Outgoing CBO Director Discusses The Long-Term Budget Outlook

CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin discussed the hot off the presses "Long-Term Budget Outlook" at the New America Foundation on December 15th, 2005. The report is released every two years, and examines the challenges facing lawmakers over the coming decades as they consider ways to alleviate the looming fiscal crisis confronting our federal budget. Following Holtz-Eakin's presentation, Maya MacGuineas, Director of New America Foundation's Fiscal Policy Program and President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, moderated a lively question and answer session.

During his tenure as head of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Douglas Holtz-Eakin has won a reputation for being honest and pragmatic when it comes to the nation's fiscal challenges. His efforts to alert Congress and the nation to the fundamental problems that exist in our current approach to the Federal budget are lauded across the political spectrum. Holtz-Eakin departs the CBO at the end of this month to head the Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. In one of his final events as Director of the CBO, Holtz-Eakin delivered this important report, providing a lively and in-depth view of the short- and long-term challenges facing the budget and the economy.

Participants

• Douglas Holtz-Eakin
  Director, Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Director, Congressional Budget Office and Chief Economist, White House Council of Economic Advisors


• Maya MacGuineas
  President, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget & Director, Fiscal Policy Program