New America on Fiscal Policy

Easy Access to Our Work and Experts on This Issue

Our nation’s current approach to taxation and spending is inefficient, insufficient and unfair. Our tax system punishes work and savings, raises revenues far short of what we spend, and has become less progressive at a time of widening income inequality. Our complex tax code also suffers from an overall lack of transparency and a failure of coordination between different levels of government. New America is working to reframe the national debate through concrete reform proposals -- such as replacing payroll taxes with a progressive national consumption tax -- that pave the way for a tax system that better reflects American values and a budget that better serves our most important national priorities.

Recent New America articles, events, policy papers and press coverage on this topic are available below, as is information on our staff and fellows with expertise in this area. To learn more about New America's ideas, proposals and activities, please see our Fiscal Policy Program and Center for a Responsible Federal Budget home pages.

Policy Papers

New America's latest official publications on this issue are featured below.

Summary and Analysis of President Obama’s Education Budget Request

President Barack Obama submitted his first budget request to Congress on May 7, 2009. This request follows the initial summary budget request he submitted in February that included only aggregate funding levels for federal programs and agencies.

May 2009

2009 Education Appropriations Guide

Congress completed the fiscal year 2009 appropriations process on March 10th, 2009, finalizing annual funding for nearly all federal education programs through September 2009 at $62.6 billion, up $3.4 billion from the prior year. Making sense of the federal education budget and the appropriations process can be a frustrating task for education advocates, state and local policymakers, the media, and the public. The now concluded fiscal year 2009 appropriations process is no exception due to numerous stopgap funding measures and… more

Jason Delisle | March 12, 2009

More on the President’s FY2010 Budget Blueprint

In our previous release (President Obama's FY2010 Budget), we discussed the broad fiscal impact of the FY2010 Budget Blueprint. We commended the President for having a specific fiscal goal, honestly budgeting for expected costs, and for providing offsets for many of the new policies he supports. However, we expressed strong concern that the budget included items in the baseline (such as AMT patches, Medicare patches, and the renewal of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts), as a way to avoid paying for

Analysis of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Today, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The "stimulus bill" represents the latest and largest effort by the federal government to boost the deteriorating economy. (For details of all efforts to date, see www.usbudgetwatch.org/stimulus).

Marc Goldwein | February 17, 2009

Moving Forward with Bipartisan Tax Policy

U.S. tax policy is urgently in need of reform. Our tax system is overly complex and has failed to keep pace with changing economic conditions. The current economic crisis has led to an escalating budgetary shortfall, which will exacerbate the already significant fiscal challenges facing the country. Moreover, looming changes written into the tax law will require Congress to make major decisions regarding the tax code. On December 31, 2010, most of the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 ("the Bush tax cuts") will expire. In… more

Maya MacGuineas | February 12, 2009

Comparing the Stimulus Packages

Yesterday, the Senate passed its version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 by a vote of 61 to 37. Differences between the House and Senate are being worked out in a conference committee.

In total, the House bill costs roughly $820 billion over ten and a half years, while the Senate bill costs $838 billion. Although similar in size, the two stimulus bills contain a number of important differences. The Senate version relies more on tax cuts and… more

Anne Vorce, Marc Goldwein | February 11, 2009

Paying for the Stimulus

Summary

We are currently in the midst of two immense economic challenges: an immediate and severe financial crisis, which has already wiped out over $20 trillion in global wealth; and a longer-term fiscal crisis, which existed before the financial crisis but will be made worse because of it.

Maya MacGuineas, Marc Goldwein | February 6, 2009

CRFB Warns Against Slipping Permanent Policies into Stimulus

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) warned against slipping policies intended to be permanent, into the stimulus bill under the guise of temporary stimulus measures.

