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PODCAST

Facing the Future

The Concord Coalition

How the nation’s fiscal and economic challenges, and possible solutions, impact current and future generations.

government non-profit

All Episodes

44:52

Is It Time for a New, Bipartisan Fiscal Commission?

Facing the Future ·

2023/09/07

This week on Facing the Future, we talk to Romina Boccia, Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy for the CATO Institute. Boccia argues in a recent piece that it is time for a new bipartisan commission to take a broad look at the serious fiscal challenges the federal government faces and propose some solutions that would become law directly unless Congress opts out of any of the proposals. This would include everything from how to reduce massive government healthcare spending to raising new

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44:57

New Hampshire State Budget Challenges Mirror Those in...

Facing the Future ·

2023/08/30

This week on Facing the Future, we catch up with Phill Sletten, research director of the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, a Concord based nonpartisan state budget think tank. Phil walks us through the current state budget snapshot and talks about some of the short and long-term economic challenges facing the Granite State. Though a smaller scale, many of New Hampshire's budgetary problems mirror our national fiscal challenges at the federal level. Plus, we hear from Concord Coalition chief

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44:59

Ben Ritz: Recent US Credit Rating Downgrade Should Be...

Facing the Future ·

2023/08/23

This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Ben Ritz, Director of the Center for Growing America's Future at the Progressive Policy Institute, and one of our more frequent show contributors. Ben has written several interesting pieces including one where he asserts that the Fitch rating agency's recent downgrade of the federal government's credit rating should be a wakeup call for all those concerned about the budget and our national debt - even if the downgrade itself was not warranted. So we talk

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44:59

Happy 88th Birthday Social Security! Can We Save You?

Facing the Future ·

2023/08/16

This week on Facing the Future, we mark the 88th birthday of Social Security, the benefit program that is a real lifeline for seniors and the disabled. Social Security is now in serious fiscal trouble and its Trust Funds may become insolvent just within the next few years. So we looked back at the history of the program as well as into the future at possible solutions to save Social Security with two experts: Concord Coalition chief economist Steve Robinson, and Dr. Charles Blahous, senior research

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44:53

Will We Learn the Necessary Lessons From Past...

Facing the Future ·

2023/08/08

This week on Facing the Future, we revisit a conversation from earlier this year with Alex Pollock and Howard Adler, authors of a new book entitled "Surprised Again: The COVID Crisis and the New Market Bubble." The book examines the recent economic crises, including the COVID related economic shutdown and the Great Recession of 2008-10, and asks why these types of events always seem to take us by surprise. Though inflation has come down somewhat from its peak in the last year, it is still a problem

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44:59

Congress Leaves Town as the Risk of a Federal...

Facing the Future ·

2023/08/02

This week on Facing the Future, we turn once again to the expertise of David Lerman, editor of CQ Budget Tracker, for a breakdown on the current breakdown in Congress when it comes to passing bills to fund the government. The clock is ticking towards the end of the current fiscal year on September 30th and if nothing is passed, the federal government would go into a partial shutdown. The Senate has passed all 12 appropriations bills out of committee with a strong bipartisan vote (for the first time

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44:56

US National Security Strategy and Its Impact on...

Facing the Future ·

2023/07/26

This week on Facing the Future, we speak with Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution for an assessment of US national security strategy from Ukraine to China, the Arctic, and everything in between. And, what this means for future US defense spending, which is a significant part of the federal budget. O'Hanlon has served as an advisor to both the Defense Department and the CIA, and gives us a preview of his new paper assessing the Pentagon's budget needs relative to the global threats and

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44:52

Boys State Tackles the Federal Deficit, and Is a...

Facing the Future ·

2023/07/20

This week on Facing the Future, we get an update from Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson on the latest economic news plus the looming Congressional battle over appropriations bills for the next fiscal year. No agreement by the end of the current fiscal year on September 30th could force a partial government shutdown. Plus, we visit New Hampshire Boys State where a group of high school students were engaged in serious policy debates over how to reduce the

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44:59

Graying is Paying: Our Aging Population’s Impact on...

Facing the Future ·

2023/07/13

This week on Facing the Future, we talk to Richard Jackson, President of the Global Aging Institute about the combined effects of declining fertility rates, longer life expectancy and the baby boomers entering retirement en masse on our federal budget and our economy. It means more spending on Medicare and Social Security, with a smaller working age population to pay into these safety net programs and sustain them. We will also catch up with Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief

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44:58

Cracks in America’s Fiscal Foundation

Facing the Future ·

2023/07/06

This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman joins us to analyze the long-term budget outlook recently released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It projects, among other things, a fast growing elderly population combined with declining birth rates and higher health care costs. All this leading to our national debt nearly doubling as a share of our economy over the next 30 years. Plus, we'll revisit our recent conversation about border climate

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44:57

Former Georgia US Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux: The Art of...

