In today’s hearing before the full House Appropriations Committee, the troika (OMB Director Peter Orszag, Treasury Secretary Geithner, and Dr. Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors) faced tough questions for 3.5 hours on the fiscal commission, unemployment figures, and the deficit.
Here are the highlights from this weekend’s editorials on fiscal and budget policy:
The United States is not the first nation to face tough fiscal challenges. Other countries have faced similar fiscal challenges – and gotten out of them.
In a new paper ("Fiscal Turnarounds: International Success Stories"), CRFB’s Fiscal Roadmap Project looks at successful fiscal turnarounds around the world and possible lessons for the U.S.
What are the lessons?
Here are the highlights from this weekend’s editorials on fiscal and budget policy:
The New York Times argued that the temporarily higher federal matching for state Medicaid funds should continue past the end of next year, when the higher matching rates are set to expire. They claimed that this would be a good way to help states' budgets and will help the increased numbers of poor people who currently rely on Medicaid for healthcare.
Here are the highlights from this weekend’s editorials on fiscal and budget policy:
The New York Times criticized Republican healthcare reform proposals as not doing enough to fix the current system or to contain costs. Proposals such as health savings accounts, high-risk pools, and allowing insurance to be purchased in any state, they argued, would either not drive down costs enough or would actually push up premiums for certain groups.
Fearless economists braved the Washington snow this week to walk through the doors of the Announcement Effect Club via their testimony before the Senate Budget Committee on “The Economic Outlook and Risks to the Federal Budget and Debt.”
Experts concerned about the nation’s fiscal and economic outlook braved the snow yesterday to participate in a Senate Budget Committee hearing on “Crisis and Aftermath: The Economic Outlook and Risks for the Federal Budget and Debt.” There was a great deal of agreement among the economists testifying that confronting the debt would be critical to promoting economic recovery and growth. As Washington digs out of 2-plus feet of snow, we must stop digging a larger debt hole.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget today applauded President Obama for proposing a specific fiscal goal in his Fiscal 2011 budget plan, but said the $3.8 trillion plan does not go far enough.
President Obama released a Fiscal 2011 budget request today that would spend some $3.834 trillion next year and projects a deficit of $1.267 trillion, or 8.3 percent of GDP.
Under the budget plan, deficits would gradually fall to $706 billion in 2014, before rising back to just over $1 trillion by 2020. The plan includes a three-year non-security discretionary spending freeze which would save $250 billion over 10 years, and additional deficit-reducing proposals, according to the Administration.
In this week’s debate on the Senate floor and the release of several congressional plans to address the deficit and debt, the national debt is on the radar inside Washington. But a recent op-ed by two of CRFB board members (Jim Jones and Douglas Holtz-Eakin) highlights why the national debt is an issue far outside the Beltway and could have huge international consequences.