Maya MacGuineas, Marc Goldwein | January 28, 2009

Federal Debt and Interest Costs

Summary

The Congressional Budget Office's January estimates of baseline federal budget deficits have grabbed the attention of members of Congress and the public. The cumulative effects of persistently large deficits show up in the stock of debt held by the public and the net interest costs of servicing that debt. This brief will provide historical data on those items and CBO's current projections. It also will discuss some of the risks to CBO's estimates.

Debt Held by the Public

Maya MacGuineas | January 27, 2009

A Budget We Can Believe In

To:            President Barack Obama

From:       Robert Bixby, William Galston, Ron Haskins, Julia Isaacs, Maya MacGuineas, Will Marshall, Pietro Nivola, Rudolph Penner, Robert Reischauer, Alice Rivlin,  Isabel Sawhill, Eugene Steuerle

Subject:   A Budget We Can Believe In

Date:        January 27, 2009

Maya MacGuineas | January 27, 2009

The Fiscal Roadmap Project

The Fiscal Roadmap Project was created to help policymakers navigate the serious economic and fiscal challenges facing the country.

Currently, fiscal policy is being shaped in a haphazard way: bailing out a firm here, letting another firm go bankrupt there; attaching conditions to a company bailout, writing a check to another company without strings attached. These are not ordinary times.

Anne Vorce, Maya MacGuineas | December 18, 2008

CRFB Projects a One Trillion Dollar Deficit

The fiscal year 2009 deficit could reach over one trillion dollars, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). This deficit would be more than twice as large as the 2008 deficit of $455 billion and would represent a post-war record both in nominal terms and as a share of GDP.

"These numbers are simply astonishing," said Maya MacGuineas, president of CRFB. "Of course we can't try to balance the budget right now when the economy is in such turmoil, but… more

Maya MacGuineas, Marc Goldwein | November 10, 2008

Fiscally Responsible Stimulus

In light of the current state of the economy, it appears likely that Congress will pass another stimulus package...

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget recognizes that there is a strong enough risk of a prolonged recession that a fiscal stimulus package may well make sense. Given the many risks associated with a significant downturn, it makes sense to err on the side of caution in determining whether more stimulus is appropriate. Assuming Congress proceeds with plans to offer some type of stimulus package, CRFB offers three… more

Maya MacGuineas, Philip Sugg | November 10, 2008

Guide to Health Care Policy: The 2008 Presidential Election

One of the most pressing issues facing policymakers in the United State is rising health care costs. Cost growth is putting ongoing stress on the budgets of families, employers, and governments. The U.S. already spends $2.2 trillion a year - 16 percent of GDP - for health care. Nearly a third of this comes from the federal government.

Health expenditures are projected to nearly double to $4.3 trillion in a decade, at which point they will represent nearly one-fifth of the economy. According to the… more

Maya MacGuineas, Marc Goldwein | October 31, 2008

Guide to Tax Policy: The 2008 Election

The next president will have to address fiscal imbalances within the government and a dramatically rising federal debt. National debt has been on a more or less steady rise since 1974 when, after a steady decline from the massive debt accumulated during WWII, it hit a low of 33.6 percent of GDP. Total national debt was more than $10 trillion at the start of fiscal year 2009.

This rising debt is driven by entitlement growth, resulting from demographic… more

Maya MacGuineas, Marc Goldwein | October 29, 2008

Guide to Social Security: The 2008 Presidential Election

Social Security is the single largest government program. In 2007, the program cost $585 billion and provided benefits for roughly 50 million retirees, dependents, survivors, and disabled workers. It is financed primarily through the payroll tax -- a 12.4 percent tax on wages up to $102,000. The tax is split equally between employees and employers. The remaining revenues come mainly from the taxation of Social Security benefits for wealthier recipients.

Next year, the program’s surpluses will begin to decline precipitously. The… more

Maya MacGuineas, Marc Goldwein | October 28, 2008

Guide to Stimulus Proposals: The 2008 Presidential Election

Background

The United States is in the midst of an economic crisis. Financial institutions are failing, the credit markets are frozen, and global stock markets have experienced large-scale losses. This crisis has also had significant effects on the "real" economy. Home values have tumbled, consumption has dropped, and jobs are disappearing.