Facing the Future ·

2023/06/28

This week on Facing the Future, we are joined by the newest member of The Concord Coalition's Board of Directors, Dr. Carolyn Bourdeaux. Dr. Bourdeaux has extensive experience in public sector budgeting. During the Great Recession, she was director of the Georgia Senate Budget and Evaluation Office, where she worked with both parties to balance Georgia’s budget and get the state economy back on track. She brought this valuable budget and fiscal knowledge to Congress when she served as a member

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44:54

A Bipartisan Plea for Action on America’s Debt Problem

Facing the Future ·

2023/06/21

This week on Facing the Future, we hear from two veterans of many Congressional budget battles, Democrat Tom Kahn, who teaches budget policy at American University, and Republican Bill Hoagland, the Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center. They recently penned a joint op-ed in which they urge Americans to put pressure on their elected officials to make difficult compromises to address our long-term national debt, because neither party can do it alone.

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44:54

A Mixed Bag of Economic Signals

Facing the Future ·

2023/06/14

This week on Facing the Future, we try to examine the mixed signals on the economic trends with a strong jobs report and inflation easing somewhat but key consumer price indicators still too high. For that, we turn to economist Robert Carroll with Ernst and Young, and then we get further analysis on that plus data from the Congressional Budget Office showing the federal budget deficit on the rise again after coming down the last couple of years from Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and

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44:56

How Should the Federal Government Invest in Robust...

Facing the Future ·

2023/06/07

This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Diane Lim - the "Economist Mom" - who gives us some very interesting highlights from a recent Congressional Report she helped put together looking at how the federal government can invest in robust economic growth over the next decade or so. The bottom line: the government should invest more in young people and children to get more economically productive adults. Plus we examine the final score issued by the Congressional Budget Office for the bipartisan

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44:50

Finally, A Debt Limit Deal. Can We Avoid the Crisis...

Facing the Future ·

2023/05/31

This week on Facing the Future, we get expert analysis from the Concord Coalition's policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson on the debt limit deal struck between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avert a federal default. We also hear excerpts from a very interesting forum held last week with Harvard economist Jason Furman and Rohit Kumar of PricewaterhouseCoopers who both question the efficacy of even having a debt limit at all. Furman and Kumar were involved

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44:55

Border Carbon Adjustments Gain Bipartisan Attention...

Facing the Future ·

2023/05/24

This week on Facing the Future, we talk with Greg Bertelsen, CEO of the bipartisan Climate Leadership Council about so-called 'border carbon adjustments.' The concept is getting substantial interest in Congress from both Republicans and Democrats and would impose fees on imported goods whose production pumps a high amount of carbon smog into the atmosphere. It's meant to raise revenue, reduce carbon emissions, and improve the competitive standing of American manufacturers who run much cleaner

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44:49

The Clock is Ticking on Debt Limit Negotiations

Facing the Future ·

2023/05/17

This week on Facing the Future, we turn to the Concord Coalition's veterans of Congress - policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson - for up to the minute analysis on negotiations between President Biden and Congressional leaders over extending or suspending the nation's debt limit. The federal government may have only a few days or the next week to be able to pay all of its bills in full and on time before a default occurs if a deal cannot be reached. If no deal is reached,

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44:58

The Looming X-Date for Federal Debt Payment Default

Facing the Future ·

2023/05/10

This week on Facing the Future, we talk to Rachel Snyderman of the Bipartisan Policy Center about a brand new report containing an estimate for the 'X-Date' when the federal government will run out of borrowing authority to meet all of its obligations in full and on time. The BPC estimates that date will land sometime between early June and late August, if Congressional leaders and President Biden cannot agree on an extension or suspension of the federal debt limit. This could have a serious and

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44:54

Parsing Through the Pentagon’s $842 Billion Annual...

Facing the Future ·

2023/05/03

This week on Facing the Future, we take a deep dive into the federal budget for the Department of Defense and all the country's intelligence and national security needs. It's a big number and constantly growing. President Biden has proposed spending $842 billion on defense in his proposed budget, which does not include likely additional funds that may be needed for the Ukrainian effort to fight off the Russian invasion. So, where does all that money go? For answers to that question and many others,

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44:56

Will the House Republican Debt Limit Plan Break the...

Facing the Future ·

2023/04/26

This week on Facing the Future, Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson - both veterans of Capitol Hill - dissect the particulars of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's proposal to raise the debt limit in exchange for about $4.5 Trillion in deficit reduction. A laudable goal, but should it be the start of a budget negotiation rather than a set of conditions for raising the debt limit to avoid a government default this summer? We also speak to Professor

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