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Let’s Not Do That Again: Looking Back at the Budget Debate in 2011
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 30, 2011
You can’t call the past year a total failure, fiscally speaking. But whatever good came out of it may be outweighed by what Congress lost attempting to get there. In 2011, our unsustainable federal budget finally did get the attention it deserves. What we mostly saw, however, was the spectacle of Washington trying to force [...]
What’s Really Bothering Americans about Taxes
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 30, 2011
The latest survey shows six in 10 Americans say the federal tax system needs a total overhaul – but why they believe that is the fascinating point. A Pew Research Center survey released last week found that the 59 percent of Americans say so much is wrong with the tax system that “Congress should completely [...]
Defying the Corn God: Congress Lets Ethanol Subsidies Expire
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 27, 2011
Without much fanfare, Congress has decided to let ethanol subsidies expire this week. There’s a tone of surprise in the news coverage, as if everyone’s first reaction was: “Really?” This was a little-noticed side effect of the bill that extended the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, signed right before Christmas. Congress decided not to [...]
Binding Obligations, Budget Excuses
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 27, 2011
Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between a valid legal point and an excuse. Take, for example, one point that’s come up a lot in the fight over the federal budget. It’s the principle that “no Congress can bind a future Congress.” In other words, what Congress passes today can be repealed tomorrow. The [...]
Scrooge, the Federal Budget, and the Things That Might Be
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 22, 2011
A Christmas Carol is one of the great attacks on money-grubbing in Western literature. And if you’re talking about the federal budget, then Scrooge is usually invoked as an example of cold-hearted budget cutting. A Christmas Carol’s messages seem pretty obvious: Money isn’t everything. Don’t forget the poor and starving. Miserliness never pays. All [...]
Last Minute Congressional Holiday Shopping
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 22, 2011
We all know what it’s like in December: the crowds, the shopping, the endless to-do list. You know, the end of the Congressional session. If we needed any more evidence condemning Congress’ current strategy of “let’s set a deadline and force ourselves to act,” this chart from the Pew Fiscal Analysis project makes the case. [...]
The Tempting but Not Quite Complete Tax Debate
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 19, 2011
The greatest temptation in the budget debate is to focus on one thing. If we just do this one thing, whatever it may be, the problem will solve itself. The trouble is that the economy is so complex, with so many moving parts, that there aren’t any magic bullets. Changing one factor may help or [...]
Getting Older, Not Wiser, on the Federal Budget
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 16, 2011
We’re all getting older. And we need to start dealing with it. As a nation, we often act like our budget problems will go away once some specific policy crisis is over. You can hear this all the time, either expressly or implied, when politicians and commentators talk about the budget: “as soon as the [...]
2012: A Lost Year or Golden Opportunity on the Budget?
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaDec 06, 2011
Is the debate we need about the national debt possible in an election year? The National Journal reports that many budget hawks aren’t giving up on pushing for change in 2012. The conventional wisdom has been that the supercommittee was the last best chance to come up with a thoughtful fiscal plan before the presidential [...]
Doing Nothing vs Feeling Nothing on the Budget
AUTHOR: Scott Bittle, Senior Fellow, Public AgendaNov 29, 2011
Did the supercommittee accomplish anything by achieving nothing? Lots of people thought the panel was a bad idea to start with, on both left and right. One argument is that the supercommittee sessions may have actually moved Washington policymakers closer to common ground on a few issues, like changes to Medicare, even if the politicians [...]