Facing the Future

This week on Facing the Future, we discussed expiring premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans with Matt McGough of KFF and a new fee proposed by President Trump for high-skilled worker visas (H-1B) with Theresa Cardinal Brown of the Bipartisan Policy Center.

This week on Facing the Future, former U. S. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) discussed why the nation's debt is on an unsustainable path and what needs to be done about it. 

This week on Facing the Future, Dr. Kent Smetters, Faculty Director of the Penn-Wharton Budget Model discussed a new report on the potential economic and budgetary impact of generative AI. He also described an illustrative package of tax and spending reforms to reduce future budget deficits and grow the economy.

This week on Facing the Future, Rachel Snyderman and Caleb Quakenbush of the Bipartisan Policy Center discuss the prospect of a government shutdown, the growth in tariff revenue and the president's "pocket rescission."

This week on Facing the Future, Kurt Couchman, senior fellow in fiscal policy at Americans for Prosperity, explained why he thinks a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution is needed, why past efforts failed and how a new effort could succeed.  

This week on Facing the Future, tax expert Bill Gale of the Brookings Institution discussed the effects of higher tariffs and a new commentary he co-authored on the idea of using earmarked revenues as a deficit reduction strategy. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joined the conversation.

This week on Facing the Future we talked with Dennis Lockhart, former President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He gave us his take on the state of the economy and what might happen in a debt-induced fiscal crisis. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joined the conversation.

This week on Facing the Future, former Social Security Public Trustee Charles Blahous discussed the program's deepening financing challenges on its 90th anniversary and explained why postponing action just makes things worse.

This week on Facing the Future, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, explained why he believes the U. S. economy is edging closer to a recession, led by the negative impacts of higher tariffs and restrictive immigration policies. He also weighed-in on the dangers of runaway debt.

This week on Facing the Future, we looked at the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare with Jessica Riedl of the Manhattan Institute. She explained why these programs add to budget deficits despite the misperception that they are self-financing.  

This week on Facing the Future, Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution talks about the possibility of a government shutdown in the fall and whether the spending power is shifting away from Congress toward the executive branch.

This week on Facing the Future, former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joined us to discuss the need to develop contingency plans for a fiscal crisis in the U.S. that he sees as increasingly probable.

This week on Facing the Future, Jim Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute digs into the 2025 Medicare Trustees Report. Then he explains why the federal budget rules are deepening societal differences.

This week on Facing the Future, we heard from two tax experts with different ideological perspectives who have been following the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). David S. Mitchell is a senior fellow for tax and regulatory policy at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and Kyle Pomerleau is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

This week on Facing the Future, tax expert Andrew Lautz, Associate Director for Economic Policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, discusses tensions between House and Senate Republicans as they rush to pass a major deficit-financed tax cut bill before July 4th.

This week on Facing the Future, Prof. Philip Joyce of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, explains the high stakes in Washington's battle over the power of the purse and why protecting the Congressional Budget Office matters. 

This week on Facing the Future we talked with Bill Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Bipartisan Policy Center, about the growing debt fears that cloud the prospects of Republicans' budget bill in the Senate.

This week on Facing the Future, we talked with Richard Swett, former U.S. Congressman from New Hampshire and Ambassador to Denmark. He discussed President Trump's desire to acquire Greenland from Denmark and why it's vital to restore trust in government.

This week on Facing the Future we focused on the One Big Beautiful Bill that has now passed the House and is headed to the Senate. Our guest was Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum and former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). We also discussed interest rates, tariffs and budget scoring.

This week on Facing the Future we’ll discuss developments on Capitol Hill as Republicans try to pass what is now officially called, the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Our guest is Ben Ritz, Vice President of Policy Development at the Progressive Policy Institute and Director of PPI’s Center for Funding America’s Future. Concord Coalition Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux joins the conversation.

This week on Facing the Future, Marc Goldwein, Senior Vice President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, guides us through the tax cut bill rolled out by House Ways and Means Committee Republicans. We'll discuss how big it is, whether it's good tax policy and will it be paid for?

This week on Facing the Future, we'll talk with students who participated in the annual collegiate fiscal challenge, a competition that seeks to stabilize the debt and economy. Then, Carolyn Bourdeaux and I assess President Trump's "skinny budget" and check in on reconciliation in Congress.

This week on Facing the Future we'll assess the risks and costs of rising federal debt with Ben Harris, vice president and director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. We’ll also get his take on congressional negotiations over a major spending and tax bill and whether the economy is headed for a recession.

This week on Facing the Future the guest is Alex Durante, senior economist at the Tax Foundation. We'll discuss the economic effects of President Trump's tariffs and whether Republicans in Congress can find a way to extend about $4 trillion worth of expiring tax cuts without adding it all to the debt.

This week on Facing the Future, Jessica Riedl, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, joined me to discuss her list of the top 10 federal budget gimmicks and the potential for tariffs to raise revenues, harm the economy or both.   As we went through Riedl’s list of budget gimmicks, it was clear that many of them are in play this year. She mentioned, for example, “fake expiration dates” and us...