Fiscal Institute

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s Fiscal Institute houses a number of policy projects on a wide variety of fiscal, economic and political topics. The Fiscal Institute’s purpose is to generate, in a depoliticized environment, a variety of creative, new and academically sound ideas and to share them with a wide and diverse audience. The projects undertaken by the Fiscal Institute are intended to be more long-term and forward-thinking, and to generate new research, policy ideas, forums and networks in order to help to improve our economic and political systems.

Better Budget Process Initiative

There is a growing consensus that the budget process is broken. Deadlines are missed, controls circumvented, gimmicks employed, and the long-term ignored. The Better Budget Process Initiative aims to address this problem through concrete ideas to reform and improve the way the budget is developed, including placing greater focus on the long-term fiscal outlook, dealing with the debt limit, strengthening statutory budget enforcement, revising the content and structure of the Congressional budget resolution, biennial budgeting, and addressing the treatment of tax expenditures.

Health Savers Initiative

The Health Savers Initiative is a collaborative project of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Arnold Ventures, and the West Health Policy Center which works to identify bold and concrete policy proposals to make health care more affordable for the federal government, businesses, and households. The purpose of the Health Savers Initiative is to develop policy-ready options that will lower health care costs economy-wide, reduce the cost of health care and its impact on families, and save money for the federal government. For each option, we produce an issue brief along with federal budget and national health expenditure impact scores. The option presented in each brief is meant to be just one of many, but we incorporate specifications and savings estimates so policymakers can weigh costs and benefits, and gain a better understanding of whatever health savings policies they choose to pursue.

Budgeting for the Next Generation

Budgeting for the Next Generation reviews federal programs for children and assesses how our youth fare in the federal budget and the budget process. Papers and other products published in this series show that federal spending on children comprises a relatively small and declining share of the budget despite the needs of the population and the economic benefits of investing in future generations, as rising adult entitlements and debt service payments crowd out this spending. Future publications will also explore how changes to the budget process could improve outcomes for children.

SSDI Solutions Initiative

The McCrery-Pomeroy SSDI Solutions Initiative is dedicated to identifying practical policy changes to improve the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and other services to people with disabilities. Launched in 2015, the initiative solicited ideas in a number of areas related to the program, leading to a conference that brought together more than 150 experts, advocates, policymakers and other stakeholders. These efforts culminated in publication of a book – SSDI Solutions: Ideas to Strengthen the Social Security Disability Insurance Program – presenting recommendations on how to ensure that the SSDI program best serves those with disabilities, those who pay into the program, and the economy as a whole. The initiative launched a new phase in April of 2018 that continues to explore ways to improve this important program.

Capitalism, Technology, and the Economy

Capitalism is increasingly under pressure as widening income inequality, declining mobility, and fiscal unsustainability are giving rise to questions about our economic system. At the same time, new technology business models, along with big data and artificial intelligence, are creating conditions that will challenge capitalism further. The future of our economy will be greatly affected by these shifts, along with other ongoing changes due to globalization and an aging population. Capitalism, Technology, and the Economy will include projects such as two Capitol Hill Speakers Dinner Series which explore these issues with lawmakers and Capitol Hill staff, and a series of conferences and convenings that bring together experts from a variety of fields to explore these issues in a cross-disciplinary environment.

American Health Care Initiative

American Health Care: Rethinking the Challenges, Opportunities and Possibilities is a collaborative initiative between the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the Concerned Actuaries Group dedicated to informing the public, policymakers, and key stakeholders regarding the fiscal and managerial challenges confronting our health care system. This effort seeks to encourage a broader and more informed discussion about why the system is costly and not working to maximum capacity.