Committee for a
Responsible Federal Budget

Archives: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Articles and Op-Eds

Make Candidates Debate the Debt

  • By
  • Maya MacGuineas,
  • New America Foundation
April 27, 2012 |

It's not news that the national debt presents a daunting challenge. The public debt is growing faster than the economy, a trend that cannot be sustained.

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We Can Beat the Debt Crisis

  • By
  • Maya MacGuineas,
  • New America Foundation
April 18, 2012 |

This morning, a bipartisan group of political leaders and policy experts will be sitting down in Roanoke to answer what may be the greatest challenge to the future prosperity of the United States: How can we stem our mounting national debt and set the country on a more sustainable fiscal path?

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US Must Address Its Balance Sheet

  • By
  • Marc Goldwein,
  • Jason Peuquet,
  • New America Foundation
April 17, 2012 |

It is fitting, and perhaps ironic, that today is both Tax Day and Financial Literacy Day. Taxes and finances are intimately intertwined, and as the U.S. budget crisis underscores, that relationship is not always a positive one. Today, as our elected leaders ask households around the country to take a look at their own balance sheets, they might be wise to do the same. What they will find isn’t pretty — a ledger filled with a mountain of debt and no real long-term plan to bring spending and revenues more closely in line.

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How to Pay For the Payroll Tax Cut

  • By
  • Marc Goldwein,
  • New America Foundation
December 12, 2011 |

It's become a Christmas tradition for Congress to end the year by extending all the policies which expire at year's end. There is the Alternative Minimum Tax, which has to be "patched" every year so that it reaches only four million taxpayers instead of thirty million. There is the looming 27% cut in Medicare payments to doctors which policymakers will need to protect with a "Doc Fix." And on top of that, this year, we're dealing with the expiration of a payroll tax holiday and extended unemployment benefits meant to help boost a weak economy.

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Supercommittee Needs to Go Bigger

  • By
  • Maya MacGuineas,
  • New America Foundation
September 7, 2011 |

With the president’s highly touted jobs speech this week, national attention is about to pivot from deficits and debt — where the focus has been for much of the summer — to jobs and how to boost the struggling economic recovery. 

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A Cultural Civics Lesson

  • By
  • Gregory Rodriguez,
  • New America Foundation
September 5, 2011 |

Politics is making Americans dumb and mean. It's turning a generous, forward-thinking people into glib, defensive, narrow-minded bores.

Pundits tell us that the answer to all this nastiness — from the disgusting comments on message boards to the smarmy lies of TV political hacks — is to get more people civically engaged. By their logic, the moderation of crowds will temper the zealotry of activists. But I don't buy it.

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Drawing a AAA-Road Map for Post-Downgrade America

  • By
  • Marc Goldwein,
  • New America Foundation
August 11, 2011 |

The S&P downgrade late Friday afternoon in Washington kicked off the most anxious and frenetic week in world markets since the Great Recession ended. The rating agency's observation that U.S. politics was broken might have seemed like old news to voters, but to outsiders it was a stunning confirmation that the recovery is all but over and Washington has no clue how to get it back on track. But the panic over the downgrade and subsequent sell-off has glossed over what exactly our AA+ means for the economy, our prospects, and the road back to a sterling rating.

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S&P Rating: How to Get Back to AAA

  • By
  • Maya MacGuineas,
  • New America Foundation
August 8, 2011 |

Oh, AAA credit rating -- we never knew how much we loved you until we lost you. Just one more chance, please!

It's like a bad breakup. The warning signs were there. He starts to nitpick and then complain so much more than when the romance began. Remember when you could do no wrong?

He went along when you demanded all the luxuries in life even though you couldn't afford them. What's a few overextended credit cards when you are having a good time?

And then, he started issuing those self-important warnings? Who does he think he is?

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With Downgrade, Now Can We Get Serious About Debt?

  • By
  • Maya MacGuineas,
  • New America Foundation
August 6, 2011 |

You can't say we didn't have a heads up. Just a few weeks ago, S&P said:

"We may lower the long-term rating on the U.S. by one or more notches into the 'AA' category in the next three months, if we conclude that Congress and the Administration have not achieved a credible solution to the rising U.S. government debt burden and are not likely to achieve one in the foreseeable future."

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Debt Deal: We Can, and Must, Do Better

  • By
  • Maya MacGuineas,
  • New America Foundation
August 2, 2011 |

Picture a negotiation with your boss that goes something like this:

You walk in with dynamite strapped to your body and demand a raise.

Nope, he says, no raise -- that's off the table.

Fine, you say, then I am not going to do any work.

I can take that, he says, as long as it goes hand in hand with no benefits for you.

All righty then, you counter, but I'll be stealing office supplies.

Fine. Fine. You shake and you have a deal.

That's how the debt-ceiling deal feels to me.

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