrator
Apr 12, 2011

The smart money seems to believe President Obama will endorse the so-called Simpson-Bowles plan tomorrow, more or less. Since a large part of the reaction when the plan was first proposed was to the effect that it would never fly, that’s an advance. But whether the plan should fly is another question. Time to get prepped.

Fiscal Future Daily: The Tradeoffs Start to Become Clear

AUTHOR: FiscalFutureDaily, Site Administrator
Apr 06, 2011

There’s an enormous amount being written about the House Republican budget plan and its plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system. In all that analysis, however, it’s the staid Congressional Budget Office that makes the basic tradeoff in the plan completely clear: we would control our unsustainable debt by asking seniors to pay more for health care. In the end, its up to the public whether that’s a tradeoff they want to make.