During economic downturns, the government regularly takes actions to try to combat the effects of the decline. Most of its actions fall into one of four categories: monetary stimulus, fiscal stimulus, targeted… more

Financing the Productive Economy: The Heartland Development Bank

Infrastructure and Economic Opportunity
Joel Kotkin | September 17, 2008

Promises, Promises: A Fiscal Voter Guide to the 2008 Election

The United States faces serious fiscal challenges. Large budget deficits have returned, and shifting demographics along with growing health care costs are putting intense pressure on the long-term federal budget outlook. Over time, sustained deficits will weaken the economy and adversely affect the American standard of living.

Maya MacGuineas, Marc Goldwein | August 20, 2008

Articles & Books

Recent New America-authored articles, op-eds and books on this topic are featured below.

Obama's Class War

This week has brought retreat and retrenchment on healthcare. The headline in Politico was, "Health reform hits Senate speed bumps." As Politico explained, the bumps began on Monday, when "The Congressional Budget Office returned a $1.3 trillion price tag on Sen. Ted Kennedy's bill--a number that far exceeds what most lawmakers are willing to pay." And here's how the Associated Press summarized the Capitol proceedings:

California to Feds: Drop Dead

Sure, California's economy has seen better days, our budget is a mess, and we've been wondering whether the federal government might help us out with our cash flow. But the barbs sent our way by politicians and commentators in Washington are getting to be a bit much.

Joe Mathews | Washington Post | June 18, 2009

It Is Summer 2009, and John McCain is President

Picture, if you will, an America apparently like our own. A country like ours bogged down in war on two fronts and suffering from the greatest economic slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s. An America indistinguishable from ours in every respect except that when you turn on the nightly news you see the face of President John Sidney McCain ...

Michael Lind | Salon | June 16, 2009

Health Reform's Savings Myth

"Health-care reform is entitlement reform" has become a mantra of the Obama administration. The idea is that Congress can add a massive health-care program this year -- covering the uninsured -- and use the same measures that pay for the health reform to fix the broader budget problems. If that sounds too good to be true, there's a reason.

So If We Take Your Terrorists…

President Obama has a problem. He’s promised to close the detainee facility at Guantanamo, Cuba, but is finding it hard to find a place to put them. States all over the union are saying not in my backyard.

California has a problem. It needs federal loan guarantees for its short-term cash flow borrowing. But President Obama and members of Congress are saying -- at least right now -- that such assistance isn’t forthcoming. The other 49 states, after all, don’t want… more

$4 Trillion in Exaggerated Savings

On two separate issues -- health-care and the budget -- the president has promised savings of $2 trillion. A total of $4 trillion dollars -- now that's real money. Unfortunately, the claims are completely exaggerated.

I Give Obama an A, a B and an F

The Administration is coming up to that magical 100-day mark, at which point measures are taken of how a new president is doing. As a university professor I'm accustomed to giving grades. So here's my report card on Obamanomics so far:

Michael Lind | Salon | April 22, 2009

Fiscal Disorder

This past February, four months after the beginning of the fiscal year, Congress passed the last bill needed to fund the government.

But what it finally passed was more than just late -- it was sloppy. Instead of offering separate appropriation bills that could be debated thoughtfully and with undivided attention, Congress lumped them into one, gigantic 225-page “omnibus” bill, and hurriedly passed it on the floor.

Jim Bates | The Ripon Forum | Spring 2009

A Spoonful of Sugar

As the Tax Day Tea Parties fade into history, I've heard a number of conservatives argue that we're at the crest of a wave. Just as the property tax revolt of the 1970s led to California's Proposition 13 in 1978 and, some argue, the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the tea parties represent outrage against the excesses of big government under Barack Obama. Liberals maintain that the tea parties were instead a fringe phenomenon ginned up by talk radio,… more

Reihan Salam | Forbes.com | April 20, 2009

Dixieland Blues

Governors across the country are clamoring for a piece of the stimulus, eager to avoid laying off state employees, hoping to put their unemployed citizens back to work and trying to avoid widespread furloughs as budgets bleed red ink. They know that their citizens want to keep libraries open, teachers in the classroom, cops on the beat and firefighters ready to protect people and property.

