Facing the Future

This week on Facing the Future, we're on the road in Austin Texas for a panel discussion on America's long-term economic outlook. We hear from University of Texas economist and public policy professor James K. Galbraith, who says we need to get used to America not dominating global economic and military matters, and Will Marshall, founder and president of the Progressive Policy Institute, who says big tech are the innovators of our time and we need to focus more investment on non-college education and training for the jobs of the future.

This week on Facing the Future, we speak to Concord Coalition policy director Tori Gorman and chief economist Steve Robinson about the prospects for an economic recession in 2023 as the Fed raises interest rates to bring down inflation. Prices remain stubbornly high. We also hear from Nick Troiano, executive director of Unite America, about that organization's state-by-state effort to open up party primaries to all eligible voters in the hopes that it will get us a less ideologically polarized Congress. 

This Week on Facing the Future, we check in with Bill Hoagland, Senior Vice President of the Washington DC based Bipartisan Policy Center for a situational awareness update on the growing national debt. It just passed the $31 Trillion mark and with interest rates going up to combat inflation, that debt has become much more expensive to carry. Plus, we'll look at a complicated Social Security Proposal that's somewhat popular but a bad idea.

This week on Facing the Future, we hear from Gordon Gray, Director of Fiscal Policy at the American Action Forum. He has written a new paper with a proposal that could add another 900,000 new Americans to the labor force of this country and reduce the major backlog of legal immigration by making a modest investment in the federal agency charged with processing skilled work visa applications. Gray estimates it could add more than $100 billion in economic output every year.

This Week on Facing the Future, we ask the Concord Coalition's chief economist Steve Robinson whether President Biden's executive action forgiving up to $20,000 in college loan debt for some students exceeds Presidential authority. The Constitution gives Congress sole authority to appropriate federal funds. Some estimate the student debt forgiveness will cost taxpayers at least $500 billion, which would be the largest federal expenditure without Congressional approval in American history. Plus we get updates on Congressional budget action and how the economy is reacting to the Fed's efforts to fight inflation.

This week on Facing the Future, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Concord Coalition by hearing from both national co-chairs of the organization, Democrat and former Nebraska Senator and Governor Bob Kerrey and Republican former Missouri Senator Jack Danforth, about current and future fiscal challenges facing the United States. We are also joined by Rich Ashooh, the coalition's very first New Hampshire state director, who later served as Assistant US Secretary of Commerce.

This week on Facing the Future, we talk to University of New Hampshire demographer Ken Johnson about the historically low growth in US population, thanks to a 14-year trend of declining fertility rates. It has major implications for future economic growth and the federal budget. Plus, we'll look at the latest inflation numbers, which went slightly higher in August after a decline the previous month. 

This week on Facing the Future, we closely examine the health care provisions contained in the recently passed "Inflation Reduction Act" with Josh Gordon, Director of Health Policy for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Gordon walks us through the provisions meant to cut prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients and evaluates if these measures and others will reduce overall federal spending on health care. Plus, he has a few reform ideas of his own.

This week on Facing the Future, we will look at the fiscal and policy impact of President Biden's controversial decision to forgive up to $20,000 in debt for many Americans who owe money on loans to pay for college. It could cost taxpayers another half a trillion dollars. And we'll also take a look at what might be holding Congress up as they face a deadline of exactly one month to pass a stop-gap budget measure to keep the government funded and avoid another costly federal shutdown.

This week on Facing the Future, we take a deep dive into how state budgets are put together, where they get their revenue, and where the money goes. Turns out, states have some of the same long-term debt problems the federal government does. Then we hear from Concord Coalition Chief Economist Steve Robinson on his new issue brief looking at whether the level of working income Social Security replaces for older Americans needs reform.