This week on Facing the Future we celebrated Social Security’s birthday. Wednesday, August 14th marked 89 years since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. Bob and Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson assessed Social Security’s accomplishments, future challenges, and some myths about reform. Later …

This week on Facing the Future, Bob Bixby switched from the host chair to the guest seat to talk about his 25-year career as Executive Director of The Concord Coalition. National Field Director Phil Smith asked Bob questions about the importance of the federal budget, the fiscal outlook, and The Concord Coalition over the years. Later in the show, …

This week on Facing the Future we’ll talk with Jeff Holland of the Peterson Foundation about a series of papers released last week called Solutions Initiative 2024. It features seven plans from prominent think tanks, including one from our second guest, Andrew Lautz of the Bipartisan Policy Center.By The Concord Coalition

This week on Facing the Future, we'll take a preliminary look at the tax policy proposals of former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. In addition, we'll consider the tax policy implications of a case recently decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Our guest is Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Cent…

This week on Facing the Future we'll look at whether the Fed has seen enough progress on inflation to begin cutting interest rates? Our guest is Gordon Gray, executive director of the Pinpoint Policy Institute. Then, we'll say farewell to frequent co-host Tori Gorman as she takes up a new job with the Congressional Research Service.…

This week on Facing the Future we'll get perspectives from high school students who negotiated their own budget plans at a recent New Hampshire Boys State conference. Then we'll review what Presidents Biden and Trump said about the debt and Social Security at the debate.By The Concord Coalition

This week on Facing the Future, Bob was joined by Concord Coalition Co-Chairs and former U.S. Senators Bob Kerrey (D-NE) and Jack Danforth (R-MO). Thirty years ago they co-chaired a bipartisan commission on entitlement and tax reform that warned of unsustainable budget trends. Reflecting back upon the past three decades, the bright spots are oversh…

This week on Facing the Future, Bob Bixby was joined by Concord Coalition Policy Director Tori Gorman and Chief Economist Steve Robinson to discuss the latest 10-year Budget and Economic Outlook from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The CBO report projects that the federal budget deficit will grow from $2 trillion this year to $2.8 trillion b…

This week on Facing the Future, Bob Bixby was joined on the show by Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He also served as one of thirteen COVID-19 advisors on President-elect Biden’s pandemic advisory board in 2020. Osterholm provided insights into where we curr…

This week on Facing the Future we’ll examine developments on the national security front with Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution. Topics include the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza as well as competition with China.By The Concord Coalition

This week on Facing the Future Bob was joined by George Mason University Professor Sita Slavov to discuss her recent essay Making Tough Fiscal Choices to Protect Future Generations and the relevance of long term sustainability to younger generations. Slavov has previously worked with the White House Council of Economic Advisors and was a member of …

This week on Facing the Future we'll talk with Jason Furman, a former top economic advisor to Presidents Clinton and Obama. He now teaches economics at Harvard University. We discussed the prospects of a "soft landing" for the economy and the crucial role of interest rates in projecting future debt.By The Concord Coalition

This week on Facing the Future, we'll hear first from two UNH professors, Dr Carolyn Arcand and NH State Senator Dan Innis, about the relevance of fiscal policy to their students' future. Then we'll take another look at GAO's new estimate of government-wide fraud with Rebecca Shea, co-author of the report.…

This week on Facing the Future we took a close look at Social Security and Medicare, the two largest programs in the federal budget. Between them they cost nearly $2.2 trillion dollars in 2023, roughly 36 percent of total federal spending. They also affect the retirement income and healthcare of millions of Americans. On Monday, May 6, the Social S…

This week on Facing the Future we’ll look at the future of Social Security with former U.S. Representative Reid Ribble (R-WI), who served in Congress from 2011-2017. In 2016, Ribble released the Save Our Social Security Act (S.O.S.) with a bipartisan group of co-sponsors. We discussed that plan with him and why he thinks Social Security reform is e…

This week on Facing the Future, we'll discuss a new report on fraud by the Government Accountability Office, along with a review of the foreign aid spending bill and the latest news on the economy.By The Concord Coalition

This week on Facing the Future, we'll get some policy ideas from three college students who recently took part in an annual Fiscal Challenge competition where teams from around the country devise and defend their own plans for putting the federal budget on a sustainable path. Dr. Mike Aguilar, founder and president of the Fiscal Challenge also join…

This week on Facing the Future, we'll look at what happens at the end of 2025 when many of the tax cuts enacted in 2017 are scheduled to expire. What should Congress be doing to prepare for this fiscal cliff? How much would it cost to extend the tax cuts? Are there viable options to offset the revenue loss? We’ll get some perspectives on all these …

This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson discusses his new issue brief, "The Rhetoric and Reality of Taxing the Rich." Then we'll talk with Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute about his new column explaining that "Major Budget Reform Must Accommodate Legislators' Need to Give Money Away."…

This week on Facing the Future, we'll look at the economics of immigration reform with Teresa Cardinal Brown, Senior Advisor for Immigration and Border Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. With the U.S on track to have more deaths than births by 2040, immigration is an increasingly necessary component for a growing economy. Is there a way forwar…

This week on Facing the Future we hear from Zach Moller, director of the economic program at Third Way, a center-left think tank. He'll discuss his recent report called, "A Democratic Case for Fiscal Responsibility." We'll also look at the latest numbers on jobs and inflation.By The Concord Coalition

This week on Facing the Future, we look at President Biden's new budget. It has a plausible deficit reduction path but are the policies used to get there plausible as well? Our guests are Josh Gordon of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Brian Riedl of the Manhattan Institute.By The Concord Coalition

This week on Facing the Future our in-house panel of experts, policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson, will preview the president’s State of the Union Address, scheduled for Thursday, March 7, and the president’s budget submission, scheduled for Monday, March 11.By The Concord Coalition

This week on Facing the Future we’ll talk about the long drawn-out Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations process in Washington, which may be finally wrapping up in the next two weeks — or maybe not. With a partial shutdown looming on March 1st, we'll talk to Bill Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center and former Republican staff …

This week on Facing the Future we'll examine how policies of the Federal Reserve Board affect the economy and the budget. Did the Fed's "quantitative easing" go too far and last too long? Our guest is Thomas Hoenig, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and a member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) from 1991 to 2011…