Rourke O'Brien | The Nation | April 15, 2009

Obama's Audacious Agenda: Who's Paying For It?

Audacity on steroids. How else to describe the Obama administration's fiscal 2010 budget proposal, unleashed on an American public so staggered by the events of the last few months that they cannot comprehend the magnitude of the plans Mr. Obama and his still-inchoate Cabinet have for the nation.

Frank Micciche | Boston Globe | March 3, 2009

Read Their Lips

Several years ago, I saw Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, tell an audience of conferencing Republicans that branding is important. If you're Coca-Cola, Norquist explained, your business will suffer if a customer ever finds a rat in a bottle of your soda. Similarly, the GOP will suffer if anything undermines its reputation as the party that lowers taxes. A Republican who ever supports a tax increase must be subject to "quality control", for such a creature is… more

T.A. Frank | The Guardian (London) | February 23, 2009

Stimulus Debt Burden Must Be Addressed Responsibly When the Bill Inevitably Comes Due

Now is clearly not the time to balance the budget--even the most adamant deficit hawk knows that. But economic recovery will not be as simple as merely running up the government's credit card and calling it a day. Certainly, the U.S. economy is in very bad shape--but so too is the fiscal health of the country.

How Would Lincoln Vote Today?

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 12, 1809. President Barack Obama will celebrate it by speaking at a banquet in Lincoln's adopted hometown of Springfield, Ill. Obama has consciously and consistently sought to identify himself with his fellow Illinois politician, by launching his campaign in Springfield and taking a train, like Lincoln, to his inauguration.

Michael Lind | Salon | February 12, 2009

Blue Dogs Bark

The House of Representatives is a body that produces few stars, but Jim Cooper of Tennessee is a household name inside the Beltway. David Brooks has called him "one of the most thoughtful, cordial and well-prepared members of the House." He is viewed by the well-funded budget-hawk constituency as one of its most articulate advocates. Among his colleagues he has a reputation as a wonk and an intellectual--he even teaches a class at Vanderbilt University on health policy--and as the philosopher for the caucus of forty-nine

Christopher Hayes | The Nation | February 11, 2009

A Plan that Could Work for All of Us

On Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) unveiled a plan for helping homeowners to hang on to their homes--and hang on to the value of their homes. It’s a great idea, because it targets economic relief to the middle class in the Heartland, not the upper class in Manhattan and Beverly Hills. It’s a shame, though, that McConnell and the Republicans waited until after the 2008 elections, because this plan was available back in September, when the fiscal meltdown began. With a different response to the… more

James Pinkerton | FoxNews.com | February 2, 2009

As We Stimulate the Economy, We Must Remember the Deficit

As Congress struggles to decide how to proceed in crafting the economic stimulus bill, it needs to do more than develop a plan to pile trillions more on the national debt. Already, the federal deficit has grown by over half-a-trillion dollars as a result of government funds spent to try to rescue the economy - including money for the first stimulus package, taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the TARP rescue for the financial sector, and the costs of… more

An Economic Bill of Rights

On January 11, 1944, in his annual State of the Union Address, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called for an economic bill of rights. The rise of totalitarianism, he said, had taught the lesson that "necessitous men are not free men" because the miserable and the desperate "are the stuff out of which dictatorships are made." According to Roosevelt, "In our days these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of

Michael Lind | Salon | January 21, 2009

The Next American System

The inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States, along with the deepening of the Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, marks more than a shift in the pendulum swings of partisan politics. In these pages I have suggested that it marks the dawn of a Fourth American Republic, in the way that the New Deal marked the beginning of Franklin Roosevelt's Third Republic of the United States and the Civil War and Reconstruction began Lincoln's Second… more

Michael Lind | Salon | January 20, 2009

Events

Related New America events, both recent and upcoming (if any), are featured below.

