Roll Call

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in Roll Call | 'McCain, Obama Again Dodged Priority Questions'

Articles — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:18:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Prior to the crisis, McCain was promising to balance the federal budget by 2013, but the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that, at best, he'd rack up a deficit of $147 billion.

The committee estimated McCain's proposed tax cuts to cost $417 billion to $485 billion that year - based on his campaign's own estimates - but another group, the Brookings Institution-Urban Institute Tax Policy Center, said they could cost $700 billion, based on McCain's statements in stump speeches...

...At a post-debate panel sponsored by the New America Foundation on Wednesday, former Rep. Bill Frenzel (R-Minn.), a budget expert now with Brookings, said that all pre-crisis estimates have become "obsolete" - meaning, the new reality is much worse.

"Last night," he said, the candidates "were specifically asked about how their priorities might change and what sacrifices they were asking for. It's in the nature of political candidates to be cunningly evasive and they offered no clues to the answers to these questions."

He noted that Congress undoubtedly would add a new economic stimulus package to this fiscal year's spending agenda and "after last night, I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach" about the nation's fiscal situation.

Another panelist, former Comptroller General David Walker, now president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said that current deficits and the $10 trillion national debt were far from the full burden facing the next generation.

Entitlement promises - chiefly Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits - amount to $55 trillion, constituting "massive taxation without representation."

"The low tax, high spending policies of the current generation is putting a burden on the next generation that is not only fiscally irresponsible, but morally reprehensible," Walker said, and added that, "I was disappointed in both of the presidential candidates" for not addressing the problem. LINK (subscription required)

Reihan Salam's book in Roll Call | 'Obama Makes Gains Among Workers Hurt By Bush Economics'

Communications — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:33:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...Much-discussed and deservedly praised, Grand New Party by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam paints a grim picture of working-class prospects, both economically and socially, under prevailing circumstances.

Instead of being a society where anybody can "make it," Douthat and Salam describe the United States as increasingly becoming an "inherited meritocracy" where the wealthy and well-educated get more so and those without education and skills get left behind and face a life of stress and insecurity... LINK

Maya MacGuineas in Roll Call | 'Ryan Campaigns for Fiscal Fitness'

Communications — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:48:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Regarding Rep. Ryan's proposed fiscal policy strategy:

...Maya MacGuineas, president of Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, had high praise. "Comparing it to the current path we are on, it is a vast improvement, and comparing it to the other Congressional plans out there, well, there are none..." LINK (subscription required)

Deficit Bubble Boiling, Trouble is Close Behind

Ron Tang — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

In recent years, America has lurched from one economic bubble to the next. Early this decade, the dot-com bubble burst, sending financial markets into a tailspin. As lower interest rates helped to ease the bursting of that bubble, we shifted to over-investing in housing -- again culminating in a tremendous misallocation of resources and economic losses, as we currently are seeing. Now, as we try to contend with the bursting of the housing bubble, we face what may be the most dangerous type of bubble yet: the deficit bubble.

As the economy softens, and Congress is trying to ease the blow… more

New America in Roll Call | 'Moderate Graybeards Need Top 10 Agenda'

Communications — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:14:00 -0500

New America in the News:
Moderate Graybeards Need a Top 10 Agenda (Roll Call)
One possible model is the New America Foundation's proposed "progressive consumption tax," which would base taxes on the difference between income and savings, with rates rising with income. ...

Sherle Schwenninger in Roll Call on Public Infrastructure Problems

Communications — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:00:00 -0400

New America in the News:

The collapse of the Minnesota interstate bridge, coupled with the explosion of a steam tunnel in Manhattan, should arouse the country to the need for massive infrastructure investment -- and reform of the way it’s financed.

It’s a miracle that more people weren’t killed and injured in the two instances...

Urgent attention will be paid for a few weeks to America’s highway bridges -- 15 percent to 25 percent of which are believed to be structurally deficient -- because of the collapse in Minneapolis.

But attention ought to be paid in a bigger way to the deficiencies in America’s highways, its electric grid, railways, airports, waterways and urban utilities. They all are clogged, inefficient, a sap on the nation’s productivity and competitiveness -- and, in some cases, dangerous.

What’s needed is bipartisan action...

As part of the New America Foundation’s compelling report “Ten Big Ideas for a New America”... Sherle Schwenninger noted that from 1950 to 1970, the U.S. devoted 3 percent of its gross domestic product to infrastructure but since 1980 has spent less than 2 percent. A percent of GDP amounts to $140 billion a year in current dollars that the U.S. is not spending to keep its economy growing. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates national infrastructure needs double that -- $1.6 trillion over a five-year period.

Schwenninger proposed that the U.S. government needs a capital budget to fund infrastructure rather than relying on separate trust funds and appropriations to pay for various projects...

For the complete article, please visit the Roll Call web site.

Roll Call Quotes Stephen Burd on Lenders, Student Loans

Communications — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:57:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Crocodile tears are streaming down K Street and up Capitol Hill from bankers crying about the student loan subsidy rates Congress is poised to cut.

But think tanks, the Congressional Budget Office and lawmakers such as Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) say lenders' complaints are a diversion to keep Congress from truly cutting into the profits of the $85 billion student-lending industry.

The federal government guarantees banks, private lenders and Sallie Mae a profit on every student loan originated under the Federal Family Education Loan program. Lenders also are insulated from risk as taxpayers reimburse them when a borrower defaults...

The CBO determined that if Congress utilized "the most efficient" student-lending program available, which it found to be the direct-lending program, the government could save $10 billion over 10 years.

The New America Foundation, a watchdog group and think tank, estimated the savings would be closer to $15 billion to $20 billion.

But instead of proposing to kill the guaranteed-loan program, both the House and the Senate opted to overhaul it by cutting lender subsidies, decreasing interest rates, funding more Pell grants, and aiming to curb abuses in the system such as kickbacks and improper relationships between lenders and university officials...

Lenders spent $16 million lobbying Congress last year...

"I think they've done a really good job of confusing Members," said Stephen Burd, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation. "The way the [guaranteed] program works is so complicated, that it's easy to confuse people about the cost and benefits..."

For the complete article, please visit the Roll Call website.

Diagnosis: Too Much Medicine, Not Enough Information

Articles — Mon, 26 Apr 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Real health care reform is being held back by a false assumption, which is shared by practically everybody from patients to doctors to lawmakers. Most of us assume that more (and more expensive) medical care equals better care -- and better health. Two separate bills, one introduced by Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) and the other by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), cut through the noise and overturn this notion.

Yes, that's right, Hillary Clinton. But before you shoot the messenger, forget for a moment who is delivering the prescription and consider the diagnosis.

One of the biggest -- yet largely… more