Experts

Maya MacGuineas

Maya MacGuineas

As President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is housed at the New America Foundation, and the Director of the Fiscal Policy Program, Maya MacGuineas oversees the Foundation's efforts to bring accountability to the budget process, address the challenges presented by the nation's underfunded entitlements programs, and… more

MacGuineas is New America's primary contact for this issue. All fellows and staff with expertise in this area are listed below in alphabetical order.

Victoria Allred

Research Director, Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Victoria Allred is the Research Director for the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Areas of Expertise: Fiscal Policy

Michael Calabrese

Michael Calabrese Vice President; Director, Wireless Future Program

As Vice President of the New America Foundation, Michael Calabrese directs the Wireless Future Program and helps to guide the Foundation's work related to retirement security and the Next Social Contract Initiative. Previously, Mr. Calabrese served as Director of Domestic Policy Programs at the Center for National Policy, as General… more

Michael Dannenberg

Michael Dannenberg Senior Fellow

Michael Dannenberg is the founding Director of New America's Education Policy Program and currently a Senior Fellow.  He created New America's influential policy blog Higher Ed Watch.Org that in 2007 broke national news of the student loan "pay for play" scandal involving improper payments among colleges, financial aid officers, and student loan companies.  A series… more

David Friedman

David Friedman Former Senior Fellow

David Friedman was a New America Senior Fellow from March 2000 through March 2007.Friedman is an attorney, political scientist, economic development specialist, author, and columnist. In addition to his law degree, he holds a Ph.D. from MIT in international politics, where he won an award for the “Best… more

Marc Goldwein

Marc Goldwein Policy Director, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget; Senior Policy Analyst, Fiscal Policy Program
Marc Goldwein is the Policy Director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget as well as a Senior Policy Analyst for the Fiscal Policy Program at the New America Foundation. There, he works on issues related to tax policy, entitlement reform, and the economic recovery. Mr. Goldwein holds a… more
Areas of Expertise: Fiscal Policy

Leif Wellington Haase

Leif Wellington Haase Director, California Program

Leif Wellington Haase is Director of New America's California Program, which aims to improve the state's public debate by sponsoring a wide range of research, writing, and events on issues of critical importance to the future of California. His primary responsibilities include promoting the work of New America's programs and… more

Christopher Hayes

Christopher Hayes Fellow

Christopher Hayes is the Washington D.C. Editor of The Nation. Since 2002, he has been reporting and writing on politics, economics, and labor for a wide variety of independent publications. His essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in The Nation, The American Prospect, The New Republic, The Washington Monthly, The Guardian, and The Chicago Reader. From… more

Rebecca Lewis

Policy Analyst, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Fiscal Policy Program

Rebecca Lewis is a Policy Analyst for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the Fiscal Policy Program. In this position she conducts budget policy research, evaluates academic literature, economic data, and policy proposals, and works on writing issue briefs, CRFB releases, and blog posts. Prior to coming to… more

Areas of Expertise: Fiscal Policy

Michael Lind

Michael Lind Senior Fellow; Policy Director, Economic Growth Program

Michael Lind is a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, and Policy Director of New America's Economic Growth Program. He is the author, with Ted Halstead, of The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics (Doubleday, 2001). He is also the author of Made in Texas: George W. Bush… more

Barry C. Lynn

Barry C. Lynn Senior Fellow

Barry C. Lynn is a business and political journalist, and an expert on global industrial systems, corporate organization, trade, energy, emerging technology, and the development of middle-income nations. He is the author of the groundbreaking work End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation (Doubleday,… more

Maya MacGuineas

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

As President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which is housed at the New America Foundation, and the Director of the Fiscal Policy Program, Maya MacGuineas oversees the Foundation's efforts to bring accountability to the budget process, address the challenges presented by the nation's underfunded entitlements programs, and… more

Annette Nellen

nellen-sm.jpg Former Fellow

Annette Nellen is a professor in the department of accounting and finance at San José State University, where she teaches graduate-level tax courses. She speaks and writes frequently on tax policy matters, tax reform, tax accounting, and high-technology tax issues. In 2000, she served on the academic panel that advised… more

Areas of Expertise: Corporate Taxes, Fiscal Policy

Len Nichols

Len Nichols Director, Health Policy Program

Len Nichols, a highly respected healthcare economist, directs the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, which aims to expand health insurance coverage to all Americans while reining in costs and improving the efficiency of the overall health care system. Before joining New America, Dr. Nichols was the Vice… more

Mark Paul

Senior Scholar

Mark Paul is an award-winning writer, editor, and policy expert with wide experience in journalism and California state government and politics. He covered California for 24 years, first as Editorial Page Editor and National Editor of the Oakland Tribune, then as Deputy Editorial Page Editor and columnist for… more

James Pinkerton

James Pinkerton Fellow

James P. Pinkerton worked in the White House under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Since leaving government in 1993, he has been a columnist for Newsday, a contributor to the Fox News Channel, and a regular on Fox’s Newswatch show. He has also been a member of… more

Philip Sugg

Philip Sugg Program Associate, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Fiscal Policy Program

Philip Sugg is a Program Associate in the Fiscal Policy Program and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). At CRFB, he works on the Stimulus Watch project, and assists with papers in a variety of areas related to budget and economic policy.

Areas of Expertise: Fiscal Policy

Anne Vorce

Anne Vorce Project Director, Fiscal Roadmap Project, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget; Policy Director, Fiscal Policy Program

Anne L. Vorce is the Project Director for the Fiscal Roadmap Project of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), which is housed at the New America Foundation, and the Policy Director for the Fiscal Policy Program of the New America Foundation. She is responsible for providing policy… more

Areas of Expertise: Economic Growth, Europe, Fiscal Policy

Press

Press Release/Media AppearanceDate
Schwarzenegger Hopes IOUs Sway Budget Debate | Sacramento BeeJuly 2, 2009
Why Taxes Will Need to Go Up | CNN MoneyJuly 1, 2009
The Pros and Cons of a Public Health Care Plan | Minnesota Public RadioJune 30, 2009
The Longterm Budget OutlookJune 29, 2009
State Budget Impasse and Its Impact on the Elderly | KCRWJune 29, 2009
Congressional Office Sees Deficit Rising | United Press InternationalJune 26, 2009
CRFB Reacts to CBO's Long-Term Budget OutlookJune 25, 2009
CRFB Releases Paper on the Fed's Extrordinary Actions to Address the Financial and Economic CrisisJune 23, 2009
Congress Stuffs War-Funding Bill with Cash for Other Items | McClatchy NewspapersJune 22, 2009
Diagnosing the Problem | Los Angeles TimesJune 22, 2009
Health Overhaul Hard Enough, But Then There's Paying for It | McClatchy NewspapersJune 19, 2009
Paying for Health Care ReformJune 18, 2009
State Workers, Agencies Try to Flee the General Fund | Capitol WeeklyJune 17, 2009
How Did California's Budget Mess Happen? | KALWJune 17, 2009
CRFB Budget Release – Review of House Appropriations AllocationsJune 16, 2009
California Budget Impasse | NPRJune 16, 2009
Stimulus Money Helps Colleges Avoid Slashing Budgets Now, but Big Cuts May Loom | Chronicle of Higher EducationJune 15, 2009
CRFB Applauds President Obama's Focus on Paying for Health Care ReformJune 15, 2009
Health Care: A Primer for Washington's Coming Debate | Dallas Morning NewsJune 14, 2009
Do Obama's Job Creation Numbers Add Up? | CBS NewsJune 11, 2009